CN115104348A

CN115104348A - Method for reporting positioning information and communication device

Info

Publication number: CN115104348A
Application number: CN202080095854.6A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 于莹洁; 黄甦
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2020-04-10
Filing date: 2020-04-10
Publication date: 2022-09-23
Also published as: WO2021203443A1

Abstract

The application discloses a method and a communication device for reporting positioning information, wherein the method comprises the following steps: the network equipment receives a first message sent by the terminal and sends a second message to the positioning management equipment, wherein the first message and the second message both comprise first positioning information, and the first positioning information comprises a first measurement result obtained by measuring a first reference signal by the terminal; the first message is carried in RRC signaling, and the second message is carried in NRPPa signaling. The first positioning information interacted between the terminal and the positioning management equipment is successively borne through the RRC signaling and the NRPPa signaling, and the reporting period allowed by the RRC signaling is smaller than that allowed by the LPP signaling, and the NRPPa signaling does not limit the reporting period, so that the period for reporting the positioning information of the terminal can be shortened, and the application range is wider.

Description

Method for reporting positioning information and communication device

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of positioning technologies, and in particular, to a method and a communication device for reporting positioning information.

Background

In a conventional positioning architecture such as a positioning architecture of Long Term Evolution (LTE) or New Radio (NR) version (release) R-16, a terminal sends a measurement result of positioning to a Location Management Function (LMF) through a positioning protocol (LPP) signaling between a terminal and a location computing center. The minimum period for the terminal to report the positioning measurement result is 250ms allowed by the LPP, and the reporting period is long, so that the requirement that the terminal position needs to be frequently known cannot be met.

Disclosure of Invention

The application provides a method and a communication device for reporting positioning information, which can shorten the period for reporting the positioning information and are better suitable for application scenes in which the position of a terminal is known more frequently.

In a first aspect, a method for reporting positioning information is provided, where the method may be performed by a first communication device, and the first communication device may be a communication device or a communication device capable of supporting a communication device to implement functions required by the method, such as a chip system. The following description will be given taking the communication device as a network device as an example. The method comprises the following steps:

the network device receives a first message sent by the terminal, and then sends a second message to the positioning management device, where the first message is carried in Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling, and the second message is carried in new radio positioning protocol (NRPPa) signaling. The first message and the second message both comprise first positioning information, and the first positioning information comprises a first measurement result obtained by the terminal measuring the first reference signal. Namely, the first positioning information interacted between the terminal and the positioning management equipment is successively carried through RRC signaling and NRPPa signaling. Because the allowed reporting period of the RRC signaling is less than the allowed reporting period of the LPP signaling, and the NRPPa signaling does not limit the reporting period, compared with the case of exchanging the positioning information between the terminal and the positioning management device through the LPP signaling, the method and the device for reporting the positioning information of the terminal can shorten the period of reporting the positioning information of the terminal, can meet the situation that the terminal position needs to be frequently reported, and have a wider application range.

In a possible implementation manner, before the network device receives the first message sent by the terminal, the method further includes:

the network device receives a third message from the positioning management device, where the third message includes first indication information and/or second indication information, the first indication information is used to indicate the network device to report first positioning information, and the second indication information is used to indicate the network device to request the terminal for the first positioning information. The third message is carried in NRPPa signaling, that is, the third message between the location management device and the terminal for requesting the first location information is an NRPPa message. By adopting the scheme, the positioning period of the terminal can be further shortened.

In one possible implementation, the method further includes:

and the network equipment sends a fourth message to the terminal, wherein the fourth message is used for requesting the first positioning information and is carried in RRC signaling.

It should be understood that the network device sends the fourth message to the terminal under the trigger of the second indication information, that is, requests to acquire the first positioning information as needed, and can better meet the actual requirement. Of course, the network device may also actively request the first positioning information from the terminal to obtain the newer first positioning information.

It should be understood that the first positioning information is a part of information required by the positioning terminal, and the first indication information can be used to specify which first positioning information is required by the positioning management device, for example, positioning information related to a positioning method, so that unnecessary reporting of the positioning information can be reduced.

In one possible implementation, the first indication information may include one or more of the following information: a neighboring cell index list, a positioning method, a reporting mode and information acquisition duration; wherein the content of the first and second substances,

the neighbor cell index list comprises one or more of the following indexes: physical cell index, cell global index, transmission point index;

the positioning method comprises one or more of the following methods: observing an observed time difference of arrival (OTDOA) positioning method, a downlink angle of arrival (DL-AOA) positioning method, a downlink angle of departure (DL-AOD) positioning method;

the reporting mode comprises periodic reporting or triggered reporting;

the information acquisition duration is a preset time length, the network device receives the measurement results reported by the terminal for multiple times within the preset time length, and the measurement results are measurement results periodically reported by the terminal within the preset time length.

Accordingly, the first positioning information may include: the method comprises a positioning method, a measurement result, error information and a neighbor cell index list, wherein the positioning method is any one of the following methods: OTDOA positioning method, DL-AOA positioning method and DL-AOD positioning method;

the measurement result is a measurement result corresponding to the positioning method, and the measurement result includes any one of the following measurement results: a Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP) value, a Reference Signal Time Difference (RSTD) value, an angle of arrival value;

error information is used to indicate the accuracy of the measurement, the error information including one or more of the following: error value, error range, error distribution type;

the neighbor cell index list comprises one or more of the following indexes: physical cell index, cell global index, transmission point index.

In a possible implementation manner, the first positioning information includes a downlink arrival angle of the terminal. By adopting the scheme, the downlink positioning can be realized through the arrival angle, and the application range is wider.

In one possible implementation, the first reference signal is a Positioning Reference Signal (PRS) or a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS). Due to the fact that the terminal and the network equipment can measure the CSI-RS, by adopting the scheme, special PRS does not need to be measured additionally, and resources used for sending the PRS do not need to be configured for the terminal by the base station, and therefore the period for reporting the positioning information is further shortened.

In a second aspect, another method for reporting positioning information is provided, where the method is executable by a first communication device, and the first communication device may be a communication device or a communication device capable of supporting a communication device to implement functions required by the method, such as a chip system. The following description takes the communication device as a first network device as an example. The method comprises the following steps:

the method comprises the steps that first network equipment receives a first message sent by a terminal, wherein the first message comprises second positioning information, and the second positioning information comprises a second measurement result obtained by measuring a second reference signal and a third reference signal by the terminal; wherein the first message is carried in RRC signaling;

the first network equipment sends a second message to the positioning management equipment, wherein the second message comprises third positioning information, the third positioning information comprises the second positioning information, and a third measurement result obtained by measuring a second reference signal and a third reference signal by the first network equipment; wherein the second message is carried on NRPPa signaling.

The scheme is similar to the scheme of the first aspect, the second positioning information interacted between the terminal and the positioning management device is carried through RRC signaling, and the third positioning information is carried through NRPPa signaling, so that the period of reporting the positioning information of the terminal can be shortened. The solution is different from the solution of the first aspect in that the solution determines the location of the terminal according to the second measurement result of the terminal and the third measurement result of the first network device, and is applicable to an uplink and downlink positioning solution for the terminal.

In a possible implementation manner, the third positioning information further includes a fourth measurement result, where the fourth measurement result is a measurement result obtained by measuring the second reference signal and the third reference signal by at least one second network device. In this scheme, at least one second network device may be regarded as a neighboring base station, and the neighboring base station may notify the fourth measurement result to the first network device through a communication interface between the second network device and the first network device, so that the first network device sends the second measurement result, the third measurement result, and the fourth measurement result to the positioning management device together.

In a possible implementation manner, before the first network device receives the first message sent by the terminal, the method further includes:

the first network device receives a third message from the location management device, where the third message includes third indication information and/or fourth indication information, the third indication information is used to indicate the first network device to report the third location information, and the fourth indication information is used to indicate the first network device to request the second location information from the terminal, where the third message is carried in NRPPa signaling. Since the third message is carried in the NRPPa signaling, the positioning period of the terminal can be further shortened by using this scheme.

In one possible implementation, the method further includes:

and the first network equipment sends a fourth message to the terminal, wherein the fourth message is used for requesting the second positioning information and is carried in RRC signaling.

It should be understood that the network device sends the fourth message to the terminal under the trigger of the fourth indication information, that is, requests to acquire the second positioning information as needed, and can better meet the actual requirement. Of course, the network device may also actively request the second positioning information from the terminal to obtain the newer second positioning information.

It should be understood that the second positioning information and the third positioning information are partial information in the information required by the positioning terminal, and it is possible to specify which second positioning information and third positioning information are required by the positioning management device through the third indication information, for example, the positioning information related to the positioning method, so that reporting of unnecessary positioning information can be reduced.

In one possible implementation manner, the third indication information includes one or more of the following information: a neighboring cell index list, a positioning method, a reporting mode and information acquisition duration; wherein the content of the first and second substances,

the neighbor cell index list includes one or more of the following indexes: physical cell index, cell global index, transmission point index;

the positioning method comprises a Multi round trip time (Multi-RTT) positioning method;

the reporting mode comprises periodic reporting or triggered reporting;

the information acquisition duration is a preset time length, the first network device receives the measurement result reported by the terminal for multiple times within the preset time length, and the measurement result is a measurement result periodically reported by the terminal within the preset time length.

Accordingly, the third positioning information includes: positioning method, measurement result, error information, and neighbor cell index list; wherein, the first and the second end of the pipe are connected with each other,

the positioning method is a Multi-RTT positioning method;

the measurement result is a measurement result corresponding to the positioning method, and the measurement result comprises a receiving and sending delay error inside the terminal, a receiving and sending delay error inside the first network device, and a receiving and sending delay error inside at least one second network device;

error information is used to indicate the accuracy of the measurement, the error information including one or more of the following: error difference value, error range and error distribution type;

the neighbor cell index list includes one or more of the following indexes: physical cell index, cell global index, transmission point index.

It should be understood that the scheme of the second aspect may be used for uplink and downlink positioning of a terminal, so in a possible implementation, the second reference signal may be a PRS or a CSI-RS as a downlink reference signal, and the third reference signal may be a Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) as an uplink reference signal.

In a third aspect, a method for reporting positioning information is provided, where the method may be performed by a second communication device, and the second communication device may be a communication device or a communication device capable of supporting a communication device to implement a function required by the method, such as a chip system. The following description will be given taking the communication device as a terminal as an example. The method comprises the following steps:

the terminal receives a fifth message sent by the network device, wherein the fifth message is used for requesting first positioning information, and the fifth message is carried in an RRC signaling, wherein the first positioning information comprises a first measurement result obtained by measuring a first reference signal by the terminal;

and after measuring the first reference signal, the terminal sends the first positioning information to the network equipment, and the first positioning information is carried in the RRC signaling.

It should be understood that, the terminal interacts with the positioning management device through the network device, and the first positioning information interacted between the terminal and the network device is carried in the RRC signaling, which can shorten the time period for the terminal to interact with the positioning management device and help to shorten the period for reporting the positioning information of the terminal, compared with the case that the first positioning information is carried through the LPP signaling.

In a possible implementation manner, the fifth message is triggered by a sixth message, the sixth message is sent to the network device by the positioning management device, and the sixth message is carried in NRPPa signaling. Namely, the message used for requesting the first positioning information between the terminal and the positioning management device is an NRPPa message, which can shorten the reporting period of the positioning information of the terminal.

In one possible implementation, the first reference signal is a PRS or a CSI-RS.

With regard to the technical effects brought by the third aspect or the various possible implementations of the third aspect, reference may be made to the introduction of the technical effects of the first aspect, the second aspect, the various possible implementations of the first aspect or the various possible implementations of the second aspect.

In a fourth aspect, a positioning method is provided, which may be performed by a third communication apparatus, which may be a communication device or a communication apparatus capable of supporting a communication device to implement functions required by the method, such as a system-on-chip. The following description will be given taking the communication device as a positioning management device as an example. The method comprises the following steps:

the positioning management equipment receives a seventh message sent by the first network equipment, wherein the seventh message comprises first positioning information, and then the positioning management equipment determines the position of the terminal according to the first positioning information; the first positioning information includes a first measurement result obtained by the terminal measuring a first reference signal, and the seventh message is carried in NRPPa signaling. Compared with the positioning management device and the first network device which are carried through the LPP signaling, the period of positioning the terminal by the positioning management device can be shortened.

In a possible implementation manner, before the location management device receives the seventh message sent by the first network device, the method further includes:

the positioning management device sends an eighth message to the first network device, where the eighth message includes fifth indication information and/or sixth indication information, the fifth indication information is used to indicate the first network device to report the first positioning information, and the sixth indication information is used to indicate the first network device to request the first positioning information from the terminal, where the eighth message is carried in NRPPa signaling.

In one possible implementation, the first reference signal is used as a PRS or a CSI-RS, and is adapted to a downlink positioning method.

In a fifth aspect, a positioning method is provided, which may be performed by a third communication apparatus, which may be a communication device or a communication apparatus capable of supporting a communication device to implement functions required by the method, such as a system-on-chip. The following description will be given taking the communication device as a positioning management device as an example. The method comprises the following steps:

the positioning management equipment receives a seventh message sent by the first network equipment, wherein the seventh message comprises second positioning information, and then the positioning management equipment determines the position of the terminal according to the second positioning information; the second positioning information includes a second measurement result obtained by the terminal measuring the second reference signal and the third reference signal, and a third measurement result obtained by the first network device measuring the second reference signal and the third reference signal, and the seventh message is carried in NRPPa signaling. The scheme can be used for uplink and downlink positioning, and compared with the positioning management equipment and the first network equipment, the period of positioning the terminal by the positioning management equipment can be shortened through LPP signaling bearer.

the positioning management device sends an eighth message to the first network device, where the eighth message includes seventh indication information and/or eighth indication information, the seventh indication information is used to indicate the first network device to report second positioning information, and the eighth indication information is used to indicate the first network device to request the second positioning information from the terminal, where the eighth message is carried in NRPPa signaling.

It should be understood that in the uplink and downlink positioning method, the measurement result of the uplink signal sent by the terminal by the at least one second network device may be involved. In a possible embodiment, the at least one second network device may send the measurement result to the first network device, and then the first network device informs the location management device; alternatively, the at least one second network device may also inform the positioning management device of the measurement result directly.

For example, the second positioning information may further include a fourth measurement result obtained by measuring the second reference signal and the third reference signal respectively by at least one second network device. That is, at least one second network device may send the measurement result to the first network device, and then the first network device informs the location management device.

In this case, the method further includes: the positioning management device sends a measurement request message to at least one second network device, where the measurement request message is carried in the NRPPa signaling, and the measurement request message includes a neighbor cell index list to inform the at least one second network device to which first network device the third measurement result needs to be reported.

Illustratively, the method further comprises:

the positioning management device receives third positioning information sent by at least one second network device, where the third positioning information includes fourth measurement results obtained by the at least one second network device measuring the second reference signal and the third reference signal, respectively. I.e. the at least one second network device informs the location management device directly of the measurement result.

In this case, the method further includes:

the positioning management device sends a ninth message to at least one second network device, respectively, where the ninth message is used to request third positioning information corresponding to each second network device, and the ninth message is carried in NRPPa signaling.

The positioning management device receives third positioning information respectively sent by at least one second network device, and the third positioning information is carried in the NRPPa signaling.

With regard to the technical effects brought by the fourth aspect or the fifth aspect, or various possible implementations of the fourth aspect or the fifth aspect, reference may be made to the introduction of the first aspect, the second aspect, various possible implementations of the first aspect, or various possible implementations of the second aspect.

In a sixth aspect, a communication device is provided, for example, the communication device is a network apparatus as described above. The communication device has functionality to implement the actions in the method embodiments of the first or second aspect described above. The functions can be realized by hardware, and the functions can also be realized by executing corresponding software by hardware. The hardware or software includes one or more modules corresponding to the functions described above. In one possible implementation, the communication device includes, for example, a processing module and a transceiver module coupled to each other, and these modules may perform corresponding functions in the above-mentioned method examples of the first aspect or the second aspect, which may be specifically referred to as detailed descriptions in the method examples.

For example, the communication device has a function of implementing the behaviors in the foregoing first aspect method embodiment, and in a possible implementation manner, the transceiver module is configured to receive a first message sent by the terminal and send a second message to the positioning management device, where the first message is carried in RRC signaling and the second message is carried in NRPPa signaling, where the first message and the second message both include first positioning information, and the first positioning information includes a first measurement result obtained by measuring a first reference signal by the terminal.

In a possible implementation manner, the transceiver module is further configured to receive, before receiving the first message sent by the terminal, a third message from the positioning management device, where the third message includes first indication information and/or second indication information, the first indication information is used to indicate the network device to report the first positioning information, and the second indication information is used to indicate the network device to request the terminal for the first positioning information. Wherein the third message is carried in NRPPa signaling.

In a possible implementation manner, the transceiver module is further configured to send a fourth message to the terminal, where the fourth message is used to request the first positioning information, and the fourth message is carried in RRC signaling

In one possible implementation, the first indication information may include one or more of the following information: a neighboring cell index list, a positioning method, a reporting mode and information acquisition duration; wherein, the first and the second end of the pipe are connected with each other,

the positioning method comprises one or more of the following methods: observing an OTDOA positioning method, a DL-AOA positioning method and a DL-AOD positioning method;

the reporting mode comprises periodic reporting or triggered reporting;

the information acquisition duration is a preset time length, the network device receives the measurement result reported by the terminal for multiple times within the preset time length, and the measurement result is a measurement result periodically reported by the terminal within the preset time length.

The first positioning information may include: the method comprises a positioning method, a measurement result, error information and a neighbor cell index list, wherein the positioning method is any one of the following methods: OTDOA positioning method, DL-AOA positioning method and DL-AOD positioning method;

the measurement result is a measurement result corresponding to the positioning method, and the measurement result includes any one of the following measurement results: value, RSTD value, angle of arrival value;

For another example, the communication apparatus has a function of implementing the behavior in the foregoing first aspect of the legal embodiment, and in a possible implementation manner, the transceiver module is configured to receive a first message sent by a terminal and send a second message to a location management device; the first message is carried in the RRC signaling, the first message includes second positioning information, and the second positioning information includes a second measurement result obtained by the terminal measuring a second reference signal and a third reference signal; the second message includes third positioning information including the second positioning information, and a third measurement result obtained by the first network device measuring the second reference signal and the third reference signal.

In a possible implementation manner, the third positioning information further includes a fourth measurement result, where the fourth measurement result is a measurement result obtained by measuring the second reference signal and the third reference signal by at least one second network device.

In a possible implementation manner, the transceiver module is further configured to receive, before receiving the first message sent by the terminal, a third message from the positioning management device, where the third message includes third indication information and/or fourth indication information, the third indication information is used to indicate the first network device to report the third positioning information, and the fourth indication information is used to indicate the first network device to request the terminal for the second positioning information, where the third message is carried in NRPPa signaling.

In a possible implementation manner, the transceiver module is further configured to send a fourth message to the terminal, where the fourth message is used to request the second positioning information, and the fourth message is carried in RRC signaling.

In one possible implementation, the third indication information includes one or more of the following information: a neighboring cell index list, a positioning method, a reporting mode and information acquisition duration; wherein the content of the first and second substances,

the reporting mode comprises periodic reporting or triggered reporting;

Accordingly, the third positioning information includes: a positioning method, a measurement result, error information and a neighboring cell index list; wherein the content of the first and second substances,

the positioning method is a Multi-RTT positioning method;

In one possible implementation, the second reference signal is a PRS or a CSI-RS, and the third reference signal is an SRS.

With regard to the technical effects brought about by the sixth aspect or the various possible embodiments of the sixth aspect, reference may be made to the introduction of the technical effects of the first aspect or the second aspect, or the various possible embodiments of the first aspect or the second aspect.

In a seventh aspect, a communication device is provided, for example, the communication device is the terminal as described above. The communication device has a function of realizing the behavior in the method embodiment of the third aspect described above. The functions can be realized by hardware, and the functions can also be realized by executing corresponding software by hardware. The hardware or software includes one or more modules corresponding to the above-described functions. In one possible design, the communication device includes, for example, a processing module and a transceiver module coupled to each other, wherein,

the receiving and sending module is configured to receive a fifth message sent by the network device, where the fifth message is used to request first positioning information, and the fifth message is carried in an RRC signaling, where the first positioning information includes a first measurement result obtained by a terminal measuring a first reference signal;

the processing module is used for measuring a first reference signal and controlling the transceiver module to send first positioning information to the network device after measuring the first reference signal, wherein the first positioning information is carried in an RRC signaling.

In a possible implementation manner, the fifth message is triggered by a sixth message, the sixth message is sent to the network device by the positioning management device, and the sixth message is carried in NRPPa signaling.

With regard to the technical effects brought by the seventh aspect or the various possible embodiments of the seventh aspect, reference may be made to the introduction of the technical effects of the third aspect or the various possible embodiments of the third aspect.

In an eighth aspect, a communication device is provided, for example, the communication device is a location management function as described above. The communication device has the functionality to implement the actions in the method embodiments of the fourth or fifth aspect described above. The functions can be realized by hardware, and the functions can also be realized by executing corresponding software by hardware. The hardware or software includes one or more modules corresponding to the functions described above. In one possible design, the communication device includes, for example, a processing module and a transceiver module coupled to each other, and these modules may perform corresponding functions in the method example of the fourth aspect or the fifth aspect, which may be specifically described in the detailed description of the method example.

For example, the communication apparatus has a function of implementing the behaviors in the fourth method embodiment, and in a possible implementation manner, the transceiver module is configured to receive a seventh message sent by the first network device, where the seventh message includes first positioning information, where the first positioning information includes a first measurement result obtained by measuring a first reference signal by a terminal, and the seventh message is carried in NRPPa signaling; and then, the processing module is used for determining the position of the terminal according to the first positioning information.

In a possible implementation manner, the transceiver module is further configured to send an eighth message to the first network device before receiving a seventh message sent by the first network device, where the eighth message includes fifth indication information and/or sixth indication information, the fifth indication information is used to indicate the first network device to report the first positioning information, and the sixth indication information is used to indicate the first network device to request the first positioning information from the terminal, where the eighth message is carried in NRPPa signaling.

For example, the communication apparatus has a function of implementing the behaviors in the fifth method embodiment, and in a possible implementation manner, the transceiver module is configured to receive a seventh message sent by the first network device, where the seventh message is carried in NRPPa signaling, and the seventh message includes second positioning information, where the second positioning information includes a first measurement result obtained by measuring the second reference signal and the third reference signal by the terminal, and a second measurement result obtained by measuring the second reference signal and the third reference signal by the first network device.

In a possible implementation manner, the transceiver module is further configured to send an eighth message to the first network device before receiving the seventh message sent by the first network device, where the eighth message includes seventh indication information and/or eighth indication information, the seventh indication information is used to indicate the first network device to report the second positioning information, and the eighth indication information is used to indicate the first network device to request the second positioning information from the terminal, where the eighth message is carried in NRPPa signaling.

In a possible implementation manner, the second positioning information may further include a third measurement result, where the third measurement result is a third measurement result obtained by measuring the second reference signal and the third reference signal by at least one second network device, respectively.

In another possible implementation manner, the transceiver module is further configured to send a measurement request message to at least one second network device, where the measurement request message is carried in NRPPa signaling, and the measurement request message includes a neighbor cell index list.

In a possible implementation manner, the transceiver module is further configured to receive third positioning information sent by at least one second network device, where the third positioning information includes third measurement results obtained by measuring, by the at least one second network device, the second reference signal and the third reference signal respectively. I.e. the at least one second network device informs the positioning management device of the measurement results directly.

In a possible implementation manner, the transceiver module is further configured to send a ninth message to the at least one second network device, where the ninth message is used to request third positioning information corresponding to each second network device, and the ninth message is carried in NRPPa signaling.

In a possible implementation manner, the transceiver module is further configured to receive third positioning information respectively sent by at least one second network device, where the third positioning information is carried in NRPPa signaling.

With regard to the technical effects brought by the various possible embodiments of the eighth aspect or the eighth aspect, reference may be made to the introduction of the fourth aspect or the fifth aspect, or the various possible embodiments of the fourth aspect or the fifth aspect.

In a ninth aspect, a communication device is provided. The communication device may be the network device in the above method embodiment or a chip provided in the network device; the communication device may also be the positioning management device in the above method embodiment or a chip provided in the positioning management device; the communication device may also be a terminal or a chip provided in a terminal in the above-described method embodiment. The communication device comprises a communication interface, a processor and optionally a memory. The memory is used for storing a computer program or instructions, and the processor is coupled with the memory and the communication interface, and when the processor executes the computer program or instructions, the communication device is enabled to execute the method executed by the corresponding functional entity in the method embodiments. For example, when the computer program or instructions are executed by a processor, cause the communication apparatus to perform the method performed by the network device or the first network device in the above method embodiments; also for example, when the computer program or the instructions are executed by the processor, the communication device is caused to execute the method executed by the positioning management device in the above method embodiment; the computer program or instructions, for example, when executed by a processor, cause the communication device to perform the method performed by the terminal in the above-described method embodiments.

Wherein, the communication interface in the communication device of the ninth aspect may be a transceiver in the communication device, for example, implemented by an antenna, a feeder, a codec, and the like in the communication device, or, if the communication device is a chip provided in the communication device, the communication interface may be an input/output interface of the chip, for example, an input/output pin, and the like.

A tenth aspect provides a communication system comprising any one of the communication devices of the preceding sixth aspect, any one of the communication devices of the seventh aspect, and any one of the communication devices of the eighth aspect.

In an eleventh aspect, the present application provides a chip system, which includes a processor, and is configured to implement the network device, the first network device, the location management function, or the terminal function in the method of the above aspects. In one possible design, the system-on-chip further includes a memory for storing program instructions and/or data. The chip system may be formed by a chip, or may include a chip and other discrete devices.

In a twelfth aspect, there is provided a computer program product, the computer program product comprising: computer program code which, when run, causes the method performed by the network device or the first network device or the location management device or the terminal in the above aspects to be performed.

In an eleventh aspect, the present application provides a computer-readable storage medium storing a computer program which, when executed, implements the method performed by the network device or the first network device or the location management device or the terminal in the above aspects.

In the embodiment of the application, the positioning information interacted between the terminal and the LMF is successively carried through the RRC signaling and the NRPPa signaling, and compared with the method of interacting the positioning information between the terminal and the LMF through the LPP signaling, the period of reporting the positioning information of the terminal can be shortened.

Drawings

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a positioning architecture in LTE and NR Rel-16;

fig. 2 is a diagram of a network architecture of a communication system to which an embodiment of the present application is applicable;

fig. 3 is a diagram of a network architecture of another communication system to which embodiments of the present application are applicable;

fig. 4 is a diagram illustrating a network architecture of another communication system to which embodiments of the present application are applicable;

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

fig. 6 is a schematic flowchart of an exemplary positioning method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 7 is a schematic flowchart of an exemplary positioning method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 8 is a schematic flowchart of an exemplary positioning method provided in an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 9 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application;

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

fig. 11 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 12 is a schematic structural 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 below with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Before describing the present application, a part of terms in the embodiments of the present application will be briefly explained so as to be easily understood by those skilled in the art.

1) A terminal (also referred to as User Equipment (UE)) in this embodiment is a device having a wireless transceiving function, and the terminal device may communicate with a core network via a Radio Access Network (RAN) and exchange voice and/or data with the RAN. The terminal equipment can be deployed on land, including indoors or outdoors, handheld or vehicle-mounted; can also be deployed on the water surface (such as a ship and the like); and may also be deployed in the air (e.g., airplanes, balloons, satellites, etc.). The terminal device may be a mobile phone (mobile phone), a tablet computer (pad), a computer with a wireless transceiving function, a Virtual Reality (VR) terminal, an Augmented Reality (AR) terminal, a wireless terminal in industrial control (industrial control), a wireless terminal in self driving (self driving), a wireless terminal in remote medical (remote medical), 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), and the like. The terminal device may include, for example, a User Equipment (UE), a wireless terminal device, a mobile terminal device, a device-to-device communication (D2D) terminal device, a vehicle-to-outside (V2X) terminal device, a machine-to-machine/machine-type communication (M2M/MTC) terminal device, an internet of things (IoT) terminal device, a subscriber unit (subscriber unit), a subscriber station (subscriber station), a mobile station (mobile station), a remote station (remote station), an Access Point (AP), a remote terminal (CPE) a subscriber station (subscriber terminal), a user station (subscriber terminal), a fixed wireless access (terminal), a user agent (user), a user terminal (fw), a user agent (user agent), a mobile terminal (terminal), a mobile terminal (IoT), a mobile terminal (service terminal), a user terminal (user agent), a mobile terminal (UE-to-device-to-type communication (MTC) terminal device), a machine-to-machine-type communication (IoT) terminal device communication, an M2M/MTC terminal device, a subscriber unit (subscriber unit, a user terminal device, a user terminal, a mobile terminal, a, Or user equipment (user device), etc. For example, mobile telephones (or so-called "cellular" telephones), computers with mobile terminal equipment, portable, pocket, hand-held, computer-included mobile devices, and the like may be included. Such as 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 smart device or intelligent wearable equipment etc. is the general term of using 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.. The wearable device may be worn directly on the body or may be a portable device integrated into the user's clothing or accessory. 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.

While the various terminals described above, if located on a vehicle (e.g. placed in or mounted in a vehicle), may be considered to be vehicle-mounted terminal devices, also referred to as on-board units (OBUs), for example.

The terminal may establish a connection with the carrier network through an interface (e.g., N1, etc.) provided by the carrier network, and use data and/or voice services provided by the carrier network. The terminal device may also access the DN via an operator network, use operator services deployed on the DN, and/or services provided by a third party. The third party may be a service party other than the operator network and the terminal device, and may provide services such as data and/or voice for the terminal device. The specific expression form of the third party may be determined according to an actual application scenario, and is not limited herein.

2) The core network related in the embodiment of the present application may include a network device that processes and forwards signaling and data of a user. For example, the core network devices include an AMF, a Session Management Function (SMF), a user plane gateway, a location management device, and the like. The user plane gateway may be a server having functions of performing mobility management, routing, forwarding and the like on user plane data, and is generally located on a network side, such as a Serving Gateway (SGW) or a packet data network gateway (PGW) or a user plane network element function entity (UPF). The AMF and the SMF correspond to Mobility Management Entity (MME) in the LTE system. The AMF is mainly responsible for admission aspects and the SMF is mainly responsible for session management. Of course, other network elements may be included in the core network, which is not listed here.

The positioning management device has a positioning function, and the positioning management device according to the embodiment of the present disclosure may include a positioning management function (LMF) or a positioning management component (LMC), or may be a local positioning management function (LLMF) located in a network device, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present disclosure. For convenience of description, the following embodiments are all introduced by taking the location management device as an LMF as an example.

3) The network device related in the embodiment of the present application includes, for example, AN Access Network (AN) device. The NG-RAN, referred to in the embodiments of the present application, may comprise one or more access network devices. The access network device in NG-RAN may also be referred to as a base station, or RAN node, or RAN device; one type of network device in the V2X technology is a Road Side Unit (RSU), which may be a fixed infrastructure entity supporting V2X applications and may exchange messages with other entities supporting V2X applications. The network device is an entity for transmitting and/or receiving signals on a network side, and may be configured to interconvert a received air frame and an Internet Protocol (IP) packet, and serve as a router between a terminal and the rest of an access network, where the rest of the access network may include an IP network and the like. The network device may also coordinate management of attributes for the air interface. For example, the network device may be an evolved Node B (eNB) or e-NodeB in LTE, and the eNB is a device that is deployed in a radio access network and satisfies 4G standards to provide a terminal with a wireless communication function. The access network device may also be a new radio controller (NR controller), may be a gnde B (gNB) in a 5G system, may be a centralized network element (centralized unit), may be a new radio base station, may be a radio remote module, may be a micro base station (also referred to as a small station), may be a relay (relay), may be a distributed network element (distributed unit), may be various forms of macro base stations, may be a Transmission Reception Point (TRP), a Transmission Measurement Function (TMF) or a Transmission Point (TP), or any other radio access device, or a base station in next-generation communication, but the embodiment of the present application is not limited thereto. The network device may also include a Radio Network Controller (RNC), a 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).

In some deployments, a base station (e.g., a gNB) may be composed of a Centralized Unit (CU) and a Distributed Unit (DU), that is, functions of the base station in an original LTE access network are split, part of functions of the base station are deployed in one CU, the remaining functions are deployed in a DU, and multiple DUs share one CU, which may save cost and facilitate network expansion. The segmentation of the CU and the DU can be achieved according to the protocol stack segmentation, the RRC layer, the SDAP layer and the PDCP layer are deployed on the CU, and the rest of the radio link control RLC layer, the MAC layer and the PHY layer are deployed on the DU. The CU and DU may be connected via an F1 interface. The CU stands for the gNB to be connected with the core network through an NG interface, and the CU stands for the gNB to be connected with other gNB through an Xn interface.

Further, a CU can be further divided into a CU-Control Plane (CP) and a CU-User Plane (UP). Wherein, the CU-CP is responsible for the control plane function and mainly comprises a PDCP (packet data convergence protocol) -C corresponding to the RRC and the control plane. The PDCP-C is mainly responsible for encryption and decryption of control plane data, integrity protection, data transmission and the like. The CU-UP is responsible for user plane functions and mainly comprises SDAP and PDCP corresponding to the user plane, namely PDCP-U. The SDAP is mainly responsible for processing data of a core network and mapping flow to a bearer. The PDCP-U is mainly responsible for encryption and decryption of a data plane, integrity protection, header compression, serial number maintenance, data transmission and the like. Where CU-CP and CU-UP interface via E1. The CU-CP represents the gbb connected to the core network via the NG interface. The control plane, i.e. F1-C and DU, is connected via the F1 interface. CU-UP is connected via F1 interface user plane, i.e. F1-U and DU. Of course, there is also a possible implementation where PDCP-C is also in CU-UP.

4) A downlink angle of departure (DAOD/DL-AOD), which is an electromagnetic wave departure direction observed from the network device when a downlink electromagnetic wave is transmitted between the network device and the terminal, can be used to locate the terminal.

5) An uplink angle of arrival (UAOA/UL-AOA) may be used for positioning the terminal. At least two network devices participating in terminal positioning measure the SRS sent by the terminal to obtain the AOA, and the position of the terminal can be positioned by utilizing the intersection point of rays emitted by each network device on the corresponding AOA.

6) Time difference of arrival (TDOA), which is the difference in transmission time of signals sent by a terminal to two network devices, can be used for positioning the terminal. There are (downlink time difference of arrival, DL-TDOA), (uplink time difference of arrival, UL-TDOA) depending on the measurement object. In some embodiments, DL-TDOA may also be referred to as UTDOA and UL-TDOA may also be referred to as observed time difference of arrival (OTDOA).

7) The terms "system" and "network" in the embodiments of the present application may be used interchangeably. The term "plurality" means two or more. The term "and/or" describes an associative relationship of associated objects, meaning that three relationships may exist, e.g., a and/or B, 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.

"at least one of the following" or similar expressions refer to any combination of these items, including any combination of the singular or plural items. For example, at least one (one) of a, b, or c, may represent: a, b, c, a and b, a and c, b and c or a, b and c, wherein a, b and c can be single or multiple.

And, 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. For example, the first message and the second message are only used for distinguishing different messages, and do not indicate the difference of the priority, the transmission order, the importance degree, or the like of the two messages.

Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of a positioning architecture in LTE and NR Rel-16, and as shown in fig. 1, involved network elements/modules mainly include three parts, namely, a next generation radio access network (NG RAN), a terminal, and a core network.

The core network includes a Location Management Function (LMF), an access and mobility management function (AMF), a Service Location Protocol (SLP), an evolved serving mobile location center (E-SMLC), and the like. The location server, i.e. the Location Management Function (LMF), is connected to the AMF, and the LMF and the AMF are connected through an NLs interface. The LMF is responsible for supporting different types of location services with respect to the terminal, including the positioning of the terminal and the delivery of assistance data to the terminal. The AMF may receive a location service request related to the terminal from a 5th generation core network location service (5 GC LCS) entity, or the AMF itself may initiate some location services on behalf of a specific terminal and forward the location service request to the LMF. And after the position information returned by the terminal is obtained, returning the relevant position information to the 5GC LCS entity.

The NG RAN may include a next generation node B (gNB), a next generation evolved node B (NG-eNB), and the like. The gNB and the NG-eNB are connected through an Xn interface, and the LMF is connected with the NG-eNB/the gNB through an NG-C interface.

The terminal may measure downlink signals from the NG RAN and other sources to support positioning. The gNB/ng-eNB may provide measurement information for the terminal and communicate this information to the LMF.

Interactive information between the LMF and the terminal, such as terminal capability information transfer, auxiliary information transfer, measurement information, and the like, may be carried by an LTE Positioning Protocol (LPP) message, the LPP message is sent through the Uu interface and the NG-C interface, the LPP message is encapsulated as a non-access stratum (NAS) signaling at the terminal side, the base station receives the NAS signaling of the terminal (the base station does not know that the LPP message is sent by the terminal), and then transfers the NAS signaling to the AMF, and the AMF parses the NAS signaling to obtain the LPP message and transfers it to the LMF. The minimum period for the terminal to report the positioning measurement result is 250ms, and the reporting period is long, so that the method is not well applicable to some scenarios, for example, the position of the user needs to be known more frequently, for example, the behavior track of the user needs to be monitored.

In view of this, the solution provided in the embodiment of the present application uses NRPPa message to carry information exchanged between the LMF and the base station. Because the NRPPa message does not limit the reporting period of the positioning measurement result, the scheme can shorten the positioning period of the terminal, thereby being applicable to scenes needing frequent positioning and having wider application range.

The positioning method provided by the embodiment of the application can be applied to various communication systems, for example: long Term Evolution (LTE) systems, fifth generation (5G) systems, such as NR, and next generation communication systems, such as 6G systems. Of course, the technical solution of the embodiment of the present application may also be applied to other communication systems as long as the communication system has a positioning requirement for the terminal. In addition, the communication system may also be applicable to future-oriented communication technologies, and the 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 constitute a limitation on the technical solution provided in the embodiment of the present application, and it is known by a person of ordinary skill in the art that as a network architecture evolves, the technical solution provided in the embodiment of the present application is also applicable to similar technical problems.

Fig. 2 shows a network architecture of a communication system including a core network, a NG-RAN and a terminal, to which an embodiment of the present application is applicable. The core network includes network elements/modules such as a LMF, an AMF, a Secure User Plane Location (SUPL) location platform (SLP) and an enhanced serving mobile location center (E-SMLC), and the NG RAN includes network elements/modules such as a gNB and an NG-eNB, where specific functions of the network elements/modules such as the LMF, the AMF, the SLP, the E-SMLC, the gNB, and the NG-eNB and connection relationships among the network elements/modules may be referred to in the description of relevant parts in fig. 1, and are not described herein again.

Unlike fig. 1, the network architecture shown in fig. 2 adds an LMC to the NG-RAN, and the LMC is specifically deployed in a base station, such as in the gNB or in the NG-ENB. In this network architecture, the LMC is a function inside the base station, and therefore there is no need to introduce a new interface.

Fig. 3 shows a network architecture of another communication system to which the embodiment of the present application is applicable, and as shown in fig. 3, the communication system also includes a core network, a NG-RAN, and a terminal. In contrast to fig. 2, the LMC in the network architecture shown in fig. 3 is connected as a separate logical node in the NG-RAN to the base station via a new interface, e.g. in fig. 3, the LMC is connected to the gNB-CU via interface Itf.

Fig. 4 shows a network architecture of another communication system to which the embodiment of the present application is applicable, and as shown in fig. 4, the communication system also includes a core network, a NG-RAN and a terminal, and the LMC is an independent logical node in the NG-RAN, unlike fig. 3, the LMC may be connected to a plurality of base stations simultaneously through a new interface in fig. 4. In fig. 4, the LMC is connected to two base stations at the same time, and in the specific implementation, the LMC may be connected to more base stations.

It should be understood that fig. 1, fig. 2, fig. 3, and fig. 4 are only an exemplary illustration of a communication system to which the embodiments of the present application are applicable, and do not specifically limit the type, number, connection manner, and the like of network elements included in the communication system to which the present application is applicable. And the network elements/modules indicated by dashed lines in fig. 2-4 are not necessarily few, but optional, e.g. E-SMLC or SLP are not essential; alternatively, the network element/module illustrated by the dashed line is another existing form, e.g. the gNB or ng-eNB is also referred to as TRP in some embodiments and the terminal is referred to as SET in some embodiments.

It should be understood that the positioning methods include the OTDOA positioning method, DL-AOA positioning method, DL-AOD positioning method, UL-AOA positioning method, Multi-RTT positioning method, etc. as described above, and in general, can be summarized as an uplink positioning method, a downlink positioning method, and an uplink and downlink positioning method. It should be noted that, here, uplink and downlink are relative terms, if the transmission direction from the base station to the terminal is downlink (taking this as an example herein), then the transmission direction from the terminal to the base station is uplink; conversely, if the transmission direction from the base station to the terminal is uplink, then the transmission direction from the terminal to the base station is downlink.

The following describes in detail a positioning method provided in an embodiment of the present application with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Please refer to fig. 5, which is a flowchart of a downlink positioning method according to an embodiment of the present application. In the following description, the method is applied to the communication system shown in fig. 2 to 4 as an example. In addition, the method may be performed by three communication devices, such as a first communication device, a second communication device, and a third communication device. For convenience of introduction, in the following, the method is taken as an example performed by a network device, a terminal, and a positioning management device, that is, the first communication apparatus is a network device, the second communication apparatus is a terminal, and the third communication apparatus is a positioning management device. It should be noted that the embodiment of the present application is only an example of the communication system through fig. 2 to fig. 4, and is not limited to this scenario. It should be understood that there is one network device currently accessed by the terminal (the network device may be referred to as a serving base station), and for convenience of description, the network device is hereinafter referred to as a serving base station. In the following, taking the location management device as an LMF network element as an example, it should be understood that in future communication such as 6G, the location management device may still be an LMF network element or have another name, and the embodiment of the present application is not limited.

Specifically, the specific process of the positioning method provided in the embodiment of the present application is described as follows:

s501, the terminal sends a first message to the serving base station, and the serving base station receives the first message, where the first message includes first positioning information, and the first positioning information is carried in an RRC signaling.

In the embodiments of the present application, the serving base station may be a device in the NG RAN, such as a gNB, NG-eNB; alternatively, the serving base station may be an LMC. As described above, if the LMC is a function inside the base station, the serving base station is the base station where the LMC is located. If the LMC is deployed as in fig. 3 or 4, i.e., the LMC is connected as an independent logical node to one or more base stations through an interface, the serving base station is any base station connected to the LMC.

The first positioning information may be understood as partial information in information required for positioning the terminal, and for completing the positioning process of the terminal, reference may be made to the prior art for other required positioning information, which is not described herein again. For example, the first positioning information includes part or all of information in a first measurement result obtained after the terminal measures a first reference signal transmitted by the base station. It should be understood that the first reference signal is a downlink reference signal. In some embodiments, the first reference signal may be a PRS or may be a CSI-RS. Since the terminal and the base station can measure the CSI-RS, the CSI-RS is used as the first reference signal, a special PRS does not need to be measured additionally, the base station does not need to configure resources for sending the PRS for the terminal, and the period of reporting the positioning information can be shortened.

In some embodiments, the information element (hereinafter simply referred to as an information element) carried by the first measurement result may include one or more of an RSRP value, an RSTD value, and an angle of arrival. For example, the first measurement result includes an RSRP value corresponding to each PRS transmission beam. It should be understood that the first measurement result is used for positioning, and in other embodiments, the first measurement result may include other possible measurement values, which are not illustrated here.

The first positioning information may include other information for positioning in addition to the first measurement result. In some embodiments, the first positioning information may further comprise a positioning method, which may for example comprise one of an OTDOA positioning method, a DL-AOA positioning method and a DL-AOD positioning method. Of course, the positioning method may also include a DL-AOA positioning method, a UL-AOD positioning method, and the like, and the embodiment of the present application does not limit the specific implementation of the positioning method, as long as the method is applicable to downlink positioning.

In other embodiments, the first positioning information may further include error information indicating the measurement, for example the first positioning information may include one or more of an error value, an error range, and an error distribution type. For example, the first positioning information includes the first measurement result including the RSTD value, and the error information included in the first positioning information may be RSTD quality information, that is, one or more of an error value representing the RSTD value, an error range, and an error distribution type. It should be understood that the first positioning information includes a first measurement result including an RSRP value, and the error information included in the first positioning information may be RSRP quality information; alternatively, the first positioning information comprises a first measurement comprising an AOA value, and the error information comprised by the first positioning information may be AOA quality information.

In still other embodiments, the first positioning information may further include a neighbor cell index list, for example, the first positioning information may include one or more of physical cell identity (physical cell Id) and transmission point identity (trpid) in cell Global identity (cell Global Id).

After obtaining the first positioning measurement result, the terminal may send first positioning information including the first positioning measurement result to the serving base station. In some embodiments, the terminal may transmit the first positioning information to the serving base station through RRC signaling. Since the reporting period (usually 160ms) of the RRC signaling is less than the reporting period (usually 250ms) of the LPP signaling, the first positioning information interacted between the terminal and the serving base station in the embodiment of the present application is through the RRC signaling, which is beneficial to shortening the period for reporting the positioning information of the terminal.

S502, the service base station sends the first positioning information to the LMF, the LMF receives the first positioning information, and the first positioning information is carried in the NRPPa signaling.

And after receiving the first positioning information, the service base station sends the first positioning information to the LMF so that the LMF can calculate the position of the terminal according to the first positioning information. For example, the serving base station may send a second message to the LMF, the second message carrying the first positioning information, the second message being an NRPPa message. That is, the serving base station transmits the first positioning information to the LMF through NRPPa signaling. Since the NRPPa signaling does not limit the duration of the reporting period, and the reporting period (usually 160ms) of the RRC signaling is shorter than the reporting period (usually 250ms) of the LPP signaling, the first positioning information interacted between the terminal and the LMF is successively carried by the RRC signaling and the NRPPa signaling, so that the period of reporting the positioning information of the terminal can be shortened, and the period of reporting the position of the terminal can also be shortened.

S503, the LMF determines the position of the terminal according to the first positioning information.

The LMF may calculate the location of the terminal using a location calculation method based on the first location information and other location information that may be needed. Here, the positioning calculation method may refer to the principle of LMF positioning, and is not described in detail. It should be understood that other positioning information required for LMF positioning, i.e. positioning information other than the first positioning information, may refer to the prior art and will not be described herein.

For example, please refer to fig. 6, which is a schematic flow chart of the positioning method provided in the embodiment of the present application. Before S501, the method may further perform the following steps:

s601, the LMF sends a third message to the service base station, the service base station receives the third message, the third message comprises first indication information and/or second indication information, the third message is carried in NRPPa signaling, wherein the first indication information is used for indicating the service base station to report first positioning information, and the second indication information is used for indicating the service base station to request the first positioning information from the terminal.

It should be understood that the third message is only an example of a name, and the specific name of the third message is not limited in the embodiment of the present application, for example, the third message may also be referred to as a location information request message. It should be noted that the third message may be a newly defined NRPPa message, or may be an existing NRPPa message. If the third message is an existing NRPPa message, the first indication information or the second indication information may be a newly added field of the NRPPa message; or the first indication information or the second indication information may multiplex fields defined by the NRPPa message. Similarly, if the third message is an existing NRPPa message, the first indication information or the second indication information may be a newly added field of the NRPPa message; or the first indication information or the second indication information may multiplex fields defined by the NRPPa message.

As an example, the LMF may send the third message to the serving base station through an NRPPa signaling, so as to reduce the time length required for positioning the terminal as much as possible and shorten the period for reporting the positioning information by the terminal. Of course, the third message may be sent to the serving base station in a manner of being carried in the NRPPa signaling, or may be sent in other forms. For example, the third message may be carried in RRC signaling or LPP signaling.

The first indication information is used for indicating the network device to report first positioning information of the terminal, and the first indication information includes different information and different first positioning information reported by the network device. Several possible information comprised by the first indication information, and the corresponding first positioning information, are described below.

1) The first indication information may include a neighboring cell index list, and is used to indicate the serving base station to report first positioning information related to the neighboring cell index list, so as to avoid positioning failure as much as possible.

2) The first indication information may include a positioning method, which is used to indicate the serving base station to report the first positioning information corresponding to the positioning method, so as to avoid as much as possible that the first positioning information reported by the serving base station cannot be used in a positioning calculation method supported by an LMF. Illustratively, the positioning method may include an OTDOA positioning method, and the first positioning information may include an RSTD value for OTDOA positioning; as another example, the positioning method includes a DL-AOD positioning method, and the first positioning information may include RSRP values for DL-AOD positioning, which are not listed here. It should be understood that the first indication information may include a plurality of positioning methods, and the first positioning information may include one or more of the plurality of positioning methods. For example, the serving base station may select one positioning method from the multiple positioning methods indicated by the first indication information, and report first positioning information corresponding to the selected positioning method. Or, the serving base station may select at least two positioning methods from the multiple positioning methods indicated by the first indication information, and report first positioning information corresponding to the at least two positioning methods. Or the serving base station may report the first positioning information corresponding to the multiple positioning methods indicated by the first indication information, respectively. When the service base station reports first positioning information corresponding to a plurality of positioning methods, the LMF can select the first positioning information corresponding to one of the positioning methods to calculate the position of the terminal; or, the LMF may also calculate the location of the terminal according to the first positioning information respectively corresponding to the multiple positioning methods, that is, the LMF may realize the positioning of the terminal by combining the multiple positioning methods.

It should be noted that the first positioning information may or may not include a positioning method.

3) The first indication information may include a reporting mode of the first positioning information, such as periodic reporting or triggered reporting. The first positioning information is reported based on the triggering condition, so that the requirement of real-time positioning of the terminal can be met. And reporting the first positioning information periodically, and realizing multiple times of positioning of the terminal without more interactions among the LMF, the service base station and the terminal. It should be understood that, if the reporting mode included in the first indication information is periodic reporting, the first indication information should carry a reporting period; alternatively, the reporting period may be default, e.g., the reporting period is predefined or protocol specified.

It should be understood that, if the reporting mode indicated by the first indication information is periodic reporting, the serving base station reports the first positioning information to the LMF for multiple times according to a reporting period after receiving the third message; and if the reporting mode indicated by the first indication information is triggering reporting, the service base station receives the third information and reports the first positioning information to the LMF once.

In addition, the serving base station may actively request the first positioning information from the terminal, for example, the third message includes the first indication information, in this case, the serving base station may also request the first positioning information from the terminal. The serving base station may also actively report the first positioning information to the LMF, for example, the third message includes the second indication information, and after the serving base station requests the first positioning information from the terminal, the serving base station may actively report the first positioning information to the LMF.

4) The first indication information may include information acquisition duration, and is used to indicate the serving base station to report first positioning information of the terminal within the information acquisition duration, which is helpful for determining a motion trajectory of the terminal. It should be understood that the terminal periodically reports the measurement results within the information collection duration. And if the first indication information comprises the information acquisition duration, the default first indication information indicates that the service base station reports the first positioning information of the terminal periodically.

It should be noted that, in some embodiments, the first indication information may include any combination of the above 4 kinds of information. For example, the first indication information may include a neighboring cell index list and a positioning method, or may include a neighboring cell index list, a positioning method, and a reporting mode, or may include a neighboring cell index list, a positioning method, a reporting mode, and an information acquisition duration, which are not listed one by one here.

It should be appreciated that before the LMF requests the first positioning information of the terminal from the serving base station, positioning assistance information may be exchanged with the terminal, e.g., the LMF needs to inform the terminal which cells to measure. Since the PRS configuration of different cells are different, the LMF also needs to tell the terminal the configuration of PRS for each cell.

Specifically, S601a, the LMF and the terminal interact with the positioning assistance information.

The LMF and the terminal exchange positioning auxiliary information is similar to a process in which a terminal and an LMF exchange information through LPP information in an OTDOA positioning process, that is, the LMF acquires the positioning capability of the terminal, for example, the LMF requests the positioning capability from the terminal, the LMF requests the positioning capability of the terminal through a LPP request capability (request capability) process, and the terminal reports the positioning capability information to the LMF through a LPP provision capability (provider capability). The positioning capability information may include a positioning method supported by the terminal, a measurement capability corresponding to the positioning method supported by the terminal, and the like. The terminal requests the LMF for positioning assistance information, and the LMF provides assistance data (provider association data) through the LPP to send the assistance information to the terminal, and the like, which is not described in detail herein. The positioning assistance information may include a cell index of a cell that the terminal needs to measure, for example, a cell index of a neighboring cell and/or a cell index of a reference cell, and may further include PRS configuration and the like.

S602, the serving base station sends a fourth message to the terminal, and the terminal receives the fourth message, where the fourth message is used to request the first positioning information and is carried in the RRC signaling.

After receiving the third message, the serving base station may send a fourth message to the terminal if the third message carries the second indication information. As an example, the serving base station may transmit the fourth message to the terminal through RRC signaling.

Similar to the third message, the fourth message may also include some indication information, for example, the fourth message may include third indication information for indicating a positioning method, for requesting positioning information related to the positioning method indicated by the third indication information. And the terminal sends first positioning information corresponding to the third indication information to the serving base station. For example, the positioning method indicated by the third indication information is an OTDOA positioning method, and the first positioning information includes an RSTD value and/or an RSTD quality; for another example, the positioning method indicated by the third indication information is a DL-AOD positioning method, and then the first positioning information includes RSRP values and the like corresponding to respective PRS transmission beams.

For another example, the fourth message may include fourth indication information for indicating a reporting mode. And the terminal determines how to report the first positioning information to the service base station according to the fourth indication information. For example, the reporting mode indicated by the fourth indication information is periodic reporting, and after receiving the fourth message, the terminal sends the first positioning information to the serving base station for multiple times according to the reporting period. For example, the reporting mode indicated by the fourth indication information is to trigger reporting, and the terminal receives the fourth message and then sends the first positioning information to the serving base station once.

In still other embodiments, the fourth message may include third indication information and fourth indication information, which is specifically referred to the third message and the descriptions of the first indication information and the second indication information, and is not described herein again.

S603, the terminal determines the first positioning information.

It should be appreciated that, upon receiving the fourth message, the terminal can measure, for example, PRS transmitted by various base stations to obtain positioning measurement results. And then, the terminal determines the first positioning information from the positioning measurement result according to the third indication information and/or the fourth indication information included in the fourth message, and sends the first positioning information to the serving base station.

It should be understood that, before S603, the terminal should further perform a measurement step, that is, performing measurement on the downlink reference signal sent by the serving base station, or performing measurement on the downlink reference information sent by the serving base station and the at least one neighboring base station.

For example, S603a, the terminal measures PRS transmitted by each base station.

As an alternative to S603a, the terminal S603b measures CSI-RSs transmitted by each base station. Since the terminal may perform one of the steps S603a and S603b, S603b is illustrated in fig. 6 with a dotted line, which is an optional step.

In the embodiment of the application, the information interacted between the terminal and the LMC is carried through the NRPPa signaling, for example, the positioning measurement result, the location information request message, and the like, so that the positioning period of the terminal can be shortened, and the method is suitable for a scene in which the location of the terminal needs to be frequently known.

Please refer to fig. 7, which is a flowchart of an uplink and downlink positioning method according to an embodiment of the present application. In the following description, the method is applied to the communication system shown in fig. 2 to 4 as an example. In addition, the method may be performed by three communication devices, such as a first communication device, a second communication device, and a third communication device. For convenience of introduction, in the following, the method is taken as an example performed by a network device, a terminal, and a positioning management device, that is, the first communication apparatus is a network device, the second communication apparatus is a terminal, and the third communication apparatus is a positioning management device. It should be noted that the embodiment of the present application is only an example of the communication system through fig. 2 to fig. 4, and is not limited to this scenario. It should be understood that in the context of uplink and downlink positioning, measurement of uplink reference signals transmitted by the terminal by each base station is also involved, so the method may involve more network devices. For example, the method involves a first network device, at least one second network device, and so on. It should be understood that there is one network device currently accessed by the terminal (the network device may be referred to as a serving base station), and for convenience of description, the first network device is referred to as a serving base station hereinafter, and the second access network device may be referred to as a neighboring base station in relative terms. In this context, the location management device may be an LMF network element, and it should be understood that in future communication such as 6G, the location management device may still be an LMF network element or have another name, and the embodiments of the present application are not limited thereto.

s701, the terminal sends a first message to the serving base station, and the serving base station receives the first message, where the first message includes second positioning information, and the second positioning information is carried in an RRC signaling.

S702, the service base station sends a second message to the LMF, and the LMF receives the second message, wherein the second message is carried in NRPPa signaling, the second message comprises third positioning information, the third positioning information comprises the second positioning information, and the service base station measures a second reference signal and a third measurement result newly obtained by a third reference.

Similar to the foregoing processes in fig. 5 and fig. 6, the third positioning information interacted between the terminal and the LMF is carried by the NRPPa signaling, and compared with the third positioning information carried by the LPP signaling, the reporting period of the third positioning information may be shortened.

It should be understood that the second positioning information and the third positioning information are similar to the first positioning information, the second positioning information is a part of information required for positioning the terminal, and for completing the positioning process of the terminal, other required positioning information may refer to the prior art and will not be described herein again. The difference from the first positioning information is that, in the embodiment of the present application, the second positioning information includes a second measurement result obtained by the terminal measuring the second reference signal and the third reference signal. The third positioning information includes a third measurement result obtained by the serving base station measuring the second reference signal and the third reference signal. It should be understood that the second reference signal may be a downlink reference signal, which may be a PRS or a CSI-RS, and the third reference signal may be an uplink reference signal, which may be an SRS.

In some embodiments, the information element (hereinafter referred to as an information element) carried by the second measurement result may include a receive-transmit time difference (UE Rx-Tx time difference) inside the terminal, which may be used for Multi-RTT positioning. The information element (hereinafter referred to as an information element) carried by the third measurement result may include a receive-transmit time difference (gNB Rx-Tx time difference) inside the base station, which may be used for Multi-RTT positioning.

The third positioning information may comprise a positioning method, such as Multi-RTT positioning, in addition to the second positioning signal and the second measurement result, similar to the first positioning information. It should be understood that the third positioning information may also comprise a plurality of positioning methods, such as third positioning information Multi-RTT positioning and other possible positioning methods (e.g. one or more of OTDOA positioning method, DL-AOA positioning method and DL-AOD positioning method) for joint positioning. It should be understood that if the third positioning information includes more than one positioning method, the third positioning information should include measurement results corresponding to various positioning methods, for example, may include one or more of an RSRP value, an RSTD value, and an angle of arrival.

Similarly, the third positioning information may also include error information and a neighboring cell index list, which may specifically refer to the foregoing description of the first positioning information and is not described herein again.

After obtaining the second positioning measurement result, the terminal may send second positioning information including the second positioning measurement result to the serving base station. In some embodiments, the terminal may transmit the second positioning information to the serving base station through RRC signaling. Since the reporting period (usually 160ms) of the RRC signaling is smaller than the reporting period (usually 250ms) of the LPP signaling, the first positioning information interacted between the terminal and the serving base station in the embodiment of the present application is through the RRC signaling, which is beneficial to shortening the period of reporting the positioning information of the terminal.

And after receiving the second positioning information, the service base station sends third positioning information comprising the second positioning information and a third measurement result to the LMF, so that the LMF calculates the position of the terminal according to the third positioning information.

It should be understood that before S701, the LMF collects the location information of the terminal before locating the terminal, and the method may further perform the following steps:

s7011, the LMF and the terminal exchange positioning auxiliary information.

Specifically, 701a is the same as S601a, and is not described herein again.

S7012, the LMF sends a third message to the serving base station, and the serving base station receives the third message, where the third message includes third indication information and/or fourth indication information, and the third message is carried in an NRPPa signaling, where the third indication information is used to indicate the serving base station to report third positioning information, and the fourth indication information is used to indicate the serving base station to request the terminal for second positioning information.

The third indication information is similar to the first indication information, and specific implementation may refer to implementation of the first indication information, which is not described herein again. The third indication information is different from the first indication information in that the third indication information includes a positioning method that can be Multi-RTT positioning. Similarly, the fourth indication information is similar to the second indication information, and specific implementation may refer to implementation of the first indication information, which is not described herein again.

It should be understood that the second positioning information corresponds to the fourth indication information and the third positioning information corresponds to the third indication information, for example, the third indication information may include a positioning method of Multi-RTT positioning, and the third positioning information may include the second measurement result and the third measurement result. Specifically, reference may be made to the correspondence between the aforementioned first positioning information and the first indication information, or the correspondence between the first positioning information and the second indication information.

It should be appreciated that before the LMF requests the second location information of the terminal from the serving base station, the location assistance information may be interacted with the terminal, e.g., the LMF needs to inform the terminal which cells to measure. Since the PRS configuration of different cells are different, the LMF also needs to tell the terminal the configuration of PRS for each cell.

S7013, the serving base station sends a fourth message to the terminal, and the terminal receives the fourth message, where the fourth message is used to request the second positioning information and is carried in an RRC signaling.

Specifically, S7013 is the same as S602, and is not described here again.

S7014, the terminal measures the second reference signal and the third reference signal.

It should be understood that, after receiving the fourth message, the terminal may measure the second reference signal transmitted by each base station and the third reference signal transmitted by each base station, for example, to obtain a second measurement result. And then, the terminal sends second positioning information comprising a second measurement result to the serving base station according to the third indication information and/or the fourth indication information included in the third message.

And S703, the LMF determines the position of the terminal according to the third positioning information.

The LMF may calculate the location of the terminal using a location calculation method based on the third location information, and other location information that may be needed. For example, the LMF may determine the location of the terminal according to the third positioning information and a fourth measurement result obtained by measuring the second reference signal and the third reference signal by the at least one neighboring base station.

In a possible implementation manner, at least one neighboring base station may send the fourth measurement result to the LMF, or send the fourth measurement result to the serving base station, and the serving base station sends the fourth measurement result to the LMF. The following are respectively described with specific examples.

Please refer to fig. 8, which is a flowchart illustrating an example of a positioning method according to an embodiment of the present application. The positioning process takes at least one neighboring base station sending the fourth measurement result to the LMF as an example. The process comprises the following steps:

and S801, the terminal and the LMF interact positioning auxiliary information.

The specific implementation method is the same as S7011 in fig. 7, and is not described here again.

S802, LMF sends a third message to the service base station, the third message is carried in NRPPa signaling.

The specific implementation method is the same as S7012 in fig. 7, and is not described herein again.

S803, the serving base station sends a fourth message to the terminal, where the fourth message is carried in RRC signaling.

The information element carried by the fourth message may include a positioning method and a reporting method. The specific implementation method is the same as S7013 in fig. 7, and is not described herein again.

S804, the serving base station configures the time-frequency resource of the SRS for the terminal, and instructs the terminal to transmit the SRS according to the time-frequency resource configured by the serving base station.

Illustratively, the serving base station may notify the terminal through RRC signaling, where the serving base station is a time-frequency resource of the SRS configured by the terminal, and the terminal sends the SRS according to the time-frequency resource configured by the serving base station.

S805, the service base station sends a positioning response message to the LMF, wherein the positioning response message is used for indicating the SRS resource configured for the terminal by the service base station.

Illustratively, the serving base station may send a location response message to the LMF through NRPPa signaling to further reduce the time delay in locating the terminal.

S806, the LMF sends the SRS measurement request to at least one neighbor base station through NRPPa signaling.

It should be understood that the embodiments of the present application are used for uplink and downlink positioning, and a base station needs to be measured. In the embodiment of the application, the LMF sends the SRS measurement request to at least one neighboring base station through the NRPPa signaling, so that the time delay in the process of positioning the terminal can be further reduced.

S807, the terminal measures the PRS sent by each base station.

It should be noted that the execution order of S806 and S807 is not limited in the embodiment of the present application.

S808, the terminal sends the second positioning information to the service base station through RRC signaling.

Specifically, reference is made to the description of the related embodiment of S701 in fig. 7, which is not repeated herein.

And S809, the serving base station sends the third positioning information to the LMF through NRPPa signaling.

And S810, the at least one neighboring base station sends a fourth measurement result to the LMF, and the fourth measurement result is carried in the NRPPa signaling.

It should be understood that at least one neighboring base station may send the second positioning information to the LMF through NRPPa signaling to shorten the period of positioning the terminal as much as possible. It should be noted that, in the embodiment of the present application, the execution order of S809 and S810 is not limited.

And S811, the LMF calculates the position of the terminal according to the third positioning information and the fourth measurement result.

It should be understood that if there is no measurement of the neighboring base station, the LMF calculates the location of the terminal from the third positioning information.

In another embodiment, as an alternative to S810, S812, the at least one neighboring base station may send the fourth measurement result to the serving base station through an Xn interface. In this case, in S809, the third positioning information sent by the serving base station to the LMF includes the fourth measurement result. And in S806, the SRS measurement request sent by the LMF to the at least one neighboring cell base station includes a neighboring cell index list to inform the at least one second network device to which first network device the third measurement result needs to be reported. It should be understood that S812 is an alternative and is therefore illustrated in dashed lines in fig. 8.

The above embodiments may be combined with each other to achieve different technical effects.

In the embodiments provided by the present application, the method provided by the embodiments of the present application is introduced from the perspective of interaction among the terminal, the network device, and the positioning management device. In order to implement the functions in the method provided by the embodiment of the present application, the terminal, the network device, and the positioning management device may include a hardware structure and/or a software module, and the functions are implemented in the form of a hardware structure, a software module, or a hardware structure and a software module. Whether any of the above-described functions is implemented as a hardware structure, a software module, or a hardware structure plus a software module depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the technical solution.

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.

As shown in fig. 9, which is a possible exemplary block diagram of a communication apparatus according to the present application, the communication apparatus 900 may correspondingly implement the functions or steps implemented by the terminal or the network device or the location management device in the foregoing method embodiments. The communication device may include a transceiver module 901 and a processing module 902. Optionally, a storage module may be included, which may be used to store instructions (code or programs) and/or data. The transceiver module 901 and the processing module 902 may be coupled with the storage module, for example, the processing module 902 may read instructions (codes or programs) and/or data in the storage module to implement the corresponding method. The modules can be arranged independently, and can also be partially or completely integrated.

It should be appreciated that the processing module 902 may be a processor or controller, such as a general purpose Central Processing Unit (CPU), a general purpose processor, a Digital Signal Processing (DSP), an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device, a transistor logic device, a hardware component, or any combination thereof. Which may implement or perform the various illustrative logical blocks, modules, and circuits described in connection with the disclosure. The processor may also be a combination of computing functions, e.g., comprising one or more microprocessors, DSPs, and microprocessors, among others. The transceiver module 901 is an interface circuit of the apparatus for receiving signals from other apparatuses. For example, when the apparatus is implemented in the form of a chip, the transceiver module 901 is an interface circuit used by the chip to receive signals from other chips or apparatuses, or an interface circuit used by the chip to transmit signals to other chips or apparatuses.

The communication apparatus 900 may be a network device, a terminal, and a positioning management device in the above embodiments, and may also be a chip for a network device, a terminal, and a positioning management device. For example, when the communication apparatus 900 is a network device, a terminal or a location management device, the processing module 902 may be a processor, and the transceiver module 901 may be a transceiver, for example. Optionally, the transceiver may include a radio frequency circuit, and the storage unit may be, for example, a memory. For example, when the communication apparatus 900 is a chip for a network device, a terminal or a positioning management device, the processing module 902 may be a processor, for example, and the transceiving module 901 may be an input/output interface, a pin or a circuit, for example. The processing module 902 can execute computer-executable instructions stored in a storage unit, optionally, the storage unit is a storage unit in the chip, such as a register, a cache, and the like, and the storage unit may also be a storage unit located outside the chip in the network device, the terminal, or the location management device, such as a read-only memory (ROM) or another type of static storage device that can store static information and instructions, a Random Access Memory (RAM), and the like.

In some possible implementations, the communication apparatus 900 can correspondingly implement the behaviors and functions of the network devices in the above method embodiments. For example, the communication apparatus 900 may be a network device, or may be a component (e.g., a chip or a circuit) applied in a network device. The transceiver module 901 may be used to support communication between a network device and other network entities, for example, to support communication between a network device and a terminal and/or a location management device and the like shown in fig. 5 to 8. The processing module 902 is used for controlling and managing the actions of the network device, for example, the processing module 902 is used for supporting the network device to perform all operations except transceiving of the serving base station in fig. 5 to 8.

For example, the transceiver module 901 may be used to perform all receiving or transmitting operations performed by the serving base station in the embodiment shown in fig. 5, such as S501 and S502 in the embodiment shown in fig. 5, and/or other processes for supporting the techniques described herein. Among other things, the processing module 902 is used to perform all operations performed by the serving base station in the embodiment shown in fig. 5, except transceiving operations, and/or other processes to support the techniques described herein.

For another example, the transceiver module 901 may be used to perform all receiving or transmitting operations performed by the serving base station in the embodiment shown in fig. 6, such as the receiving or transmitting operations referred to by S501, S502, S601 and S602, S601a and S603 in the embodiment shown in fig. 6, and/or other processes for supporting the techniques described herein. Among other things, the processing module 902 is used to perform all operations performed by the serving base station in the embodiment shown in fig. 6 except transceiving operations, e.g., S601a and S603 in the embodiment shown in fig. 6 except related receiving or transmitting operations, and/or other procedures for supporting the techniques described herein.

As another example, the transceiver module 901 may be used to perform all receiving or transmitting operations performed by the serving base station in the embodiment shown in fig. 7, such as S7012, S7013, S701, and S702 in the embodiment shown in fig. 7, and/or other processes for supporting the techniques described herein. Among other things, the processing module 902 is configured to perform all operations performed by the serving base station in the embodiment shown in fig. 7 except transceiving operations, e.g., S7011, S7014 in the embodiment shown in fig. 7, and/or other processes for supporting the techniques described herein.

As another example, the transceiver module 901 may be used to perform all receiving or transmitting operations performed by the serving base station in the embodiment shown in fig. 8, such as S802, S803, S805, and S808, S809 in the embodiment shown in fig. 8, and/or other processes for supporting the techniques described herein. The processing module 902 is configured to perform all operations except transceiving operations performed by the serving base station in the embodiment shown in fig. 8, such as S801, S804, S807 in the embodiment shown in fig. 8, and/or other processes for supporting the techniques described herein.

In some embodiments, the transceiver module 901 is under the control of the processing module 902 to:

receiving a first message sent by a terminal, wherein the first message comprises first positioning information and is carried in a Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling; the first positioning information comprises a first measurement result obtained by measuring a first reference signal by the terminal;

and sending a second message to the positioning management equipment, wherein the second message comprises the first positioning information, and the second message is carried in NRPPa signaling of a new air interface positioning protocol copy.

As an optional implementation, the transceiver module 901 is further configured to:

and sending a fourth message to the terminal, wherein the fourth message is used for requesting the first positioning information and is carried in RRC signaling.

As an optional implementation, the first indication information includes one or more of the following information: a neighboring cell index list, a positioning method, a reporting mode and information acquisition duration; wherein the content of the first and second substances,

the neighbor cell index list includes one or more of the following indexes: physical cell index, cell global index, transmission point index; the positioning method comprises one or more of the following methods: OTDOA positioning method, DL-AOA positioning method and DL-AOD positioning method; the reporting mode comprises periodic reporting or triggered reporting; the information collection duration is a preset time length, and the communication device 900 receives the measurement result reported by the terminal for multiple times within the preset time length, where the measurement result is a measurement result periodically reported by the terminal within the preset time length.

As an optional implementation, the first positioning information includes: a positioning method, a measurement result, error information and a neighboring cell index list; wherein the content of the first and second substances,

the positioning method is any one of the following methods: OTDOA positioning method, DL-AOA positioning method and DL-AOD positioning method; the measurement result is a measurement result corresponding to the positioning method, and the measurement result includes any one of the following measurement results: RSRP value, RSTD value, angle of arrival value; error information is used to indicate the accuracy of the measurement, the error information including one or more of the following: error value, error range, error distribution type; the neighbor cell index list comprises one or more of the following indexes: physical cell index, cell global index, transmission point index.

As an optional implementation, the first reference signal is a PRS or a CSI-RS.

In other embodiments, the transceiver module 901, under the control of the processing module 902, is configured to:

receiving a first message sent by a terminal, wherein the first message comprises second positioning information, and the second positioning information comprises a second measurement result obtained by measuring a second reference signal and a third reference signal by the terminal; wherein, the first message is carried in a Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling;

transmitting a second message including third positioning information including the second positioning information to the positioning management apparatus, and a third measurement result obtained by the communication device 900 measuring the second reference signal and the third reference signal; wherein the second message is carried in NRPPa signaling.

As an optional implementation manner, the third positioning information further includes a fourth measurement result, where the fourth measurement result is a measurement result obtained by measuring the second reference signal and the third reference signal by at least one second network device.

As an optional implementation manner, the transceiver module 901 is further configured to receive, before receiving the first message sent by the terminal, a third message from the location management device, where the third message includes third indication information and/or fourth indication information, the third indication information is used to indicate the first network device to report the third location information, and the fourth indication information is used to indicate the communication apparatus 900 to request the terminal for the second location information, where the third message is carried in NRPPa signaling.

and sending a fourth message to the terminal, wherein the fourth message is used for requesting the second positioning information and is carried in RRC signaling.

As an optional implementation, the third indication information includes one or more of the following information: a neighboring cell index list, a positioning method, a reporting mode and information acquisition duration; wherein the content of the first and second substances,

the neighbor cell index list comprises one or more of the following indexes: physical cell index, cell global index, transmission point index; the positioning method comprises a Multi-RTT positioning method; the reporting mode comprises periodic reporting or triggered reporting; the information collection duration is a preset time length, and the communication device 900 receives the measurement result reported by the terminal for multiple times within the preset time length, where the measurement result is a measurement result periodically reported by the terminal within the preset time length.

As an optional implementation manner, the third positioning information includes: positioning method, measurement result, error information, and neighbor cell index list; wherein the content of the first and second substances,

the positioning method is a Multi-RTT positioning method;

the measurement result is a measurement result corresponding to the positioning method, and the measurement result includes a receiving and sending delay error inside the terminal, a receiving and sending delay error inside the communication apparatus 900, and a receiving and sending delay error inside at least one second network device;

As an optional implementation, the second reference signal is a PRS or a CSI-RS, and the third reference signal is an SRS.

It should be understood that the processing module 902 in the embodiments of the present application may be implemented by a processor or a processor-related circuit component, and the transceiver module 901 may be implemented by a transceiver or a transceiver-related circuit component.

In some possible implementations, the communication apparatus 900 can correspondingly implement the behaviors and functions of the terminal in the above method embodiments. For example, the communication apparatus 900 may be a terminal, and may also be a component (e.g., a chip or a circuit) applied to the terminal. The transceiver module 901 may be used to support communication between the terminal and other network entities, for example, to support communication between the terminal and the serving base station shown in fig. 5 to 8. The processing module 902 is configured to control and manage the actions of the terminal, for example, the processing module 902 is configured to support the terminal to perform all operations except transceiving operations in fig. 5 to 8.

For example, the transceiver module 901 may be used to perform all receiving or transmitting operations performed by the terminal in the embodiment shown in fig. 5, such as S501 in the embodiment shown in fig. 5, and/or other processes for supporting the techniques described herein. Among other things, the processing module 902 is used to perform all operations performed by the terminal, except for transceiving operations, in the embodiment illustrated in fig. 5, and/or other processes to support the techniques described herein.

As another example, the transceiver module 901 may be used to perform all receiving or transmitting operations performed by the terminal in the embodiment shown in fig. 6, such as the receiving or transmitting operations involved in S501 and S602, S601a and S603 in the embodiment shown in fig. 6, and/or other processes for supporting the techniques described herein. Among other things, the processing module 902 is used to perform all operations performed by the terminal in the embodiment shown in fig. 6 except transceiving operations, e.g., S601a and S603 in the embodiment shown in fig. 6 except related receiving or transmitting operations, and/or other procedures for supporting the techniques described herein.

As another example, the transceiver module 901 may be used to perform all receiving or transmitting operations performed by the terminal in the embodiment shown in fig. 7, such as the receiving or transmitting operations related to S703 and S705 and S701 and S704a in the embodiment shown in fig. 7, and/or other processes for supporting the techniques described herein. Among other things, the processing module 902 is used to perform all operations performed by the terminal in the embodiment shown in fig. 7 except transceiving operations, such as S701, S704a, or S704b in the embodiment shown in fig. 7, and/or other processes for supporting the techniques described herein.

As another example, the transceiver module 901 may be configured to perform all receiving or transmitting operations performed by the terminal in the embodiment shown in fig. 8, such as the receiving or transmitting operations related to S803, S808, S801, S804 and S807 in the embodiment shown in fig. 8, and/or other processes for supporting the techniques described herein. The processing module 902 is configured to perform all operations except transceiving operations performed by the terminal in the embodiment shown in fig. 8, for example, S801, S804, and S807 in the embodiment shown in fig. 8, and/or other processes for supporting the techniques described herein.

In some embodiments, the transceiver module 901 is configured to receive a fifth message sent by the network device, where the fifth message is used to request first positioning information, and the fifth message is carried in RRC signaling, where the first positioning information includes a first measurement result obtained by a terminal measuring a first reference signal; the processing module 902 is configured to measure a first reference signal, and control the transceiver module to send first positioning information to the network device after measuring the first reference signal, where the first positioning information is carried in an RRC signaling.

As an optional implementation manner, the fifth message is triggered by a sixth message, where the sixth message is sent to the network device by the positioning management device, and the sixth message is carried in NRPPa signaling.

As an alternative implementation, the first reference signal is a PRS or a CSI-RS.

In some possible implementations, the communication apparatus 900 can correspondingly implement the behavior and the function of the location management device in the foregoing method embodiments. For example, the communication apparatus 900 may be a positioning management function, or may be a component (e.g., a chip or a circuit) applied in a positioning management device. The transceiver module 901 may be used to support communication between the location management device and other network entities, for example, to support communication between the location management device and the serving base station shown in fig. 5 to 8. The processing module 902 is configured to control and manage the actions of the location management device, for example, the processing module 902 is configured to support the location management device to perform all operations except transceiving operations in fig. 5 to 8.

For example, the transceiver module 901 may be used to perform all receiving or transmitting operations performed by the location management device in the embodiment shown in fig. 5, such as S502 in the embodiment shown in fig. 5, and/or other processes for supporting the techniques described herein. Wherein the processing module 902 is configured to perform all operations performed by the positioning management device in the embodiment shown in fig. 5 except for transceiving operations, such as S503 in the embodiment shown in fig. 5, and/or other processes for supporting the techniques described herein.

As another example, the transceiver module 901 may be used to perform all receiving or transmitting operations performed by the location management device in the embodiment shown in fig. 6, such as the receiving or transmitting operations referred to by S502 and S601, S601a in the embodiment shown in fig. 6, and/or other processes for supporting the techniques described herein. Among other things, the processing module 902 is configured to perform all operations performed by the location management device in the embodiment shown in fig. 6 except for transceiving operations, such as S601a in the embodiment shown in fig. 6 except for the receiving or transmitting operation, S503, and/or other processes for supporting the techniques described herein.

As another example, the transceiver module 901 may be used to perform all receiving or transmitting operations performed by the location management device in the embodiment shown in fig. 7, such as the receiving or transmitting operations referred to in S702 and S706, and S701, S704a in the embodiment shown in fig. 7, and/or other processes for supporting the techniques described herein. Among other things, the processing module 902 is configured to perform all operations performed by the positioning management device in the embodiment shown in fig. 7 except for transceiving operations, such as S701, S704a or S704b, S707 in the embodiment shown in fig. 7 and/or other processes for supporting the techniques described herein.

As another example, the transceiver module 901 may be used to perform all receiving or transmitting operations performed by the positioning management device in the embodiment shown in fig. 8, such as the receiving or transmitting operations referred to in S802, S805, S810, S801 and S807 in the embodiment shown in fig. 8, and/or other processes for supporting the techniques described herein. The processing module 902 is configured to perform all operations except transceiving operations performed by the positioning management device in the embodiment shown in fig. 8, such as S801, S807, S811 in the embodiment shown in fig. 8, and/or other processes for supporting the techniques described herein.

In some embodiments, the transceiver module 901 is configured to receive a seventh message sent by the first network device, where the seventh message includes first positioning information, where the first positioning information includes a first measurement result obtained by measuring a first reference signal by the terminal, and the seventh message is carried in NRPPa signaling; the processing module 902 is then configured to determine the location of the terminal according to the first positioning information.

As an optional implementation manner, the transceiver module 901 is further configured to send an eighth message to the first network device before receiving the seventh message sent by the first network device, where the eighth message includes fifth indication information and/or sixth indication information, the fifth indication information is used to indicate the first network device to report the first positioning information, and the sixth indication information is used to indicate the first network device to request the first positioning information from the terminal, where the eighth message is carried in the NRPPa signaling.

As an alternative implementation, the first reference signal is used as a PRS or a CSI-RS.

In other embodiments, the transceiver module 901 is configured to receive a seventh message sent by the first network device, where the seventh message is carried in NRPPa signaling, and the seventh message includes second positioning information, where the second positioning information includes a first measurement result obtained by measuring the second reference signal and the third reference signal by the terminal, and a second measurement result obtained by measuring the second reference signal and the third reference signal by the first network device; the processing module 902 is configured to determine the location of the terminal according to the second positioning information.

As an optional implementation manner, the transceiver module 901 is further configured to send an eighth message to the first network device before receiving the seventh message sent by the first network device, where the eighth message includes seventh indication information and/or eighth indication information, the seventh indication information is used to indicate the first network device to report the second positioning information, and the eighth indication information is used to indicate the first network device to request the terminal for the second positioning information, where the eighth message is carried in NRPPa signaling.

As an optional implementation manner, the second positioning information may further include a third measurement result, where the third measurement result is a third measurement result obtained by measuring the second reference signal and the third reference signal by at least one second network device, respectively.

As an optional implementation manner, the transceiver module 901 is further configured to send a measurement request message to at least one second network device, where the measurement request message is carried in NRPPa signaling, and the measurement request message includes a neighbor cell index list.

As an optional implementation manner, the transceiver module 901 is further configured to receive third positioning information sent by at least one second network device, where the third positioning information includes third measurement results obtained by measuring, by the at least one second network device, the second reference signal and the third reference signal respectively. I.e. the at least one second network device informs the location management device directly of the measurement result.

As an optional implementation manner, the transceiver module 901 is further configured to send a ninth message to at least one second network device, where the ninth message is used to request third positioning information corresponding to each second network device, and the ninth message is carried in NRPPa signaling.

As an optional implementation manner, the transceiver module 901 is further configured to receive third positioning information respectively sent by at least one second network device, where the third positioning information is carried in NRPPa signaling.

It should be understood that the processing module 902 in the embodiment of the present application may be implemented by a processor or a processor-related circuit component, and the transceiver module 901 may be implemented by a transceiver or a transceiver-related circuit component.

Fig. 10 shows a communication apparatus 1000 according to an embodiment of the present application, where the communication apparatus 1000 may be a network device and may implement a function of the network device in the method according to the embodiment of the present application, or the communication apparatus 1000 may be a terminal and may implement a function of the terminal in the method according to the embodiment of the present application; alternatively, the communication apparatus 1000 may be a positioning management device, and may implement the function of the positioning management device in the method provided in the embodiment of the present application; alternatively, the communication apparatus 1000 may also be an apparatus capable of supporting a network device, a terminal, or a positioning management device to implement the corresponding functions in the method provided in the embodiment of the present application. The communication device 1000 may be a chip system. In the embodiment of the present application, the chip system may be formed by a chip, and may also include a chip and other discrete devices.

In terms of hardware implementation, the transceiver module 901 may be a transceiver, and the transceiver is integrated in the communication device 1000 to form the communication interface 1010.

The communication apparatus 1000 includes at least one processor 1020, and the processor 1020 may be a CPU, a microprocessor, an ASIC, or one or more integrated circuits for controlling the execution of the programs in the present application, and is used to implement or support the communication apparatus 1000 to implement the functions of the network device or the terminal or the positioning management device in the methods provided in the embodiments of the present application. For details, reference is made to the detailed description in the method example, which is not repeated herein.

Communications device 1000 may also include at least one memory 1030 for storing program instructions and/or data. A memory 1030 is coupled to the processor 1020. The coupling in the embodiments of the present application is an indirect coupling or a communication connection between devices, units or modules, and may be an electrical, mechanical or other form for information interaction between the devices, units or modules. Processor 1020 may operate in conjunction with memory 1030. Processor 1020 may execute program instructions and/or data stored in memory 1030 to cause communication device 1000 to implement a corresponding method. At least one of the at least one memory may be included in the processor 1020.

Communications device 1000 may also include communications interface 1010 using any transceiver or the like for communicating with other devices or communications networks, such as a Radio Access Network (RAN), a Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN), a wired access network, etc. The communication interface 1010 is used for communicating with other devices via a transmission medium so that the apparatus used in the communication apparatus 1000 can communicate with other devices. Illustratively, when the communication apparatus 1000 is a network device, the other device is a terminal or a positioning management function; or, when the communication device is a terminal, the other device is a network device. The processor 1020 may transmit and receive data using the communication interface 1010. The communication interface 1010 may specifically be a transceiver.

The specific connection medium among the communication interface 1010, the processor 1020 and the memory 1030 is not limited in the embodiments of the present application. In the embodiment of the present application, the memory 1030, the processor 1020, and the communication interface 1010 are connected by the bus 1004 in fig. 10, the bus is represented by a thick line in fig. 10, and the connection manner between other components is merely illustrative and not limited. The bus may be divided into an address bus, a data bus, a control bus, etc. For ease of illustration, only one thick line is shown in FIG. 10, but this is not intended to represent only one bus or type of bus.

In the embodiments of the present application, the processor 1020 may be a general purpose processor, a digital signal processor, an application specific integrated circuit, a field programmable gate array or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof, and may implement or perform the methods, steps, and logic blocks disclosed in the embodiments of the present application. The general purpose processor may be a microprocessor or any conventional processor or the like. The steps of a method disclosed in connection with the embodiments of the present application may be directly implemented by a hardware processor, or may be implemented by a combination of hardware and software modules in a processor.

The memory 1030 may be, but is not limited to, ROM or other type of static storage device that can store static information and instructions, RAM or other type of dynamic storage device that can store information and instructions, EEPROM, compact disk read-only memory (CD-ROM) or other optical disk storage, optical disk storage (including compact disk, laser disk, optical disk, digital versatile disk, blu-ray disk, etc.), 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 memory may be separate and coupled to the processor via communication line 1004. The memory may also be integral to the processor.

The memory 1030 is used for storing computer-executable instructions for implementing the present invention, and is controlled by the processor 1020. The processor 1020 is configured to execute the computer executable instructions stored in the memory 1030, so as to implement the service management method provided by the above-described embodiment of the present application.

Optionally, the computer-executable instructions in this embodiment may also be referred to as application program codes, which is not specifically limited in this embodiment.

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

Fig. 11 shows a simplified structural diagram of a terminal. For easy understanding and illustration, in fig. 11, the terminal is exemplified by a mobile phone. As shown in fig. 11, the terminal includes a processor, a memory, a radio frequency circuit, an antenna, and an input-output device. The processor is mainly used for processing communication protocols and communication data, controlling the vehicle-mounted unit, executing software programs, processing data of the software programs and the like. The memory is primarily used for storing software programs and data. The radio frequency circuit is mainly used for converting baseband signals and radio frequency signals and processing the radio frequency signals. The antenna is mainly used for receiving and transmitting radio frequency signals in the form of electromagnetic waves. Input and output devices, such as touch screens, display screens, keyboards, etc., are mainly used for receiving data input by users and outputting data to the users. It should be noted that some kinds of devices may not have input/output means.

When data needs to be sent, the processor performs baseband processing on the data to be sent and outputs baseband signals to the radio frequency circuit, and the radio frequency circuit performs radio frequency processing on the baseband signals and sends the radio frequency signals to the outside in the form of electromagnetic waves through the antenna. When data is sent to the device, the radio frequency circuit receives radio frequency signals through the antenna, converts the radio frequency signals into baseband signals and outputs the baseband signals to the processor, and the processor converts the baseband signals into the data and processes the data. For ease of illustration, only one memory and processor are shown in FIG. 11. In an actual device product, there may be one or more processors and one or more memories. The memory may also be referred to as a storage medium or a storage device, etc. The memory may be provided independently of the processor, or may be integrated with the processor, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present application.

In the embodiment of the present application, the antenna and the rf circuit with transceiving function may be regarded as a transceiving unit of the apparatus, and the processor with processing function may be regarded as a processing unit of the apparatus. As shown in fig. 11, the apparatus includes a transceiving unit 1110 and a processing unit 1120. The transceiving unit 1110 may also be referred to as a transceiver, a transceiving means, etc. The processing unit 1120 can also be referred to as a processor, a processing board, a processing module, a processing device, or the like. Optionally, a device in the transceiving unit 1110 for implementing the receiving function may be regarded as a receiving unit, and a device in the transceiving unit 1110 for implementing the sending function may be regarded as a sending unit, that is, the transceiving unit 1110 includes a receiving unit and a sending unit. The transceiver unit 1110 may also sometimes be referred to as a transceiver, transceiving circuitry, or the like. A receiving unit may also be referred to as a receiver, a receiving circuit, or the like. A transmitting unit may also sometimes be referred to as a transmitter, or a transmitting circuit, etc.

It should be understood that the transceiver 1110 is configured to perform the transmitting operation and the receiving operation on the terminal side in the above-described method embodiments, and the processing unit 1120 is configured to perform other operations on the terminal in the above-described method embodiments besides the transceiving operation.

For example, in one implementation, the transceiving unit 1110 may be configured to perform S501 in the embodiment shown in fig. 5, and/or other processes to support the techniques described herein; processing unit 1120 may be used to perform all operations performed by the terminal in the embodiment shown in fig. 5, except transceiving operations, and/or other processes or in support of the techniques described herein. Alternatively, the transceiving unit 1110 may be configured to perform S501 and S602 in the embodiment illustrated in fig. 6, and/or other processes to support the techniques described herein; processing unit 1120 may be configured to perform steps S601a and S603 in the embodiment illustrated in fig. 6, and/or other processes for supporting the techniques described herein. Alternatively, the transceiving unit 1110 may be configured to perform S703 and S705 in the embodiment shown in fig. 7, and/or other processes for supporting the techniques described herein; processing unit 1120 may be used to perform S701, S704a, or S704b in the embodiment shown in FIG. 7, and/or other processes for supporting the techniques described herein. Alternatively, the transceiving unit 1110 may be configured to perform S803, S808 in the embodiment illustrated in fig. 8, and/or other processes for supporting the techniques described herein; processing unit 1120 may be configured to perform steps S801, S804, S807 in the embodiment illustrated in fig. 8, and/or other processes for supporting the techniques described herein.

When the communication device is a chip-like device or circuit, the device may comprise a transceiver unit and a processing unit. The transceiving unit can be an input-output circuit and/or a communication interface; the processing unit is an integrated processor or microprocessor or integrated circuit.

Fig. 12 shows another form of the present embodiment. The communication device 1200 includes modules such as a modulation subsystem, a central processing subsystem, and peripheral subsystems. The communication device in this embodiment may serve as a modulation subsystem therein. In particular, the modulation subsystem may include a processor 1201 and an interface 1202. The processor 1201 performs the functions of the processing unit 1120, and the interface 1202 performs the functions of the transceiver 1110. As another variation, the modulation subsystem includes a memory 1203, a processor 1201 and a program stored in the memory 1203 and executable on the processor, and the processor 1201 executes the program to implement the method of the terminal device in the above method embodiments. It is to be noted that the memory 1203 may be non-volatile or volatile, and its location may be inside the modulation subsystem or in the communication device 1200, as long as the memory 1203 may be connected to the processor 1201.

The embodiment of the present application further provides a communication system, and specifically, the communication system includes a network device, a terminal, and a positioning management device. Illustratively, the communication system includes a network device, a terminal and a location management device for implementing the related functions of fig. 5, fig. 6, fig. 7 or fig. 8 described above. Optionally, the communication system may further comprise more terminals and/or network devices.

The network device is configured to implement the functionality of the network device portion described above in connection with fig. 5, 6, 7, or 8. The terminal is used for realizing the functions of the related terminal part of the above-mentioned fig. 5, fig. 6, fig. 7 or fig. 8. The location management device is configured to implement the functions of the above-mentioned portion of the location management device related to fig. 5, 6, 7 or 8. Please refer to the related description in the above method embodiments, which is not repeated herein.

Also provided in an embodiment of the present application is a computer-readable storage medium including instructions, which when executed on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method performed by the network device, the terminal, or the location management device in fig. 5, fig. 6, fig. 7, or fig. 8.

Also provided in an embodiment of the present application is a computer program product including instructions, which when executed on a computer, cause the computer to execute the method performed by the network device, the terminal, or the location management device in fig. 5, fig. 6, fig. 7, or fig. 8.

The embodiment of the application provides a chip system, which comprises a processor and a memory, and is used for realizing the functions of the network equipment, the terminal and the positioning management equipment in the method. The chip system may be formed by a chip, and may also include a chip and other discrete devices.

Also provided in an embodiment of the present application is a computer program product including instructions that, when executed on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method performed by the network device, the terminal, or the location management device in fig. 5, fig. 6, fig. 7, or fig. 8.

The methods provided in the embodiments of the present application may be implemented in whole or in part 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 instructions. When loaded and executed on a computer, cause the processes or functions described in accordance with the embodiments of the invention to be performed in whole or in part. The computer may be a general purpose computer, a special purpose computer, a computer network, a network appliance, a user device, or other programmable apparatus. The computer instructions may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium or transmitted from one computer-readable storage medium to another, for example, from one website, computer, server, or data center to another website, computer, server, or data center via wired (e.g., coaxial cable, fiber optic, Digital Subscriber Line (DSL), for short) or wireless (e.g., infrared, wireless, microwave, etc.), the computer-readable storage medium may be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer or a data storage device including one or more available media, such as magnetic media (e.g., floppy disks, hard disks, tapes), optical media (e.g., digital video disks, DVD for short), or a semiconductor medium (e.g., SSD).

It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various changes and modifications may be made in the present application without departing from the scope of the application. Thus, if such modifications and variations of the present application fall within the scope of the claims of the present application and their equivalents, the present application is intended to include such modifications and variations as well.

Claims

A method for reporting positioning information is characterized by comprising the following steps:

network equipment receives a first message sent by a terminal, wherein the first message comprises first positioning information, and the first message is carried in Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling; the first positioning information comprises a first measurement result obtained by measuring a first reference signal by the terminal;

and the network equipment sends a second message to a positioning management equipment, wherein the second message comprises the first positioning information, and the second message is carried in NRPPa signaling of a new air interface positioning protocol copy.
The method of claim 1, wherein before the network device receives the first message sent by the terminal, the method further comprises:

the network device receives a third message from the location management device, where the third message includes first indication information and/or second indication information, the first indication information is used to indicate the network device to report the first location information, the second indication information is used to indicate the network device to request the terminal for the first location information, and the third message is carried in NRPPa signaling.
The method of claim 2, wherein the method further comprises:

and the network equipment sends a fourth message to the terminal, wherein the fourth message is used for requesting the first positioning information and is carried in RRC signaling.
A method as claimed in claim 2 or 3, wherein the first indication information comprises one or more of: a neighboring cell index list, a positioning method, a reporting mode and information acquisition duration; wherein, the first and the second end of the pipe are connected with each other,

the neighbor cell index list comprises one or more of the following indexes: physical cell index, cell global index, transmission point index;

the positioning method comprises one or more of the following methods: observing an arrival time difference OTDOA positioning method, a downlink arrival angle DL-AOA positioning method and a downlink departure angle DL-AOD positioning method;

the reporting mode comprises periodic reporting or triggered reporting;

the information acquisition duration is a preset time length, the network device receives the measurement result reported by the terminal for multiple times within the preset time length, and the measurement result is a measurement result periodically reported by the terminal within the preset time length.
The method of any of claims 1-4, wherein the first positioning information comprises: positioning method, measurement result, error information, and neighbor cell index list; wherein the content of the first and second substances,

the positioning method is any one of the following methods: observing an OTDOA positioning method, a DL-AOA positioning method and a DL-AOD positioning method;

the measurement result is a measurement result corresponding to the positioning method, and the measurement result includes any one of the following measurement results: a Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP) value, a Reference Signal Time Difference (RSTD) value and an arrival angle value;

the error information is used for indicating the accuracy of the measurement result, and comprises one or more of the following information: error value, error range, error distribution type;

the neighbor cell index list comprises one or more of the following indexes: physical cell index, cell global index, transmission point index.
The method of any one of claims 1-5, wherein the first reference signal is a Positioning Reference Signal (PRS) or a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS).
A method for reporting positioning information is characterized by comprising the following steps:

a first network device receives a first message sent by a terminal, wherein the first message comprises second positioning information, and the second positioning information comprises a second measurement result obtained by measuring a second reference signal and a third reference signal by the terminal; wherein the first message is carried in Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling;

the first network device sends a second message to a positioning management device, the second message includes third positioning information, the third positioning information includes the second positioning information, and a third measurement result obtained by the first network device measuring the second reference signal and the third reference signal; wherein the second message is carried in new air interface positioning protocol copy NRPPa signaling.
The method of claim 7, wherein the third positioning information further comprises a fourth measurement result, the fourth measurement result being a measurement result obtained by the at least one second network device measuring the second reference signal and the third reference signal.
The method of claim 7 or 8, wherein before the first network device receives the first message sent by the terminal, the method further comprises:

the first network device receives a third message from the location management device, where the third message includes third indication information and/or fourth indication information, the third indication information is used to indicate the first network device to report the third location information, and the fourth indication information is used to indicate the first network device to request the second location information from the terminal, where the third message is carried in NRPPa signaling.
The method of claim 9, wherein the method further comprises:

and the first network equipment sends a fourth message to the terminal, wherein the fourth message is used for requesting the second positioning information, and the fourth message is carried in RRC signaling.
The method of claim 9 or 10, wherein the third indication information comprises one or more of the following information: a neighboring cell index list, a positioning method, a reporting mode and information acquisition duration; wherein the content of the first and second substances,

the neighbor cell index list comprises one or more of the following indexes: physical cell index, cell global index, transmission point index;

the positioning method comprises a Multi-round trip time-RTT positioning method;

the reporting mode comprises periodic reporting or triggered reporting;

the information acquisition duration is a preset time length, the first network device receives the measurement result reported by the terminal for multiple times within the preset time length, and the measurement result is a measurement result periodically reported by the terminal within the preset time length.
The method of any of claims 8-11, wherein the third positioning information comprises: a positioning method, a measurement result, error information and a neighboring cell index list; wherein the content of the first and second substances,

the positioning method is a Multi-round trip time (Multi-RTT) positioning method;

the measurement result is a measurement result corresponding to the positioning method, and the measurement result includes a receiving and sending delay error inside the terminal, a receiving and sending delay error inside the first network device, and a receiving and sending delay error inside the at least one second network device;

the error information is used for indicating the accuracy of the measurement result, and comprises one or more of the following information: error value, error range, error distribution type;

the neighbor cell index list comprises one or more of the following indexes: physical cell index, cell global index, transmission point index.
The method according to any of claims 7-12, wherein the second reference signal is a positioning reference signal, PRS, or a channel state information reference signal, CSI-RS, and the third reference signal is a sounding reference signal, SRS.
A communication apparatus, comprising a transceiver module and a processing module, wherein the transceiver module is under control of the processing module and is configured to:

receiving a first message sent by a terminal, wherein the first message comprises first positioning information, and the first message is carried in a Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling; the first positioning information comprises a first measurement result obtained by the terminal measuring a first reference signal;

and sending a second message to a positioning management device, wherein the second message comprises the first positioning information, and the second message is carried in NRPPa signaling of a new air interface positioning protocol copy.
The communications apparatus as claimed in claim 14, wherein the transceiver module is configured to receive a third message from the location management device before receiving the first message sent by the terminal, where the third message includes first indication information and/or second indication information, the first indication information is used to instruct the network device to report the first location information, the second indication information is used to instruct the network device to request the terminal for the first location information, and the third message is carried in NRPPa signaling.
The communications apparatus of claim 15, wherein the transceiver module is further configured to:

and sending a fourth message to the terminal, wherein the fourth message is used for requesting the first positioning information and is carried in RRC signaling.
A communications device as claimed in claim 15 or 16, wherein the first indication information comprises one or more of: a neighboring cell index list, a positioning method, a reporting mode and information acquisition duration; wherein, the first and the second end of the pipe are connected with each other,

the neighbor cell index list comprises one or more of the following indexes: physical cell index, cell global index, transmission point index;

the positioning method comprises one or more of the following methods: observing an arrival time difference OTDOA positioning method, a downlink arrival angle DL-AOA positioning method and a downlink departure angle DL-AOD positioning method;

the reporting mode comprises periodic reporting or triggered reporting;

the information acquisition duration is a preset time length, the network device receives the measurement result reported by the terminal for multiple times within the preset time length, and the measurement result is the measurement result periodically reported by the terminal within the preset time length.
A communication apparatus according to any one of claims 14 to 17, wherein the first positioning information comprises: a positioning method, a measurement result, error information and a neighboring cell index list; wherein the content of the first and second substances,

the positioning method is any one of the following methods: observing an arrival time difference OTDOA positioning method, a downlink arrival angle DL-AOA positioning method and a downlink departure angle DL-AOD positioning method;

the measurement result is a measurement result corresponding to the positioning method, and the measurement result includes any one of the following measurement results: a Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP) value, a Reference Signal Time Difference (RSTD) value and an arrival angle value;

the error information is used for indicating the accuracy of the measurement result, and comprises one or more of the following information: error value, error range, error distribution type;

the neighbor cell index list comprises one or more of the following indexes: physical cell index, cell global index, transmission point index.
The communication apparatus of any of claims 14-18, wherein the first reference signal is a positioning reference signal, PRS, or a channel state information reference signal, CSI-RS.
A communication apparatus, comprising a transceiver module and a processing module, wherein the transceiver module is under control of the processing module and is configured to:

receiving a first message sent by a terminal, wherein the first message comprises second positioning information, and the second positioning information comprises a second measurement result obtained by measuring a second reference signal and a third reference signal by the terminal; wherein the first message is carried in radio resource control, RRC, signaling;

sending a second message to a positioning management device, where the second message includes third positioning information, the third positioning information includes the second positioning information, and a third measurement result obtained by measuring, by the first network device, the second reference signal and the third reference signal; wherein the second message is carried in new air interface positioning protocol replica NRPPa signaling.
The communications apparatus of claim 20, the third positioning information further comprises a fourth measurement result, the fourth measurement result being a measurement result obtained by the at least one second network device measuring the second reference signal and the third reference signal.
The communications apparatus according to claim 20 or 21, wherein the transceiver module is further configured to receive a third message from the location management device before receiving the first message sent by the terminal, where the third message includes third indication information and/or fourth indication information, the third indication information is used to instruct the first network device to report the third location information, and the fourth indication information is used to instruct the first network device to request the second location information from the terminal, where the third message is carried in NRPPa signaling.
The communications apparatus of claim 22, wherein the transceiver module is further configured to:

and sending a fourth message to the terminal, wherein the fourth message is used for requesting the second positioning information and is carried in RRC signaling.
The communication apparatus according to claim 22 or 23, wherein the third indication information comprises one or more of the following information: a neighboring cell index list, a positioning method, a reporting mode and information acquisition duration; wherein the content of the first and second substances,

the neighbor cell index list comprises one or more of the following indexes: physical cell index, cell global index, transmission point index;

the positioning method comprises a Multi-round trip time-RTT positioning method;

the reporting mode comprises periodic reporting or triggered reporting;

the information acquisition duration is a preset time length, the first network device receives the measurement result reported by the terminal for multiple times within the preset time length, and the measurement result is a measurement result periodically reported by the terminal within the preset time length.
The communications apparatus as claimed in any of claims 21-24, wherein the third positioning information comprises: positioning method, measurement result, error information, and neighbor cell index list; wherein the content of the first and second substances,

the positioning method is a Multi-round trip time (Multi-RTT) positioning method;

the measurement result is a measurement result corresponding to the positioning method, and the measurement result includes a receiving and sending delay error inside the terminal, a receiving and sending delay error inside the first network device, and a receiving and sending delay error inside the at least one second network device;

the error information is used for indicating the accuracy of the measurement result, and comprises one or more of the following information: error value, error range, error distribution type;

the neighbor cell index list comprises one or more of the following indexes: physical cell index, cell global index, transmission point index.
The communications apparatus of any of claims 20-25, wherein the second reference signal is a positioning reference signal, PRS, or a channel state information reference signal, CSI-RS, and the third reference signal is a sounding reference signal, SRS.
A communication apparatus, characterized in that the communication apparatus comprises a processor and a memory, the memory being configured to store a computer program, the processor being configured to execute the computer program stored on the memory such that the apparatus performs the communication method according to any one of claims 1 to 6 or 7 to 13.
A communication system, characterized in that the communication system comprises a communication apparatus according to one of claims 14 to 19, a location management device and a terminal; alternatively, the communication system comprises a communication device according to any of claims 20 to 26, a location management device and a terminal.
A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that it stores a computer program which, when executed by a computer, causes the computer to perform the method of any one of claims 1 to 6 or 7 to 13.
A computer program product, characterized in that it stores a computer program which, when executed by a computer, causes the computer to carry out the method according to any one of claims 1 to 6 or 7 to 13.