CN116887393A

CN116887393A - Timing advance information acquisition method and device, storage medium and electronic device

Info

Publication number: CN116887393A
Application number: CN202310925345.7A
Authority: CN
Inventors: 于江; 曾裕; 熊杰; 景小荣
Original assignee: Shanghai Xingsi Semiconductor Co ltd
Current assignee: Shanghai Xingsi Semiconductor Co ltd
Priority date: 2023-07-25
Filing date: 2023-07-25
Publication date: 2023-10-13

Abstract

The application discloses a method and a device for acquiring timing advance information, a storage medium and an electronic device, wherein the method comprises the following steps: acquiring reference information obtained by positioning a target mode of UE, wherein the reference information is used for determining target Timing Advance (TA) information; and determining the target TA information of the UE to the candidate transmission receiving node TRP according to the reference information.

Description

Timing advance information acquisition method and device, storage medium and electronic device

Technical Field

The present application relates to the field of computers, and in particular, to a method and apparatus for acquiring timing advance information, a storage medium, and an electronic apparatus.

Background

In the current mobile scenario, to reduce the handover interruption delay, it is necessary to acquire and maintain the TA information (Timing Advance) of the candidate cell in Advance, and in the conventional handover procedure, initial TA information for UL (Uplink) transmission between the UE (User Equipment) and the target cell is measured based on RACH (Random Access Channel ).

However, in the case that the number of candidate cells is large, if the RACH is initiated to obtain the TA information of the UE on the candidate cells, a huge delay overhead is caused, and the obtained TA information of the candidate cells is not always valid due to the movement of the UE, so that the TA information needs to be maintained at intervals, which causes a huge delay overhead at intervals. Therefore, the method for acquiring the TA information of the candidate cell in the related art has the problem of high delay expenditure.

Disclosure of Invention

The embodiment of the application provides a method and a device for acquiring timing advance information, a storage medium and an electronic device, which are used for at least solving the problem of high time delay expenditure in the method for acquiring TA information of a candidate cell in the related technology.

According to an aspect of an embodiment of the present application, there is provided a method for acquiring timing advance information, including: acquiring reference information obtained by positioning a target mode of UE, wherein the reference information is used for determining target Timing Advance (TA) information; and determining the target TA information of the UE to the candidate transmission receiving node TRP according to the reference information.

According to another aspect of the embodiment of the present application, there is also provided an apparatus for acquiring timing advance information, including: the first acquisition unit is used for acquiring reference information obtained by positioning the UE in a target mode, wherein the reference information is used for determining target Timing Advance (TA) information; a first determining unit, configured to determine, according to the reference information, the target TA information of the UE on a candidate transmission receiving node TRP.

According to still another aspect of the embodiments of the present application, there is also provided a computer-readable storage medium having a computer program stored therein, wherein the computer program is configured to perform the above-described timing advance information acquisition method when run.

According to still another aspect of the embodiments of the present application, there is further provided an electronic device including a memory, a processor, and a computer program stored on the memory and executable on the processor, wherein the processor executes the method for acquiring timing advance information according to the computer program.

In the embodiment of the application, a mode of combining positioning and TA acquisition is adopted, and TA information of candidate TRPs is determined according to the reference information acquired when the UE is positioned, so that the TA is not required to be measured again based on RACH, the technical effect of reducing the time delay cost can be realized, and the problem of high time delay cost in the timing advance information acquisition method in the related technology is solved.

Drawings

The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate embodiments consistent with the application and together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the application.

In order to more clearly illustrate the embodiments of the application or the technical solutions of the prior art, the drawings which are used in the description of the embodiments or the prior art will be briefly described, and it will be obvious to a person skilled in the art that other drawings can be obtained from these drawings without inventive effort.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a hardware environment of a method for acquiring timing advance information according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 2 is a flow chart of an alternative method for acquiring timing advance information according to an embodiment of the application;

FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram of an alternative method of acquiring timing advance information according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of an alternative positioning method according to an embodiment of the application;

FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of another alternative positioning method according to an embodiment of the application;

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of yet another alternative positioning method according to an embodiment of the application;

FIG. 7 is a schematic diagram of a scenario of an alternative timing advance information acquisition method according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 8 is a schematic diagram of an alternative method of acquiring timing advance information according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram of another alternative method of acquiring timing advance information according to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 10 is a schematic diagram of yet another alternative method of acquiring timing advance information in accordance with an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 11 is a schematic diagram of yet another alternative method of acquiring timing advance information in accordance with an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 12 is a schematic diagram of yet another alternative method of acquiring timing advance information in accordance with an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 13 is a block diagram of an alternative timing advance information acquisition device according to an embodiment of the present application;

fig. 14 is a block diagram of an alternative electronic device according to an embodiment of the application.

Detailed Description

In order that those skilled in the art will better understand the present application, a technical solution in the embodiments of the present application will be clearly and completely described below with reference to the accompanying drawings in which it is apparent that the described embodiments are only some embodiments of the present application, not all embodiments. All other embodiments, which can be made by those skilled in the art based on the embodiments of the present application without making any inventive effort, shall fall within the scope of the present application.

It should be noted that the terms "first," "second," and the like in the description and the claims of the present application and the above figures are used for distinguishing between similar objects and not necessarily for describing a particular sequential or chronological order. It is to be understood that the data so used may be interchanged where appropriate such that the embodiments of the application described herein may be implemented in sequences other than those illustrated or otherwise described herein. Furthermore, the terms "comprises," "comprising," and "having," and any variations thereof, are intended to cover a non-exclusive inclusion, such that a process, method, system, article, or apparatus that comprises a list of steps or elements is not necessarily limited to those steps or elements expressly listed but may include other steps or elements not expressly listed or inherent to such process, method, article, or apparatus.

According to an aspect of an embodiment of the present application, there is provided a method for acquiring timing advance information. Alternatively, in the present embodiment, the above-described method of acquiring timing advance information may be applied to a hardware environment constituted by the terminal device 102, the positioning server 104, and the candidate cell 106 as shown in fig. 1.

The method for acquiring timing advance information according to the embodiment of the present application may be performed by the positioning server 104 or by the terminal device 102, and fig. 2 is a schematic flow chart of an alternative method for acquiring timing advance information according to the embodiment of the present application, and as shown in fig. 2, the flow chart of the method may include the following steps:

step S202, obtaining reference information obtained by positioning a target mode of the UE, wherein the reference information is used for determining target timing advance TA information.

The method for acquiring the timing advance information in the embodiment can be applied to a scenario of acquiring the timing advance information of the UE on the candidate cell. One candidate cell may have one or more candidate TRPs (Transmission-Reception points), the UE's TA to the candidate cell may include the UE's TA to each candidate TRP within the candidate cell, and the UE's TA to each candidate TRP may be different.

In order to make the arrival time of different UE signals received from the same subframe at the base station side substantially uniform, the UE needs to send an Uplink subframe before receiving a downlink subframe, and because the distances and propagation delays from different UEs to the base station side are different, the TA of each UE should also be different, and the distances and propagation delays from the UE to different multiple Transmission receiving nodes (TRPs) may be different, so the TA from the UE to different TRPs may also be different.

The third generation partnership project (the 3rd Generation Partner Project,3GPP) presents Release 18 targets in the radio access network (Radio Access Network, RAN) ensemble conference, one of which is to study Timing Advance (TA) enhancements, acquire and maintain candidate cell TAs to reduce the interruption delay of inter-cell movement.

After the RANs 2#119-e conference, an email discussion about the L1/L2 based inter-cell mobility timing diagram was initiated and the following model explaining the conventional mobility delay was approved as the starting point for studying delay degradation, as shown in fig. 3, the current mobility procedure before Rel-18 enhancement can be divided into four phases: UE reconfiguration; DL (Downlink) synchronization; UL synchronization; t (T) _first-data (time when UE performs first DL/UL reception/transmission on indication beam of target cell after RAR (Request-Action-Response protocol, an internet Request-Action-feedback simple mode communication protocol). Here, the interrupt waiting time is a time from receiving the cell handover command to performing the first DL/UL reception/transmission on the indication beam of the target cell, and mainly includes DL synchronization, UL synchronization, and T _first-data Three parts. In FIG. 3, T _RRC Processing time, T, for RRC (Radio Resource Control ) reconfiguration carrying candidate configurations _processing,1 And T _processing,2 The time, T, of UE processing before and after the cell switch command, respectively _meas To measure delay (from target appearance to cell handover command), T _search Time required for searching target cell, T _cmd To process the time of L1/L2 command, T _Δ To finely track and acquire the time of complete timing information, T _margin Post-processing time, T, for SSB (Synchronization Signal/PBCH, synchronous broadcast block) or CSI-RS (Channel-State-Information Reference Signal, downlink Channel State information reference Signal) _IU To obtain the interrupt uncertainty of the first available PRACH occasion in the new cell, T _RAR Is the RAR delay time.

Acquisition and maintenance of the TA of the candidate cell prior to receiving the cell handover command has been supported in the RANs 1#111 conference to reduce the interruption delay of inter-cell movement.

The technical specification (Technical Specification, TS) 38.305 (version h 30) defines a positioning method based on Multi-Round Trip Time (Multi-RTT), downlink Angle-of-device (DL-AoD), downlink Time difference of Arrival (Downlink Time Difference of Arrival, DL-TDOA), uplink Time difference of Arrival (Uplink Time Difference of Arrival, UL-TDOA), and Uplink Angle of Arrival (UL-AoA).

When the uplink reference signal is used to locate the UE (e.g., UL-TDOA and UL-AoA positioning methods), the positioning procedure is shown in fig. 4. When the downlink reference signals are used to locate the UE (e.g., DL-TDOA and DL-AoD positioning methods), the positioning procedure is shown in fig. 5. When DL RS and UL RS are used to locate the UE (e.g. Multi-RTT location mode), the location flow is shown in fig. 6, gNB (the next Generation Node B, next generation base station) is a 5G base station, LPP (LTE Positioning Protocol, LTE (Long Term Evolution, long term evolution) location protocol) is used as a general location communication protocol, and the main function is to exchange location assistance data and location information between the network and the terminal, NRPPa is NR Positioning Protocol A, that is, NR (New Radio, new Radio/New air interface, wireless network location protocol a of 5G), SRS is Sounding Reference Signal, that is, a sounding reference signal, and LMF is Location Management Function, that is, location management function. DL PRS is Downlink Positioning Reference Signal, i.e. the downlink positioning reference signal.

In a conventional handover procedure, an initial TA for UL transmission between the UE and the target cell is measured based on a random access channel (Random Access Channel, RACH). However, RACH takes a long time and the number of candidate cells may be large, which would bring about a huge delay overhead if TA of the candidate cell is obtained by initiating RACH to the candidate cell; and due to the movement of the UE, the acquired TA of the candidate cell is not always valid, so that the TA needs to be maintained at intervals, and huge delay overhead is caused for each period.

LTE introduces a random access free (RACH-less) mechanism, however, the RACH-less mechanism is only applicable to scenarios where the TA of the source cell and the target cell are the same or small cells (ta=0), although the handover delay can be reduced, the usage scenario is limited, and only applicable to specific scenarios.

In the present discussion, the combination of 5G positioning and candidate cell TA acquisition is not fully considered, which would result in unnecessary signaling overhead or delay overhead.

In order to at least partially solve the above-mentioned problem, in this embodiment, the positioning method may be combined with the TA procedure for acquiring the candidate TRP, and the target timing advance TA information of the UE on the candidate transmission receiving node TRP may be determined according to the reference information obtained by performing the positioning of the target method on the UE, so as to avoid signaling overhead caused by repeated transmission of the candidate TRP information. The target methods herein include, but are not limited to, a method of locating a UE using DL RS (Downlink Reference Signal ), a method of locating a UE using UL RS (Uplink Reference Signal ), and a method of locating a UE using DL RS in combination with UL RS.

It should be noted that, the above-mentioned target manner of positioning the UE does not necessarily depend on the positioning of the UE by the candidate TRP. The positioning in different modes may be different in the corresponding mode of determining the target TA information, and the reference information may be different according to the mode of determining the target TA information.

Alternatively, in the context of different positioning technologies, the execution subjects of the above-described timing advance information acquisition method may be different. For example, when positioning the UE with an Uplink (UL) Reference Signal (RS), since the location of the UE is generally calculated at the LMF according to the relevant positioning information when positioning the UE, the execution subject of the corresponding target TA acquisition method may be the LMF. As another example, when positioning the UE using a Downlink (DL) reference signal RS, since there is a location of the UE calculated at the UE according to the relevant positioning information and there is a location of the UE calculated at the LMF according to the relevant positioning information, the execution body of the corresponding target TA acquisition manner may be UE (corresponding to a scenario in which the location of the UE is calculated at the UE according to the relevant positioning information) or LMF (corresponding to a scenario in which the location of the UE is calculated at the LMF according to the relevant positioning information).

In the present embodiment, the timing advance information may be acquired by using the LMF as the execution subject, or by using the base station corresponding to the LMF as the execution subject.

In addition, in the case of acquiring the timing advance information with the LMF as the execution body, after the acquired timing advance information, when the UE needs to use the TA (e.g., to perform cell handover), the positioning advance information may be transmitted to the corresponding UE by the LMF or the base station corresponding to the LMF so that the UE may normally use the timing advance information.

Optionally, the above reference information may include at least one of: time difference of arrival, round trip time difference, UE location. The arrival time difference and the round trip time difference may be time differences of positioning reference signals transmitted or received in positioning in different manners, and the corresponding positioning reference signals may include signals transmitted or received by candidate TRPs. The UE location may be determined using a different manner of location determination in combination with other TRPs prior to determining the TA information of the candidate TRP, or may be determined using a different manner of location determination in combination with the candidate TRP.

As shown in fig. 7, the present embodiment may be used in a scenario where M TRPs serve a UE and K TRPs are candidate TRPs of the UE. Here, M and K are integers of 1 or more.

Step S204, determining target TA information of the UE to the candidate transmission receiving node TRP according to the reference information.

From the reference information, target TA information of the UE for the candidate transmission receiving node TRP may be determined. The target TA information may be calculated based on the arrival time difference or the round trip time difference, or may be estimated based on the UE position and the position of the candidate TRP.

Through the steps S202 to S204, reference information obtained by performing target mode positioning on the UE is obtained, where the reference information is used to determine target timing advance TA information; according to the reference information, determining target TA information of the UE to the candidate transmission receiving node TRP, solving the problem of larger time delay expenditure in the acquisition method of timing advance information in the related technology, and reducing the time delay expenditure.

In an exemplary embodiment, determining target TA information of the UE for the candidate transmission receiving node TRP according to the reference information comprises:

s11, determining target TA information of the candidate TRP by the UE according to TA information of the UE on the first service TRP and an arrival time difference of a positioning reference signal corresponding to the target mode positioning of the UE, wherein the reference information comprises the arrival time difference, the TRP used for the target mode positioning of the UE comprises the first service TRP, and the arrival time difference comprises one of the following steps: a downlink arrival time difference, an uplink arrival time difference, the downlink arrival time difference being a time difference between a time when a first downlink positioning reference signal transmitted by a first service TRP arrives at the UE and a time when a second downlink positioning reference signal transmitted by a candidate TRP arrives at the UE, the uplink arrival time difference being a sum of the first time difference and the second time difference, the first time difference being a time difference between a time when the UE transmits the first uplink positioning reference signal to the first service TRP and a time when the UE transmits the second uplink positioning reference signal to the candidate TRP, the second time difference being a time difference between a time when the first service TRP receives the first uplink positioning reference signal and a time when the candidate TRP receives the second uplink positioning reference signal; or alternatively, the process may be performed,

S12, determining target TA information of the UE on the candidate TRP according to a round trip time difference of a positioning reference signal corresponding to the target mode positioning of the UE, wherein the reference information comprises the round trip time difference, the round trip time difference is the difference between a third time difference and a fourth time difference, the third time difference is the time difference between the receiving time of a third downlink positioning reference signal sent by the candidate TRP and the sending time of a third uplink positioning reference signal sent by the UE to the candidate TRP, the fourth time difference is the time difference between the receiving time of the third uplink positioning reference signal received by the candidate TRP and the sending time of the third downlink positioning reference signal sent by the candidate TRP, the third uplink positioning reference signal is an uplink positioning reference signal sent by the UE under the condition that the UE receives the sounding reference signal of the first service TPR, and the third downlink positioning reference signal is a downlink positioning reference signal sent by the candidate TRP after the received by the third uplink positioning reference signal under the condition that the candidate TRP receives the measurement request sent by the location management server LMF; or alternatively, the process may be performed,

s13, determining target TA information of the UE on the candidate TRP according to the position information of the UE and the position information of the candidate TRP, wherein the reference information comprises the position information of the UE, and the position information of the UE is obtained by positioning the UE in a target mode.

In this embodiment, the reference information may include an arrival time difference, and the target TA information of the UE on the candidate TRP may be determined according to the TA information of the UE on the first service TRP and the arrival time difference of the positioning reference signal corresponding to the positioning of the UE in the target manner. Here, the TRP for performing the target mode positioning for the UE includes a first service TRP, the round trip time difference is a difference between a third time difference between a reception time of a third downlink positioning reference signal transmitted by the candidate TRP received by the UE and a transmission time of a third uplink positioning reference signal transmitted by the UE to the candidate TRP, and a fourth time difference between a reception time of the third uplink positioning reference signal received by the candidate TRP and a transmission time of the third downlink positioning reference signal transmitted by the candidate TRP, the third uplink positioning reference signal being an uplink positioning reference signal transmitted by the UE when the UE receives the sounding reference signal of the first service TPR, and the third downlink positioning reference signal being a downlink positioning reference signal transmitted after the candidate TRP received by the candidate TRP when the candidate TRP receives the measurement request transmitted by the location management server LMF.

Optionally, determining the target TA information of the UE on the candidate TRP according to the round trip time difference of the positioning reference signal corresponding to the positioning of the UE in the target manner, where the reference information includes the round trip time difference, may be implemented by:

in case the target mode of positioning is downlink arrival time difference DL-TDOA positioning, the TRP for DL-TDOA positioning of the UE comprises a first service TRP, the candidate TRP is time synchronized with the first service TRP, and the assistance of the candidate TRP is for simultaneously positioning and determining TA information, the target TA information of the UE on the candidate TRP is determined to be equal to the sum of the TA information of the UE on the first service TRP and the downlink arrival time difference.

Under the condition that the target positioning mode is downlink arrival time difference DL-TDOA positioning, the method can be divided into positioning based on the UE and positioning assisted by the UE according to the participation degree of the UE in positioning. Based on the positioning of the UE, the method comprises the steps of measuring, estimating the position of the UE, reporting the result of estimating the position and the like. UE assisted positioning comprises the steps of UE completing measurement, reporting measurement results and the like.

When the DL-TDOA location method is adopted, if the TRP for performing DL-TDOA location on the UE includes the first service TRP, the candidate TRP is time-synchronized with the first service TRP, and the auxiliary effect of the candidate TRP is to be used for locating and determining the TA information at the same time, the target TA information of the UE on the candidate TRP may be determined to be equal to the sum of the TA information of the UE on the first service TRP and the downlink arrival time difference. Here, the arrival time difference corresponding to the target method may include a downlink arrival time difference. The downlink arrival time difference is a time difference between a time when a first downlink positioning reference signal transmitted by a first service TRP arrives at the UE and a time when a second downlink positioning reference signal transmitted by a candidate TRP arrives at the UE. The downlink positioning reference signal sent by the first service TRP is used for carrying out DL-TDOA positioning on the UE.

Optionally, considering that in DL-TDOA positioning, the candidate cells may be used only for positioning, or may be used only for acquiring TA, or may be used for positioning or acquiring TA, in order to facilitate timely determining the use of the candidate TRP in the candidate cells, each candidate cell may be identified by means of a new bit. Before determining target TA information of the UE on the candidate TRP according to the TA information of the UE on the first service TRP and an arrival time difference of a positioning reference signal corresponding to the target manner of positioning the UE, the method further includes:

in case of the target mode of positioning being DL-TDOA positioning, determining an assistance of the candidate TRP by a first set of bits in the candidate TRP list corresponding to the candidate TRP, wherein the candidate TRP list is a list transmitted to the UE by the location management server LMF, the assistance of the candidate TRP is used for positioning in case of the first set of bits being a first value, the assistance of the candidate TRP is used for determining TA information in case of the first set of bits being a second value, and the assistance of the candidate TRP is used for both positioning and determining TA information in case of the first set of bits being a third value.

Since the location management function (Location Management Function, LMF) will send the candidate cell list to the UE when locating the UE using DL-TDOA location, a first field, which may be 2 bits in length, may be added to the information element (Information Element, IE) NR-DL-TDOA-Provide Assistance Data, NR-DL-AoD-Provide Assistance Data defined in the protocol 37.355, to indicate whether the candidate cell is used only for locating, only for acquiring TA, or both for locating and acquiring TA, and the definition of each code point of the field is shown in table 1.

TABLE 1

Code point	Definition of the definition
		00	Reserved field
01	The candidate cell is used only for positioning
		10	TA for acquiring the candidate cell only
11	The candidate cell is used for both positioning and TA acquisition

Optionally, for a candidate cell used for both positioning and TA acquisition, if the beam correspondence at the UE is true, determining, according to the DL receive beam in the assistance data, an UL transmit beam used for TA acquisition of the candidate cell; otherwise, the UL transmission beam of the UE may need to be indicated by SRS-Config (sounding reference signal configuration) of Radio resource control IE in protocol 38.331.

For the candidate cell only used for acquiring the TA, the UL transmission beam cannot be determined through the DL reception beam, and if the UL transmission beam to be used exists in the spatial relation information of the current SRS resource, the corresponding SRS resource is indicated for the UE; otherwise, the UL transmission beam of the UE needs to be indicated by SRS-Config of Radio resource control IE in protocol 38.331.

For a candidate cell that is used only for positioning, the TA of the candidate cell need not be acquired, so the UE need not make UL SRS transmissions, i.e., need not indicate to the UE the UL transmission beam to be used.

By the above way, the signaling overhead is increased compared with the TA for acquiring the candidate TRP in the prior art. By setting the newly added first field value to either 01 or 11, it is possible to flexibly set whether the candidate TRP is used only for positioning or for both positioning and TA acquisition. For the candidate TRP set for only acquisition of TA, the positioning may not be involved, and for the candidate TRP for only positioning, the acquisition of TA may not be involved. By flexibly setting the field value, the signaling overhead increased by the TA alone is reduced, and meanwhile, the frequent sending and receiving of useless signals can be effectively avoided, so that the purpose of reducing the signaling overhead is realized.

In addition, when the DL-TDOA location method is adopted, the target TA information of the UE on the candidate TRP is determined according to the sum of the TA information of the UE on the first service TRP and the downlink arrival time difference, as shown in fig. 8, when the TRP used for location includes the service TRP, since the UE maintains the TA1 of the UE on the service TRP, if a certain candidate TRP is used for location and is used for acquiring the TA, and the TRP is time-synchronized with the service TRP, the TA2 of the UE on the candidate TRP can be derived according to the TA maintained by the UE on the service TRP and the DL arrival time difference TDOA, and for the location based on the UE, the derivation process can be performed by the UE, and for the UE-assisted location, the derivation process can be performed by the UE or the LMF. The derivation formula is shown as formula (1).

TA2＝TA1+TDOA (1)

When the TRP for DL-TDOA localization does not contain a service TRP, the TA of the candidate TRP cannot be deduced by this method. When the TRP used for DL-TDOA localization contains the service TRP, but there are candidate TRP only for acquiring the TA, or the candidate TRP is time-unsynchronized with the service TRP, the TA of these candidate TRP cannot be deduced by this method.

Optionally, determining the target TA information of the UE on the candidate TRP according to the TA information of the UE on the first service TRP and the arrival time difference of the positioning reference signal corresponding to the positioning of the UE in the target manner may be further implemented in the following manner:

In the case where the target mode of positioning is uplink arrival time difference UL-TDOA positioning, the TRP for performing UL-TDOA positioning on the UE includes a first service TRP, and the candidate TRP is time-synchronized with the first service TRP, the target TA information of the UE on the candidate TRP is determined to be equal to the sum of the TA information of the UE on the first service TRP and the uplink arrival time difference.

When the UE is located by using UL RS (for example, UL-TDOA and UL-AoA location technologies), the LMF does not send the candidate cell list to the UE, and when determining the UL transmission beam, it is not necessary to assign a corresponding cell to the UE, and only the corresponding UL beam needs to be configured for the UE in the SRS-Config.

When the UL-TDOA location is adopted, and the TRP used for UL-TDOA location contains the service TRP, and the candidate TRP is time-synchronized with the service TRP, the TA of the UE to the candidate TRP can be deduced according to the TDOA and the TA maintained by the UE to the service TRP, the process can be performed by the LMF, and the process can be performed by the service TRP participating in the location measurement, as shown in fig. 9, the TDOA can be determined according to formula (2), and then the TA2 of the UE to the selected TRP can be determined according to formula (3).

TDOA＝(t2-t1)+(t4-t3) (2)

TA2＝TA1+TDOA (3)

If the candidate TRP is not time synchronized with the service TRP, the TA of the UE on the candidate TRP cannot be deduced from the TDOA and the TA maintained by the UE on the service TRP. When the TRP for UL-TDOA localization does not contain a serving TRP, the TA of the candidate TRP cannot be deduced by this method either.

In this embodiment, the reference information may also include a round trip time difference, and the target TA information of the UE on the candidate TRP may be determined according to the round trip time difference corresponding to the target manner.

Optionally, the determining the target TA information of the UE on the candidate TRP according to the round trip time difference of the positioning reference signal corresponding to the positioning of the UE in the target manner may be implemented in the following manner:

in case the positioning of the target means is a Multi-round trip time Multi-RTT positioning, the TRP for Multi-RTT positioning of the UE comprises a first service TRP, and the assistance of the candidate TRP is for simultaneous positioning and determination of TA information, the target TA information of the UE for the candidate TRP is determined to be equal to half the round trip time difference.

The Multi-RTT positioning may be to use DL RS in combination with UL RS to position the UE.

When the DL RS and the UL RS are used in combination to locate the UE (e.g., multi-RTT location technology), the LMF may send a candidate cell list to the UE and indicate UL transmission beams to the UE through SRS-Config, so, in the same manner as the DL RS is used to locate the UE, the IE NR-DL-TDOA-provideasistancedata (IE, information Element, i.e., an information element, provideasistancedata, i.e., providing assistance data) is used to add a first field to indicate whether the candidate TRP is used only for locating, only for acquiring the TA, or for acquiring the TA.

For a candidate cell used for positioning and acquiring TA, if the beam correspondence at the UE is established, determining an UL transmission beam used for acquiring the TA of the candidate cell according to the DL reception beam in the auxiliary data; otherwise, the UL transmission beam of the UE needs to be indicated by SRS-Config of Radio resource control IE defined in protocol 38.331. For a candidate cell only used for acquiring TA, determining an UL transmission beam through a DL reception beam, and if the UL transmission beam to be used exists in the spatial relation information of the current SRS resource, indicating the corresponding SRS resource for the UE; otherwise, the UL transmission beam of the UE needs to be indicated by SRS-Config of Radio resource control IE defined in protocol 38.331. For candidate cells for positioning only, UL transmission beams are indicated by SRS-Config.

If the candidate TRP is used for both positioning and TA acquisition, the TA of the UE to the candidate TRP can be derived from the RTT (Round-Trip Time) between the UE and the candidate TRP, and as shown in fig. 10, the SRS is configured for the UE by serving the TRP. The LMF sends a measurement request to the candidate TRP, that is, informs the candidate TRP that the SRS transmitted by the UE needs to be measured, determines RTT according to equation (4), determines TA2 of the UE to the selected TRP according to equation (5), and performs the process by the LMF.

RTT＝(t4-t1)+(t3-t2) (4)

TA2＝RTT/2 (5)

Optionally, considering that the DL RS and UL RS are used to locate the UE in combination, similar to the DL-TDOA locating method described above, the candidate cells may be used only for locating, or may be used only for acquiring the TA, or may be used for locating or may be used for acquiring the TA, and in order to facilitate timely determining the use of the candidate TRP in the candidate cells, each candidate cell may be identified by adding a bit identifier. Before determining target TA information of the UE on the candidate TRP according to a round trip time difference of a positioning reference signal corresponding to the positioning of the UE in the target manner, the method further includes:

determining assistance of the candidate TRP through a second set of bits in the candidate TRP list corresponding to the candidate TRP, wherein the candidate TRP list is a list sent to the UE by the location management server LMF, the assistance of the candidate TRP is allowed for positioning in case of the second set of bits being a fourth value, the assistance of the candidate TRP is allowed for determining TA information in case of the second set of bits being a fifth value, and the assistance of the candidate TRP is allowed for both positioning and determining TA information in case of the second set of bits being a sixth value.

When the UE is located by combining DL RS and UL RS, the LMF sends the candidate cell list to the UE, and therefore, the first field is newly added to the IE NR-DL-TDOA-provideasistancedata to indicate whether the candidate TRP is used for locating only, for acquiring TA only, or for acquiring TA both, in the same manner as the above-described locating the UE by using DL RS. The newly added fields and the lengths of the fields may be the same as those of the DL-TDOA, and the description of this embodiment is omitted here.

In this embodiment, the reference information may further include location information of the UE, and target TA information of the UE on the candidate TRP may be determined according to the location information of the UE and the location information of the candidate TRP. Here, the location information of the UE is location information obtained by performing target positioning for the UE.

By combining the positioning technology with the TA for acquiring the candidate TRP, the present embodiment can avoid signaling overhead caused by repeated transmission of the candidate TRP information, while the UE may involve UL SRS transmission when maintaining the TA, and can flexibly configure whether the TA for acquiring the candidate TRP is needed by setting the value of the newly added first field.

In one exemplary embodiment, determining target TA information for the candidate TRP by the UE based on the location information of the UE and the location information of the candidate TRP, comprises:

S21, determining estimated TA information of the UE on the candidate TRP according to the position information of the UE and the position information of the candidate TRP;

s22, determining the target TA information to be equal to the estimated TA information, or correcting the estimated TA information to obtain target TA information of the candidate TRP by the UE.

When the TA of the candidate TRP cannot be derived by the aforementioned arrival time difference or round trip time difference, since the initial TA of the UE to the candidate TRP is not acquired and is not immediately used in UL transmission of the candidate TRP by the UE, the initial TA may be a rough estimated value, and may be adjusted later, that is, estimated TA information of the UE to the candidate TRP is determined according to the location information of the UE and the location information of the candidate TRP. Here, the estimated TA information may be initial TA information in which the UE is estimated to the candidate TRP.

In this embodiment, the target TA information may be determined to be equal to the estimated TA information, i.e., the estimated TA information is determined to be the target TA information of the current UE pair of candidate TRPs. In addition, the estimated TA information may be corrected to obtain target TA information of the candidate TRP by the UE, that is, the corrected estimated TA information may be used as target TA information.

Alternatively, determining the estimated TA information of the UE for the candidate TRP according to the location information of the UE and the location information of the candidate TRP may be achieved by: determining initial TA information of the UE for the candidate TRP by formula (6):

Wherein, the TA information in the formula is initial TA information, coordinates (x 1, y 1) represent position information of the UE, coordinates (x 2, y 2) represent position information of the candidate TRP, and c represents propagation speed of the radio signal.

As shown in fig. 11, the initial TA may be estimated based on the UE location and the location of the candidate TRP.

For DL-TDOA location, it may be classified into UE-based location and UE-assisted location, where determining initial TA information of the UE for the candidate TRP according to the location information of the UE and the location information of the candidate TRP may be achieved by:

in the case where the location information of the UE is location information determined by the UE based on the received positioning reference signals PRS of a set of TRPs, initial TA information of the UE for the candidate TRPs may be determined by the UE based on the location information of the UE and the location information of the candidate TRPs. In the case that the location information of the UE is the location information determined by the location management server LMF according to the measurement information sent by the UE, the LMF may determine initial TA information of the UE on the candidate TRP according to the location information of the UE and the location information of the candidate TRP, where the measurement information is information determined by the UE according to the received downlink positioning reference signals of a set of TRP, and the measurement information includes the power of the received downlink positioning reference signals.

It should be noted that, whether UE-based positioning or UE-assisted positioning, the estimated TA can be calculated by the above formula (6), but the execution subjects are different. When the UE determines the obtained position information according to the received downlink positioning reference signals of a group of TRPs, the UE estimates the position information of the UE and further calculates the corresponding TA, and when the position management server LMF determines the obtained position information according to the measurement information sent by the UE, the UE reports the measurement result, and the LMF estimates the initial TA according to the estimated position of the UE and the position of the candidate TRP.

In the OTDOA positioning method, since only DL RSs of TPs (Transmission Point, transmission nodes) are measured at the UE side, that is, there is no base station for both positioning and TA acquisition, it is impossible to derive initial TAs of candidate TRP/RP (Reception Point) by serving the TAs of TRP and TDOA in the aforementioned DL-TDOA method, but the initial TAs can be estimated from the estimated UE position and the position of the candidate RP/TRP.

Note that, the above-described manner of estimating the initial TA may be the same as the above-described formula (6), but as shown in fig. 12, the coordinates (x 2, y 2) may represent the location information of the candidate PR/TRP.

Optionally, for the OTDOA positioning method, the determining the initial TA information of the UE on the candidate TRP according to the location information of the UE and the location information of the candidate TRP may be implemented in the following manner:

Determining initial TA information of the UE to the candidate TRP according to the position information of the UE and the position information of the candidate TRP by using a position management server LMF, wherein the position information of the UE is determined by using the LMF according to measurement information sent by the UE, the measurement information is determined by using the UE according to a received positioning reference signal PRS of a group of TRP, and the measurement information comprises the received power of the PRS.

It should be noted that, since only UE-assisted positioning, that is, OTDOA positioning, is supported in the protocol 38.305, the initial TA cannot be estimated directly at the UE side according to the estimated UE position and the position of the candidate RP/TRP, and the result of measurement needs to be reported by the UE similar to UE-assisted positioning in DL-TDOA technology, the LMF estimates the initial TA according to the estimated UE position and the position of the candidate TRP, that is, the execution body of the TA is the LMF.

For downlink departure angle DL-AoD positioning, since DL RSs are not transmitted simultaneously when different TRPs are transmitted, the TA of the remaining TRPs cannot be deduced from the TA of the serving TRP and the DL-TDOA, but the initial TA may be estimated according to the estimated UE position and the position of the candidate TRP, wherein the position information of the UE is the position information obtained by DL-AoD positioning of the UE. The initial TA may be estimated in the same manner as the aforementioned equation (6), by the coordinates of the UE and the coordinates of the candidate TRP and the propagation speed of the radio signal. For UE-based positioning, the UE or LMF may be used as the execution body, the initial TA may be estimated based on the estimated UE position and the position of the candidate TRP, and for UE-assisted positioning, the LMF may be used as the execution body for estimating the initial TA.

Alternatively, considering that the TA for acquiring the candidate TRP may cause a part of signaling overhead, and the TA for acquiring the candidate TRP needs to be acquired once for each positioning, if the positioning mode is used more frequently, a larger signaling overhead may be caused, so that the DL-AoD positioning mode may be determined by the same manner of adding a field as the DL-TDOA positioning mode, in the manner as shown in table 1, whether the candidate TRP is used for positioning only or is used for positioning and acquiring the TA. Correspondingly, the configuration indication manner of the UL transmission beam can be the same. When positioning is needed, the TA of the candidate TRP is acquired only under the condition that the candidate TRP is determined to be available for positioning, so that the waste of signaling overhead caused by acquiring useless TA is avoided even if the positioning mode is used frequently.

Optionally, the determining the initial TA information of the UE on the candidate TRP according to the location information of the UE and the location information of the candidate TRP may be implemented in the following manner:

in the case where the location information of the UE is location information determined by the UE according to the received downlink positioning reference signals of a set of TRPs, initial TA information of the UE on the candidate TRPs may be determined by the UE according to the location information of the UE and the location information of the candidate TRPs. And in the case that the location information of the UE is the location information determined by the LMF according to the measurement information sent by the UE, the LMF may determine initial TA information of the UE on the candidate TRP according to the location information of the UE and the location information of the candidate TRP, where the measurement information is the information determined by the UE according to the received downlink positioning reference signal, and the measurement information includes the power of the received downlink positioning reference signal.

For the uplink arrival time difference UL-TDOA location method, when the TA of the UE to the candidate TRP cannot be obtained through the derivation method, the initial TA of the UE to the candidate TRP can be estimated according to the location estimated UE location information and the location information of the candidate TRP. The initial TA may be estimated in the same manner as the aforementioned equation (6), by the coordinates of the UE and the coordinates of the candidate TRP and the propagation speed of the radio signal.

Optionally, for the UL-TDOA location mode, determining initial TA information of the UE on the candidate TRP according to the location information of the UE and the location information of the candidate TRP may be implemented in the following manner:

determining initial TA information of the UE to the candidate TRP by the LMF according to the position information of the UE and the position information of the candidate TRP, wherein the position information of the UE is determined by the LMF according to measurement information sent by the UE, the measurement information is determined by the UE according to a received positioning reference signal PRS of a group of TRP, and the measurement information comprises power of the received PRS.

It should be noted that, for UL-TDOA positioning, only NG-RAN (Next Generation Radio Access Network, i.e., 5G wireless network) node assisted positioning is supported in the protocol 38.305, i.e., the UE transmits UL RS, and after the NG-RAN node measures, the result is transmitted to the LMF, i.e., for NG-RAN node assisted UE positioning, the LMF may estimate the initial TA according to the estimated UE position and the position of the candidate TRP, i.e., the LMF is used as the execution body for estimating the initial TA.

For the uplink departure angle UL-AoA positioning method, since the time between TRPs is not necessarily synchronous, the TA of the remaining TRPs cannot be derived from the TA serving the TRP and the UL-TDOA, but the initial TA may be estimated based on the estimated UE position and the position of the candidate TRP by using LMF as the execution body. The initial TA may be estimated in the same manner as the aforementioned equation (6), by the coordinates of the UE and the coordinates of the candidate TRP and the propagation speed of the radio signal.

Optionally, for the UL-AoA positioning method, determining initial TA information of the UE on the candidate TRP according to the location information of the UE and the location information of the candidate TRP may be implemented in the following manner:

For the Multi-RTT positioning method, when the candidate TRP is only used to acquire the TA, the TA cannot be acquired by the above-mentioned derivation method, and the initial TA may be estimated based on the estimated UE position and the position of the candidate TRP by using the LMF as the execution subject. The initial TA may be estimated in the same manner as the aforementioned equation (6), by the coordinates of the UE and the coordinates of the candidate TRP and the propagation speed of the radio signal.

Optionally, for the Multi-RTT positioning method, the determining initial TA information of the UE on the candidate TRP according to the location information of the UE and the location information of the candidate TRP may be implemented in the following manner:

For the enhanced cell identification E-CID positioning mode, the UE position can be roughly estimated, and the initial TA from the UE to the candidate TRP can be estimated by combining the estimated UE position and the position information of the candidate TRP. The initial TA may be estimated in the same manner as the aforementioned equation (6), by the coordinates of the UE and the coordinates of the candidate TRP and the propagation speed of the radio signal.

Optionally, determining initial TA information of the UE for the candidate TRP according to the location information of the UE and the location information of the candidate TRP may be achieved by:

According to the above embodiment, the manner of acquiring the initial TA and the execution subject in different positioning manners may be as shown in table 2. The measurement TRP in table 2, that is, the aforementioned service TRP participating in the positioning measurement is described. The initial TA in table 2 may include estimated TA information and derived target TA information.

TABLE 2

As can be seen from table 2, according to the usage scenario and characteristics of each positioning technology, the method for obtaining the initial TA of the candidate TRP can be determined, wherein for DL-TDOA, UL-TDOA and Multi-RTT positioning technologies, if both the service TRP and the candidate TRP are used for positioning, and the candidate TRP is also used for obtaining the TA, the accurate initial TA can be derived according to TDOA or RTT; for the rest of the positioning techniques and other cases of the three (DL-TDOA, UL-TDOA and Multi-RTT) positioning techniques, the initial TA of the UE to the candidate TRP can be estimated from the positioning result. In addition, the initial TA of the UE on the candidate TRP can be estimated by the E-CID positioning result of the service TRP and the position of the candidate TRP.

In an exemplary embodiment, correcting the estimated TA information to obtain target TA information of the candidate TRP by the UE includes:

s31, under the condition that the time of the candidate TRP is not synchronous with the time of a second service TRP for serving the UE, acquiring a first signaling sent by the UE, wherein the first signaling comprises a target physical cell identifier, a target global cell identifier, a candidate TPR identifier and the sending time of an uplink sounding reference signal (UL SRS), the sending time of the UL SRS is the sending time of the UL SRS to the candidate TRP by the UE, the target physical cell identifier is the physical cell identifier of the cell corresponding to the candidate TRP, the target global cell identifier is the global cell identifier of the cell corresponding to the candidate TRP, and the candidate TPR identifier is the identifier of the candidate TRP;

S32, obtaining a second signaling sent by the candidate TRP, wherein the second signaling comprises a target physical cell identifier, a target global cell identifier, a candidate TPR identifier and a receiving time of an UL SRS, and the receiving time of the UL SRS is the receiving time of the UL SRS sent by the UE received by the candidate TRP;

s33, determining target TA information of the UE on the candidate TRP to be equal to a difference between the reception time of the UL SRS and the transmission time of the UL SRS.

It should be noted that, for the estimated TA information, correction is required before use (i.e., the initial TA information is updated to the accurate TA information).

For DL-TDOA location, UL SRS is transmitted to the candidate TRP and the transmission time is transmitted to the LMF by the UE, and then the candidate TRP receives UL SRS and the reception time is transmitted to the LMF. Providingminginformation may be added to the communications IEs defined by protocol 37.355, as shown in table 3, may include Physical cell ID, global cell ID, TP ID/TRP ID, and UL transmission time, the UE provides UL transmit time to the LMF through the newly added providetiming information.

TABLE 3 Table 3

As shown in table 4, provide Timing Information may be newly added to Information Element definitions defined by protocol 38.455, which includes Physical cell ID, global cell ID, TP ID/TRP ID, and UL SRS reception time, and the candidate TRP may be newly added Provide Timing Information to LMF UL reception time.

TABLE 4 Table 4

After receiving the UL transmission time and the UL reception time, the LMF calculates the TA from the UE to the candidate TRP according to the difference value between the UL transmission time and the UL reception time, and if the TA from the UE to the candidate TRP is to be maintained at the LMF, no additional signaling is needed; if the TA of the UE to the candidate TRP is to be maintained at the UE, the LMF provides TA information to the UE according to the newly added ProvideTAInformation; if the TA is to be maintained at the service TRP, the LMF provides TA information to the service TRP according to the new addition Provide TA Information.

For DL-AoD positioning, protocol 38.305 supports UE-based positioning and UE-assisted positioning. Since DL-AoD does not require time synchronization between the serving TRP and the candidate TRP, the TA of the candidate TRP cannot be deduced from TDOA. For DL-AoD positioning, it is necessary to transmit UL SRS to candidate TRP through UE and transmit transmission time to LMF through newly added providingminginformation, and then the candidate TRP receives UL SRS and transmits reception time to LMF through newly added Provide Timing Information. After receiving the UL transmission time and the UL reception time, the LMF calculates the TA from the UE to the candidate TRP according to the difference value between the UL transmission time and the UL reception time.

For the OTDOA positioning mode, only UE-assisted positioning is supported in the protocol 38.305, and since the TA of the UE to the candidate TRP cannot be derived, for the OTDOA positioning mode, it is also necessary to send UL SRS to the candidate TRP by the UE and send the sending time to the LMF by adding providetiming information, and then the candidate TRP receives the UL SRS and sends the receiving time to the LMF by adding Provide Timing Information. After receiving the UL transmission time and the UL reception time, the LMF calculates the TA from the UE to the candidate TRP according to the difference value between the UL transmission time and the UL reception time.

For UL-TDOA location mode, protocol 38.305 only supports NG-RAN node assisted location. If the TA of the candidate TRP can be deduced from the UL TDOA, the UE does not need to transmit the UL SRS to the candidate TRP to obtain an accurate TA. In the case that the TA of the candidate TRP cannot be derived by UL TDOA, for the UL-TDOA positioning method, the initial TA of the candidate TRP needs to be updated, the UE needs to transmit the UL SRS to the candidate TRP, the UE may transmit the transmission time to the LMF by adding the providetiming information, and the candidate TRP receives the UL SRS and transmits the reception time to the LMF by adding Provide Timing Information. After receiving the UL transmission time and the UL reception time, the LMF calculates the TA from the UE to the candidate TRP according to the difference value between the UL transmission time and the UL reception time.

In the UL-TDOA location method, since UL SRS is required to be transmitted by the UE when the UE is located by using UL RS, and UL SRS is required to be transmitted by the UE when the UE is located by using UL RS to acquire a TA with an accurate candidate TRP, the UE does not need to repeatedly transmit UL SRS to the candidate TRP if the candidate TRP is used for both locating and TA acquisition.

For UL-AoA positioning, the protocol 38.305 only supports NG-RAN node assisted positioning, but for UL-AoA positioning, UL SRS needs to be sent to the candidate TRP by the UE, since the TA of the UE to the candidate TRP cannot be derived. The UE transmits a transmission time to the LMF through the newly added providetiming information, and the candidate TRP receives the UL SRS and transmits a reception time to the LMF through the newly added Provide Timing Information. After receiving the UL transmission time and the UL reception time, the LMF calculates the TA from the UE to the candidate TRP according to the difference value between the UL transmission time and the UL reception time. In the UL-AoA positioning method, since UL SRS is required to be transmitted by the UE when the UE is positioned by using UL RS, and UL SRS is required to be transmitted by the UE as well as to acquire TRP with accurate candidate TRP, when the UE is positioned by UL RS, if the candidate TRP is used for positioning as well as for acquiring TA, the UE does not need to repeatedly transmit UL SRSA to the candidate TRP.

For the Multi-RTT positioning method, when TA information cannot be derived through RTT, UL SRS may be transmitted to a candidate TRP through UE and a transmission time may be transmitted to LMF through newly added providetiming information, and then the candidate TRP receives UL SRS and transmits a reception time to LMF through newly added Provide Timing Information. After receiving the UL transmission time and the UL reception time, the LMF calculates the TA from the UE to the candidate TRP according to the difference value between the UL transmission time and the UL reception time.

Alternatively, the UE does not need to transmit the UL transmission time to the LMF in consideration of time synchronization between the candidate TRP and the serving TRP, and the LMF may also know the UL transmission time. Therefore, the correction of the estimated TA information to obtain the target TA information of the UE on the candidate TRP may be further implemented by the following ways:

determining a transmission time of the UL SRS, in case that the candidate TRP is time-synchronized with a second service TRP serving the UE, wherein the transmission time of the UL SRS is a transmission time of the UL SRS for the UE to transmit to the candidate TRP;

acquiring a second signaling sent by the candidate TRP, wherein the second signaling comprises a target physical cell identifier, a target global cell identifier, a candidate TPR identifier and a receiving time of an UL SRS, the receiving time of the UL SRS is the receiving time of the UL SRS sent by the UE received by the candidate TRP, the target physical cell identifier is a physical cell identifier of a cell corresponding to the candidate TRP, the target global cell identifier is a global cell identifier of a cell corresponding to the candidate TRP, and the candidate TPR identifier is an identifier of the candidate TRP;

The target TA information of the UE on the candidate TRP is determined to be equal to the difference between the reception time of the UL SRS and the transmission time of the UL SRS.

For DL-TDOA, DL-AoD, OTDOA, UL-TDOA, UL-AoA, multi-RTT positioning, when the TA of the candidate TRP cannot be derived by DL TDOA, the LMF is required to calculate the TA from the UE to the candidate TRP according to the difference between UL transmission time and UL reception time. In calculating the TA, if time synchronization between the candidate TRP and the serving TRP is performed, the UE does not need to transmit the UL transmit time to the LMF, but the candidate TRP still needs to transmit the UL receive time to the LMF through Provide Timing Information.

According to the embodiment, for the initial TA estimated according to the position information, the TA is corrected according to the sending and receiving time of the UL SRS, so that the accuracy of the acquired TA can be improved.

In an exemplary embodiment, after determining target TA information of the UE for the candidate transmission receiving node TRP according to the reference information, the method further includes:

s41, when the UE determines target TA information and the target TA information is maintained by a third service TRP for serving the UE, acquiring third signaling sent by the UE, wherein the third signaling comprises a target physical cell identifier, a target global cell identifier, a candidate TPR identifier and target TA information, the target physical cell identifier is a physical cell identifier of a cell corresponding to the candidate TRP, the target global cell identifier is a global cell identifier of a cell corresponding to the candidate TRP, and the candidate TPR identifier is an identifier of the candidate TRP;

S42, according to the acquired third signaling, a fourth signaling is sent to the third service TRP, wherein the fourth signaling comprises a target physical cell identifier, a target global cell identifier, a candidate TPR identifier and target TA information.

For the TA information of the candidate TRP, the UE may update the TA information of the candidate TRP at intervals, especially when the cell handover is to be performed, the UE needs to be notified of the latest TA of the candidate TRP, and before updating, the current TA information needs to be maintained, and the TA may be maintained in one of the UE, the LMF and the service TRP. Note that, the TA information maintained may be TA information derived from an arrival time difference or a round trip time difference, may be TA information estimated from UE location information, or may be updated TA information.

For maintenance of the TA, if the TA is maintained at the UE, no additional signaling is required to inform the accurate TA value; if the TA is maintained at the LMF, the LMF needs to inform the UE of the TA information of the candidate TRP to be switched, or the LMF firstly informs the service TRP of the TA information of the candidate TRP to be switched, and then informs the UE of the TA of the candidate TRP to be switched in the cell switching command by the service TRP; if the TA is maintained at the serving TRP, the serving TRP notifies the UE of the TA of the candidate TRP to be handed over in the cell handover command.

When the UE determines the target TA information and the third service TRP serving the UE maintains the target TA information, the LMF may acquire the third signaling sent by the UE, and then the LMF may send the fourth signaling to the third service TRP according to the acquired third signaling. Here, the third signaling includes a target physical cell identity, a target global cell identity, a candidate TPR identity, and target TA information, the target physical cell identity being a physical cell identity of a cell corresponding to the candidate TRP, the target global cell identity being a global cell identity of a cell corresponding to the candidate TRP, the candidate TPR identity being an identity of the candidate TRP. The fourth signaling may include a target physical cell identity, a target global cell identity, a candidate TPR identity, target TA information.

Optionally, in a case that the target TA information is determined by the LMF and maintained by a third service TRP serving the UE, sending fourth signaling to the third service TRP, where the fourth signaling includes a target physical cell identity, a target global cell identity, a candidate TPR identity, and target TA information, the target physical cell identity being a physical cell identity of a cell corresponding to the candidate TRP, the target global cell identity being a global cell identity of a cell corresponding to the candidate TRP, and the candidate TPR identity being an identity of the candidate TRP. That is, in the case where the target TA information is determined by the LMF and maintained by the third service TRP serving the UE, the fourth signaling may be directly transmitted to the third service TRP by the LMF.

As shown in the foregoing table 4, for maintenance of the initial TA (TA information derived from the arrival time difference or the round trip time difference, and TA information estimated from the UE location information), if the UE-based positioning is performed, the initial TA of the UE to the candidate TRP may be estimated at the UE, the initial TA of the UE to the candidate TRP may be maintained at the serving TRP, and the initial TA of the UE to the candidate TRP may be maintained at the LMF.

For the DL-TDOA positioning mode, if the TA is maintained at the UE and the LMF, the UE does not need to report the initial TA value to the LMF, and additional signaling is not needed; if the TA is maintained at the TRP, the UE needs to report the initial TA value to the LMF, and then report the initial TA value to the TRP by the LMF, and needs to add Provide TA Information (provide TA information) to Information Element definitions (information element definition) of the protocol 38.455, as shown in table 5, including Physical cell ID (Physical cell ID (Identity Document) identity number), global cell ID (Global cell ID), TP ID/TRP ID and estimated TA value, and the LMF provides initial TA information to the service TRP by adding Provide TA Information; if the initial TA is to be maintained at the LMF, no additional signaling is required.

TABLE 5

If the positioning is assisted by the UE, the LMF estimates the initial TA according to the estimated position of the UE and the position of the candidate TRP as a result of reporting the measurement result to the UE. If the initial TA is to be maintained at the UE, a new providentainformation is added to the communications IEs (Conmon Internet Enhanced service Common internet enhanced services) of the protocol 37.355, as shown in table 6, including a Physical cell ID, a Global cell ID, a TP ID/TRP ID, and an estimated TA value, and the LMF provides the initial TA information to the UE according to the new providentainformation; if an initial TA is to be maintained at the service TRP, then a new Provide TA Information is added in Information Element definitions of protocol 38.455, including Physical cell ID, global cell ID, TP ID/TRP ID and estimated TA value, the LMF providing the initial TA information to the service TRP through the new Provide TA Information; if the initial TA is to be maintained at the LMF, no additional signaling is required. Note that, the providenformation and Provide TA Information correspond to the newly added contents in different protocols, and in this embodiment, the contents are distinguished by italic and non-italic fonts.

TABLE 6

For the ORDOA positioning mode, if an initial TA is to be maintained at the UE, the LMF provides initial TA information to the UE according to the newly added ProvidTAInformation, and if the initial TA is to be maintained at the service TRP, the LMF provides initial TA information to the service TRP according to the newly added Provide TA Information; if the initial TA is to be maintained at the LMF, no additional signaling is required.

For DL-AoD positioning, if positioning is based on UE, the UE and LMF can estimate initial TA according to estimated UE position and position of candidate TRP, so if TA is to be maintained at UE, no additional signaling is needed; if the TA is to be maintained at the service TRP, the LMF provides the initial TA information to the service TRP through the new addition Provide TA Information; additional signaling is also not required if the initial TA is to be maintained at the LMF. If the positioning is UE-assisted, the LMF estimates the initial TA based on the estimated UE position and the position of the candidate TRP, as a result of the UE reporting measurements. If the initial TA is to be maintained at the UE, the LMF provides initial TA information for the UE according to the newly added ProvideTAInformation; if the initial TA is to be maintained at the service TRP, the LMF provides initial TA information to the service TRP according to the new increment Provide TA Information; if the initial TA is to be maintained at the LMF, no additional signaling is required.

For the UL-TDOA location mode, if an initial TA is to be maintained at the UE, providing initial TA information to the UE according to the newly added providenformation, and if an initial TA is to be maintained at the service TRP, providing initial TA information to the service TRP by the LMF according to the newly added Provide TA Information; additional signaling is not needed if the initial TA is to be maintained at the LMF.

For the UL-AoA positioning mode, if an initial TA is to be maintained at the UE, providing initial TA information to the UE according to the newly added providentainformation; if the initial TA is to be maintained at the service TRP, the LMF provides initial TA information to the service TRP according to the new increment Provide TA Information; additional signaling is not needed if the initial TA is to be maintained at the LMF.

For the Multi-RTT positioning mode, since the LMF estimates the initial TA according to the estimated UE position and the position of the candidate TRP, if the initial TA is to be maintained at the UE, the LMF provides the initial TA information to the UE according to the newly added ProvidTAinformation; if the initial TA is to be maintained at the service TRP, the LMF provides initial TA information to the service TRP according to the new increment Provide TA Information; if the initial TA is to be maintained at the LMF, no additional signaling is required.

For the enhanced cell ID positioning mode, the LMF estimates the initial TA according to the estimated UE position and the position of the candidate TRP, if the initial TA is to be maintained at the UE, the LMF provides the initial TA information to the UE according to the newly added ProvidTAInformation; if the initial TA is to be maintained at the service TRP, the LMF provides initial TA information to the service TRP according to the new increment Provide TA Information; if the initial TA is to be maintained at the LMF, no additional signaling is required.

After the initial TA is acquired, the updating and maintenance of the TA can be classified into the correction of the estimated TA information and the updating of the target TA. As shown in table 7, the manner in which different positioning techniques update and maintain a new TA after determining an initial TA may be different. The measurement TRP in table 7, that is, the service TRP participating in the positioning measurement described above.

TABLE 7

For example, for DL-TDOA location mode, protocol 38.305 supports UE-based and UE-assisted positioning. If the TA of the candidate TRP can be derived by DL TDOA, the UE does not need to transmit UL SRS to the candidate TRP to obtain an accurate TA. At this time, based on DL-TDOA location of the UE, if the TA can be derived through DL-TDOA, the UE does not need to transmit UL SRS, and at this time, if the TA is maintained at the UE, the UE updates the TA of the candidate TRP; if the TA is to be maintained at the LMF, the UE sends the updated candidate TRP TA to the LMF through newly added ProvidTAInformation; if the TA is to be maintained at the service TRP, the UE sends the updated candidate TRP TA to the LMF through the newly added providenformation, and then the LMF sends the updated candidate TRP TA to the service TRP through the newly added Provide TA Information. Based on the DL-TDOA positioning mode assisted by the UE, if the TA can be deduced through the DL-TDOA, the UE does not need to send an UL RSR, and if the TA is maintained at the UE, the UE updates the TA of the candidate TRP; if the TA is to be maintained at the LMF, the LMF updates the TA of the candidate TRP; if the TA is to be maintained at the service TRP, the updated candidate TRP TA is sent by the LMF to the service TRP by a new increment Provide TA Information.

It should be noted that, in the case where the initial TA can be directly derived (i.e., the accurate initial TA is derived from the TDOA or RTT), as shown in table 7, updating the initial TA refers to updating and maintaining in a manner of determining the initial TA.

For DL-AoD technology, if the UE's TA to the candidate TRP is to be maintained at the LMF, no additional signaling is required; if the TA of the UE to the candidate TRP is to be maintained at the UE, the LMF provides TA information to the UE according to the newly added ProvideTAInformation; if the TA is to be maintained at the service TRP, the LMF provides TA information to the service TRP according to the new addition Provide TA Information.

For OTDOA positioning techniques, if the UE's TA for the candidate TRP is to be maintained at the LMF, no additional signaling is required; if the TA of the UE to the candidate TRP is to be maintained at the UE, the LMF provides TA information to the UE according to the newly added ProvideTAInformation; if the TA is to be maintained at the service TRP, the LMF provides TA information to the service TRP according to the new addition Provide TA Information.

For UL-TDOA techniques, protocol 38.305 only supports NG-RAN node-assisted positioning. If the TA of the candidate TRP can be deduced from the UL TDOA, the UE does not need to transmit the UL SRS to the candidate TRP to obtain an accurate TA. If the TA is to be maintained at the LMF, the candidate TRP sends the updated candidate TRP TA to the LMF by newly adding Provide TA Information; if the TA is to be maintained at the UE, the candidate TRP sends the updated candidate TRP TA to the LMF through the new increment Provide TA Information, and the LMF sends the updated candidate TRP TA to the UE through the new increment of ProvidTAinformation; if the TA is to be maintained at the service TRP, the candidate TRP sends the updated candidate TRP TA to the LMF through the new addition Provide TA Information, and the LMF sends the updated candidate TRP TA to the service TRP through the new addition Provide TA Information.

For the UL-TDOA technique, when the TA of the candidate TRP cannot be derived, if the TA of the UE to the candidate TRP is to be maintained at the LMF, no additional signaling is required; if the TA of the UE to the candidate TRP is to be maintained at the UE, the LMF provides TA information to the UE according to the newly added ProvideTAInformation; if the TA is to be maintained at the service TRP, the LMF provides TA information to the service TRP according to the new addition Provide TA Information.

For UL-AoA positioning technology, if the UE's TA to the candidate TRP is to be maintained at the LMF, no additional signaling is required; if the TA of the UE to the candidate TRP is to be maintained at the UE, the LMF provides TA information to the UE according to the newly added ProvideTAInformation; if the TA is to be maintained at the service TRP, the LMF provides TA information to the service TRP according to the new addition Provide TA Information.

For a positioning mode (such as Multi-RTT positioning technology) that uses DL RS and UL RS in combination to position the UE, if the candidate TRP is used for positioning and is also used for acquiring the TA, the TA of the UE to the candidate TRP can be deduced according to the RTTs of the UE and the candidate TRP, so as to update the TA of the UE to the candidate TRP. If the TA of the UE on the candidate TRP is to be maintained at the LMF, no additional signaling is needed; if the TA of the UE to the candidate TRP is to be maintained at the UE, the LMF provides TA information to the UE according to the newly added ProvideTAInformation; if the TA is to be maintained at the service TRP, the LMF provides TA information to the service TRP according to the new addition Provide TA Information.

According to the embodiment, a mode of acquiring and updating the candidate TRP TA is determined according to the use scene and characteristics of each positioning technology, wherein for the DL-TDOA, UL-TDOA and Multi-RTT positioning technologies, if both the service TRP and the candidate TRP are used for positioning and the candidate TRP is also used for acquiring the TA, the accurate TA can be deduced according to the TDOA or RTT; for other cases of the rest positioning technology and the three positioning technologies, SRS can be sent to the candidate TRP through the UE, the UE sends the UL sending time to the LMF, the candidate TRP sends the receiving time to the LMF, and the LMF calculates the TA of the UE to the candidate TRP according to the difference value of the SRS and the candidate TRP. When the UL RS is used for positioning the UE, if the candidate TRP is used for positioning and acquiring the TA, the UE does not need to repeatedly transmit the UL SRS for the candidate TRP.

It should be noted that, for simplicity of description, the foregoing method embodiments are all described as a series of acts, but it should be understood by those skilled in the art that the present application is not limited by the order of acts described, as some steps may be performed in other orders or concurrently in accordance with the present application. Further, those skilled in the art will also appreciate that the embodiments described in the specification are all preferred embodiments, and that the acts and modules referred to are not necessarily required for the present application.

From the description of the above embodiments, it will be clear to a person skilled in the art that the method according to the above embodiments may be implemented by means of software plus the necessary general hardware platform, but of course also by means of hardware, but in many cases the former is a preferred embodiment. Based on such understanding, the technical solution of the present application may be embodied essentially or in a part contributing to the prior art in the form of a software product stored in a storage medium (e.g. ROM (Read-Only Memory)/RAM (Random Access Memory), magnetic disk, optical disk), comprising instructions for causing a terminal device (which may be a mobile phone, a computer, a server, or a network device, etc.) to perform the method of the embodiments of the present application.

According to another aspect of the embodiment of the present application, there is also provided a timing advance information acquiring apparatus for implementing the above-mentioned timing advance information acquiring method, where the timing advance information acquiring apparatus may be applied to an intelligent device. Fig. 13 is a block diagram of an alternative timing advance information acquisition apparatus according to an embodiment of the present application, and as shown in fig. 13, the apparatus may include:

A first obtaining unit 1302, configured to obtain reference information obtained by performing target mode positioning on a UE, where the reference information is used to determine target timing advance TA information;

a first determining unit 1304, connected to the first obtaining unit 1302, configured to determine target TA information of the UE on the candidate transmission receiving node TRP according to the reference information.

It should be noted that the first obtaining unit 1302 in this embodiment may be used to perform the above-described step S202, and the first determining unit 1304 in this embodiment may be used to perform the above-described step S204.

Acquiring reference information obtained by positioning the UE in a target mode through the module, wherein the reference information is used for determining target Timing Advance (TA) information; according to the reference information, determining target TA information of the UE to the candidate transmission receiving node TRP, solving the problem of larger time delay expenditure in the acquisition method of timing advance information in the related technology, and reducing the time delay expenditure.

In one exemplary embodiment, the first determining unit includes:

a first determining module, configured to determine target TA information of a candidate TRP by a UE according to TA information of the UE on a first service TRP and an arrival time difference of a positioning reference signal corresponding to a target manner of positioning the UE, where the reference information includes the arrival time difference, and the TRP for the target manner of positioning the UE includes the first service TRP, and the arrival time difference includes one of: a downlink arrival time difference, an uplink arrival time difference, the downlink arrival time difference being a time difference between a time when a first downlink positioning reference signal transmitted by a first service TRP arrives at the UE and a time when a second downlink positioning reference signal transmitted by a candidate TRP arrives at the UE, the uplink arrival time difference being a sum of the first time difference and the second time difference, the first time difference being a time difference between a time when the UE transmits the first uplink positioning reference signal to the first service TRP and a time when the UE transmits the second uplink positioning reference signal to the candidate TRP, the second time difference being a time difference between a time when the first service TRP receives the first uplink positioning reference signal and a time when the candidate TRP receives the second uplink positioning reference signal; or alternatively, the process may be performed,

A second determining module, configured to determine target TA information of the UE on the candidate TRP according to a round trip time difference of a positioning reference signal corresponding to the target manner of positioning the UE, where the reference information includes a round trip time difference, the round trip time difference being a difference between a third time difference and a fourth time difference, the third time difference being a time difference between a reception time of a third downlink positioning reference signal transmitted by the UE and a transmission time of a third uplink positioning reference signal transmitted by the UE to the candidate TRP, the fourth time difference being a time difference between a reception time of the third uplink positioning reference signal received by the candidate TRP and a transmission time of the third downlink positioning reference signal transmitted by the candidate TRP, the third uplink positioning reference signal being an uplink positioning reference signal transmitted by the UE when the UE receives the sounding reference signal of the first service TPR, the third downlink positioning reference signal being a downlink positioning reference signal transmitted after the candidate TRP receives the third uplink positioning reference signal received by the candidate TRP when the candidate TRP receives the measurement request transmitted by the location management server LMF; or alternatively, the process may be performed,

a third determining module, configured to determine target TA information of the UE on the candidate TRP according to the location information of the UE and the location information of the candidate TRP, where the reference information includes the location information of the UE, and the location information of the UE is obtained by locating the UE in a target manner.

In one exemplary embodiment, the first determination module includes:

a first determining submodule, configured to determine target TA information of the UE on the candidate TRP to be equal to a sum of TA information of the UE on the first service TRP and a downlink arrival time difference in case that the positioning of the target manner is downlink arrival time difference DL-TDOA positioning, the TRP for performing DL-TDOA positioning on the UE includes the first service TRP, the candidate TRP is time-synchronized with the first service TRP, and an assistance of the candidate TRP is used for positioning and determining TA information simultaneously.

In an exemplary embodiment, the above apparatus further includes:

a second determining unit, configured to determine, before determining target TA information of the candidate TRP by the UE according to TA information of the first service TRP by the UE and an arrival time difference corresponding to the target manner, an assistance of the candidate TRP by a first set of bits corresponding to the candidate TRP in a list of candidate TRP, where the list of candidate TRP is a list sent to the UE by the location management server LMF, the assistance of the candidate TRP is used for positioning in case the first set of bits is a first value, the assistance of the candidate TRP is used for determining TA information in case the first set of bits is a second value, and the assistance of the candidate TRP is used for positioning and determining TA information simultaneously in case the first set of bits is a third value.

In one exemplary embodiment, the first determination module includes:

a second determining submodule, configured to determine target TA information of the UE on the candidate TRP to be equal to a sum of TA information of the UE on the first service TRP and an uplink arrival time difference, in a case where the positioning in the target manner is the uplink arrival time difference UL-TDOA positioning, the TRP for performing UL-TDOA positioning on the UE includes the first service TRP, and the candidate TRP is time-synchronized with the first service TRP.

In one exemplary embodiment, the second determining module includes:

a third determining submodule for determining target TA information of the UE for the candidate TRP to be equal to half of a round trip time difference in case the positioning of the target means is Multi-round trip time Multi-RTT positioning, the TRP for Multi-RTT positioning of the UE includes the first service TRP, and the assistance of the candidate TRP is for simultaneously positioning and determining the TA information.

In an exemplary embodiment, the above apparatus further includes:

a third determining unit, configured to determine, before determining target TA information of the candidate TRP by the UE according to a round trip time difference corresponding to the target manner, an assistance of the candidate TRP by a second set of bits corresponding to the candidate TRP in the candidate TRP list, where the candidate TRP list is a list of LMFs sent to the UE, the assistance of the candidate TRP is used for positioning in a case where the second set of bits is a fourth value, the assistance of the candidate TRP is used for determining TA information in a case where the second set of bits is a fifth value, and the assistance of the candidate TRP is used for positioning and determining TA information simultaneously in a case where the second set of bits is a sixth value.

In one exemplary embodiment, the third determination module includes:

a fourth determining submodule, configured to determine estimated TA information of the UE on the candidate TRP according to the location information of the UE and the location information of the candidate TRP;

and the execution sub-module is used for determining the target TA information to be equal to the estimated TA information or correcting the estimated TA information to obtain the target TA information of the candidate TRP by the UE.

In one exemplary embodiment, the fourth determination submodule includes:

a first determining subunit configured to determine estimated TA information of the UE for the candidate TRP by the following formula:

wherein, the TA information in the formula is estimated TA information, coordinates (x 1, y 1) represent position information of the UE, coordinates (x 2, y 2) represent position information of the candidate TRP, and c represents propagation speed of the radio signal.

In one exemplary embodiment, the execution submodule includes:

a first obtaining subunit, configured to obtain, when the candidate TRP is not time-synchronized with a second service TRP serving the UE, a first signaling sent by the UE, where the first signaling includes a target physical cell identifier, a target global cell identifier, a candidate TPR identifier, and a transmission time of an uplink sounding reference signal UL SRS, where the transmission time of the UL SRS is a transmission time of the UL SRS sent by the UE to the candidate TRP, the target physical cell identifier is a physical cell identifier of a cell corresponding to the candidate TRP, the target global cell identifier is a global cell identifier of a cell corresponding to the candidate TRP, and the candidate TPR identifier is an identifier of the candidate TRP;

A second obtaining subunit, configured to obtain a second signaling sent by the candidate TRP, where the second signaling includes a target physical cell identifier, a target global cell identifier, a candidate TPR identifier, and a UL SRS receiving time, where the UL SRS receiving time is a receiving time when the candidate TRP receives a UL SRS sent by the UE;

a second determining subunit configured to determine target TA information of the UE on the candidate TRP to be equal to a difference between a reception time of the UL SRS and a transmission time of the UL SRS.

In one exemplary embodiment, the execution submodule includes:

a third determining subunit, configured to determine a transmission time of the UL SRS when the candidate TRP is time-synchronized with a second service TRP serving the UE, where the transmission time of the UL SRS is a transmission time of the UL SRS for the UE to transmit to the candidate TRP;

a third obtaining subunit, configured to obtain a second signaling sent by the candidate TRP, where the second signaling includes a target physical cell identifier, a target global cell identifier, a candidate TPR identifier, and a UL SRS reception time, where the UL SRS reception time is a reception time when the candidate TRP receives the UL SRS sent by the UE, the target physical cell identifier is a physical cell identifier of a cell corresponding to the candidate TRP, the target global cell identifier is a global cell identifier of a cell corresponding to the candidate TRP, and the candidate TPR identifier is an identifier of the candidate TRP;

A fourth determining subunit configured to determine target TA information of the UE on the candidate TRP equal to a difference between the reception time of the UL SRS and the transmission time of the UL SRS.

In an exemplary embodiment, the above apparatus further includes:

a second obtaining unit, configured to obtain, after determining, according to the reference information, target TA information of the UE on the candidate transmission receiving node TRP, in a case where the target TA information is determined by the UE and the target TA information is maintained by a third service TRP serving the UE, third signaling sent by the UE, where the third signaling includes a target physical cell identifier, a target global cell identifier, a candidate TPR identifier, and target TA information, the target physical cell identifier is a physical cell identifier of a cell corresponding to the candidate TRP, the target global cell identifier is a global cell identifier of a cell corresponding to the candidate TRP, and the candidate TPR identifier is an identifier of the candidate TRP;

a first sending unit, configured to send a fourth signaling to a third service TRP according to the obtained third signaling, where the fourth signaling includes a target physical cell identifier, a target global cell identifier, a candidate TPR identifier, and target TA information.

In an exemplary embodiment, the above apparatus further includes:

And a second transmitting unit, configured to, after determining target TA information of the UE on the candidate transmission receiving node TRP according to the reference information, in a case where the target TA information is determined by the LMF and the target TA information is maintained by a third service TRP serving the UE, send fourth signaling to the third service TRP, where the fourth signaling includes a target physical cell identifier, a target global cell identifier, a candidate TPR identifier, and target TA information, the target physical cell identifier is a physical cell identifier of a cell corresponding to the candidate TRP, the target global cell identifier is a global cell identifier of a cell corresponding to the candidate TRP, and the candidate TPR identifier is an identifier of the candidate TRP.

It should be noted that the above modules are the same as examples and application scenarios implemented by the corresponding steps, but are not limited to what is disclosed in the above embodiments. It should be noted that the above modules may be implemented in software or in hardware as part of the apparatus shown in fig. 1, where the hardware environment includes a network environment.

According to yet another aspect of embodiments of the present application, there is also provided a storage medium that may be located on a smart device. Alternatively, in this embodiment, the storage medium may be used to execute the program code of the method for acquiring timing advance information according to any of the foregoing embodiments of the present application.

Alternatively, in this embodiment, the storage medium may be located on at least one network device of the plurality of network devices in the network shown in the above embodiment.

Alternatively, in the present embodiment, the storage medium is configured to store program code for performing the steps of:

s1, acquiring reference information obtained by positioning a target mode of UE, wherein the reference information is used for determining target Timing Advance (TA) information;

s2, determining target TA information of the UE to the candidate transmission receiving node TRP according to the reference information.

Alternatively, in the present embodiment, the storage medium may include, but is not limited to: various media capable of storing program codes, such as a U disk, ROM, RAM, a mobile hard disk, a magnetic disk or an optical disk.

According to still another aspect of the embodiments of the present application, there is further provided an electronic device for implementing the method for acquiring timing advance information, where the electronic device may be an intelligent device, and the electronic device may be a server, a terminal, or a combination thereof.

Fig. 14 is a block diagram of an alternative electronic device, according to an embodiment of the present application, as shown in fig. 14, including a processor 1402, a communication interface 1404, a memory 1406, and a communication bus 1408, wherein the processor 1402, the communication interface 1404, and the memory 1406 communicate with each other via the communication bus 1408, wherein,

A memory 1406 for storing a computer program;

optionally, the processor 1402 is configured to execute a computer program stored on the memory 1406, and implement the following steps:

Alternatively, the communication bus may be a PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect, peripheral component interconnect standard) bus, or an EISA (Extended Industry Standard Architecture ) bus, or the like. The communication bus may be classified as an address bus, a data bus, a control bus, or the like. For ease of illustration, only one thick line is shown in fig. 14, but not only one bus or one type of bus. The communication interface is used for communication between the electronic device and other equipment.

The memory may include RAM or may include non-volatile memory (non-volatile memory), such as at least one disk memory. Optionally, the memory may also be at least one memory device located remotely from the aforementioned processor.

As an example, the memory 1406 may include, but is not limited to, the first acquisition unit 1302 and the first determination unit 1304 in the acquisition device including the timing advance information. In addition, other module units in the above-mentioned timing advance information acquisition device may be also included, but are not limited to, and are not described in detail in this example.

The processor may be a general purpose processor and may include, but is not limited to: CPU (Central Processing Unit ), NP (Network Processor, network processor), etc.; but also DSP (Digital Signal Processing, digital signal processor), ASIC (Application Specific Integrated Circuit ), FPGA (Field-Programmable Gate Array, field programmable gate array) or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic device, discrete hardware components.

Alternatively, specific examples in this embodiment may refer to examples described in the foregoing embodiments, and this embodiment is not described herein.

It will be understood by those skilled in the art that the structure shown in fig. 14 is only schematic, and the device implementing the method for acquiring the timing advance information may be a terminal device, and the terminal device may be a smart phone (such as an Android mobile phone, an iOS mobile phone, etc.), a tablet computer, a palm computer, a mobile internet device (Mobile Internet Devices, MID), a PAD, etc. Fig. 14 is not limited to the structure of the electronic device. For example, the electronic device may also include more or fewer components (e.g., network interfaces, display devices, etc.) than shown in fig. 14, or have a different configuration than shown in fig. 14.

Those of ordinary skill in the art will appreciate that all or part of the steps in the various methods of the above embodiments may be implemented by a program for instructing a terminal device to execute in association with hardware, the program may be stored in a computer readable storage medium, and the storage medium may include: flash disk, ROM, RAM, magnetic or optical disk, etc.

The foregoing embodiment numbers of the present application are merely for the purpose of description, and do not represent the advantages or disadvantages of the embodiments.

The integrated units in the above embodiments may be stored in the above-described computer-readable storage medium if implemented in the form of software functional units and sold or used as separate products. Based on such understanding, the technical solution of the present application may be embodied in essence or a part contributing to the prior art or all or part of the technical solution in the form of a software product stored in a storage medium, comprising several instructions for causing one or more computer devices (which may be personal computers, servers or network devices, etc.) to perform all or part of the steps of the method described in the embodiments of the present application.

In the foregoing embodiments of the present application, the descriptions of the embodiments are emphasized, and for a portion of this disclosure that is not described in detail in this embodiment, reference is made to the related descriptions of other embodiments.

In several embodiments provided by the present application, it should be understood that the disclosed client may be implemented in other manners. The above-described embodiments of the apparatus are merely exemplary, and the division of the units, such as the division of the units, is merely a logical function division, and may be implemented in another manner, for example, multiple units or components may be combined or may be integrated into another system, or some features may be omitted, or not performed. Alternatively, the coupling or direct coupling or communication connection shown or discussed with each other may be through some interfaces, units or modules, or may be in electrical or other forms.

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

In addition, each functional unit in the embodiments of the present application may be integrated in one processing unit, or each unit may exist alone physically, or at least two units may be integrated in one unit. The integrated units may be implemented in hardware or in software functional units.

The foregoing is merely a preferred embodiment of the present application and it should be noted that modifications and adaptations to those skilled in the art may be made without departing from the principles of the present application, which are intended to be comprehended within the scope of the present application.

Claims

1. A method for acquiring timing advance information, comprising:

acquiring reference information obtained by positioning a target mode of UE, wherein the reference information is used for determining target Timing Advance (TA) information;

and determining the target TA information of the UE to the candidate transmission receiving node TRP according to the reference information.

2. The method according to claim 1, characterized in that said determining said target TA information of candidate transmission receiving nodes TRP by said UE based on said reference information comprises:

determining the target TA information of the UE on the candidate TRP according to TA information of the UE on a first service TRP and an arrival time difference of a positioning reference signal corresponding to the target manner positioning of the UE, wherein the reference information comprises the arrival time difference, and the TRP for the target manner positioning of the UE comprises the first service TRP, and the arrival time difference comprises one of the following: a downlink arrival time difference, an uplink arrival time difference, wherein the downlink arrival time difference is a time difference between a time when a first downlink positioning reference signal sent by the first service TRP arrives at the UE and a time when a second downlink positioning reference signal sent by the candidate TRP arrives at the UE, the uplink arrival time difference is a sum of a first time difference between a time when the UE sends a first uplink positioning reference signal to the first service TRP and a time when the UE sends a second uplink positioning reference signal to the candidate TRP, and the second time difference is a time difference between a time when the first service TRP receives the first uplink positioning reference signal and a time when the candidate TRP receives the second uplink positioning reference signal; or alternatively, the process may be performed,

Determining the target TA information of the candidate TRP by the UE according to a round trip time difference of a positioning reference signal corresponding to the positioning of the target mode to the UE, wherein the reference information includes the round trip time difference, the round trip time difference is a difference between a third time difference and a fourth time difference, the third time difference is a time difference between a reception time of a third downlink positioning reference signal transmitted by the UE and a transmission time of a third uplink positioning reference signal transmitted by the UE to the candidate TRP, the fourth time difference is a time difference between a reception time of the third uplink positioning reference signal received by the candidate TRP and a transmission time of the third downlink positioning reference signal transmitted by the candidate TRP, the third uplink positioning reference signal is an uplink positioning reference signal transmitted by the UE in a case that the UE receives a sounding reference signal of the first service TPR, and the third downlink positioning reference signal is a measured reference signal received in a case that the UE receives a downlink positioning reference signal of the candidate TRP transmitted by a service management server; or alternatively, the process may be performed,

Determining the target TA information of the UE on the candidate TRP according to the position information of the UE and the position information of the candidate TRP, wherein the reference information comprises the position information of the UE, and the position information of the UE is obtained by positioning the UE in the target mode.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the determining the target TA information for the candidate TRP for the UE based on a time difference of arrival of TA information for a first service TRP for the UE and a positioning reference signal corresponding to the targeted positioning for the UE comprises:

in the case that the target mode positioning is downlink arrival time difference DL-TDOA positioning, the TRP for performing the DL-TDOA positioning on the UE includes the first service TRP, the candidate TRP is time-synchronized with the first service TRP, and the assistance of the candidate TRP is used for positioning and determining TA information simultaneously, determining the target TA information of the UE on the candidate TRP to be equal to a sum of the TA information of the UE on the first service TRP and the downlink arrival time difference.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein prior to determining the target TA information for the candidate TRP by the UE based on a time difference of arrival of TA information for a first service TRP by the UE and a positioning reference signal corresponding to the targeted positioning for the UE, the method further comprises:

Determining an assistance of a candidate TRP through a first set of bits corresponding to the candidate TRP in a candidate TRP list under the condition that the positioning of the target mode is the DL-TDOA positioning, wherein the candidate TRP list is a list sent to the UE by a location management server LMF, the assistance of the candidate TRP is used for positioning under the condition that the first set of bits is a first value, the assistance of the candidate TRP is used for determining TA information under the condition that the first set of bits is a second value, and the assistance of the candidate TRP is used for positioning and determining TA information at the same time under the condition that the first set of bits is a third value.

5. The method of claim 2, wherein the determining the target TA information for the candidate TRP for the UE based on a time difference of arrival of TA information for a first service TRP for the UE and a positioning reference signal corresponding to the targeted positioning for the UE comprises:

in the case that the target mode is located as an uplink arrival time difference UL-TDOA location, the TRP for performing the UL-TDOA location on the UE includes the first service TRP, and the candidate TRP is time-synchronized with the first service TRP, the target TA information of the UE on the candidate TRP is determined to be equal to a sum of the TA information of the UE on the first service TRP and the uplink arrival time difference.

6. The method of claim 2, wherein the determining the target TA information for the candidate TRP by the UE based on a round trip time difference of a positioning reference signal corresponding to the target manner of positioning the UE comprises:

in case the target mode positioning is Multi-round trip time Multi-RTT positioning, TRP for the Multi-RTT positioning of the UE comprises the first service TRP, and the assistance of the candidate TRP is for simultaneous positioning and determination of TA information, the target TA information of the UE for the candidate TRP is determined to be equal to half the round trip time difference.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein prior to said determining said target TA information for said candidate TRP by said UE based on a round trip time difference of a positioning reference signal corresponding to said target manner of positioning said UE, said method further comprises:

determining an assistance of a candidate TRP through a second set of bits corresponding to the candidate TRP in a candidate TRP list, wherein the candidate TRP list is a list sent to the UE by the LMF, the assistance of the candidate TRP is used for positioning in the case that the second set of bits is a fourth value, the assistance of the candidate TRP is used for determining TA information in the case that the second set of bits is a fifth value, and the assistance of the candidate TRP is used for positioning and determining TA information simultaneously in the case that the second set of bits is a sixth value.

8. The method of claim 2, wherein the determining the target TA information for the candidate TRP by the UE based on the location information of the UE and the location information of the candidate TRP comprises:

determining estimated TA information of the UE on the candidate TRP according to the position information of the UE and the position information of the candidate TRP;

and determining the target TA information to be equal to the estimated TA information, or correcting the estimated TA information to obtain the target TA information of the candidate TRP by the UE.

9. The method of claim 8 wherein said modifying said estimated TA information to obtain said target TA information for said candidate TRP by said UE comprises:

acquiring a first signaling sent by the UE under the condition that the candidate TRP is not synchronous with the time of a second service TRP for serving the UE, wherein the first signaling comprises a target physical cell identifier, a target global cell identifier, a candidate TPR identifier and the sending time of an uplink sounding reference signal (UL SRS), the sending time of the UL SRS is the sending time of the UL SRS to the candidate TRP by the UE, the target physical cell identifier is a physical cell identifier of a cell corresponding to the candidate TRP, the target global cell identifier is a global cell identifier of a cell corresponding to the candidate TRP, and the candidate TPR identifier is an identifier of the candidate TRP; acquiring a second signaling sent by the candidate TRP, wherein the second signaling comprises a target physical cell identifier, a target global cell identifier, a candidate TPR identifier and the receiving time of the UL SRS, and the receiving time of the UL SRS is the receiving time of the receiving of the UL SRS sent by the UE by the candidate TRP; determining target TA information of the UE on the candidate TRP to be equal to a difference between a reception time of the UL SRS and a transmission time of the UL SRS; or alternatively, the process may be performed,

Determining a transmission time of an UL SRS in case that the candidate TRP is time-synchronized with a second service TRP serving the UE, wherein the transmission time of the UL SRS is a transmission time of the UE transmitting the UL SRS to the candidate TRP; acquiring a second signaling sent by the candidate TRP, wherein the second signaling comprises a target physical cell identifier, a target global cell identifier, a candidate TPR identifier and the receiving time of the UL SRS, the receiving time of the UL SRS is the receiving time of the UL SRS sent by the UE received by the candidate TRP, the target physical cell identifier is a physical cell identifier of a cell corresponding to the candidate TRP, the target global cell identifier is a global cell identifier of a cell corresponding to the candidate TRP, and the candidate TPR identifier is an identifier of the candidate TRP; determining the target TA information of the candidate TRP by the UE to be equal to the difference between the receiving time of the UL SRS and the sending time of the UL SRS.

10. The method according to claim 2, characterized in that after said determining said target TA information of candidate transmission reception nodes TRP by said UE based on said reference information, the method further comprises: acquiring third signaling sent by the UE under the condition that the target TA information is determined by the UE and maintained by a third service TRP for serving the UE, wherein the third signaling comprises a target physical cell identifier, a target global cell identifier, a candidate TPR identifier and the target TA information, the target physical cell identifier is a physical cell identifier of a cell corresponding to the candidate TRP, the target global cell identifier is a global cell identifier of a cell corresponding to the candidate TRP, and the candidate TPR identifier is an identifier of the candidate TRP; according to the acquired third signaling, a fourth signaling is sent to the third service TRP, wherein the fourth signaling comprises the target physical cell identifier, a target global cell identifier, a candidate TPR identifier and the target TA information; or alternatively, the process may be performed,

And transmitting fourth signaling to a third service TRP (mobile communication terminal) when the target TA information is determined by the LMF and maintained by the third service TRP which serves the UE, wherein the fourth signaling comprises a target physical cell identifier, a target global cell identifier, a candidate TPR identifier and the target TA information, the target physical cell identifier is a physical cell identifier of a cell corresponding to the candidate TRP, the target global cell identifier is a global cell identifier of a cell corresponding to the candidate TRP, and the candidate TPR identifier is an identifier of the candidate TRP.

11. An apparatus for acquiring timing advance information, comprising:

the first acquisition unit is used for acquiring reference information obtained by positioning the UE in a target mode, wherein the reference information is used for determining target Timing Advance (TA) information;

a first determining unit, configured to determine, according to the reference information, the target TA information of the UE on a candidate transmission receiving node TRP.

12. A computer readable storage medium, characterized in that the computer readable storage medium comprises a stored program, wherein the program when run performs the method of any one of claims 1 to 10.

13. An electronic device comprising a memory and a processor, wherein the memory has stored therein a computer program, the processor being arranged to perform the method of any of claims 1 to 10 by means of the computer program.