CN117980783A - Techniques for global navigation satellite system positioning - Google Patents

Abstract

Methods, systems, and devices for wireless communications are described herein. A User Equipment (UE) may determine a location of the UE (e.g., a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS)) based on a relative location of the UE and another UE. For example, the first UE may determine (e.g., calculate, receive) a relative position of the first UE and the second UE selected from a set of UEs including the first UE and the second UE to perform a position acquisition procedure to determine a position of the second UE. The first UE may determine (e.g., calculate, receive) its location based on the relative location of the first UE and the second UE and the location of the second UE, and may reset a timer that indicates that the first UE performs a location acquisition procedure upon expiration of the timer.

Description

Techniques for global navigation satellite system positioning

Cross reference

This patent application claims priority from U.S. patent application Ser. No.17/694,785, entitled "TECHNIQUES FOR GLOBAL NAVIGATION SATELLITE SYSTEM POSITIONING," filed 3/15 of MA et al, 2022, which claims the benefit of U.S. provisional patent application Ser. No.63/250,576, entitled "TECHNIQUES FOR GLOBAL NAVIGATION SATELLITE SYSTEM POSITIONING," filed 9/30 of MA et al, each assigned to the assignee of the present application, and the entire contents of each of which are expressly incorporated herein by reference.

Technical Field

The following relates to wireless communications, including techniques for Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) positioning.

Background

Wireless communication systems are widely deployed to provide various types of communication content such as voice, video, packet data, messaging, broadcast, and so on. These systems may be able to support communication with multiple users by sharing available system resources (e.g., time, frequency, and power). Examples of such multiple access systems include fourth generation (4G) systems, such as Long Term Evolution (LTE) systems, LTE-advanced (LTE-a) systems, or LTE-aPro systems, and fifth generation (5G) systems, which may be referred to as New Radio (NR) systems. These systems may employ techniques such as: code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), time Division Multiple Access (TDMA), frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA), orthogonal FDMA (OFDMA), or discrete fourier transform spread orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (DFT-S-OFDM). A wireless multiple-access communication system may include one or more base stations or one or more network access nodes, each of which simultaneously support communication for multiple communication devices, which may be otherwise referred to as User Equipment (UE).

In some wireless communication systems, the UE may periodically determine its location using Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS). However, in some cases, such periodic determination of the location of the UE may be associated with relatively high power consumption.

Disclosure of Invention

The described technology relates to improved methods, systems, devices, and apparatus supporting techniques for Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) positioning. In general, the described techniques provide for reducing the frequency at which an acquisition procedure is performed to determine a UE location by determining the UE location using the relative locations of UEs in a set of UEs. For example, a first UE in a set of UEs may be selected to perform a location acquisition procedure to determine a location of the first UE, and thus may be referred to as a reference UE. The locations of the UEs may remain relatively static with respect to each other. That is, while the location of the UEs may change (e.g., the global location of the UEs), the relative locations of the UEs with respect to each other may be relatively unchanged. Thus, by determining the location of a reference UE, other UEs in the set of UEs (which may be referred to as non-reference UEs) may determine their respective locations based on their respective relative locations to the reference UE. For example, a second UE in the set of UEs may calculate its location (e.g., global location) by using the location of the first UE and the relative location of the second UE and the first UE. Alternatively, a third UE in the set of UEs (which may be referred to as a location management UE) may use the location of the first UE and the relative location of the second UE to the first UE to calculate the location of the second UE, and may send an indication of the location of the second UE to the second UE.

In response to determining the location of the second UE, the second UE may reset a timer corresponding to the valid location of the second UE. For example, as the location of the second UE changes over time, the time and frequency offsets associated with communicating with the GNSS may change. Thus, expiration of the timer may instruct the second UE to determine its location (e.g., via a location acquisition procedure), e.g., determine whether the time and frequency offset has changed. In some examples, expiration of the timer may disable the second UE from using previously determined time and/or frequency offsets for uplink transmissions, which may reduce or prevent interference due to timing and/or frequency synchronization errors from different UEs at the gNB. By resetting the timer in response to determining the location of the second UE based on the relative location, the second UE may reduce the frequency at which the location acquisition procedure is performed, thereby reducing power consumption associated with performing the location acquisition procedure.

A method for wireless communication at a first UE is described. The method may include: initiating a timer based on performing a location acquisition procedure using GNSS to determine a first location of the first UE, wherein expiration of the timer indicates that the first UE performs the location acquisition procedure; determining a second location of the first UE based on a relative location of the first UE and a second UE prior to the expiration of the timer; and resetting the timer in response to determining the second location of the first UE.

An apparatus for wireless communication at a first UE is described. The apparatus may include a processor, a memory coupled to the processor, and instructions stored in the memory. The instructions are executable by the processor to cause the device to: initiating a timer based on performing a location acquisition procedure using GNSS to determine a first location of the first UE, wherein expiration of the timer indicates that the first UE performs a location acquisition procedure; before expiration of the timer, determining a second location of the first UE based on a relative location of the first UE and a second UE; and resetting the timer in response to determining the second location of the first UE.

Another apparatus for wireless communication at a first UE is described. The apparatus may include: means for initiating a timer based on performing a location acquisition procedure using GNSS to determine a first location of the first UE, wherein expiration of the timer indicates the first UE to perform the location acquisition procedure; means for determining a second location of the first UE based on a relative location of the first UE and a second UE prior to the expiration of the timer; and means for resetting the timer in response to determining the second location of the first UE.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing code for wireless communication at a first UE is described. The code may include instructions executable by a processor to: initiating a timer based on performing a location acquisition procedure using GNSS to determine a first location of the first UE, wherein expiration of the timer indicates that the first UE performs the location acquisition procedure; determining a second location of the first UE based on a relative location of the first UE and a second UE prior to the expiration of the timer; and resetting the timer in response to determining the second location of the first UE.

In some examples of the methods, apparatus, and non-transitory computer-readable media described herein, the second UE is selected from a set of UEs including the first UE and the second UE to perform a second position acquisition procedure using the GNSS, the second position of the first UE is determined based on the second UE being selected from the set of UEs to perform the second position acquisition procedure.

Some examples of the methods, apparatus, and non-transitory computer-readable media described herein may also include operations, features, units, or instructions to: a relative position of the first UE and the second UE is calculated based on a previous position of the first UE and a position of the second UE at a time of the previous position of the first UE.

Some examples of the methods, apparatus, and non-transitory computer-readable media described herein may also include operations, features, units, or instructions to: transmitting a set of measurements to the network, the second UE, or the third UE of a set of UEs including the first UE, the second UE, and the third UE, the set of measurements including a Round Trip Time (RTT) associated with communications between the first UE and the second UE, a time of flight associated with communications between the first UE and the second UE, an angle of arrival associated with communications between the first UE and the second UE, or a combination thereof; and receiving an indication of a relative position of the first UE with respect to the second UE from a network, the second UE, or the third UE based on the set of measurements.

Some examples of the methods, apparatus, and non-transitory computer-readable media described herein may further include operations, features, units, or instructions to: the relative position of the first UE to the second UE is calculated based on a distance from the first UE to the second UE, an orientation of a vehicle on which the first UE and the second UE may be located, or a combination thereof.

Some examples of the methods, apparatus, and non-transitory computer-readable media described herein may also include operations, features, units, or instructions to: a distance from the first UE to the second UE is determined based on RTT associated with communication between the first UE and the second UE or time of flight associated with communication between the first UE and the second UE.

Some examples of the methods, apparatus, and non-transitory computer-readable media described herein may also include operations, features, units, or instructions to: an indication of an orientation of a vehicle is received from the second UE or a third UE in a set of UEs including the first UE, the second UE, and the third UE.

In some examples of the methods, apparatus, and non-transitory computer-readable media described herein, the relative position of the first UE to the second UE for determining the second position of the first UE is configured as a zero distance. In some examples of the methods, apparatus, and non-transitory computer-readable media described herein, determining the second location of the first UE may include operations, features, units, or instructions to: a second location of the first UE is determined to correspond to a location of the second UE based on a relative location of the first UE and the second UE being configured as a zero distance.

In some examples of the methods, apparatus, and non-transitory computer-readable media described herein, determining the second location of the first UE may include operations, features, units, or instructions to: a second location of the first UE is calculated based on a location of the second UE and a relative location of the first UE and the second UE.

Some examples of the methods, apparatus, and non-transitory computer-readable media described herein may also include operations, features, units, or instructions to: an indication of a location of the second UE is received from a network, the second UE, or a third UE in a set of UEs including the first UE, the second UE, and the third UE.

Some examples of the methods, apparatus, and non-transitory computer-readable media described herein may also include operations, features, units, or instructions to: an indication of a second location of the first UE is received from the network, the second UE, or a third UE in a set of UEs including the first UE, the second UE, and the third UE, wherein determining the second location of the first UE may be based on receiving the indication.

Some examples of the methods, apparatus, and non-transitory computer-readable media described herein may also include operations, features, units, or instructions to: transmitting a first set of parameters to a network, the first set of parameters comprising a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of signals received from a GNSS, a remaining battery power of the first UE, one or more pathloss values associated with communicating with a set of UEs comprising the first UE and the second UE, or a combination thereof; and receiving from the network an indication that the second UE may select from a set of UEs to perform a second location acquisition procedure using GNSS based on the first set of parameters.

In some examples of the methods, apparatus, and non-transitory computer-readable media described herein, broadcasting a first indication of a first set of parameters to a set of UEs including the first UE and the second UE, the first set of parameters including an SNR of a first signal received at the first UE from the GNSS, a remaining battery power of the first UE, one or more pathloss values from the first UE to the set of UEs, or a combination thereof; receiving one or more second indications of one or more second sets of parameters from one or more UEs of the set of UEs including at least the second UE, the one or more second sets of parameters including SNR of second signals received from the GNSS at respective ones of the one or more UEs, remaining battery power of the respective UEs, one or more path loss values from the respective UEs to the set of UEs, or a combination thereof; and selecting the second UE to perform a second position acquisition procedure using the GNSS based on the first set of parameters and the one or more second sets of parameters.

Some examples of the methods, apparatus, and non-transitory computer-readable media described herein may also include operations, features, units, or instructions to: after resetting the timer, a third location of the first UE is determined based on: the first UE is in a second relative position to a third UE in a set of UEs including the first UE, the second UE, and the third UE is selected from the set of UEs to perform a second position acquisition procedure using GNSS. Some examples of the methods, apparatus, and non-transitory computer-readable media described herein may also include operations, features, units, or instructions to: the timer is reset in response to determining the second location of the first UE.

Some examples of the methods, apparatus, and non-transitory computer-readable media described herein may also include operations, features, units, or instructions to: a second location acquisition procedure is performed using the GNSS based on expiration of the second timer to determine a third location of the first UE, wherein the timer may have a first duration that is shorter than a second duration of the second timer.

Some examples of the methods, apparatus, and non-transitory computer-readable media described herein may also include operations, features, units, or instructions to: the method may further include transmitting an uplink message to a network, wherein time offset, frequency offset, or a combination thereof associated with transmitting the uplink message may be based on the second location of the first UE, the second location being determined based on the relative locations of the first UE and the second UE.

A method for wireless communication at a UE is described. The method may include: broadcasting one or more parameters associated with the UE to a set of UEs including the UE; performing a location acquisition procedure based on selecting the UE from the set of UEs, wherein the UE is selected based on the broadcasted one or more parameters; and transmitting information associated with the location capture process.

An apparatus for wireless communication at a UE is described. The apparatus may include a processor, a memory coupled to the processor, and instructions stored in the memory. The instructions may be executable by the processor to cause the apparatus to: broadcasting one or more parameters associated with the UE to a set of UEs including the UE; performing a location acquisition procedure based on selecting the UE from the set of UEs, wherein the UE is selected based on the broadcasted one or more parameters; and transmitting information associated with the location capture process.

Another apparatus for wireless communication at a UE is described. The apparatus may include: broadcasting one or more parameters associated with the UE to a set of UEs including the UE; means for performing a location acquisition procedure based on selecting the UE from the set of UEs, wherein the UE is selected based on the broadcasted one or more parameters; and means for transmitting information associated with the location capture process.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing code for wireless communication at a UE is described. The code may include instructions executable by a processor to: broadcasting one or more parameters associated with the UE to a set of UEs including the UE; performing a location acquisition procedure based on selecting the UE from the set of UEs, wherein the UE is selected based on the broadcasted one or more parameters; and transmitting information associated with the location capture process.

In some examples of the methods, apparatus, and non-transitory computer-readable media described herein, performing the position capture process may include operations, features, units, or instructions to: signals transmitted from GNSS are used to determine the location of the UE.

Some examples of the methods, apparatus, and non-transitory computer-readable media described herein may also include operations, features, units, or instructions to: determining, based on the location of the UE, a time offset, a frequency offset, or a combination thereof associated with transmitting an uplink message to one or more non-terrestrial base stations.

In some examples of the methods, apparatus, and non-transitory computer-readable media described herein, performing the position capture process may include operations, features, units, or instructions to: establishing a connection with a network; and receiving an indication of a location of the UE from a location server of the network based on establishing the connection.

In some examples of the methods, apparatus, and non-transitory computer-readable media described herein, a second UE in the set of UEs includes the location server and an indication of the location of the UE may be received from the second UE.

In some examples of the methods, apparatus, and non-transitory computer-readable media described herein, transmitting the information associated with the location capture process may include operations, features, units, or instructions to: broadcasting the location of the UE to the set of UEs.

Some examples of the methods, apparatus, and non-transitory computer-readable media described herein may also include operations, features, units, or instructions to: receiving one or more indications of one or more parameter sets from one or more UEs of the set of UEs, the one or more parameter sets including SNR of signals received from GNSS at respective ones of the one or more UEs, remaining battery power of the respective UEs, one or more path loss values from the respective UEs to the set of UEs, or a combination thereof; and selecting the UE to perform the location acquisition procedure based on the one or more parameters and the one or more parameter sets.

In some examples of the methods, apparatus, and non-transitory computer-readable media described herein, the one or more parameters include an SNR of a first signal received at a UE from a GNSS, a remaining battery power of the UE, one or more pathloss values from the UE to the set of UEs, or a combination thereof.

Drawings

Fig. 1 and 2 illustrate examples of wireless communication systems supporting techniques for Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) positioning in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example of a communication sequence supporting techniques for GNSS positioning in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example of a process flow supporting techniques for GNSS positioning in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

Fig. 5 and 6 illustrate block diagrams of devices supporting techniques for GNSS positioning, in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

FIG. 7 illustrates a block diagram of a communication manager supporting techniques for GNSS positioning in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

FIG. 8 illustrates a schematic diagram of a system including an apparatus supporting techniques for GNSS positioning in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

Fig. 9-14 show flowcharts illustrating methods of supporting techniques for GNSS positioning in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

Detailed Description

Some wireless communication systems may support non-terrestrial network (NTN) communications, where a UE may communicate with a core network via one or more NTN base stations (e.g., satellites, high-altitude platform base stations, balloons, aircraft, drones, unmanned aerial vehicles, and other NTN base stations). In some cases, the distance between the UE and the NTN base station may be large (e.g., thousands of kilometers), such that it may take some time for the signal to travel over that distance. Thus, the delay associated with NTN communications (e.g., propagation delay, round trip delay, etc.) may be greater than (e.g., many orders of magnitude greater than) the delay associated with terrestrial network communications. As a result, NTN communications may experience and suffer from uplink timing and frequency variations.

In some examples, the UE may perform a location acquisition procedure (e.g., using Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS), using network-based positioning techniques) to determine its location (e.g., place, global position), and may determine time and frequency compensation for uplink timing and frequency changes based on its location (e.g., and satellite ephemeris information). In some examples, the UE may periodically perform the location acquisition procedure according to a validity timer (e.g., validity duration) in order to maintain valid time and frequency compensation as the UE's location changes. However, in some cases, performing the position acquisition process may consume a relatively high power level (e.g., 30 milliwatts (mW), 60mW, or some other power consumption level), and thus, periodically performing the position acquisition process may be associated with a relatively high power consumption level.

Techniques, systems, and devices for reducing the frequency with which a UE performs a location acquisition procedure are described herein. For example, a set of UEs may have relative positions (e.g., remain relatively static or unchanged) with respect to each other, which may be used to determine the location (e.g., place, global location) of each UE based on known location information of one or more UEs. For example, a set of UEs (e.g., internet of things (IoT) devices) may be associated with (e.g., connected to, included on board) a container on a vessel, which may be relatively static (e.g., fixed) in location while on the vessel. Thus, while the location of the UEs may change over time (e.g., based on movement of the vessel), the relative locations of the UEs with respect to each other may be relatively unchanged.

A first UE in the set of UEs may be selected as a reference UE to perform a location acquisition procedure to determine its own location (e.g., place, global location). One or more other UEs in the set of UEs (which may be referred to as non-reference UEs) may determine their respective locations based on the location of the first UE and the respective relative locations to the first UE. For example, a second UE (e.g., a non-reference UE) in the set of UEs may calculate its location (e.g., global location) by using the location of the first UE and the relative location of the second UE and the first UE. Alternatively, a third UE in the set of UEs (which may be referred to as a location management UE) may use the location of the first UE and the relative location of the second UE to the first UE to calculate the location of the second UE, and may send an indication of the location of the second UE to the second UE. In this way, the second UE may determine its location without performing a location acquisition procedure, thereby reducing power consumption associated with determining the location of the second UE and increasing battery life of the second UE.

In response to determining the location of the second UE, the second UE may reset the validity timer. For example, the second UE may maintain effective time and frequency compensation based on determining its location, and thus may delay performing the location acquisition procedure by resetting the validity timer, thereby reducing the frequency at which the location acquisition procedure is performed. In some examples, the reference UE selection may be rotated between the UE sets, and thus, the power consumption burden associated with performing the location acquisition procedure may be shared between the UE sets, thereby reducing the power consumption of the UE sets.

Various aspects of the present disclosure are first described in the context of a wireless communication system. Aspects of the present disclosure are additionally described in the context of communication sequences and process flows. Aspects of the present disclosure are further illustrated by, and described with reference to, apparatus diagrams, system diagrams, and flowcharts relating to techniques for GNSS positioning.

Fig. 1 illustrates an example of a wireless communication system 100 supporting techniques for GNSS positioning in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. The wireless communication system 100 may include one or more base stations 105, one or more UEs 115, and a core network 130. In some examples, the wireless communication system 100 may be a Long Term Evolution (LTE) network, an LTE-advanced (LTE-a) network, an LTE-a Pro network, or a New Radio (NR) network. In some examples, the wireless communication system 100 may support enhanced broadband communications, ultra-reliable communications, low latency communications, or communications with low cost and low complexity devices, or any combination thereof.

The base stations 105 may be dispersed throughout a geographic area to form the wireless communication system 100 and may be devices of different forms or with different capabilities. The base station 105 and the UE 115 may communicate wirelessly via one or more communication links 125. Each base station 105 may provide a coverage area 110 over which the UE 115 and the base station 105 may establish one or more communication links 125. Coverage area 110 may be an example of a geographic area over which base station 105 and UE 115 may support transmitting signals in accordance with one or more radio access technologies.

The UEs 115 may be dispersed throughout the coverage area 110 of the wireless communication system 100, and each UE 115 may be stationary, or mobile, or both at different times. The UE 115 may be a different form or device with different capabilities. Some example UEs 115 are shown in fig. 1. The UEs 115 described herein are capable of communicating with various types of devices, such as other UEs 115, base stations 105, or network devices (e.g., core network nodes, relay devices, integrated Access and Backhaul (IAB) nodes, or other network devices), as shown in fig. 1.

The base stations 105 may communicate with the core network 130, with each other, with both. For example, the base station 105 may be connected with the core network 130 via one or more backhaul links 120 (e.g., via S1, N2, N3, or other interfaces). The base stations 105 may communicate with each other directly (e.g., directly between the base stations 105) over the backhaul link 120 (e.g., via an X2, xn, or other interface), indirectly (e.g., via the core network 130), or both. In some examples, the backhaul link 120 may be or include one or more wireless links.

One or more base stations 105 described herein may include or may be referred to by those of ordinary skill in the art as a base station transceiver, a radio base station, an access point, a radio transceiver, a node B, an evolved node B (eNodeB, eNB), a next generation node B or giga-node B (any of which may be referred to as a gNB), a home node B, a home evolved node B, or other suitable terminology.

The UE 115 may include or may be referred to as a mobile device, a wireless device, a remote device, a handheld device, or a subscriber device, or some other suitable terminology, where a "device" may also be referred to as a unit, station, terminal, or client, among other examples. The UE 115 may also include or may be referred to as a personal electronic device, such as a cellular telephone, a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a tablet computer, a laptop computer, or a personal computer. In some examples, the UE 115 may include or be referred to as a Wireless Local Loop (WLL) station, an IoT device, a everything internet (IoE) device, or a Machine Type Communication (MTC) device, among other examples, which may be implemented in various items such as appliances, or vehicles, meters, among other examples.

The UEs 115 described herein may be capable of communicating with various types of devices, such as other UEs 115 that may sometimes act as relays, as well as base stations 105 and network devices, including macro enbs or gnbs, small cell enbs or gnbs, or relay base stations, among others, as shown in fig. 1.

The UE 115 and the base station 105 may communicate wirelessly with each other over one or more carriers via one or more communication links 125. The term "carrier" may refer to a set of radio frequency spectrum resources having a defined physical layer structure for supporting the communication link 125. For example, the carrier used for the communication link 125 may include a portion of a radio frequency spectrum band (e.g., a bandwidth portion (BWP)) that operates according to one or more physical layer channels for a given radio access technology (e.g., LTE-A, LTE-a Pro, NR). Each physical layer channel may carry acquisition signaling (e.g., synchronization signals, system information), control signaling to coordinate operation for the carrier, user data, or other signaling. The wireless communication system 100 may support communication with UEs 115 using carrier aggregation or multi-carrier operation. According to a carrier aggregation configuration, the UE 115 may be configured with multiple downlink component carriers and one or more uplink component carriers. Carrier aggregation may be used with both Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) component carriers and Time Division Duplex (TDD) component carriers.

The communication link 125 shown in the wireless communication system 100 may include an uplink transmission from the UE 115 to the base station 105, or a downlink transmission from the base station 105 to the UE 115. The carrier may carry downlink communications or uplink communications (e.g., in FDD mode), or may be configured to carry downlink communications with uplink communications (e.g., in TDD mode).

The signal waveform transmitted on the carrier may be composed of multiple subcarriers (e.g., using multi-carrier modulation (MCM) techniques such as Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) or discrete fourier transform spread OFDM (DFT-S-OFDM)). In a system employing MCM techniques, a resource element may be composed of one symbol period (e.g., the duration of one modulation symbol) and one subcarrier, where the symbol period and subcarrier spacing are inversely proportional. The number of bits carried by each resource element may depend on the modulation scheme (e.g., the order of the modulation scheme, the coding rate of the modulation scheme, or both). Thus, the more resource elements received by the UE 115 and the higher the order of the modulation scheme, the higher the data rate for the UE 115 may be. The wireless communication resources may refer to a combination of radio frequency spectrum resources, time resources, and spatial resources (e.g., spatial layers or beams), and the use of multiple spatial layers may also increase the data rate or data integrity for communication with the UE 115.

The time interval for the base station 105 or the UE 115 may be represented in multiples of a basic time unit, which may refer to, for example, T _s＝1/(Δf_max·N_f) seconds of the sampling period, where Δf _max may represent the maximum supported subcarrier spacing and N _f may represent the maximum supported Discrete Fourier Transform (DFT) size. The time intervals of the communication resources may be organized according to radio frames each having a specified duration (e.g., 10 milliseconds (ms)). Each radio frame may be identified by a System Frame Number (SFN) (e.g., ranging from 0 to 1023).

Each frame may include a plurality of consecutively numbered subframes or slots, and each subframe or slot may have the same duration. In some examples, a frame may be divided (e.g., in the time domain) into subframes, and each subframe may be further divided into a number of slots. Alternatively, each frame may include a variable number of slots, and the number of slots may depend on the subcarrier spacing. Each slot may include multiple symbol periods (e.g., depending on the length of the cyclic prefix added before each symbol period). In some wireless communication systems 100, the time slot may also be divided into a plurality of minislots containing one or more symbols. Excluding the cyclic prefix, each symbol period may contain one or more (e.g., N _f) sampling periods. The duration of the symbol period may depend on the subcarrier spacing or the operating frequency band.

A subframe, slot, minislot, or symbol may be the smallest scheduling unit (e.g., in the time domain) of the wireless communication system 100 and may be referred to as a Transmission Time Interval (TTI). In some examples, the TTI duration (e.g., the number of symbol periods in a TTI) may be variable. Additionally or alternatively, the smallest scheduling unit of the wireless communication system 100 may be dynamically selected (e.g., in bursts of short TTIs (sTTI)).

The physical channels may be multiplexed on the carrier according to various techniques. The physical control channels and physical data channels may be multiplexed on the downlink carrier using, for example, one or more of Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) techniques, frequency Division Multiplexing (FDM) techniques, or hybrid TDM-FDM techniques. The control region (e.g., control resource set (CORESET)) for the physical control channel may be defined by the number of symbol periods and may extend across the system bandwidth or a subset of the system bandwidth of the carrier. One or more control regions (e.g., CORESET) may be configured for the set of UEs 115. For example, one or more of UEs 115 may monitor or search for control regions for control information according to one or more sets of search spaces, and each set of search spaces may include one or more control channel candidates having one or more aggregation levels arranged in a cascade. The aggregation level for control channel candidates may refer to the number of control channel resources (e.g., control Channel Elements (CCEs)) associated with encoded information for a control information format having a given payload size. The set of search spaces may include a common set of search spaces configured for transmitting control information to a plurality of UEs 115 and a UE-specific set of search spaces for transmitting control information to a particular UE 115.

In some examples, the base station 105 may be mobile and thus provide communication coverage for a mobile geographic coverage area 110. In some examples, different geographic coverage areas 110 associated with different technologies may overlap, but different geographic coverage areas 110 may be supported by the same base station 105. In other examples, overlapping geographic coverage areas 110 associated with different technologies may be supported by different base stations 105. The wireless communication system 100 may include, for example, a heterogeneous network in which different types of base stations 105 provide coverage for respective geographic coverage areas 110 using the same or different radio access technologies.

Some UEs 115 (e.g., MTC or IoT devices) may be low cost or low complexity devices and may provide automated communication between machines (e.g., via machine-to-machine (M2M) communication). M2M communication or MTC may refer to data communication techniques that allow devices to communicate with each other or with the base station 105 without human intervention. In some examples, M2M communications or MTC may include communications from devices integrating sensors or meters to measure or capture information and relay such information to a central server or application that utilizes or presents information to humans interacting with the application. Some UEs 115 may be designed to collect information or to implement automated behavior of a machine or other device. Examples of applications for MTC devices include smart metering, inventory monitoring, water level monitoring, device monitoring, healthcare monitoring, wildlife monitoring, climate and geological event monitoring, fleet management and tracking, remote security sensing, physical access control, and transaction-based business billing.

The wireless communication system 100 may be configured to support ultra-reliable communication or low-latency communication, or various combinations thereof. For example, the wireless communication system 100 may be configured to support ultra-reliable low-latency communications (URLLC). The UE 115 may be designed to support ultra-reliable, low latency, or critical functions. Ultra-reliable communications may include private communications or group communications, and may be supported by one or more services, such as push-to-talk (PTT), video, or data. Support for ultra-reliable, low-latency functions may include prioritization of services, and such services may be used for public safety or general commercial applications. The terms ultra-reliable, low-latency, and ultra-reliable low-latency may be used interchangeably herein.

In some examples, the UE 115 is capable of directly communicating with other UEs 115 (e.g., using peer-to-peer (P2P) or D2D protocols) over a device-to-device (D2D) communication link 135. One or more UEs 115 utilizing D2D communication may be within the geographic coverage area 110 of the base station 105. Other UEs 115 in such a group may be outside of the geographic coverage area 110 of the base station 105 or otherwise unable to receive transmissions from the base station 105. In some examples, a group of UEs 115 communicating via D2D communication may utilize a one-to-many (1:M) system in which each UE 115 transmits a signal to each other UE 115 in the group. In some examples, the base station 105 facilitates scheduling of resources for D2D communications. In other cases, D2D communication is performed between UEs 115 without involving base station 105.

In some examples, UEs 115 may support one or more resource allocation patterns to coordinate side-uplink communications between UEs 115 (e.g., over D2D communication link 135). For example, UE 115 may be configured to operate according to a mode 1 resource allocation mode and/or a mode 2 resource allocation mode. When operating in mode 1, side-link communications may be managed (e.g., coordinated) by base station 105. For example, during mode 1 operation, the base station 105 may manage side-link resource allocation for side-link communications between UEs 115.

When operating in mode 2, side-link communications may not be managed or coordinated by base station 105. In the event that the sidelink resources are not coordinated or managed during mode 2 operation, the UEs 115 may follow a contention-based access procedure in which various UEs 115 may reserve sidelink resources of a configured sidelink resource pool. For example, during mode 2 operation, the UE 115 may monitor one or more of the sidelink resource pools to determine whether other UEs 115 are attempting to transmit on sidelink resources in the sidelink resource pool. For example, UE 115 may decode one or more reservation messages (e.g., side-uplink control channel transmissions such as side-uplink control information (SCI) messages, SCI-1 messages, SCI-2 messages, request-to-send messages, or some other side-uplink control channel transmission) and may determine which side-link resources are reserved for other side-link communications and which side-link resources are available for side-link communications based on the reservation messages.

The core network 130 may provide user authentication, access authorization, tracking, internet Protocol (IP) connectivity, and other access, routing, or mobility functions. The core network 130 may be an Evolved Packet Core (EPC) or a 5G core (5 GC), which may include at least one control plane entity (e.g., a Mobility Management Entity (MME), an access and mobility management function (AMF)) for managing access and mobility, and at least one user plane entity (e.g., a serving gateway (S-GW)) for routing packets or interconnections to external networks, a Packet Data Network (PDN) gateway (P-GW) or a User Plane Function (UPF). The control plane entity may manage non-access stratum (NAS) functions such as mobility, authentication, and bearer management for UEs 115 served by base stations 105 associated with the core network 130. The user IP packets may be communicated by a user plane entity that may provide IP address assignment, as well as other functions. The user plane entity may be connected to IP services 150 for one or more network operators. IP services 150 may include access to the internet, intranets, IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS), or packet switched streaming services.

Some of the network devices, such as base stations 105, may include subcomponents such as an access network entity 140, which access network entity 140 may be an example of an Access Node Controller (ANC). Each access network entity 140 may communicate with UEs 115 through one or more other access network transport entities 145, which may be referred to as radio heads, smart radio heads, or transmission/reception points (TRPs). Each access network transport entity 145 may include one or more antenna panels. In some configurations, the various functions of each access network entity 140 or base station 105 may be distributed across various network devices (e.g., radio heads and ANCs) or incorporated into a single network device (e.g., base station 105).

As described herein, the base station 105 may include one or more components located at a single physical location or one or more components located at various physical locations, and any one or more of these components may be referred to herein as a network entity or network device. In examples where base station 105 includes components located at various physical locations, the various components may each perform various functions such that the various components collectively perform functions similar to base station 105 located at a single physical location. Thus, the base stations 105 or network entities described herein may equivalently refer to stand-alone base stations (also referred to as monolithic base stations) or base stations 105 that include network entity components located at various physical or virtualized locations (also referred to as decomposed base stations 105). In some implementations, such base stations 105, including network entity components located at various physical locations, may be referred to as or may be associated with a split Radio Access Network (RAN) architecture, such as an open RAN (O-RAN) or a Virtualized RAN (VRAN) architecture. In some implementations, such network entity components of base station 105 may include or refer to one or more of a central unit (or centralized unit CU), a Distributed Unit (DU), or a Radio Unit (RU).

The wireless communication system 100 may operate using one or more frequency bands, typically in the range of 300 megahertz (MHz) to 300 gigahertz (GHz). Typically, the region from 300MHz to 3GHz is referred to as the very high frequency (UHF) region or the decimeter band, since its wavelength ranges from about 1 decimeter to 1 meter in length. UHF waves may be blocked or redirected by building and environmental features, but these waves may be sufficient to penetrate the building for the macrocell to serve UEs 115 located indoors. Transmission of UHF waves may be associated with smaller antennas and shorter distances (e.g., less than 100 km) than transmission of smaller frequencies and longer wavelengths using High Frequency (HF) or Very High Frequency (VHF) portions of the spectrum below 300 MHz.

The wireless communication system 100 may utilize both licensed and unlicensed radio frequency spectrum bands. For example, the wireless communication system 100 may employ Licensed Assisted Access (LAA), LTE-unlicensed (LTE-U) radio access technology, or NR technology in unlicensed frequency bands (e.g., 5GHz industrial, scientific, and medical (ISM) bands). Devices such as base station 105 and UE 115 may employ carrier sensing for collision detection and avoidance when operating in the unlicensed radio frequency spectrum band. In some examples, operation in the unlicensed band may be based on a carrier aggregation configuration in combination with component carriers operating in the licensed band (e.g., LAA). Operations in the unlicensed spectrum may include downlink transmissions, uplink transmissions, P2P transmissions, or D2D transmissions, among others.

Base station 105 or UE 115 may be equipped with multiple antennas that may be used to employ techniques such as transmit diversity, receive diversity, multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communication, or beamforming. The antennas of base station 105 or UE 115 may be located within one or more antenna arrays or antenna panels, which may support MIMO operation or transmit or receive beamforming. For example, one or more base station antennas or antenna arrays may be co-located at an antenna assembly, such as an antenna tower. In some examples, antennas or antenna arrays associated with base station 105 may be located in diverse geographic locations. The base station 105 may have an antenna array with a number of rows and columns of antenna ports that the base station 105 may use to support beamforming for communications with the UE 115. Likewise, UE 115 may have one or more antenna arrays that may support various MIMO or beamforming operations. Additionally or alternatively, the antenna panel may support radio frequency beamforming for signals transmitted via the antenna ports.

Beamforming (which may also be referred to as spatial filtering, directional transmission, or directional reception) is a signal processing technique that may be used at a transmitting device or a receiving device (e.g., base station 105, UE 115) to shape or steer antenna beams (e.g., transmit beams, receive beams) along a spatial path between the transmitting device and the receiving device. Beamforming may be achieved by: signals transmitted via antenna elements of the antenna array are combined such that signals propagating in a particular direction relative to the antenna array experience constructive interference, while other signals experience destructive interference. The adjustment of the signal transmitted via the antenna element may include the transmitting device or the receiving device applying an amplitude offset, a phase offset, or both, to the signal carried via the antenna element associated with the device. The adjustment associated with each of these antenna elements may be defined by a set of beamforming weights associated with a particular orientation (e.g., relative to an antenna array of the transmitting device or the receiving device or relative to some other orientation).

The wireless communication system 100 may be a packet-based network that operates according to a layered protocol stack. In the user plane, communications at the bearer or Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) layer may be IP-based. The Radio Link Control (RLC) layer may perform packet segmentation and reassembly to communicate over logical channels. The Medium Access Control (MAC) layer may perform priority handling and multiplexing of logical channels to transport channels. The MAC layer may also use error detection techniques, error correction techniques, or both to support retransmissions at the MAC layer to improve link efficiency. In the control plane, a Radio Resource Control (RRC) protocol layer may provide establishment, configuration, and maintenance of an RRC connection between the UE 115 and the base station 105 or the core network 130 to support radio bearers for user plane data. At the physical layer, transport channels may be mapped to physical channels.

The UE 115 and the base station 105 may support retransmission of data to increase the likelihood that the data is successfully received. Hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) feedback is a technique for increasing the likelihood that data is received correctly over the communication link 125. HARQ may include a combination of error detection (e.g., using Cyclic Redundancy Check (CRC)), forward Error Correction (FEC), and retransmission (e.g., automatic repeat request (ARQ)). HARQ may improve throughput at the MAC layer under poor radio conditions (e.g., low signal and noise conditions). In some examples, a device may support the same slot HARQ feedback, where the device may provide HARQ feedback in a particular slot for data received in a previous symbol in that slot. In other cases, the device may provide HARQ feedback in a subsequent time slot or according to some other time interval.

The wireless communication system 100 may be an example of NTN. For example, the wireless communication system 100 may include a base station 105 (e.g., a non-terrestrial base station) that functions as an NTN node. In some examples, the NTN node may communicate with a base station 105 (also referred to as a gateway in NTN) and a UE 115 (or other high altitude or terrestrial communication device). The NTN node may be any suitable type of communication device configured to relay communications between different end nodes in a wireless communication system. In some cases, NTN nodes may be examples of space satellites, balloons, airships, aircraft, drones, unmanned aerial vehicles, and the like. In some examples, the NTN node may be in a geosynchronous or geostationary orbit, a near earth orbit, or a medium earth orbit. In some cases, the NTN node may be a multi-beam satellite configured to provide service for multiple service beam coverage areas in a predefined geographic service area. The NTN node may be at any distance from the surface of the earth.

In some examples, the UE 115 may perform a location acquisition procedure to determine its location within the NTN. This may enable the UE 115 and NTN to determine timing and frequency changes associated with communications between the UE 115 and one or more NTN nodes, which may improve uplink transmission scheduling and coordination. In some examples, UE 115 may perform a location acquisition process using signals sent from GNSS. For example, UE 115 may perform GNSS positioning to determine its position based on signals received from the GNSS. In some examples, UE 115 may perform a location acquisition procedure using network-based positioning techniques. For example, the UE 115 may receive signals (e.g., positioning Reference Signals (PRS)) from one or more NTN nodes (e.g., base stations 105, satellites) or other UEs 115 and may measure delays of the signals (e.g., observed time difference of arrival (OTDOA), reference Signal Time Difference (RSTD)). The UE 115 may send the delay measurements to a location server that calculates the location (e.g., position) of the UE 115 (e.g., a Location Management Function (LMF), an enhanced serving mobile location center (E-SMLC), or a Secure User Plane Location (SUPL) location platform (SLP)). In some examples, the UE 115 may transmit one or more reference signals (e.g., PRSs, sounding Reference Signals (SRS)) to a node (e.g., base station 105, NTN node, second UE 115). The node may make measurements on the reference signals and may send the measurements to the location server using a positioning protocol (e.g., LTE Positioning Protocol (LPP), NR positioning protocol attachment (NRPPa)) message. The location server may be in the core network 130 and may be aware of the location of the NTN node. In some examples, the second UE 115 may include a location server (e.g., LMF, E-SMLC, SLP). Based on the delays indicated by the one or more reference signals and the known location of the NTN node, the location server may determine the location of the UE 115 and may indicate the location of the UE 115 to the UE 115 (e.g., via the base station, the NTN node, or the second UE 115).

In some cases, performing a location acquisition process may be associated with a relatively high level of power consumption. For example, for a UE 115 (e.g., ioT device) operating according to a Discontinuous Reception (DRX) cycle, frequently performing a location acquisition procedure may consume a significant amount of power (e.g., about 30mW to 60mW each time the location acquisition procedure is performed). Accordingly, reducing the frequency at which the location acquisition procedure is performed may improve performance of the UE 115 and reduce power consumption.

Various aspects of the described technology support reducing the frequency with which the UE 115 performs a location acquisition procedure by supporting a location determination procedure based on the relative location of the UE 115. For example, a reference UE 115 in the set of UEs 115 may perform a location acquisition procedure to determine its location, and a non-reference UE 115 in the set of UEs may determine its respective location based on the location of the reference UE 115 and the respective relative location of the non-reference UE 115 with respect to the reference UE 115. In response to determining their respective locations, non-reference UEs 115 may reset respective validity timers that instruct non-reference UEs 115 to perform a location acquisition procedure upon expiration, thereby delaying and reducing the frequency of performance of the location acquisition procedure.

Fig. 2 illustrates an example of a wireless communication system 200 supporting techniques for GNSS positioning in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. The wireless communication system 200 may implement aspects of the wireless communication system 100 or may be implemented by aspects of the wireless communication system 100. For example, wireless communication system 200 may include UE 115-a, UE 115-b, and UE 115-c, which may be examples of UE 115 described with reference to FIG. 1, UE 115-a, UE 115-b, and UE 115-c. In addition, the wireless communication system 200 may include an NTN node 210 and a network 205, which may be examples of NTN nodes and core network 130, respectively, described with reference to fig. 1. The wireless communication system 200 may use relative positioning to support a position determination process to support improvements in power consumption, battery life, processing power, coordination among devices, and resource utilization efficiency, among others.

The wireless communication system 200 may be an example of an NTN in which a UE 115 may communicate with a network 205 via one or more NTN nodes 210. For example, the UE 115 may access the network 205 by transmitting a message (e.g., an uplink message, a downlink message) via one or more of the NTN nodes 210-a through 210-n. In some examples, UE 115 may access network 205 via base station 105 (not shown).

The wireless communication system 200 may support side-uplink communications between UEs 115. For example, each of UEs 115-a, 115-b, and 115-c may transmit a sidelink message via one or more sidelinks (e.g., D2D communication link 135 described with reference to fig. 1). In some examples, wireless communication system 200 may support mode 1 and/or mode 2 side uplink resource allocation modes. Note that for purposes of illustration, the wireless communication system 200 is depicted as including three UEs 115. However, the techniques described herein may be adapted and applied such that wireless communication system 200 may include any number of UEs 115.

In some examples, the UE 115 may be located on a vehicle 215 that travels and thus changes position over time. For example, the vehicle 215 may be an example of a ship, truck, airplane, or some other type of vehicle. In some cases, the location of the UE 115 on the vehicle 215 may be relatively fixed (e.g., static, unchanged over a period of time). For example, if the vehicle 215 is a ship, the UE 115 may be attached to, located in, or located on a shipping container transported by the ship. Thus, as the location of the vehicle 215 changes, the global location of the UE 115 may also change, however, the location of the UE 115 on the vehicle 215 may be relatively unchanged or the locations of the UE 115 may remain relatively close to each other. Thus, the location of the UEs 115 may be derived (e.g., calculated) based on the location of at least one of the UEs 115 (e.g., based on the relative location of the UE 115 with respect to the at least one UE 115).

In some examples, the UE 115 may perform a location acquisition procedure to determine its respective global location and maintain effective time and frequency compensation while the vehicle 215 is traveling. To reduce the frequency at which the location acquisition process is performed, one or more of the UEs 115 may be configured to determine their respective locations based on the relative locations of the UEs 115 with respect to each other.

For example, one or more of the UEs 115 may be selected as a reference UE performing a location acquisition procedure, while other UEs 115 may be selected as non-reference UEs whose locations are determined based on respective relative locations from the non-reference UE to one or more of the reference UEs. The reference UE may be selected according to various techniques. In some examples, the UE 115 may perform the reference UE selection based on the consensus selection or the parameter exchange, or both. For example, each of UEs 115-a, 115-b, and 115-c may broadcast parameter messages 245 to other UEs 115 indicating a set of parameters associated with each respective UE 115 and that may be used in reference UE selection. For example, UE 115-a may broadcast to UE 115-b and UE 115-c a parameter message 245-a indicating a first set of parameters associated with UE 115-a. In some examples, the first set of parameters may include a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of a first signal received at the UE 115-a from a GNSS or from one or more of the NTN nodes 210, a remaining battery power of the UE 115-a, one or more path loss values from the UE 115-a to the UE 115-b and the UE 115-c (e.g., a path loss value indicating a path loss between the UE 115-a and the UE 115-b, a path loss value indicating a path loss between the UE 115-a and the UE 115-c), or a combination thereof. In addition, the UE 115-b may broadcast a parameter message 245-b to the UE 115-a and the UE 115-c indicating a second set of parameters associated with the UE 115-b (e.g., SNR of a second signal received at the UE 115-b from the GNSS or NTN node 210, remaining battery power of the UE 115-b, one or more path loss values from the UE 115-b to the UE 115-a or the UE 115-c, or a combination thereof). Further, the UE 115-c may broadcast a parameter message 245-c to the UE 115-a and the UE 115-b indicating a third set of parameters associated with the UE 115-c (e.g., SNR of a second signal received at the UE 115-c from the GNSS or NTN node 210, remaining battery power of the UE 115-c, one or more path loss values from the UE 115-c to the UE 115-a or the UE 115-b, or a combination thereof).

The UEs 115 may select which one or more of the UEs 115 are to be used as reference UEs based on the set of parameters indicated via the parameter message 245. For example, the UE 115 may combine the indicated parameter sets and select one or more reference UEs 115 based on the parameter combinations. For example, UE 115 may select UE 115 with a relatively high SNR, a relatively large remaining battery power, a relatively small path loss value, or a combination thereof as the reference UE. In the example of fig. 2, UE 115 may select UE 115-a to operate as a reference UE and may select UE 115-b and UE 115-c to operate as non-reference UEs.

In some examples, the reference UE selection may be performed by the network 205. For example, UEs 115-a, 115-b, and 115-c may each send respective parameter messages 245 (e.g., represented by parameter message 245-d) to network 205 indicating the first parameter set, the second parameter set, and the third parameter set, respectively. The network 205 may combine the indicated parameter sets and may select one or more reference UEs based on the parameter combinations. For example, the network 205 may select a UE 115 having a relatively high SNR, a relatively large remaining battery power, a relatively small path loss value, or a combination thereof as the reference UE. In the example of fig. 2, network 205 may select UE 115-a to operate as a reference UE and may send a selection indication 250 to UE 115-a, UE 115-b, and UE 115-c indicating that UE 115-a is selected as a reference UE. In some examples, selection indication 250 may indicate that UE 115-b and UE 115-c are selected to operate as non-reference UEs.

Based on being selected as the reference UE, the UE 115-a may perform a location acquisition procedure to determine the location of the UE 115-a. In some examples, to perform a location acquisition procedure, the UE 115-a may determine its location using positioning signals sent from GNSS. In some examples, to perform the location acquisition procedure, the UE 115-a may establish a connection with the network 205 and send one or more reference signals to the network indicating delays associated with communicating with the NTN node 210. The network 205 may include a location server that knows the location of the NTN node 210 and, based on the indicated delay and the known location of the NTN node 210, may determine the location of the UE 115-a. In some examples, the network 205 may send (e.g., via one or more of the NTN nodes 210) a location indication 275-a to the UE 115-a to indicate the location of the UE 115-a to the UE 115-a. In some examples, UE 115-c may include a location server 240 that may perform one or more functions of a location server included in network 205. For example, the UE 115-a may send one or more reference signals to the UE 115-c, the UE 115-c may determine the location of the UE 115-a using the location server 240, and send a location indication 275-b to the UE 115-a indicating the location of the UE 115-a. The UE 115-c may be referred to herein as a location management UE based on aspects including the location server 240.

The non-reference UE may determine its respective location based on the respective relative locations of the non-reference UE and the reference UE. For example, the UE 115-b and the UE 115-c may determine their respective locations based on the respective relative locations 235 of the UE 115-b and the UE 115-c and the UE 115-a. The non-reference UE may determine the relative location of the non-reference UE and the reference UE according to various techniques. For example, in some examples, the UE 115-b may determine the relative position 235-a of the UE 115-b and the UE 115-a based on the previous positions of the UE 115-b and the UE 115-a. For example, the UE 115-b may be aware of the previous location of the UE 115-b (e.g., based on performing a previous location acquisition procedure) and the location of the UE 115-a at the previous location of the UE 115-b (e.g., based on previously receiving a location indication 275 indicating the location of the UE 115-a at the previous location of the UE 115-b). The UE 115-b may calculate the relative position 235-a using the previous position of the UE 115-b and the position of the UE 115-a at the previous position of the UE 115-b (e.g., based on the distance between the previous positions). In addition, the UE 115-c may use the previous location of the UE 115-c and the location of the UE 115-a at the previous location of the UE 115-c to calculate the relative location 235-b of the UE 115-c and the UE 115-a.

In some examples, the UE 115-b may determine the relative location 235-a based on receiving a relative location indication 260 indicating the relative location 235-a from a location management UE (e.g., UE 115-c) or the network 205. For example, UE 115-b may send measurement message 255 (e.g., measurement message 255-a) to UE 115-c or measurement message 255 (e.g., measurement message 255-b) to network 205 that includes a first set of measurements that may be used to determine relative location 235-a. In some cases, the UE 115-a may send a measurement message 255 (e.g., a message in a positioning protocol such as LPP or NRPPa) to the UE 115-c (e.g., measurement message 255-c) or a measurement message 255 (e.g., measurement message 255-b) to the network 205 that includes a second set of measurements that may be used to determine the relative position 235-a. For example, the first and/or second measurement sets may include Round Trip Times (RTTs) associated with communications between the UE 115-a and the UE 115-b (e.g., times at which signals travel to the UE 115-a or the UE 115-b and acknowledgements of signals to be received at the UE 115-a or the UE 115-b), times of flight associated with communications between the UE 115-a and the UE 115-b (times at which signals travel from the UE 115-a to the UE 115-b or vice versa), OTDOAs or RSTD associated with communications between the UE 115-b and the UE 115-a and communications between the UE 115-c and the UE 115-a, angles of arrival associated with communications between the UE 115-a and the UE 115-b, angles of transmission (e.g., DL-AoD) associated with communications between the UE 115-a and the NTN nodes, or a combination thereof. Based on the indicated measurements, the UE 115-c or the network 205 may determine the distance between the UE 115-a and the UE 115-b and the direction of the distance, and thus may determine the relative location 235-a of the UE 115-b and the UE 115-a. Thus, the UE 115-c may send a relative location indication 260-a, or the network 205 may send a relative location indication 260-b to the UE 115-b indicating the relative location 235-a.

In some examples, measurement message 255-c (e.g., or measurement message 255-b sent from UE 115-a) may include a third set of measurements associated with communications between UE 115-a and UE 115-c. Here, the UE 115-c or the network 205 may use the third set of measurements to determine the relative position 235-b of the UE 115-c and the UE 115-a. In some cases, the network 205 may send a relative location indication 260-b to the UE 115-c indicating the relative location 235-b. In some examples, the UE 115-c may measure a fourth set of measurements associated with communications between the UE 115-a and the UE 115-c, and may calculate the relative position 235-b using the fourth set of measurements.

In some examples, the UE 115-b may determine the relative position 235-a based on a distance between the UE 115-a and the UE 115-b and an orientation of the vehicle 215. For example, the UE 115-b may determine the distance between the UE 115-a and the UE 115-b based on RTT associated with communications between the UE 115-a and the UE 115-b, time of flight associated with communications between the UE 115-a and the UE 115-b, or a combination thereof. In some examples, the orientation of the vehicle 215 may enable the UE 115-b to determine the relative position 235-a based on a distance between the UE 115-a and the UE 115-b (e.g., by indicating a direction of the distance between the UE 115-a and the UE 115-b). In some examples, a location management UE (e.g., UE 115-c) may send an orientation message 265 to UE 115-b indicating an orientation of vehicle 215 to enable UE 115-b to calculate relative location 235-a using a distance between UE 115-a and the orientation of vehicle 215. In some cases, the UE 115-c may determine the relative position 235-b based on a distance between the UE 115-a and the UE 115-c and an orientation of the vehicle 215 that is known to the UE 115-c (e.g., based on being a location management UE).

In some examples, relative position 235 may be configured as a zero distance. Here, the non-reference UE may determine that its location corresponds to (e.g., is within a threshold) the location of the reference UE. For example, UE 115-b and UE 115-c may determine their respective locations to be the same as the location of UE 115-a. For example, while the actual locations of the UE 115-b and the UE 115-c may be different from the location of the UE 115-a, the actual locations of the UE 115-a, the UE 115-b, and the UE 115-c may be close enough that the UE 115-a, the UE 115-b, and the UE 115-c may experience similar timing and frequency changes, and thus the time and frequency offsets of the UE 115-a, the UE 115-b, and the UE 115-c may be similar. Accordingly, in some cases, UEs 115-b and 115-c may be configured to determine the location whose respective location corresponds to UE 115-a based on relative location 235 being configured as a zero distance (e.g., to reduce signaling overhead between UEs 115, improve resource utilization, or reduce power consumption, among other benefits).

In some examples, the non-reference UE may calculate its own location based on the location of the reference UE and the relative location of the non-reference UE and the reference UE. For example, the UE 115-b may receive a location indication 275-d from the UE 115-a or a location indication 275-c from the UE 115-c indicating the location of the UE 115-a. The UE 115-b may use the location of the UE 115-a and the determined relative location 235-a to determine the location of the UE 115-b. In some examples, the UE 115-c may calculate the location and relative location 235-b of the UE 115-a based on managing the UE as a location, and the location of the UE 115-c may be determined using the location and relative location 235-b of the UE 115-a.

In some examples, a non-reference UE may determine its location based on receiving an indication of its location from a location management UE. For example, the location management UE may determine the location of the non-reference UE using the location of the reference UE (e.g., calculated by the location management UE) and the relative location of the non-reference UE and the reference UE (e.g., calculated by the location management UE), and may send an indication of the location of the non-reference UE thereto. For example, the UE 115-c may calculate the location of the UE 115-b and may send a location indication 270-a to the UE 115-b indicating the location of the UE 115-b. In some examples, the network 205 may use the location of the UE 115-a and the relative location 235-a to calculate the location of the UE 115-b and may send a location indication 270-b to the UE 115-b indicating the location of the UE 115-b.

In some examples, UE 115-a may be an example of a location management UE (e.g., may include aspects of location server 240). Here, UE 115-a may perform the functions of the location management UE described herein (e.g., determining relative location 235, sending directional message 265, sending location indication 275, etc.).

The non-reference UE may reset a validity timer associated with performing the location acquisition procedure in response to determining its location. For example, UEs 115-b and 115-c may reset respective validity timers in response to determining their respective locations, wherein expiration of the respective validity timers instructs UEs 115-b and 115-c to perform a location acquisition procedure, respectively.

In some examples, different UEs 115 may be selected over time as reference UEs. For example, the reference UE selection may be performed periodically. Alternatively, the reference UE selection may be performed based on a change to the set of measurements (e.g., a change to the SNR, remaining battery power, or path loss value of the UE 115). Based on the change to the reference UE 115, the UE 115 may determine a new relative location (e.g., if the UE 115-c is selected as the reference UE, the relative locations of the UE 115-b and the UE 115-c), may determine its corresponding location based on the new relative location, and reset its corresponding validity timer.

Based on determining their respective locations, UEs 115-a, 115-b, and 115-c may determine a time offset, a frequency offset, or a combination thereof associated with sending an uplink message to network 205. Thus, UE 115-a, UE 115-b, or UE 115-c may transmit uplink message 280 according to time backoff, frequency backoff, or a combination thereof.

FIG. 3 illustrates an example of a communication sequence 300 supporting techniques for GNSS positioning in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. The communication sequence 300 may be implemented by aspects of the wireless communication systems 100 and 200 as described with reference to fig. 1 and 2, respectively. For example, the communication sequence 300 may be implemented by the UE 115 to reduce the frequency at which the acquisition process is performed, which may provide improvements in power consumption, battery life, processing power, coordination among devices, and resource utilization efficiency, among other benefits.

The communication sequence 300 depicts example operations performed by a non-reference UE to reduce the frequency at which a location acquisition procedure is performed. For example, at 305, UE 115 may perform a location acquisition procedure 305 to determine the location of UE 115. UE 115 may initiate timer 320 and, in some examples, may initiate timer 325 in response to performing a location acquisition procedure. Timer 320 may correspond to a validity timer of UE 115. The timer 320 may be associated with a duration 330 corresponding to expiration of the timer 320. That is, if the timer 320 runs for at least the duration 330, and thus expires, the UE 115 may be triggered to perform a location acquisition procedure.

Each time UE 115 determines its location, UE 115 may reset and reinitiate timer 320, and each time UE 115 performs a location acquisition procedure, UE 115 may reset and reinitiate timer 325. For example, at 310, UE 115 may determine its location based on the relative locations of UE 115 and the reference UE. In response, UE 115 may reset and reinitiate timer 320. Because UE 115 resets timer 320, UE 115 may refrain from performing the location acquisition procedure after duration 330. The UE 115 may continue to reset and reinitiate the timer 320 each time the UE 115 determines its location based on the relative location or performs a location acquisition procedure.

However, the UE 115 may not reset the timer 325 in response to determining its location based on the relative location of the UE 115. Instead, UE 115 may reset timer 325 in response to performing the location acquisition procedure. In some examples, timer 325 may trigger UE 115 to perform a location acquisition procedure, e.g., even if UE 115 has recently determined its location based on a relative location. For example, when UE 115 determines its location based on the relative location (e.g., repeatedly), timer 325 may continue to run and may expire when the associated duration is run. In response, UE 115 may perform a location acquisition procedure, although timer 320 has not expired. In this way, the UE 115 may periodically perform a location acquisition procedure, for example, to ensure that the location of the UE 115 is correct in the event that an illegal UE 115 spoofs or hives the functionality of a reference UE. In some examples, timer 325 may have a longer duration than timer 320.

FIG. 4 illustrates an example of a process flow 400 supporting techniques for GNSS positioning in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. The process flow 400 may implement aspects of the wireless communication systems 100 and 200 as described with reference to fig. 1 and 2, respectively, or may be implemented by aspects of the wireless communication systems 100 and 200. For example, process flow 400 may be implemented by network 405, UEs 115-d, UEs 115-f, and UEs 115-g to support location determination using relative locations, which may provide improvements in power consumption, battery life, processing power, coordination among devices, and resource utilization efficiency, among other benefits.

The network 405 may be an example of the core network 130 or the network 205 described with reference to fig. 1 and 2. The UEs 115-d, 115-f, and 115-g may be examples of the UE 115 described with reference to fig. 1-3. In the following description of process flow 400, operations may be performed in a different order or at different times. Some operations may also be omitted from process stream 400, while other operations may also be added to process stream 400.

At 410, each of UEs 115-d, 115-f, and 115-g may broadcast measurements to other UEs 115. The measurements may include SNR of signals received from GNSS at each of the UEs 115, remaining battery power of the UEs 115, path loss values associated with communications between the UEs 115, or a combination thereof.

At 415, the UE 115-d, the UE 115-f, and the UE 115-g may instead send measurements to the network 405 (e.g., via one or more NTN nodes).

At 420, a reference UE selection procedure may be performed. For example, the UEs 115-d, 115-f, and 115-g may select one or more of the UEs 115 to operate as reference UEs and select the remaining UEs 115 to operate as non-reference UEs based on the broadcasted measurements. Alternatively, the network 405 may select one or more of the UEs 115 to operate as reference UEs based on the received measurements. Here, the network 405 may send selection indications to UEs 115-d, 115-f, and 115-g to indicate which UEs 115 are to operate as reference UEs and which UEs 115 are to operate as non-reference UEs. In the example of fig. 4, UE 115-d may be selected as the reference UE.

At 425, the UE 115-d may operate to perform a location acquisition procedure to determine the location of the UE 115-d based on the selected reference UE. In some examples, the UE 115-d may use signals sent from GNSS to determine the location of the UE 115-d. In some other examples, the UE 115-d may determine the location of the UE 115-d using network-based positioning techniques.

At 430, the UE 115-f may determine a relative position of the UE 115-f and the UE 115-d. In some examples, the UE 115-f may calculate the relative position based on the previous positions of the UE 115-d and the UE 115-f. In some examples, the UE 115-f may calculate the relative position based on the distance between the UE 115-d and the UE 115-f and the orientation of the vehicle in which the UE 115-d, the UE 115-f, and the UE 115-g are located. For example, the UE 115-g may operate as a location management UE, and may send an orientation of the vehicle to the UE 115-f, which the UE 115-f may use to determine the relative location. In some examples, the UE 115-g may send an indication of the relative location to the UE 115-f. For example, the UE 115-f and/or the UE 115-d may send measurements to the UE 115-g based on the UE 115-g acting as a location management UE, the measurements including RTT of communications between the UE 115-d and the UE 115-f, time of flight of communications between the UE 115-d and the UE 115-f, angle of arrival of communications between the UE 115-d and the UE 115-f, or a combination thereof. The UE 115-g may determine the relative position based on the measurements and may send an indication of the relative position to the UE 115-f. In some examples, the relative position may be configured as a zero distance, and the UE 115-f may determine the relative distance as a zero distance based on the configuration.

At 435, the UE 115-f may determine the location of the UE 115-f. For example, the location of the UE 115-f may be calculated using the location of the UE 115-d (e.g., indicated via the UE 115-d broadcasting the location of the UE 115-d or an indication of the location of the UE 115-d sent via the UE 115-g) and the relative location of the UE 115-f and the UE 115-d. Alternatively, based on acting as a location management UE, the UE 115-g may calculate the location of the UE 115-f using the location and the relative location of the UE 115-d, and may send an indication of the location of the UE 115-f to the UE 115-f. Alternatively, the network 405 may use the location and relative location of the UE 115-d to calculate the location of the UE 115-f and may send an indication of the location of the UE 115-f to the UE 115-f.

At 440, UE 115-f may reset the validity timer in response to determining its location.

At 445, the UE 115-f may send an uplink message to the network 405 according to the time offset, frequency offset, or both, determined based on the location of the UE 115-f.

FIG. 5 illustrates a block diagram 500 of an apparatus 505 supporting techniques for GNSS positioning in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. The device 505 may be an example of aspects of the UE 115 as described herein. The device 505 may include a receiver 510, a transmitter 515, and a communication manager 520. The device 505 may also include a processor. Each of these components may be in communication with each other (e.g., via one or more buses).

The receiver 510 may provide means for receiving information (such as packets, user data, control messages, or any combination thereof) associated with various information channels (e.g., control channels, data channels, information channels related to techniques for GNSS positioning). The information may be passed to other components of the device 505. The receiver 510 may utilize a single antenna or may utilize a set of multiple antennas.

The transmitter 515 may provide a means for transmitting signals generated by other components of the device 505. For example, the transmitter 515 may transmit information (such as packets, user data, control messages, or any combination thereof) associated with various information channels (e.g., control channels, data channels, information channels related to techniques for GNSS positioning). In some examples, the transmitter 515 may be co-located with the receiver 510 in the transceiver module. The transmitter 515 may utilize a single antenna or a set of multiple antennas.

The communication manager 520, receiver 510, transmitter 515, or various combinations thereof, or various components thereof, may be examples of means for performing aspects of the techniques for GNSS positioning described herein. For example, the communication manager 520, the receiver 510, the transmitter 515, or various combinations or components thereof may support methods for performing one or more of the functions described herein.

In some examples, the communication manager 520, the receiver 510, the transmitter 515, or various combinations or components thereof may be implemented in hardware (e.g., in communication management circuitry). The hardware may include processors, digital Signal Processors (DSPs), application Specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs), field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) or other programmable logic devices, discrete gate or transistor logic devices, discrete hardware components, or any combinations thereof, configured or otherwise supported for performing the functions described in the present disclosure. In some examples, a processor and a memory coupled to the processor may be configured to perform one or more of the functions described herein (e.g., by the processor executing instructions stored in the memory).

Additionally or alternatively, in some examples, the communication manager 520, the receiver 510, the transmitter 515, or various combinations or components thereof may be implemented in code (e.g., as communication management software or firmware) that is executed by a processor. If implemented in code executed by a processor, the functions of the communication manager 520, the receiver 510, the transmitter 515, or various combinations or components thereof, may be performed by a general purpose processor, a DSP, a Central Processing Unit (CPU), an ASIC, an FPGA, or any combination of these or other programmable logic devices (e.g., units configured or otherwise supporting the functions described in this disclosure).

In some examples, the communication manager 520 may be configured to perform various operations (e.g., receive, monitor, transmit) using the receiver 510, the transmitter 515, or both, or otherwise in cooperation with the receiver 510, the transmitter 515, or both. For example, communication manager 520 may receive information from receiver 510, send information to transmitter 515, or be integrated with receiver 510, transmitter 515, or a combination of both to receive information, send information, or perform various other operations as described herein.

According to examples as disclosed herein, the communication manager 520 may support wireless communication at the first UE. For example, the communication manager 520 may be configured or otherwise support means for initiating a timer based on performing a location acquisition procedure using GNSS to determine a first location of the first UE, wherein expiration of the timer indicates that the first UE performs the location acquisition procedure. The communication manager 520 may be configured or otherwise support means for determining a second location of the first UE based on a relative location of the first UE and the second UE before the timer expires. The communication manager 520 may be configured or otherwise support means for resetting the timer in response to determining the second location of the first UE.

Additionally or alternatively, the communication manager 520 may support wireless communication at the UE according to examples as disclosed herein. For example, the communication manager 520 may be configured or otherwise support means for broadcasting one or more parameters associated with a UE to a set of UEs including the UE. The communication manager 520 may be configured or otherwise support means for performing a location acquisition procedure based on selecting a UE from a set of UEs to perform the location acquisition procedure, wherein the UE is selected based on the broadcasted one or more parameters. The communication manager 520 may be configured or otherwise support a means for communicating information associated with a location capture process.

By including or configuring the communication manager 520 according to examples as described herein, the device 505 (e.g., a processor that controls or is otherwise coupled to the receiver 510, the transmitter 515, the communication manager 520, or a combination thereof) may support techniques for reducing processing, reducing power consumption, and more efficiently utilizing communication resources. For example, by supporting GNSS position determination based on relative position to a reference UE, the frequency with which the UE performs the position acquisition process may be reduced, thereby reducing processing, power consumption, and resource usage associated with performing the position acquisition process.

FIG. 6 illustrates a block diagram 600 of an apparatus 605 supporting techniques for GNSS positioning in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. The device 605 may be an example of aspects of the device 505 or UE 115 as described herein. The device 605 may include a receiver 610, a transmitter 615, and a communication manager 620. The device 605 may also include a processor. Each of these components may be in communication with each other (e.g., via one or more buses).

The receiver 610 may provide means for receiving information (such as packets, user data, control messages, or any combination thereof) associated with various information channels (e.g., control channels, data channels, information channels related to techniques for GNSS positioning). Information may be passed to other components of the device 605. The receiver 610 may utilize a single antenna or may utilize a set of multiple antennas.

The transmitter 615 may provide a means for transmitting signals generated by other components of the device 605. For example, the transmitter 615 may transmit information (such as packets, user data, control messages, or any combination thereof) associated with various information channels (e.g., control channels, data channels, information channels related to techniques for GNSS positioning). In some examples, the transmitter 615 may be co-located with the receiver 610 in the transceiver module. The transmitter 615 may utilize a single antenna or a set of multiple antennas.

The device 605 or various components thereof may be an example of a unit for performing aspects of the techniques for GNSS positioning as described herein. For example, the communication manager 620 can include a location component 625, a timer component 630, a parameter component 635, a communication component 640, or any combination thereof. The communication manager 620 may be an example of aspects of the communication manager 520 as described herein. In some examples, the communication manager 620 or various components thereof may be configured to perform various operations (e.g., receive, monitor, transmit) using the receiver 610, the transmitter 615, or both, or otherwise in cooperation with the receiver 610, the transmitter 615, or both. For example, the communication manager 620 may receive information from the receiver 610, send information to the transmitter 615, or be integrated with the receiver 610, the transmitter 615, or a combination of both to receive information, send information, or perform various other operations as described herein.

According to examples as disclosed herein, the communication manager 620 may support wireless communication at the first UE. The timer component 630 may be configured or otherwise support means for initiating a timer based on performing a location acquisition procedure using GNSS to determine a first location of a first UE, wherein expiration of the timer indicates that the first UE performs the location acquisition procedure. The location component 625 may be configured or otherwise support means for determining a second location of the first UE based on the relative locations of the first UE and the second UE before the timer expires. The timer component 630 may be configured or otherwise support means for resetting a timer in response to determining the second location of the first UE.

Additionally or alternatively, the communication manager 620 may support wireless communication at the UE according to examples as disclosed herein. The parameter component 635 may be configured or otherwise support means for broadcasting one or more parameters associated with a UE to a set of UEs including the UE. The location component 625 may be configured or otherwise support means for performing a location acquisition procedure based on selecting a UE from a set of UEs to perform the location acquisition procedure, wherein the UE is selected based on the broadcasted one or more parameters. The communication component 640 can be configured or otherwise support means for communicating information associated with a location capture process.

FIG. 7 illustrates a block diagram 700 of a communication manager 720 supporting techniques for GNSS positioning in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. Communication manager 720 may be an example of aspects of communication manager 520, communication manager 620, or both described herein. The communication manager 720 or various components thereof may be an example of a means for performing aspects of the techniques for GNSS positioning as described herein. For example, the communication manager 720 can include a location component 725, a timer component 730, a parameter component 735, a communication component 740, a relative location component 745, a measurement component 750, a selection component 755, a distance component 760, an orientation component 765, or any combination thereof. Each of these components may be in communication with each other directly or indirectly (e.g., via one or more buses).

According to examples as disclosed herein, the communication manager 720 may support wireless communication at the first UE. The timer component 730 may be configured or otherwise support means for initiating a timer based on performing a location acquisition procedure using GNSS to determine a first location of a first UE, wherein expiration of the timer indicates that the first UE performs the location acquisition procedure. The location component 725 may be configured or otherwise support means for determining a second location of the first UE based on a relative location of the first UE and the second UE before the timer expires. The timer component 730 may be configured or otherwise support means for resetting a timer in response to determining the second location of the first UE.

In some examples, the second UE is selected from a set of UEs including the first UE and the second UE to perform the second location acquisition procedure using GNSS, the second location of the first UE being determined based on the selection of the second UE from the set of UEs to perform the second location acquisition procedure.

In some examples, the relative position component 745 may be configured or otherwise support means for calculating a relative position of the first UE and the second UE based on a previous position of the first UE and a position of the second UE at the previous position of the first UE.

In some examples, the measurement component 750 may be configured or otherwise support means for transmitting a measurement set to a network, a second UE, or a third UE in a set of UEs including the first UE, the second UE, and the third UE, the measurement set including RTT associated with communications between the first UE and the second UE, time of flight associated with communications between the first UE and the second UE, angle of arrival associated with communications between the first UE and the second UE, or a combination thereof. In some examples, the relative position component 745 may be configured or otherwise support means for receiving an indication of a relative position of the first UE and the second UE from the network, the second UE, or the third UE based on the set of measurements.

In some examples, the relative position component 745 may be configured or otherwise support means for calculating a relative position of the first UE and the second UE based on a distance from the first UE to the second UE, an orientation of a vehicle in which the first UE and the second UE are located, or a combination thereof.

In some examples, the distance component 760 may be configured or otherwise support means for determining a distance from the first UE to the second UE based on RTT associated with communication between the first UE and the second UE or time of flight associated with communication between the first UE and the second UE.

In some examples, the orientation component 765 may be configured or otherwise support means for receiving an indication of an orientation of the vehicle from a second UE or a third UE in a set of UEs including the first UE, the second UE, and the third UE.

In some examples, a relative position of the first UE and the second UE to determine the second position of the first UE is configured to be a zero distance. In some examples, to support determining the second location of the first UE, the location component 725 may be configured or otherwise support means for determining that the second location of the first UE corresponds to the location of the second UE based on the relative location of the first UE and the second UE being configured as a zero distance.

In some examples, to support determining a location of a first UE, the location component 725 may be configured or otherwise support means for calculating a second location of the first UE based on the location of the second UE and a relative location of the first UE and the second UE.

In some examples, the location component 725 may be configured or otherwise support means for receiving an indication of a location of the second UE from a network, the second UE, or a third UE in a set of UEs including the first UE, the second UE, and the third UE.

In some examples, the location component 725 may be configured or otherwise support means for receiving an indication of a second location of the first UE from a third UE in the network, the second UE, or a set of UEs including the first UE, the second UE, and the third UE, wherein determining the second location of the first UE is based on receiving the indication.

In some examples, parameter component 735 may be configured or otherwise support means for transmitting a first set of parameters to a network, the first set of parameters including an SNR of a signal received from a GNSS, a remaining battery power of a first UE, one or more path loss values associated with communicating with a set of UEs including the first UE and a second UE, or a combination thereof. In some examples, the selection component 755 may be configured or otherwise enabled to receive, from the network, an indication that the second UE is selected from the set of UEs to perform the second location acquisition procedure using GNSS based on the first set of parameters.

In some examples, parameter component 735 may be configured or otherwise support means for broadcasting a first indication of a first set of parameters to a set of UEs including a first UE and a second UE, the first set of parameters including an SNR of a first signal received from a GNSS at the first UE, a remaining battery power of the first UE, one or more pathloss values from the first UE to the set of UEs, or a combination thereof. In some examples, the parameter component 735 may be configured or otherwise support means for receiving one or more second indications of one or more second parameter sets from one or more UEs of the set of UEs including at least the second UE, the one or more second parameter sets including SNR of second signals received from GNSS at respective ones of the one or more UEs, remaining battery power of the respective UEs, one or more path loss values from the respective UEs to the set of UEs, or a combination thereof. In some examples, the selection component 755 may be configured or otherwise enabled to select the second UE to perform the second location acquisition procedure using GNSS based on the first set of parameters and the one or more second sets of parameters.

In some examples, the location component 725 may be configured or otherwise support means for determining a third location of the first UE after resetting the timer based on: the first UE is in a second relative position to a third UE in a set of UEs including the first UE, the second UE, and the third UE is selected from the set of UEs to perform a second position acquisition procedure using GNSS. In some examples, the timer component 730 may be configured or otherwise support means for resetting the timer in response to determining the second location of the first UE.

In some examples, the location component 725 may be configured or otherwise support means for performing a second location acquisition procedure using GNSS to determine a third location of the first UE based on expiration of a second timer, wherein the timer has a first duration that is shorter than a second duration of the second timer.

In some examples, the communication component 740 may be configured or otherwise support means for transmitting an uplink message to the network, wherein the time offset, frequency offset, or combination thereof associated with transmitting the uplink message is based on a second location of the first UE, the second location determined based on a relative location of the first UE and the second UE.

Additionally or alternatively, according to examples as disclosed herein, the communication manager 720 may support wireless communication at the UE. The parameter component 735 may be configured or otherwise support means for broadcasting one or more parameters associated with a UE to a set of UEs including the UE. In some examples, the location component 725 may be configured or otherwise support means for performing a location acquisition procedure based on selecting a UE from a set of UEs to perform the location acquisition procedure, wherein the UE is selected based on the broadcasted one or more parameters. The communication component 740 can be configured or otherwise support means for communicating information associated with a location capture process.

In some examples, to support performing a location acquisition process, the location component 725 may be configured or otherwise support means for determining a location of the UE using signals sent from GNSS.

In some examples, communications component 740 may be configured or otherwise support means for determining, based on the location of the UE, time offset, frequency offset, or a combination thereof associated with transmitting uplink messages to one or more non-terrestrial base stations.

In some examples, to support performing a location acquisition procedure, the location component 725 may be configured or otherwise support means for establishing a connection with a network and receiving an indication of a location of the UE from a location server of the network based on establishing the connection.

In some examples, a second UE in the set of UEs includes a location server, and the indication of the location of the UE is received from the second UE.

In some examples, to support the transfer of information associated with the location acquisition process, the communication component 740 may be configured or otherwise support means for broadcasting the location of the UE to the set of UEs.

In some examples, parameter component 735 may be configured to or otherwise support means for receiving one or more indications of one or more parameter sets from one or more UEs of the set of UEs, the one or more parameter sets including SNR ratios of signals received from GNSS at respective ones of the one or more UEs, remaining battery power of the respective UEs, one or more path loss values from the respective UEs to the set of UEs, or a combination thereof. In some examples, the selection component 755 may be configured or otherwise support means for selecting a UE to perform a location acquisition procedure based on one or more parameters and one or more parameter sets.

In some examples, the one or more parameters include an SNR of the first signal received at the UE from the GNSS, a remaining battery power of the UE, one or more path loss values from the UE to the set of UEs, or a combination thereof.

Fig. 8 illustrates a schematic diagram of a system 800 including a device 805 supporting techniques for GNSS positioning, in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. Device 805 may be or include examples of components of device 505, device 605, or UE 115 described herein. The device 805 may communicate wirelessly with one or more base stations 105, UEs 115, or any combination thereof. Device 805 may include components for bi-directional voice and data communications, including components for sending and receiving communications, such as a communications manager 820, an input/output (I/O) controller 810, a transceiver 815, an antenna 825, a memory 830, code 835, and a processor 840. These components may be in electronic communication or otherwise (e.g., operatively, communicatively, functionally, electronically, electrically) coupled via one or more buses (e.g., bus 845).

The I/O controller 810 may manage input and output signals for the device 805. The I/O controller 810 may also manage peripheral devices not integrated into the device 805. In some cases, I/O controller 810 may represent a physical connection or port to an external peripheral device. In some cases, I/O controller 810 may utilize a controller such as, for example Such as an operating system or another known operating system. Additionally or alternatively, the I/O controller 810 may represent or interact with a modem, keyboard, mouse, touch screen, or similar device. In some cases, I/O controller 810 may be implemented as part of a processor, such as processor 840. In some cases, a user may interact with device 805 via I/O controller 810 or via hardware components controlled by I/O controller 810.

In some cases, the device 805 may include a single antenna 825. However, in some other cases, the device 805 may have more than one antenna 825, the antennas 925 being capable of sending or receiving multiple wireless transmissions simultaneously. The transceiver 815 may communicate bi-directionally via one or more antennas 825, wired or wireless links as described herein. For example, transceiver 815 may represent a wireless transceiver and may communicate bi-directionally with another wireless transceiver. The transceiver 815 may also include a modem to modulate packets, provide the modulated packets to one or more antennas 825 for transmission, and demodulate packets received from the one or more antennas 825. The transceiver 815 or transceiver 815 and one or more antennas 825 may be examples of a transmitter 515, a transmitter 615, a receiver 510, a receiver 610, or any combination or component thereof, as described herein.

Memory 830 may include Random Access Memory (RAM) or Read Only Memory (ROM). Memory 830 may store computer-readable, computer-executable code 835 comprising instructions that when executed by processor 840 cause device 805 to perform the various functions described herein. Code 835 can be stored in a non-transitory computer-readable medium such as system memory or another type of memory. In some cases, code 835 may not be directly executable by processor 840, but may cause a computer (e.g., when compiled and executed) to perform the functions described herein. In some cases, memory 830 may contain a basic I/O system (BIOS) or the like, which may control basic hardware or software operations, such as interactions with peripheral components or devices.

Processor 840 may include intelligent hardware devices (e.g., general purpose processors, DSP, CPU, GPU, microcontrollers, ASICs, FPGAs, programmable logic devices, discrete gate or transistor logic components, discrete hardware components, or any combinations thereof). In some examples, processor 840 may be configured to operate a memory array using a memory controller. In some other cases, a memory controller may be integrated into processor 840. Processor 840 may be configured to execute computer-readable instructions stored in a memory (e.g., memory 830) to cause device 805 to perform various functions (e.g., functions or tasks supporting techniques for GNSS positioning). For example, device 805 or components of device 805 may include a processor 840 and a memory 830 coupled to processor 840, processor 840 and memory 830 configured to perform the various functions described herein.

According to examples as disclosed herein, the communication manager 820 may support wireless communication at the first UE. For example, the communication manager 820 may be configured or otherwise support means for initiating a timer based on performing a location acquisition procedure using GNSS to determine a first location of a first UE, wherein expiration of the timer indicates that the first UE performs the location acquisition procedure. The communication manager 820 may be configured or otherwise support means for determining a second location of the first UE based on a relative location of the first UE and the second UE before expiration of the timer. The communications manager 820 may be configured or otherwise support means for resetting the timer in response to determining the second location of the first UE.

Additionally or alternatively, communication manager 820 may support wireless communication at a UE according to examples as disclosed herein. For example, communication manager 820 may be configured or otherwise support means for broadcasting one or more parameters associated with a UE to a set of UEs including the UE. The communications manager 820 may be configured or otherwise support means for performing a location acquisition procedure based on selecting a UE from a set of UEs to perform the location acquisition procedure, wherein the UE is selected based on one or more parameters that are broadcast. The communication manager 820 may be configured or otherwise support a means for communicating information associated with a location capture process.

By including or configuring the communication manager 820 according to examples as described herein, the device 805 may support techniques for improved power consumption, battery life, processing power, coordination among devices, and resource utilization efficiency, among other benefits.

In some examples, communication manager 820 may be configured to perform various operations (e.g., receive, monitor, transmit) using or in cooperation with transceiver 815, one or more antennas 825, or any combination thereof. Although communication manager 820 is shown as a separate component, in some examples, one or more of the functions described with reference to communication manager 820 may be supported or performed by processor 840, memory 830, code 835, or any combination thereof. For example, code 835 may include instructions executable by processor 840 to cause device 805 to perform aspects of techniques for GNSS positioning as described herein, or processor 840 and memory 830 may be otherwise configured to perform or support such operations.

FIG. 9 shows a flow chart illustrating a method 900 of supporting techniques for GNSS positioning in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. The operations of method 900 may be implemented by a first UE or component thereof as described herein. For example, the operations of method 900 may be performed by UE 115 as described with reference to fig. 1-8. In some examples, the UE may execute a set of instructions to control functional elements of the UE to perform the described functions. Additionally or alternatively, the UE may use dedicated hardware to perform aspects of the described functionality.

At 905, the method may include initiating a timer based on performing a location acquisition procedure using GNSS to determine a first location of the first UE, wherein expiration of the timer indicates that the first UE performs the location acquisition procedure. The operations of 905 may be performed according to examples as disclosed herein. In some examples, aspects of the operation of 905 may be performed by the timer component 730 as described with reference to fig. 7.

At 910, the method may include: before the timer expires, a second location of the first UE is determined based on the relative locations of the first UE and the second UE. The operations of 910 may be performed according to examples as disclosed herein. In some examples, aspects of the operation of 910 may be performed by the location component 725 as described with reference to fig. 7.

At 915, the method may include resetting the timer in response to determining the second location of the first UE. The operations of 915 may be performed according to examples as disclosed herein. In some examples, aspects of the operation of 915 may be performed by the timer component 730 as described with reference to fig. 7.

FIG. 10 shows a flow chart illustrating a method 1000 of supporting techniques for GNSS positioning in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. The operations of method 1000 may be implemented by a first UE or component thereof as described herein. For example, the operations of method 1000 may be performed by UE 115 as described with reference to fig. 1-8. In some examples, the UE may execute a set of instructions to control functional elements of the UE to perform the described functions. Additionally or alternatively, the UE may use dedicated hardware to perform aspects of the described functionality.

At 1005, the method may include initiating a timer based on performing a location acquisition procedure using a GNSS to determine a first location of the first UE, wherein expiration of the timer indicates that the first UE performs the location acquisition procedure. Operations of 1005 may be performed according to examples as disclosed herein. In some examples, aspects of the operation of 1005 may be performed by timer component 730 as described with reference to fig. 7.

At 1010, the method may include calculating a relative position of the first UE with respect to the second UE based on a previous position of the first UE and a position of the second UE at the previous position of the first UE. The operations of 1010 may be performed according to examples as disclosed herein. In some examples, aspects of the operation of 1010 may be performed by the relative position component 745 as described with reference to fig. 7.

At 1015, the method may include: before expiration of the timer, a second location of the first UE is determined based on a relative location of the first UE and a second UE, wherein the second UE is selected from a set of UEs including the first UE and the second UE to perform a location acquisition procedure using GNSS. The operations of 1015 may be performed according to examples as disclosed herein. In some examples, aspects of the operation of 1015 may be performed by the location component 725 as described with reference to fig. 7.

At 1020, the method may include resetting a timer in response to determining the second location of the first UE. Operations of 1020 may be performed according to examples as disclosed herein. In some examples, aspects of the operation of 1020 may be performed by timer component 730 as described with reference to fig. 7.

FIG. 11 shows a flow chart illustrating a method 1100 supporting techniques for GNSS positioning in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. The operations of the method 1100 may be implemented by a first UE or components thereof as described herein. For example, the operations of method 1100 may be performed by UE 115 as described with reference to fig. 1-8. In some examples, the UE may execute a set of instructions to control functional elements of the UE to perform the described functions. Additionally or alternatively, the UE may use dedicated hardware to perform aspects of the described functionality.

At 1105, the method may include initiating a timer based on performing a location acquisition procedure using the GNSS to determine a first location of the first UE, wherein expiration of the timer indicates that the first UE performs the location acquisition procedure. The operations of 1105 may be performed according to examples as disclosed herein. In some examples, aspects of the operation of 1105 may be performed by timer component 730 as described with reference to fig. 7.

At 1110, the method may include: transmitting to the network, a second UE of a set of UEs including the first UE, or a third UE of the set of UEs, a set of measurements including RTTs associated with communications between the first UE and the second UE, a time of flight associated with communications between the first UE and the second UE, an angle of arrival associated with communications between the first UE and the second UE, or a combination thereof. The operations of 1110 may be performed according to examples as disclosed herein. In some examples, aspects of the operation of 1110 may be performed by the measurement component 750 described with reference to fig. 7.

At 1115, the method may include: based on the set of measurements, an indication of a relative position of the first UE and the second UE is received from the network, the second UE, or the third UE. The operation of 1115 may be performed according to examples as disclosed herein. In some examples, aspects of the operation of 1115 may be performed by the relative position component 745 as described with reference to fig. 7.

At 1120, the method may include: before the timer expires, a second location of the first UE is determined based on the relative locations of the first UE and the second UE. The operations of 1120 may be performed according to examples as disclosed herein. In some examples, aspects of the operation of 1120 may be performed by the location component 725 as described with reference to fig. 7.

At 1125, the method may include resetting a timer in response to determining the second location of the first UE. The operations of 1125 may be performed according to examples as disclosed herein. In some examples, aspects of the operation of 1125 may be performed by timer component 730 as described with reference to fig. 7.

FIG. 12 shows a flow chart illustrating a method 1200 of supporting techniques for GNSS positioning in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. The operations of method 1200 may be implemented by a first UE or component thereof as described herein. For example, the operations of method 1200 may be performed by UE 115 as described with reference to fig. 1-8. In some examples, the UE may execute a set of instructions to control functional elements of the UE to perform the described functions. Additionally or alternatively, the UE may use dedicated hardware to perform aspects of the described functionality.

At 1205, the method may include initiating a timer based on performing a location acquisition procedure using the GNSS to determine a first location of the first UE, wherein expiration of the timer indicates that the first UE performs the location acquisition procedure. Operations of 1205 may be performed in accordance with examples disclosed herein. In some examples, aspects of the operation of 1205 may be performed by the timer component 730 as described with reference to fig. 7.

At 1210, the method may include: before the timer expires, a second location of the first UE is determined based on the relative locations of the first UE and the second UE. The operations of 1210 may be performed according to examples as disclosed herein. In some examples, aspects of the operation of 1210 may be performed by the location component 725 as described with reference to fig. 7.

At 1215, to determine the second location of the first UE, the method may include calculating the second location of the first UE based on the location of the second UE and the relative locations of the first UE and the second UE. The operations of 1215 may be performed according to examples as disclosed herein. In some examples, aspects of the operation of 1215 may be performed by the location component 725 as described with reference to fig. 7.

At 1220, the method may include resetting a timer in response to determining the second location of the first UE. The operations of 1220 may be performed according to examples as disclosed herein. In some examples, aspects of the operation of 1220 may be performed by timer component 730 as described with reference to fig. 7.

Fig. 13 shows a flow chart illustrating a method 1300 of supporting techniques for GNSS positioning in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. The operations of method 1300 may be implemented by a UE or components thereof as described herein. For example, the operations of method 1300 may be performed by UE 115 as described with reference to fig. 1-8. In some examples, the UE may execute a set of instructions to control functional elements of the UE to perform the described functions. Additionally or alternatively, the UE may use dedicated hardware to perform aspects of the described functionality.

At 1305, the method may include broadcasting one or more parameters associated with the UE to a set of UEs including the UE. The operations of 1305 may be performed according to examples as disclosed herein. In some examples, aspects of the operation of 1305 may be performed by parameter component 735 as described with reference to fig. 7.

At 1310, the method may include: the location acquisition procedure is performed based on selecting a UE from a set of UEs to perform the location acquisition procedure, wherein the UE is selected based on the broadcasted one or more parameters. Operations of 1310 may be performed according to examples as disclosed herein. In some examples, aspects of the operation of 1310 may be performed by the location component 725 as described with reference to fig. 7.

At 1315, the method may include transmitting information associated with a location capture process. The operations of 1315 may be performed according to examples as disclosed herein. In some examples, aspects of the operation of 1315 may be performed by communication component 740 described with reference to fig. 7.

FIG. 14 shows a flow chart illustrating a method 1400 of supporting techniques for GNSS positioning in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. The operations of method 1400 may be implemented by a UE or components thereof as described herein. For example, the operations of method 1400 may be performed by UE 115 as described with reference to fig. 1-8. In some examples, the UE may execute a set of instructions to control functional elements of the UE to perform the described functions. Additionally or alternatively, the UE may use dedicated hardware to perform aspects of the described functionality.

At 1405, the method can include broadcasting one or more parameters associated with the UE to a set of UEs including the UE. 1405 may be performed according to examples as disclosed herein. In some examples, aspects of the operation of 1405 may be performed by parameter component 735 as described with reference to fig. 7.

At 1410, the method may include: the location acquisition procedure is performed based on selecting a UE from a set of UEs to perform the location acquisition procedure, wherein the UE is selected based on the broadcasted one or more parameters. The operations of 1410 may be performed according to examples as disclosed herein. In some examples, aspects of the operation of 1410 may be performed by location component 725 as described with reference to fig. 7.

At 1415, to perform a position acquisition process, the method may include determining a position of the UE using signals transmitted from the GNSS. The operations of 1415 may be performed according to examples as disclosed herein. In some examples, aspects of the operation of 1415 may be performed by the location component 725 as described with reference to fig. 7.

At 1420, the method may include transmitting information associated with a location capture process. Operations of 1420 may be performed according to examples as disclosed herein. In some examples, aspects of the operation of 1420 may be performed by the communication component 740 described with reference to fig. 7.

The following provides an overview of some aspects of the disclosure:

Aspect 1: a method for wireless communication at a first UE, comprising: initiating a timer based at least in part on performing a position acquisition procedure using GNSS to determine a first position of the first UE, wherein expiration of the timer indicates that the first UE performs the position acquisition procedure; prior to the expiration of the timer, determining a second location of the first UE based at least in part on a relative location of the first UE and a second UE; and resetting the timer in response to determining the second location of the first UE.

Aspect 2: the method of claim 1, wherein the second UE is selected from a set of UEs including the first UE and the second UE to perform a second position acquisition procedure using the GNSS, the second position of the first UE being determined based at least in part on the selection of the second UE from the set of UEs to perform the second position acquisition procedure.

Aspect 3: the method of any one of aspects 1-2, further comprising: the relative position of the first UE and the second UE is calculated based at least in part on a previous position of the first UE and a position of the second UE at a time of the previous position of the first UE.

Aspect 4: the method of any one of aspects 1-2, further comprising: transmitting a set of measurements to the network, the second UE, or the third UE of a set of UEs including the first UE, the second UE, and the third UE, the set of measurements including RTTs associated with communications between the first UE and the second UE, time-of-flight associated with communications between the first UE and the second UE, angle-of-arrival associated with communications between the first UE and the second UE, or a combination thereof; and receiving an indication of a location of the first UE relative to the second UE from the network, the second UE, or the third UE based at least in part on the set of measurements.

Aspect 5: the method of any one of aspects 1-2, further comprising: the relative position of the first UE and the second UE is calculated based at least in part on a distance from the first UE to the second UE, an orientation of a vehicle in which the first UE and the second UE are located, or a combination thereof.

Aspect 6: the method of aspect 5, further comprising: a distance from the first UE to the second UE is determined based at least in part on RTT associated with communication between the first UE and the second UE or time of flight associated with communication between the first UE and the second UE.

Aspect 7: the method of any one of aspects 5 to 6, further comprising: an indication of the orientation of the vehicle is received from the second UE or a third UE in a set of UEs including the first UE, the second UE, and the third UE.

Aspect 8: the method of claim 1, wherein the relative location of the first UE to the second UE for determining the second location of the first UE is configured as a zero distance, wherein determining the second location of the first UE comprises: the method further includes determining that the second location of the first UE corresponds to a location of the second UE based at least in part on the relative location of the first UE and the second UE being configured as the zero distance.

Aspect 9: the method of any one of aspects 1-8, wherein determining the second location of the first UE comprises: the location of the first UE is calculated based at least in part on a location of the second UE and the relative locations of the first UE and the second UE.

Aspect 10: the method of aspect 9, further comprising: an indication of the location of the second UE is received from the third UE in a network, the second UE, or a set of UEs including the first UE, the second UE, and a third UE.

Aspect 11: the method of any one of aspects 1 to 8, further comprising: an indication of the location of the first UE is received from the network, the second UE, or a third UE in a set of UEs including the first UE, the second UE, and a third UE, wherein determining the second location of the first UE is based at least in part on receiving the indication.

Aspect 12: the method of any one of aspects 1 to 11, further comprising: transmitting a first set of parameters to a network, the first set of parameters comprising an SNR of a signal received from the GNSS, a remaining battery power of the first UE, one or more pathloss values associated with communicating with a set of UEs comprising the first UE and the second UE, or a combination thereof; and receiving, from the network, an indication that the second UE is selected from the set of UEs to perform a second position acquisition procedure using the GNSS based at least in part on the first set of parameters.

Aspect 13: the method of any one of aspects 1 to 11, further comprising: broadcasting a first indication of a first set of parameters to a set of UEs including the first UE and the second UE, the first set of parameters including an SNR of a first signal received at the first UE from the GNSS, a remaining battery power of the first UE, one or more pathloss values from the first UE to the set of UEs, or a combination thereof; receiving one or more second indications of one or more second sets of parameters from one or more UEs of the set of UEs including at least the second UE, the one or more second sets of parameters including SNR of second signals received from the GNSS at respective ones of the one or more UEs, remaining battery power of the respective UEs, one or more path loss values from the respective UEs to the set of UEs, or a combination thereof; and selecting the second UE to perform a second location acquisition procedure using the GNSS based at least in part on the first set of parameters and the one or more second sets of parameters.

Aspect 14: the method of any one of aspects 1 to 13, further comprising: after resetting the timer, determining a third location of the first UE based at least in part on: a second relative position of the first UE and a third UE in a set of UEs including the first UE, the second UE, and the third UE is selected from the set of UEs to perform a second position acquisition procedure using the GNSS; and resetting the timer in response to determining the second location of the first UE.

Aspect 15: the method of any one of aspects 1-14, further comprising: a second location acquisition procedure is performed using the GNSS based at least in part on expiration of a second timer to determine a third location of the first UE, wherein the timer has a first duration that is shorter than a second duration of the second timer.

Aspect 16: the method of any one of aspects 1 to 15, further comprising: an uplink message is sent to a network, wherein a time offset, a frequency offset, or a combination thereof associated with sending the uplink message is based at least in part on the second location of the first UE, the second location being determined based at least in part on the relative locations of the first UE and the second UE.

Aspect 17: a method for wireless communication at a UE, comprising: broadcasting one or more parameters associated with the UE to a set of UEs including the UE; and performing a location acquisition procedure based at least in part on selecting the UE from the set of UEs to perform a location acquisition procedure, wherein the UE is selected based at least in part on the broadcasted one or more parameters; and transmitting information associated with the location capture process.

Aspect 18: the method of aspect 17, wherein performing the location capture process comprises: signals transmitted from GNSS are used to determine the location of the UE.

Aspect 19: the method of aspect 18, further comprising: a time offset, a frequency offset, or a combination thereof associated with transmitting an uplink message to one or more non-terrestrial base stations is determined based at least in part on the location of the UE.

Aspect 20: the method of aspect 17, wherein performing the location capture process comprises: establishing a connection with a network; and receiving an indication of a location of the UE from a location server of the network based at least in part on establishing the connection.

Aspect 21: the method of claim 20, wherein a second UE in the set of UEs includes the location server and the indication of the location of the UE is received from the second UE.

Aspect 22: the method of any of aspects 17-21, wherein transmitting the information associated with the location capture process comprises: broadcasting the location of the UE to the set of UEs.

Aspect 23: the method of any one of aspects 17 to 22, further comprising: receiving one or more indications of one or more parameter sets from one or more UEs of the set of UEs, the one or more parameter sets including SNR of signals received from GNSS at respective ones of the one or more UEs, remaining battery power of the respective UEs, one or more path loss values from the respective UEs to the set of UEs, or a combination thereof; and selecting the UE to perform the location acquisition procedure based at least in part on the one or more parameters and the one or more parameter sets.

Aspect 24: the method of any of claims 17-23, wherein the one or more parameters include: an SNR of a first signal received at the UE from a GNSS, a remaining battery power of the UE, one or more path loss values from the UE to the set of UEs, or a combination thereof.

Aspect 25: an apparatus for wireless communication at a first UE, comprising: a processor; a memory coupled to the processor; and instructions stored in the memory and executable by the processor to cause the apparatus to perform the method of any one of aspects 1 to 16.

Aspect 26: an apparatus for wireless communication at a first UE, comprising at least one unit for performing the method of any one of aspects 1 to 16.

Aspect 27: a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing code for wireless communication at a first UE, the code comprising instructions executable by a processor to perform the method of any one of aspects 1 to 16.

Aspect 28: an apparatus for wireless communication at a UE, comprising: a processor; a memory coupled to the processor; and instructions stored in the memory and executable by the processor to cause the apparatus to perform the method of any one of aspects 17 to 24.

Aspect 29: an apparatus for wireless communication at a UE, comprising at least one unit to perform the method of any one of aspects 17 to 24.

Aspect 30: a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing code for wireless communication at a UE, the code comprising instructions executable by a processor to perform the method of any of aspects 17 to 24.

It should be noted that the methods described herein describe possible implementations, and that operations and steps may be rearranged or otherwise modified, as well as other implementations are possible. Furthermore, aspects from two or more of the methods may be combined.

Although aspects of the LTE, LTE-A, LTE-a Pro or NR system may be described for purposes of example, and LTE, LTE-A, LTE-aPro or NR terminology may be used in much of the description, the techniques described herein are applicable beyond LTE, LTE-A, LTE-a Pro or NR networks. For example, the described techniques may be applicable to various other wireless communication systems such as Ultra Mobile Broadband (UMB), institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 (Wi-Fi), IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX), IEEE 802.20, flash-OFDM, and other systems and radio technologies not explicitly mentioned herein.

The information and signals described herein may be represented using any of a variety of different technologies and techniques. For example, data, instructions, commands, information, signals, bits, symbols, and chips that may be referenced throughout the above description may be represented by voltages, currents, electromagnetic waves, magnetic fields or particles, optical fields or particles, or any combination thereof.

The various illustrative blocks and components described in connection with the disclosure herein may be implemented or performed with a general purpose processor, DSP, ASIC, CPU, FPGA or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof, designed to perform the functions described herein. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but in the alternative, the processor may be any processor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. A processor may also be implemented as a combination of computing devices (e.g., a combination of a DSP and a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in conjunction with a DSP core, or any other such configuration).

The functions described herein may be implemented in hardware, software executed by a processor, firmware, or any combination thereof. If implemented in software for execution by a processor, the functions may be stored on or transmitted over as one or more instructions or code on a computer-readable medium. Other examples and implementations are within the scope of the present disclosure and the appended claims. For example, due to the nature of software, the functions described herein may be implemented using software executed by a processor, hardware, firmware, hardwired or a combination of any of these items. Features that implement the functions may also be physically located at various locations including being distributed such that each portion of the functions are implemented at different physical locations.

Computer-readable media includes both non-transitory computer storage media and communication media including any medium that facilitates transfer of a computer program from one place to another. Non-transitory storage media may be any available media that can be accessed by a general purpose or special purpose computer. By way of example, and not limitation, non-transitory computer-readable media can comprise RAM, ROM, electrically Erasable Programmable ROM (EEPROM), flash memory, compact Disk (CD) ROM or other optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other non-transitory medium that can be used to carry or store desired program code elements in the form of instructions or data structures and that can be accessed by a general-purpose or special-purpose computer, or a general-purpose or special-purpose processor. Further, any connection is properly termed a computer-readable medium. For example, if the software is transmitted from a website, server, or other remote source using a coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, digital Subscriber Line (DSL), or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio, and microwave, then the coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, DSL, or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio, and microwave are included in the definition of computer-readable medium. Disk and disc, as used herein, includes CD, laser disc, optical disc, digital Versatile Disc (DVD), floppy disk and blu-ray disc where disks usually reproduce data magnetically, while discs reproduce data optically with lasers. Combinations of the above are also included within the scope of computer-readable media.

As used herein (including in the claims), an "or" as used in a list of items (e.g., a list of items ending with a phrase such as "at least one of" or "one or more of") indicates an inclusive list, such that, for example, a list of at least one of A, B or C means a or B or C or AB or AC or BC or ABC (i.e., a and B and C). Furthermore, as used herein, the phrase "based on" should not be construed as a reference to a closed condition set. For example, example steps described as "based on condition a" may be based on both condition a and condition B without departing from the scope of the present disclosure. In other words, as used herein, the phrase "based on" should be interpreted in the same manner as the phrase "based at least in part on".

The term "determining (determine)" or "determining" encompasses a wide variety of actions, and thus "determining" may include calculating, computing, processing, deriving, studying, querying (e.g., via querying in a table, database, or other data structure), ascertaining, and the like. Further, "determining" may also include receiving (e.g., receiving information), accessing (e.g., accessing data in a memory), and so forth. Further, "determining" may also include resolving, selecting, choosing, establishing, and other similar actions.

In the drawings, similar components or features may have the same reference numerals. Further, various components of the same type may be distinguished by following the reference label by a dash and a second label that distinguishes among the similar components. If only the first reference label is used in the specification, the description applies to any one of the similar components having the same first reference label without regard to the second reference label or other subsequent reference labels.

The description set forth herein in connection with the appended drawings describes example configurations and is not intended to represent all examples that may be implemented or within the scope of the claims. The term "example" as used herein means "serving as an example, instance, or illustration," rather than "preferred" or "advantageous over other examples. The detailed description includes specific details for the purpose of providing an understanding of the described technology. However, the techniques may be practiced without these specific details. In some instances, well-known structures and devices are shown in block diagram form in order to avoid obscuring the concepts of the examples.

The description herein is provided to enable any person skilled in the art to make or use the disclosure. Various modifications to the disclosure will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, and the generic principles defined herein may be applied to other variations without departing from the scope of the disclosure. Thus, the disclosure is not limited to the examples and designs described herein but is to be accorded the widest scope consistent with the principles and novel features disclosed herein.

Claims (30)

1. A method for wireless communication at a first User Equipment (UE), comprising:

Initiating a timer based at least in part on performing a position acquisition procedure using a global navigation satellite system to determine a first position of the first UE, wherein expiration of the timer indicates that the first UE performs the position acquisition procedure;

Prior to the expiration of the timer, determining a second location of the first UE based at least in part on a relative location of the first UE and a second UE; and

The timer is reset in response to determining the second location of the first UE.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the second UE is selected from a set of UEs including the first UE and the second UE to perform a second position acquisition procedure using the global navigation satellite system, the second position of the first UE being determined based at least in part on the second UE being selected from the set of UEs to perform the second position acquisition procedure.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

The relative position of the first UE and the second UE is calculated based at least in part on a previous position of the first UE and a position of the second UE at the previous position of the first UE.

4. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

Transmitting a set of measurements to the network, the second UE, or a third UE of a set of UEs including the first UE, the second UE, and the third UE, the set of measurements including a round trip time associated with a communication between the first UE and the second UE, a time of flight associated with the communication between the first UE and the second UE, an angle of arrival associated with the communication between the first UE and the second UE, or a combination thereof; and

An indication of the relative position of the first UE and the second UE is received from the network, the second UE, or the third UE based at least in part on the set of measurements.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

The relative position of the first UE and the second UE is calculated based at least in part on a distance from the first UE to the second UE, an orientation of a vehicle in which the first UE and the second UE are located, or a combination thereof.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

The distance from the first UE to the second UE is determined based at least in part on a round trip time associated with a communication between the first UE and the second UE or a time of flight associated with the communication between the first UE and the second UE.

7. The method of claim 5, further comprising:

An indication of the orientation of the vehicle is received from the second UE or a third UE in a set of UEs including the first UE, the second UE, and a third UE.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the relative location of the first UE to the second UE for determining the second location of the first UE is configured as a zero distance, wherein determining the second location of the first UE comprises:

the method further includes determining that the second location of the first UE corresponds to a location of the second UE based at least in part on the relative location of the first UE and the second UE being configured as the zero distance.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the second location of the first UE comprises:

the second location of the first UE is calculated based at least in part on a location of the second UE and the relative locations of the first UE and the second UE.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

an indication of the location of the second UE is received from a network, the second UE, or the third UE in a set of UEs including the first UE, the second UE, and the third UE.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

An indication of the second location of the first UE is received from a network, the second UE, or the third UE in a set of UEs including the first UE, the second UE, and a third UE, wherein determining the second location of the first UE is based at least in part on receiving the indication.

12. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

Transmitting a first set of parameters to a network, the first set of parameters comprising a signal-to-noise ratio of signals received from the global navigation satellite system, a remaining battery power of the first UE, one or more pathloss values associated with communicating with a set of UEs comprising the first UE and the second UE, or a combination thereof; and

An indication is received from the network that the second UE is selected from the set of UEs to perform a second location acquisition procedure using the global navigation satellite system based at least in part on the first set of parameters.

13. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

Broadcasting a first indication of a first set of parameters to a set of UEs including the first UE and the second UE, the first set of parameters including a signal-to-noise ratio of a first signal received at the first UE from the global navigation satellite system, a remaining battery power of the first UE, one or more path loss values from the first UE to the set of UEs, or a combination thereof;

Receiving one or more second indications of one or more second sets of parameters from one or more UEs of the set of UEs including at least the second UE, the one or more second sets of parameters including a signal-to-noise ratio of a second signal received from the global navigation satellite system at a respective UE of the one or more UEs, a remaining battery power of the respective UE, one or more path loss values from the respective UE to the set of UEs, or a combination thereof; and

The second UE is selected to perform a second location acquisition procedure using the global navigation satellite system based at least in part on the first set of parameters and the one or more second sets of parameters.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

After resetting the timer, determining a third location of the first UE based at least in part on: a second relative position of the first UE and a third UE in a set of UEs including the first UE, the second UE, and the third UE is selected from the set of UEs to perform a second position acquisition procedure using the global navigation satellite system; and

The timer is reset in response to determining the second location of the first UE.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

A second location acquisition procedure is performed using the global navigation satellite system to determine a third location of the first UE based at least in part on expiration of a second timer, wherein the timer has a first duration that is shorter than a second duration of the second timer.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

An uplink message is sent to a network, wherein a time offset, a frequency offset, or a combination thereof associated with sending the uplink message is based at least in part on the second location of the first UE, the second location being determined based at least in part on the relative locations of the first UE and the second UE.

17. A method for wireless communication at a User Equipment (UE), comprising:

Broadcasting one or more parameters associated with the UE to a set of UEs including the UE;

Performing a location acquisition procedure based at least in part on selecting the UE from the set of UEs to perform the location acquisition procedure, wherein the UE is selected based at least in part on the broadcasted one or more parameters; and

Information associated with the location capture process is transmitted.

18. The method of claim 17, wherein performing the location capture process comprises:

the location of the UE is determined using signals transmitted from a global navigation satellite system.

19. The method of claim 18, further comprising:

a time offset, a frequency offset, or a combination thereof associated with transmitting an uplink message to one or more non-terrestrial base stations is determined based at least in part on the location of the UE.

20. The method of claim 17, wherein performing the location capture process comprises:

Establishing a connection with a network; and

An indication of a location of the UE is received from a location server of the network based at least in part on establishing the connection.

21. The method of claim 20, wherein a second UE in the set of UEs comprises the location server and the indication of the location of the UE is received from the second UE.

22. The method of claim 17, wherein transmitting the information associated with the location capture process comprises:

broadcasting the location of the UE to the set of UEs.

23. The method of claim 17, further comprising:

Receiving one or more indications of one or more parameter sets from one or more UEs of the set of UEs, the one or more parameter sets including a signal-to-noise ratio of signals received from a global navigation satellite system at respective ones of the one or more UEs, a remaining battery power of the respective UEs, one or more path loss values from the respective UEs to the set of UEs, or a combination thereof; and

The UE is selected to perform the location acquisition procedure based at least in part on the one or more parameters and the one or more parameter sets.

24. An apparatus for wireless communication at a first User Equipment (UE), comprising:

A processor;

a memory coupled to the processor; and

Instructions stored in the memory and executable by the processor to cause the apparatus to:

Initiating a timer based at least in part on performing a position acquisition procedure using a global navigation satellite system to determine a first position of the first UE, wherein expiration of the timer indicates that the first UE performs the position acquisition procedure;

Prior to the expiration of the timer, determining a second location of the first UE based at least in part on a relative location of the first UE and a second UE; and

The timer is reset in response to determining the second location of the first UE.

25. The apparatus of claim 24, wherein the second UE is selected from a set of UEs including the first UE and the second UE to perform a second position acquisition procedure using the global navigation satellite system, the second position of the first UE determined based at least in part on the second UE being selected from the set of UEs to perform the second position acquisition procedure.

26. The apparatus of claim 24, wherein the instructions are further executable by the processor to cause the apparatus to:

The relative position of the first UE and the second UE is calculated based at least in part on a previous position of the first UE and a position of the second UE at the previous position of the first UE.

27. The apparatus of claim 24, wherein the instructions are further executable by the processor to cause the apparatus to:

transmitting a set of measurements to the network, the second UE, or the third UE of a set of UEs including the first UE, the second UE, and the third UE, the set of measurements including a round trip time associated with a communication between the first UE and the second UE, a time of flight associated with the communication between the first UE and the second UE, an angle of arrival associated with the communication between the first UE and the second UE, or a combination thereof; and

An indication of the relative position of the first UE and the second UE is received from the network, the second UE, or the third UE based at least in part on the set of measurements.

28. The apparatus of claim 24, wherein the instructions are further executable by the processor to cause the apparatus to:

The relative position of the first UE and the second UE is calculated based at least in part on a distance from the first UE to the second UE, an orientation of a vehicle in which the first UE and the second UE are located, or a combination thereof.

29. The apparatus of claim 24, wherein the relative location of the first UE to the second UE for determining the second location of the first UE is configured to be a zero distance, wherein the instructions for determining the second location of the first UE are executable by the processor to cause the apparatus to:

the method further includes determining that the second location of the first UE corresponds to a location of the second UE based at least in part on the relative location of the first UE and the second UE being configured as the zero distance.

30. An apparatus for wireless communication at a User Equipment (UE), comprising:

A processor;

a memory coupled to the processor; and

Instructions stored in the memory and executable by the processor to cause the apparatus to:

Broadcasting one or more parameters associated with the UE to a set of UEs including the UE;

Performing a location acquisition procedure based at least in part on selecting the UE from the set of UEs to perform the location acquisition procedure, wherein the UE is selected based at least in part on the broadcasted one or more parameters; and

Information associated with the location capture process is transmitted.