WO2023047314A1

WO2023047314A1 - Methods and apparatus of processing positioning reference signal

Info

Publication number: WO2023047314A1
Application number: PCT/IB2022/058941
Authority: WO
Inventors: Li Guo
Original assignee: Guangdong Oppo Mobile Telecommunications Corp., Ltd.
Priority date: 2021-09-21
Filing date: 2022-09-21
Publication date: 2023-03-30

Abstract

Methods and systems for reporting an indicator for a positioning measurement result is provided. In some embodiments, the method includes receiving a configuration of a positioning refence signal (PRS) processing window at a terminal device. The configuration can include length of a window instance, periodicity of the PRS window, time or slot offset of the PRS window, reference subcarrier spacing (SCS), and a number of occurrences of a period of the PRS processing window. The method includes processing one or more downlink (DL) PRS resource of the PRS within the PRS processing window and reporting, for each DL positioning measurement result determined from the processing, an indicator indicative of a channel condition of the first DL PRS resource. This method allows the terminal device to measure the DL PRS resource outside a measurement gap, reducing latency of positioning and improving the performance of new radio positioning.

Description

METHODS AND APPARATUS OF PROCESSING

POSITIONING REFERENCE SIGNAL

TECHNICAL FIELD

[0001] The present disclosure relates to predicting confidence of channel conditions. More specifically, the present disclosure is directed to systems and methods for using positioning measurement results to indicate confidence of channel conditions.

BACKGROUND

[0002] Positioning technology is often used in wireless communication systems and navigation systems and is supported by new radio (NR) systems. In NR systems, a terminal device can be configured with one or more downlink (DL) positioning reference signal (PRS) resource sets, each including one or more DL PRS resources. However, the bandwidth of the DL PRS resources can be outside the bandwidth of an active Bandwidth Part (BWP) of the NR system, and the subcarrier spacing of the DL PRS resources may differ from that of the active BWP. Thus, a measurement gap is needed for the terminal device to measure the DL PRS resources. If there is no measurement gap, the terminal device can request the measurement gap through Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling.

[0003] Though a terminal device can request a measurement gap through RRC signaling, this necessity is a bottleneck processing DL PRSs and contributes to physical layer processing latency for the terminal device during positioning measurement. Thus, the latency of NR processing is enlarged, such that the terminal device cannot support low-latency NR positioning services. Further, positioning measurement results may be obtained from a signal passing through a non-line-of- sight channel, and the terminal device may be unable to determine that the positioning measurement results came from a non-line-of-sight channel. In view of these issues, systems and methods for determining channel conditions to process PRSs are desired. SUMMARY

[0004] The present disclosure is related to systems and methods for using positioning measurement results to indicate confidence of channel conditions. Though the following systems and methods are described in relation to positioning processing, in some embodiments, the systems and methods may be used for other processing systems and methods. The present disclosure provides a positioning method and system that does not have any knowledge of whether a reported measurement result is obtained from a non-line-of-light channel or not.

[0005] In some embodiments, a method employs a terminal device to receive a configuration of a PRS processing window. The configuration can include length of a window instance, periodicity of the PRS window, time or slot offset of the PRS window, reference subcarrier spacing (SCS), and a number of occurrences of a period of the PRS processing window. The method includes processing one or more downlink (DL) PRS resource of the PRS within the PRS processing window and reporting, for each DL positioning measurement result determined from the processing, an indicator indicative of a channel condition of the first DL PRS resource. This method allows the terminal device to measure the DL PRS resource outside a measurement gap, reducing latency of positioning and improving the performance of new radio positioning.

[0006] In some embodiments, the present method can be implemented by a tangible, non-transitory, computer-readable medium having processor instructions stored thereon that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform one or more aspects/features of the method described herein. In other embodiments, the present method can be implemented by a system comprising a computer processor and a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing instructions that when executed by the computer processor cause the computer processor to perform one or more actions of the method described herein.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0007] To describe the technical solutions in the implementations of the present disclosure more clearly, the following briefly describes the accompanying drawings. The accompanying drawings show merely some aspects or implementations of the present disclosure, and a person of ordinary skill in the art may still derive other drawings from these accompanying drawings without creative efforts.

[0008] Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of positioning based on a downlink measurement as used by prior art.

[0009] Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of a wireless communication system in accordance with one or more implementations of the present disclosure.

[0010] Fig. 3 is a schematic block diagram of a terminal device in accordance with one or more implementations of the present disclosure.

[0011] Fig. 4 is a flowchart of a first method in accordance with one or more implementations of the present disclosure.

[0012] Fig. 5 is a flowchart of a second method in accordance with one or more implementations of the present disclosure.

[0013] Fig. 6 is a flowchart of a third method in accordance with one or more implementations of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0014] To describe the technical solutions in the implementations of the present disclosure more clearly, the following briefly describes the accompanying drawings. The accompanying drawings show merely some aspects or implementations of the present disclosure, and a person of ordinary skill in the art may still derive other drawings from these accompanying drawings without creative efforts.

[0015] Fig. 1 is a schematic diagram of positioning based on a downlink measurement as used by prior art. Fig. 1 includes a plurality of transmission/reception points (TRPs), a terminal device 103 (also referred to as user equipment herein), and a location server (also referred to location management function or LMF herein). These components were employed in prior art to follow a basic new radio (NR) method. The method includes a first TRP 101 A and the LMF 105 communicate with one another to coordinate downlink (DL) positioning reference signal (PRS) configurations. The first TRP 101 A and the other TRPs 101 in the plurality transmits DL PRS resources based on the configurations. The terminal device 103 receives DL PRS resources transmitted from the TRPs 101 and measure the DL PRS resources. The terminal device 103 also measures DL PRS reference signal received power (RSRP) and reference signal time difference (RSTD). The terminal device 103 reports these measurement results to the LMF 105. Using the measurement results, the LMF 105 calculates the location of the terminal device 103.

[0016] The terminal device 103 may be configured with one or more DL PRS resource sets. Each DL PRS resource set may include one or more DL PRS resources. The terminal device 103 is provided with configuration parameters for each DL PRS resource sets. The parameters include a periodicity parameter, a first muting option parameter, a second muting option parameter, a muting bit parameter, resource repetition parameter, and an offset parameter. The periodicity parameter defines the DL PRS resource periodicity and takes values T_p ^p _c ^ps e 2^{4, 5, 8, 10, 16, 20, 32, 40, 64, 80, 160, 320, 640, 1280, 2560, 5120, 10240} slots, where p =0,1 , 2, 3 for a subcarrier spacings of 15, 30, 60 and 120 kHz, respectively, and the slot offset for DL PRS resource set with respect to System Frame Number (SFN0) slot 0 (SFN0). All the DL PRS resources within one DL PRS resource set are configured with the same DL PRS resource periodicity.

[0017] The first muting option parameter and second muting option parameter define time locations where the DL PRS resource is expected to not be transmitted for a DL PRS resource set. If the first muting option parameter is configured, each bit in its bitmap corresponds to a configurable number provided by the muting bit parameter. The muting bit parameter is consecutive instances of a DL PRS resource set where all DL PRS resources within the set are muted for the instance that is indicated to be muted. The length of the bit map may be {2, 4, 6, 8, 16, 32} bits. If the second muting option parameter is configured, each bit in its bitmap corresponds to a single repetition index for each of the DL PRS resources within each instance of a DL PRS resources set. The length bitmap is equal to the values of all repetition factors for the DL PRS resources. The offset parameter defines the time offset of the SFN0 slot 0 for a transmitting cell with respect to SFN0 slot 0 of a reference cell.

[0018] The bandwidth of a DL PRS resource may be outside the bandwidth of an active bandwidth part (BWP) of the terminal device 103 and the subcarrier spacing used by a DL PRS resource may be different from the subcarrier spacing of the active BWP of the terminal device 103. Given this, a measurement gap is needed for the terminal device 103 to measure DL PRS resources. The measurement gap for positioning is configured through radio resource control (RRC). When the terminal device 103 needs to measure a DL PRS resource and there is no measurement gap, the terminal device 103 can request measurement gap through RRC signaling. This is a bottleneck of processing DL PRS resources at a terminal device 103 and contributes to physical layer processing latency for positioning measurement. Thus, the latency of the NR positioning method described above is enlarged, and the components of Fig. 1 cannot support low-latency NR positioning services. Further, these positioning measurement results may be obtained from a signal passing through a non-line of light channel. These drawbacks are addressed by the implementations of the present disclosure described herein.

[0019] Fig. 2 is a schematic diagram of a wireless communication system 200 in accordance with one or more implementations of the present disclosure. The wireless communication system 200 can implement the positioning systems and methods discussed herein. As shown in Fig. 2, the wireless communications system 200 can include a network device (or base station) 201 . Examples of the network device 201 include a base transceiver station (Base Transceiver Station, BTS), a NodeB (NodeB, NB), an evolved Node B (eNB or eNodeB), a Next Generation NodeB (gNB or gNode B), a Wireless Fidelity (Wi-Fi) access point (AP), etc. In some embodiments, the network device 201 can include a relay station, an access point, an in-vehicle device, a wearable device, and the like. The network device 201 can include wireless connection devices for communication networks such as: a Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) network, a Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) network, a Wideband CDMA (WCDMA) network, an LTE network, a cloud radio access network (Cloud Radio Access Network, CRAN), an Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 -based network (e.g., a Wi-Fi network), an Internet of Things (loT) network, a device-to-device (D2D) network, a next-generation network (e.g., a 5G network), a future evolved public land mobile network (Public Land Mobile Network, PLMN), or the like. A 5G system or network can be referred to as an NR system or network. [0020] In Fig. 2, the wireless communications system 200 also includes a terminal device 203. The terminal device 203 can be an end-user device configured to facilitate wireless communication. The terminal device 203 can be configured to wirelessly connect to the network device 201 (via, e.g., via a wireless channel 205) according to one or more corresponding communication protocols/standards. The terminal device 203 may be mobile or fixed. The terminal device 203 can be a user equipment (UE), an access terminal, a user unit, a user station, a mobile site, a mobile station, a remote station, a remote terminal, a mobile device, a user terminal, a terminal, a wireless communications device, a user agent, or a user apparatus. Examples of the terminal device 203 include a modem, a cellular phone, a smartphone, a cordless phone, a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) phone, a wireless local loop (WLL) station, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a handheld device having a wireless communication function, a computing device or another processing device connected to a wireless modem, an in-vehicle device, a wearable device, an Internet-of-Things (loT) device, a device used in a 5G network, a device used in a public land mobile network, or the like. For illustrative purposes, Fig. 2 illustrates only one network device 201 and one terminal device 203 in the wireless communications system 200. However, in some instances, the wireless communications system 200 can include additional network device 201 and/or terminal device 203.

[0021] Fig. 3 is a schematic block diagram of a terminal device 203 (e.g., which can implement the methods discussed herein) in accordance with one or more implementations of the present disclosure. As shown, the terminal device 203 includes a processing unit 310 (e.g., a DSP, a CPU, a GPU, etc.) and a memory 320. The processing unit 310 can be configured to implement instructions that correspond to the first method 400 of Fig. 4 and/or other aspects of the implementations described above. It should be understood that the processor 310 in the implementations of this technology may be an integrated circuit chip and has a signal processing capability. During implementation, the steps in the foregoing method may be implemented by using an integrated logic circuit of hardware in the processor 310 or an instruction in the form of software. The processor 310 may be a general-purpose processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmable gate array (FPGA) or another programmable logic device, a discrete gate or transistor logic device, and a discrete hardware component. The methods, steps, and logic block diagrams disclosed in the implementations of this technology may be implemented or performed. The general-purpose processor 310 may be a microprocessor, or the processor 310 may be alternatively any conventional processor or the like. The steps in the methods disclosed with reference to the implementations of this technology may be directly performed or completed by a decoding processor implemented as hardware or performed or completed by using a combination of hardware and software modules in a decoding processor. The software module may be located at a random-access memory, a flash memory, a read-only memory, a programmable read-only memory or an electrically erasable programmable memory, a register, or another mature storage medium in this field. The storage medium is located at a memory 320, and the processor 310 reads information in the memory 320 and completes the steps in the foregoing methods in combination with the hardware thereof.

[0022] It may be understood that the memory 320 in the implementations of this technology may be a volatile memory or a non-volatile memory, or may include both a volatile memory and a non-volatile memory. The non-volatile memory may be a readonly memory (ROM), a programmable read-only memory (PROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), an electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM) or a flash memory. The volatile memory may be a random-access memory (RAM) and is used as an external cache. For exemplary rather than limitative description, many forms of RAMs can be used, and are, for example, a static random-access memory (SRAM), a dynamic random-access memory (DRAM), a synchronous dynamic random-access memory (SDRAM), a double data rate synchronous dynamic random-access memory (DDR SDRAM), an enhanced synchronous dynamic random-access memory (ESDRAM), a synchronous link dynamic random-access memory (SLDRAM), and a direct Rambus randomaccess memory (DR RAM). It should be noted that the memories in the systems and methods described herein are intended to include, but are not limited to, these memories and memories of any other suitable type. In some embodiments, the memory may be a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium that stores instructions capable of execution by a processor. [0023] Fig. 4 is a flowchart of a first method 400 in accordance with one or more implementations of the present disclosure. The first method 400 can be implemented by a system (such as the wireless communications system 200). The first method 400 may also be implemented solely by the terminal device 203. The method 400 is for processing a positioning reference signal (PRS) outside a measurement gap, which reduces latency of performing positioning and improves performance of NR positioning. The method may be provided in a 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) NR specification. The PRS is the main reference signal that supports the positioning method employed by the system.

[0024] The first method 400 includes, at block 401 , receiving a configuration of a PRS processing window. The configuration may be received from the network device 201 or from the location server 207. The network device 201 may be a base station, TRP 101 , or serving cell Next Generation NodeB (gNB). A PRS processing window is a mathematical function that is zero-valued outside of an interval of the PRS processing window and is employed to detect peaks within a PRS. The PRS processing window may include one or more instances of the PRS processing window to be used for processing PRS resources. For example, each instance may be used to process a PRS resources. In some embodiments, a new PRS processing window is received for processing each PRS resources.

[0025] The configuration of the PRS processing window may be pre-specified in a specification for the terminal device 203 or the location sever 205, may be provided by a serving cell through radio resource control signaling, or may be provided by the location server 205 in PRS assistance data or a location information request. The configuration of the PRS processing window may include one or more of a length of each PRS processing window instance, a periodicity of the PRS processing window, a time offset or slot offset for the PRS processing window, a reference subcarrier spacing (SCS), and a number of occurrences of a period of the PRS processing window. The length is the length of one PRS processing window and can be in milliseconds, number of orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing symbols, or number of slots and may be provided with a reference SCS. The periodicity is the repetition period of the PRS processing window and is the periodicity at which the PRS processing repeats. The periodicity may be in milliseconds, number of slots, number of frames, or number of sub-frames. The time or slot offset points to a starting location of each PRS processing window. The number of occurrences defines how many periods the PRS processing will happen for before stopping.

[0026] At block 403, the first method 400 continues by processing a first downlink (DL) PRS resource of the PRS within the PRS processing window. The DL PRS resource is a portion of the PRS that was sent to the terminal device 203. In some embodiments, the first DL PRS resource may have higher priority than other DL channels or signals with the PRS processing window such that the first method 400 may be employed before other DL channels or signals are processed. These other DL channels or signals may include one or more of a physical DL control channel (PDCCH), physical DL shared channel (PDSCH), and a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS). Within a configured PRS processing window, downlink PRS resource or synchronization signal/physical broadcast channel (SS/PBCH) according to a priority rule. The outcome of the processing is one or more DL positioning measurement results, which describe a position determined based on the PRS.

[0027] At block 405, the first method 400 continues by reporting, for each positioning measurement result determined from the processing, an indicator (e.g., to the terminal device 203 or the location server 205). The indicator describes a channel condition of the PRS used to obtain the corresponding positioning measurement result. The channel condition describes the channel properties of the communication link between the terminal device 203 and the network device 201 that sent the PRS. For example, the channel condition may include information about how signals propagate over the communication link and represents the effect of scattering, fading, power decay, etc. that occurs over distance.

[0028] In indicator may take a variety of forms. For example, the indicator may indicate whether the positioning measurement result is from a line-of-sight channel (e.g., a value of 1 ) or a non-line-of-sight channel (e.g., a value of 0). In another example, the indicator may include a confidence level of the channel condition. In yet another example, the indicator is one of a set of candidate values, where the set of candidate values include non-line-of-sight channel, close to non-line-of-sight channel, line-of-sight channel, close to line-of-sight channel, and a mixture of line-of-sight and non-line-of-sight channel. In another example, the indicator is a value between 0 and 1 based on a step size, where the value is indicative of the confidence level. In some instances, the value may indicate the confidence level of a line-of-sight channel. In others, the value indicates the confidence level of a non-line-of-sight channel. In some embodiments, the method continues by processing more DL PRS resources from the PRS within the PRS processing window (or another PRS processing window received from the network device 201 ) and reporting an indicator of a channel condition for each DL positioning measurement result determined by processing an associated DL PRS resource.

[0029] The terminal device 203 may report an indicator for a PRS-reference signal received power (RSRP) measurement result (i.e., a DL angle of departure measurement result). The terminal device 203 may also report such an indicator for a reference signal time (RSTD) difference measurement result (i.e., a DL difference time of arrival measurement result) a Rx-Tx (received-transmitted) time difference measurement result (i.e., a multi-round trip time measurement result), a gNB Rx-Tx time difference measurement result, an SRS-RSRP measurement result, and/or an uplink angle of arrival measurement result.

[0030] In some embodiments, additional or alternative steps to those shown in Fig. 4 may be employed as part of the first method 400. For example, in some embodiments, the first method 400 includes receiving, from the location server 205 or network device 201 , configuration information indicative of DL PRS resources to process in the configured PRS processing window and an outside measurement gap. The outside measurement gap may be needed to perform inter-frequency and/or inter- RAT (radio access technology) processing for the DL PRS. In some embodiments, the configuration information indicates to process all PRS resources of the PRS in the configured PRS processing window. In some embodiments, the configuration information indicates to process only the first DL PRS resource in the configured PRS processing window.

[0031] For example, the location server 205 can indicate that all PRS resources from a network device 201 may be processed in the PRS processing window and may indicate the network device 201 in the configuration information. In one example, the location server 205 can indicate an indicator associated with identification of the network device 201 (dl-PRS-ID). The indicator can indicate that the terminal device 203 can process all the DL PRS resources associated that dl-PRS-ID (or all the DL PRS resources generally) in PRS processing window. In one example, the location server 205 can provide an indicator in information IE-NR-DL-PRS assistance data (or resource set) per network device 205 to indicate this information, where the parameter dl-PRS-process-indicator can be used to indicate an integer of 0 or 1 that is optional. In another example, the location server 205 can indicate an indicator associated with a PRS resource, where the indicator indicates that the terminal device 203 may process that DL PRS in PRS processing window. The terminal device 203 may assume that the PRS resource associated with the same physical cell ID as the serving cell may be processed in the PRS processing window. For PRS resources associated with different physical cell ID as the serving cell, the terminal device 203 may process the PRS resource if indicated to by the location server 205.

[0032] In some embodiments, the terminal device 203 may report an indicator for a line-of-sight or non-line-of-sight channel. In particular, the terminal device may report whether the terminal device 203 supports reporting the indicator. The terminal device 203 may report whether the terminal device 203 supports reporting the indicator for a given positioning method. For example, the terminal device 203 may report whether the terminal device 203 supports reporting the indicator for a DL difference time of arrival measurement, a DL angle of departure measurement, or a multi-round trip time method. In some embodiments, the terminal device 203 may report its capability of using supported candidate values as the indicator. For example, the terminal device 203 may report that the UE supports N (e.g., two, three, four, etc.) candidate values for the indicator. In some embodiments, the terminal device 203 may report the supported step size for the candidate values of the indicator. For example, the UE can report the supported step size of 0.2, 0.25, 0.5, 1 , etc. for the candidate values of the indicator.

[0033] Fig. 5 is a flowchart of a second method 500 in accordance with one or more implementations of the present disclosure. The second method 500 can be implemented by a system (such as the wireless communications system 200). The second method 500 may also be implemented solely by a network device 201. The second method 500 is for processing a positioning reference signal (PRS). [0034] The second method 500 includes, at block 501 , receiving, at a network device, a configuration of a PRS processing window. The configuration may be received from a terminal device 203. At block 503, the second method 500 continues by processing a first uplink (UL) PRS resource of the PRS within the PRS processing window. The UL PRS resource is a portion of the PRS that was sent from a terminal device 203 in the wireless communication system 200 to the network device 201 . In some embodiments, the first UL PRS resource may have higher priority than other UL channels or signals such that the second method 500 may be employed before other UL channels or signals are processed. These other UL channels or signals may include one or more of a physical UL control channel, physical UL shared channel, and a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS). The outcome of the processing is one or more UL positioning measurement results, which describe a position determined based on the PRS.

[0035] At block 505, the second method continues by reporting, for each UL positioning measurement result determined from the processing, an indicator indicative of a channel condition of the first UL PRS resource. For example, the indicator may indicate whether the positioning measurement result is from a line-of- sight channel or a non-line-of-sight channel. In another example, the indicator may include a confidence level of the channel condition. The channel condition describes the channel properties of the communication link between the terminal device 203 and the network device 201 that sent the PRS. In yet another example, the indicator is one of a set of candidate values, where the set of candidate values include non-line- of-sight channel, close to non-line-of-sight channel, line-of-sight channel, close to I ine- of-sight channel, and a mixture of line-of-sight and non-line-of-sight channel. In another example, the indicator is indicator is a value between 0 and 1 based on a step size, where the value is indicative of the confidence level.

[0036] In some embodiments, additional or alternative steps to those shown in Fig. 5 may be employed as part of the second method 500. For example, in some embodiments, the second method 500 includes reporting the indictor for each UL positioning measurement result to the terminal device 203 or the location sever 205.

[0037] Fig. 6 is a flowchart of a third method 600 in accordance with one or more implementations of the present disclosure. The third method 600 can be implemented by a system (such as the wireless communications system 200). The third method 600 may also be implemented solely by the location server 205.

[0038] The third method 600 includes, at block 601 , sending a configuration of a PRS processing window to a terminal device 203 and a network device 201 . In some embodiments, the third method 600 sends a different configuration to each of the terminal device 203 and the network device 201. In other embodiments, the third method 600 sends the same configuration.

[0039] At block 503, the third method 500 continues by receiving a first indicator from the terminal device 203 for each downlink (DL) PRS resource processed at the terminal device 203 based on the configured PRS processing window and a second indicator from the network device 201 for each uplink (UL) PRS resource processed at the network device 201 based on the configured PRS processing window. The first indicator is indicative of a first channel condition of the DL PRS resource, as described in relation to Fig. 4, and the second indicator is indicative of a second channel condition of the UL PRS resource, as described in relation to Fig. 5.

[0040] At block 605, the method continues by determining whether the PRS indicates a blockage based on the first and second channel conditions. For example, an indicator that describes a non-line-of-sight channel, close to non-line-of-sight channel, or a mixture of line-of-sight and non-line-of-sight channel may describe an obstruction (or other blockage) in the way of a communication link. In another example, an indicator of value 0 may indicate that no blockage was detected.

[0041] In some embodiments, additional or alternative steps to those shown in Fig. 6 may be employed as part of the third method 600. For example, in some embodiments, the third method 600 includes determining a position of the terminal device based on the PRS or determining a signal to send to determine a position based on the channel conditions indicated by the indicators.

ADDITIONAL CONSIDERATIONS

[0042] The above Detailed Description of examples of the disclosed technology is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the disclosed technology to the precise form disclosed above. While specific examples for the disclosed technology are described above for illustrative purposes, various equivalent modifications are possible within the scope of the described technology, as those skilled in the relevant art will recognize. For example, while processes or blocks are presented in a given order, alternative implementations may perform routines having steps, or employ systems having blocks, in a different order, and some processes or blocks may be deleted, moved, added, subdivided, combined, and/or modified to provide alternative implementations or subcombinations. Each of these processes or blocks may be implemented in a variety of different ways. Also, while processes or blocks are at times shown as being performed in series, these processes or blocks may instead be performed or implemented in parallel, or may be performed at different times. Further, any specific numbers noted herein are only examples; alternative implementations may employ differing values or ranges.

[0043] In the Detailed Description, numerous specific details are set forth to provide a thorough understanding of the presently described technology. In other implementations, the techniques introduced here can be practiced without these specific details. In other instances, well-known features, such as specific functions or routines, are not described in detail in order to avoid unnecessarily obscuring the present disclosure. References in this description to “an implementation/embodiment,” “one implementation/embodiment,” or the like mean that a particular feature, structure, material, or characteristic being described is included in at least one implementation of the described technology. Thus, the appearances of such phrases in this specification do not necessarily all refer to the same implementation/embodiment. On the other hand, such references are not necessarily mutually exclusive either. Furthermore, the particular features, structures, materials, or characteristics can be combined in any suitable manner in one or more implementations/embodiments. It is to be understood that the various implementations shown in the figures are merely illustrative representations and are not necessarily drawn to scale.

[0044] Several details describing structures or processes that are well-known and often associated with communications systems and subsystems, but that can unnecessarily obscure some significant aspects of the disclosed techniques, are not set forth herein for purposes of clarity. Moreover, although the following disclosure sets forth several implementations of different aspects of the present disclosure, several other implementations can have different configurations or different components than those described in this section. Accordingly, the disclosed techniques can have other implementations with additional elements or without several of the elements described below.

[0045] Many implementations or aspects of the technology described herein can take the form of computer- or processor-executable instructions, including routines executed by a programmable computer or processor. Those skilled in the relevant art will appreciate that the described techniques can be practiced on computer or processor systems other than those shown and described below. The techniques described herein can be implemented in a special-purpose computer or data processor that is specifically programmed, configured, or constructed to execute one or more of the computer-executable instructions described below. Accordingly, the terms “computer” and “processor” as generally used herein refer to any data processor. Information handled by these computers and processors can be presented at any suitable display medium. Instructions for executing computer- or processorexecutable tasks can be stored in or on any suitable computer-readable medium, including hardware, firmware, or a combination of hardware and firmware. Instructions can be contained in any suitable memory device, including, for example, a flash drive and/or other suitable medium.

[0046] The term “and/or” in this specification is only an association relationship for describing the associated objects, and indicates that three relationships may exist, for example, A and/or B may indicate the following three cases: A exists separately, both A and B exist, and B exists separately.

[0047] These and other changes can be made to the disclosed technology in light of the above Detailed Description. While the Detailed Description describes certain examples of the disclosed technology, as well as the best mode contemplated, the disclosed technology can be practiced in many ways, no matter how detailed the above description appears in text. Details of the system may vary considerably in its specific implementation, while still being encompassed by the technology disclosed herein. As noted above, particular terminology used when describing certain features or aspects of the disclosed technology should not be taken to imply that the terminology is being redefined herein to be restricted to any specific characteristics, features, or aspects of the disclosed technology with which that terminology is associated. Accordingly, the invention is not limited, except as by the appended claims. In general, the terms used in the following claims should not be construed to limit the disclosed technology to the specific examples disclosed in the specification, unless the above Detailed Description section explicitly defines such terms. [0048] A person of ordinary skill in the art may be aware that, in combination with the examples described in the implementations disclosed in this specification, units and algorithm steps may be implemented by electronic hardware, or a combination of computer software and electronic hardware. Whether the functions are performed by hardware or software depends on particular applications and design constraint conditions of the technical solutions. A person skilled in the art may use different methods to implement the described functions for each particular application, but it should not be considered that the implementation goes beyond the scope of this application.

[0049] Although certain aspects of the invention are presented below in certain claim forms, the applicant contemplates the various aspects of the invention in any number of claim forms. Accordingly, the applicant reserves the right to pursue additional claims after filing this application to pursue such additional claim forms, in either this application or in a continuing application.

Claims

CLAIMS l/We claim:

1 . A method comprising: receiving, at a terminal device, a configuration of a positioning reference signal (PRS) processing window; processing a first downlink (DL) PRS resource of a PRS within the PRS processing window; and reporting, for each DL positioning measurement result determined from the processing, an indicator indicative of a channel condition of the first DL PRS resource.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: processing a plurality of DL PRS resources; and reporting, for each of the plurality of DL PRS resources, another indicator indicative of a channel condition of the DL PRS resources.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the configuration is received from a location server or a network device and wherein the network device is a base station or a serving cell Next Generation NodeB (gNB).

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the configuration of the PRS processing window includes one or more of: a length of each PRS processing window instance; a periodicity of the PRS processing window; a time offset or slot offset for the PRS processing window; a reference subcarrier spacing (SCS); and a number of occurrences of a period of the PRS processing window.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first DL PRS resource has a higher priority than other DL channels or signals.

6. The method of claim 5, wherein the other DL channels or signals include one or more of a physical DL control channel (PDCCH), physical DL shared channel (PDSCH), and a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS).

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising: receiving configuration information indicative of DL PRS resources to process in the configured PRS processing window and an outside measurement gap.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the configuration information indicates to process all PRS resources of the PRS in the configured PRS processing window.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the configuration information indicates to process all PRS resources in a first DL PRS set in the configured PRS processing window.

10. The method of claim 7, wherein the configuration information indicates to process only the first DL PRS resource in the configured PRS processing window.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein the indicator indicates whether the DL positioning measurement is from a line-of-sight channel or a non-line-of-sight channel.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the indicator includes a confidence level of the channel condition.

13. The method of claim 1 , wherein the indicator is one of a set of candidate values, the set of candidate values including non-line-of-sight channel, close to non-line-of- sight channel, line-of-sight channel, close to line-of-sight channel, and a mixture of line-of-sight and non-line-of-sight channel.

14. The method of claim 1 , wherein the indicator is a value between 0 and 1 based on a step size, the value indicative of the confidence level.

15. A method comprising: receiving, at a network device, a configuration of a positioning reference signal (PRS) processing window; processing a first uplink (UL) PRS resource of a PRS within the PRS processing window; and reporting, for each UL positioning measurement result determined from the processing, an indicator indicative of a channel condition of the first UL PRS resource.

16. The method of claim 15, wherein the indicator indicates that the UL positioning measurement is from a line-of-sight channel.

17. The method of claim 15, wherein the indicator indicates that the UL positioning measurement is from a non-line-of-sight channel.

18. The method of claim 15, wherein the indicator includes a confidence level of the channel condition.

19. The method of claim 15, wherein the indicator is one of a set of candidate values, the set of candidate values including non-line-of-sight channel, close to non-line-of- sight channel, line-of-sight channel, close to line-of-sight channel, and a mixture of line-of-sight and non-line-of-sight channel.

20. A system for processing a positioning reference signal (PRS), the system comprising: a processor; and a memory configured to store instructions, when executed by the processor, to: sending a configuration of a PRS processing window to a terminal device and a network device; receiving, from the terminal device for each downlink (DL) PRS resource processed at the terminal device based on the configured PRS processing window, an indicator indicative of a first channel condition of the DL PRS resource;

-19- receiving, from the network device for each uplink (UL) PRS resource processed at the network device based on the configured PRS processing window, a second indicator indicative of a second channel condition of the UL PRS resource; and determining whether the PRS indicates a blockage based on the first and second channel conditions.

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