WO2023245688A1

WO2023245688A1 - Methods of communication, terminal device, network device and computer readable medium

Info

Publication number: WO2023245688A1
Application number: PCT/CN2022/101343
Authority: WO
Inventors: Fang Xu; Gang Wang
Original assignee: Nec Corporation
Priority date: 2022-06-24
Filing date: 2022-06-24
Publication date: 2023-12-28

Abstract

Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a method of communication, terminal device, network device and computer readable media. In the method of communication, a terminal device determines a starting frequency resource for measuring a set of positioning reference signals from a network device, based on a first bandwidth of the set of positioning reference signals and a measurement timing of the measuring. The terminal device determines a part of the first bandwidth based on the starting frequency resource and a second bandwidth supported by the terminal device. The terminal device measures the set of positioning reference signals in the part of the first bandwidth. In this way, the method of present disclosure provides a solution of measuring the set of positioning reference signals for the terminal device which supports a limited bandwidth.

Description

METHODS OF COMMUNICATION, TERMINAL DEVICE, NETWORK DEVICE AND COMPUTER READABLE MEDIUM

TECHNICAL FIELD

Embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to the field of telecommunication, and in particular, to methods of communication, a terminal device, a network device and a computer readable medium.

BACKGROUND

In the communication technology, there is a constant evolution ongoing in order to provide efficient and reliable solutions for utilizing wireless communication networks. Each new generation has its own technical challenges for handling different situations and processes that are needed to connect and serve devices connected to wireless networks. To meet the demand for wireless data traffic having increased since deployment of 4th generation (4G) communication systems, efforts have been made to develop an improved 5th generation (5G) or pre-5G communication system. The new communication systems can support various types of service applications for terminal devices.

3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) Release-17 has specified support for UEs with reduced capability and complexity including reduced maximum UE bandwidth and reduced number of receive chains etc. However, such UEs or other similar UEs should support NR positioning functionality, and how to support positioning with a better performance and a lower network payload may need to be further studied and clarified.

SUMMARY

In general, example embodiments of the present disclosure provide methods of communication, a terminal device, a network device and a computer readable medium.

In a first aspect, there is provided a method of communication. The method comprises: determining, at a terminal device, a starting frequency resource for measuring a set of positioning reference signals from a network device, based on a first bandwidth of the set of positioning reference signals and a measurement timing of the measuring; determining a part of the first bandwidth based on the starting frequency resource and a second bandwidth supported by the terminal device; and measuring the set of positioning reference signals in the part of the first bandwidth.

In a second aspect, there is provided a method of communication. The method comprises: receiving, at a terminal device of reduced capability and from a network device, a dedicated configuration of frequency resources for a set of positioning reference signals to be transmitted by the network device; and receiving, from the network device, the set of positioning reference signals based on the dedicated configuration of frequency resources.

In a third aspect, there is provided a method of communication. The method comprises: receiving, at a terminal device from a network device, a first part of a first repetition of a positioning reference signal in a first sub-band of the positioning reference signal; determining whether to receive a second repetition of the positioning reference signal from the network device, based on a comparison of a frequency hopping interval of the terminal device with a repetition gap between the first repetition and the second repetition; and in response to determining to receive the second repetition, receiving a second part of the second repetition in a second sub-band of the positioning reference signal, the second sub-band being determined based on the first sub-band and the frequency hopping interval.

In a fourth aspect, there is provided a method of communication, The method comprises: receiving, at a terminal device, a positioning reference signal from a network device; determining whether a narrow band or a wide band of the positioning reference signal is to be used for calculating a pathloss between the terminal device and the network device, the wide band corresponding to a bandwidth of the positioning reference signal, the narrow band corresponding to a bandwidth supported by the terminal device; in response to determining that the narrow band is to be used, calculating the pathloss based on a first transmit power level associated with the narrow band of the positioning reference signal; and in response to determining that the wide band is to be used, calculating the pathloss based on a second transmit power level associated with the wide band of the positioning reference signal.

In a fifth aspect, there is provided a method of communication, The method comprises: transmitting, at a network device to a terminal device of reduced capability, a dedicated configuration of frequency resources for a set of positioning reference signals to be transmitted by the network device; and transmitting, to the terminal device of reduced capability, the set of positioning reference signals based on the dedicated configuration of frequency resources.

In a sixth aspect, there is provided a method of communication. The method comprises: generating, at a network device, a first information element for configuring a resource set of a set of positioning reference signals to include a frequency hopping configuration for the resource set; and transmitting the first information element to a terminal device.

In a seventh aspect, there is provided a method of communication. The method comprises: generating, at a network device, a second information element for configuring a resource of a positioning reference signal to include a frequency hopping configuration for the resource; and transmitting the second information element to a terminal device.

In an eighth aspect, there is provided a method of communication. The method comprises: determining, at a network device, a repetition number of a positioning reference signal required for a terminal device to perform frequency hopping for a set of sub-bands of the positioning reference signal, the repetition number being configured by a higher layer; and in response to determining that the repetition number is greater than the number of available repetitions of the positioning reference signal, configuring at least one additional repetition of the positioning reference signal for the terminal device to perform the frequency hopping for the set of sub-bands.

In a ninth aspect, there is provided a method of communication. The method comprises: transmitting, at a network device to a terminal device, a first transmit power level associated with a narrow band of a positioning reference signal to be transmitted by the network device, the narrow band corresponding to a bandwidth supported by the terminal device.

In a tenth aspect, there is provided a method of communication. The method comprises: transmitting, at a network device to a terminal device, a second transmit power level associated with a wide band of a positioning reference signal, the wide band corresponding to a bandwidth of the positioning reference signal; and transmitting, to the terminal device, an adjusting parameter for determining, based on the second transmit power level, a first transmit power level associated with a narrow band of the positioning reference signal to be transmitted by the network device, the narrow band corresponding to a bandwidth supported by the terminal device.

In an eleventh aspect, there is provided a terminal device. The terminal device comprises: a processor; and a memory storing computer program codes; the memory and the computer program codes configured to, with the processor, cause the terminal device to perform the method of any of claims any of the first aspect to the fourth aspect.

In a twelfth aspect, there is provided a network device. The network device comprises: a processor; and a memory storing computer program codes; the memory and the computer program codes configured to, with the processor, cause the network device to perform the method of any of the fifth aspect to the tenth aspect.

In a thirteenth aspect, there is provided a computer readable medium having instructions stored thereon, the instructions, when executed by a processor of an apparatus, causing the apparatus to perform the method of any of the first aspect to the tenth aspect.

It is to be understood that the summary section is not intended to identify key or essential features of embodiments of the present disclosure, nor is it intended to be used to limit the scope of the present disclosure. Other features of the present disclosure will become easily comprehensible through the following description.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Through the more detailed description of some embodiments of the present disclosure in the accompanying drawings, the above and other objects, features and advantages of the present disclosure will become more apparent, wherein:

Fig. 1 illustrates an example communication system in which some embodiments of the present disclosure can be implemented;

Fig. 2 illustrates an example of method of communication in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure;

Fig. 3 illustrates an example of measuring the DL PRS resource in a measurement gap;

Fig. 4 illustrates an example of predefining the number of PRS resource blocks for RedCap UEs;

Fig. 5 illustrates an example of measuring the DL PRS resource in a processing window;

Fig. 6 illustrates an example of measuring the DL PRS resource in a processing window;

Fig. 7 illustrates an example of measuring the DL PRS resource in a processing window;

Fig. 8 illustrates a schematic diagram illustrating a process of communication between a terminal device and a network device;

Fig. 9 illustrates an example of method of communication in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure;

Fig. 10 illustrates a schematic diagram of indicating PRS frequency hopping for RedCap UE;

Fig. 11 illustrates a schematic diagram of indicating PRS frequency hopping for RedCap UE;

Fig. 12 illustrates a schematic diagram illustrating reuse the repetitions of normal UE for PRS frequency hopping;

Fig. 13 illustrates a schematic diagram illustrating a process of communication between a terminal device and a network device;

Fig. 14 illustrates a schematic diagram illustrating a process of communication between a terminal device and a network device;

Fig. 15 illustrates a schematic diagram illustrating reuse the repetitions of normal UE for PRS frequency hopping;

Fig. 16 illustrates an example of method of communication in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure;

Fig. 17 illustrates a schematic diagram illustrating a process of communication between a terminal device and a network device;

Fig. 18 illustrates a schematic diagram illustrating a process of communication between a terminal device and a network device;

Fig. 19 illustrates a schematic diagram of calculating the pathloss based on narrow band PRS;

Fig. 20 illustrates a schematic diagram illustrating a process of communication between a terminal device and a network device;

Fig. 21 illustrates a schematic diagram of calculating the pathloss based on wide band PRS; and

Fig. 22 is a simplified block diagram of a device that is suitable for implementing embodiments of the present disclosure.

Throughout the drawings, the same or similar reference numerals represent the same or similar element.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Principle of the present disclosure will now be described with reference to some example embodiments. It is to be understood that these embodiments are described only for the purpose of illustration and help those skilled in the art to understand and implement the present disclosure, without suggesting any limitations as to the scope of the disclosure. The disclosure described herein can be implemented in various manners other than the ones described below.

In the following description and claims, unless defined otherwise, all technical and scientific terms used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skills in the art to which this disclosure belongs.

As used herein, the term “terminal device” refers to any device having wireless or wired communication capabilities. Examples of the terminal device include, but not limited to, user equipment (UE) , personal computers, desktops, mobile phones, cellular phones, smart phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs) , portable computers, tablets, wearable devices, internet of things (IoT) devices, Ultra-reliable and Low Latency Communications (URLLC) devices, Internet of Everything (IoE) devices, machine type communication (MTC) devices, device on vehicle for V2X communication where X means pedestrian, vehicle, or infrastructure/network, devices for Integrated Access and Backhaul (IAB) , Small Data Transmission (SDT) , mobility, Multicast and Broadcast Services (MBS) , positioning, dynamic/flexible duplex in commercial networks, reduced capability (RedCap) , Space borne vehicles or Air borne vehicles in Non-terrestrial networks (NTN) including Satellites and High Altitude Platforms (HAPs) encompassing Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) , eXtended Reality (XR) devices including different types of realities such as Augmented Reality (AR) , Mixed Reality (MR) and Virtual Reality (VR) , the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) commonly known as a drone which is an aircraft without any human pilot, devices on high speed train (HST) , or image capture devices such as digital cameras, sensors, gaming devices, music storage and playback appliances, or Internet appliances enabling wireless or wired Internet access and browsing and the like. The ‘terminal device’ can further has ‘multicast/broadcast’ feature, to support public safety and mission critical, V2X applications, transparent IPv4/IPv6 multicast delivery, IPTV, smart TV, radio services, software delivery over wireless, group communications and IoT applications. It may also incorporate one or multiple Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) as known as Multi-SIM. The term “terminal device” can be used interchangeably with a UE, a mobile station, a subscriber station, a mobile terminal, a user terminal or a wireless device.

The term “network device” refers to a device which is capable of providing or hosting a cell or coverage where terminal devices can communicate. Examples of a network device include, but not limited to, a Node B (NodeB or NB) , an evolved NodeB (eNodeB or eNB) , a next generation NodeB (gNB) , a transmission reception point (TRP) , a remote radio unit (RRU) , a radio head (RH) , a remote radio head (RRH) , an IAB node, a low power node such as a femto node, a pico node, a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) , Network-controlled Repeaters, and the like.

The terminal device or the network device may have Artificial intelligence (AI) or Machine learning capability. It generally includes a model which has been trained from numerous collected data for a specific function, and can be used to predict some information.

The terminal or the network device may work on several frequency ranges, e.g. FR1 (410 MHz –7125 MHz) , FR2 (24.25GHz to 71GHz) , frequency band larger than 100GHz as well as Tera Hertz (THz) . It can further work on licensed/unlicensed/shared spectrum. The terminal device may have more than one connection with the network devices under Multi-Radio Dual Connectivity (MR-DC) application scenario. The terminal device or the network device can work on full duplex, flexible duplex and cross division duplex modes.

The network device may have the function of network energy saving, Self-Organizing Networks (SON) /Minimization of Drive Tests (MDT) . The terminal may have the function of power saving.

The embodiments of the present disclosure may be performed in test equipment, e.g. signal generator, signal analyzer, spectrum analyzer, network analyzer, test terminal device, test network device, channel emulator

The embodiments of the present disclosure may be performed according to any generation communication protocols either currently known or to be developed in the future. Examples of the communication protocols include, but not limited to, the first generation (1G) , the second generation (2G) , 2.5G, 2.75G, the third generation (3G) , the fourth generation (4G) , 4.5G, the fifth generation (5G) communication protocols, 5.5G, 5G-Advanced networks, or the sixth generation (6G) networks.

As used herein, the singular forms ‘a’ , ‘an’ and ‘the’ are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. The term ‘includes’ and its variants are to be read as open terms that mean ‘includes, but is not limited to. ’ The term ‘based on’ is to be read as ‘at least in part based on. ’ The term ‘some embodiments’ and ‘an embodiment’ are to be read as ‘at least some embodiments. ’ The term ‘another embodiment’ is to be read as ‘at least one other embodiment. ’ The terms ‘first, ’ ‘second, ’ and the like may refer to different or same objects. Other definitions, explicit and implicit, may be included below.

In some examples, values, procedures, or apparatus are referred to as ‘best, ’ ‘lowest, ’ ‘highest, ’ ‘minimum, ’ ‘maximum, ’ or the like. It will be appreciated that such descriptions are intended to indicate that a selection among many used functional alternatives can be made, and such selections need not be better, smaller, higher, or otherwise preferable to other selections.

Fig. 1 illustrates an example communication system 100 in which some embodiments of the present disclosure can be implemented. The communication system 100, which is a part of a communication network, includes a network device 120 and a terminal device 110.

The network device 120 can provide services to the terminal device 110, and the network device 120 and the terminal device 110 may communicate data and control information with each other. In some embodiments, the network device 120 and the terminal device 110 may communicate with direct links/channels.

In the system 100, a link from the network devices 120 to the terminal device 110 is referred to as a downlink (DL) , while a link from the terminal device 110 to the network devices 120 is referred to as an uplink (UL) . In downlink, the network device 120 is a transmitting (TX) device (or a transmitter) and the terminal device 110 is a receiving (RX) device (or a receiver) . In uplink, the terminal device 110 is a transmitting TX device (or a transmitter) and the network device 120 is a RX device (or a receiver) . It is to be understood that the network device 120 may provide one or more serving cells. In some embodiments, the network device 120 can provide multiple cells.

The communications in the communication system 100 may conform to any suitable standards including, but not limited to, Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) , LTE, LTE-Evolution, LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) , Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) , Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) , GSM EDGE Radio Access Network (GERAN) , Machine Type Communication (MTC) and the like. Furthermore, the communications may be performed according to any generation communication protocols either currently known or to be developed in the future. Examples of the communication protocols include, but not limited to, the first generation (1G) , the second generation (2G) , 2.5G, 2.75G, the third generation (3G) , the fourth generation (4G) , 4.5G, the fifth generation (5G) communication protocols.

In some embodiments, the network device 120 can transmit a set of positioning reference signals (PRSs) to the terminal device 110, and the terminal device 110 can measure the PRSs. In some embodiments, the terminal device 110 can transmit a sounding reference signal to the network device 120. In some embodiments, the terminal device 110, such as reduced capability UE could support NR positioning functionality but there is a gap in that the core and performance requirements have not been specified for the positioning related measurements performed by such UE, and no evaluation was performed to see how such UE might impact eventual position accuracy.

Fig. 2 illustrates an example of method 200 of communication in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. As shown in Fig. 2, at block 210, the terminal device 110 determines a starting frequency resource for measuring a set of positioning reference signals from the network device 120, based on a first bandwidth of the set of positioning reference signals and a measurement timing of the measuring. The first bandwidth is the bandwidth of the set of positioning reference signals. At block 220, the terminal device 110 determines a part of the first bandwidth based on the starting frequency resource and a second bandwidth supported by the terminal device 110. At block 230, the terminal device 110 measures the set of positioning reference signals in the part of the first bandwidth.

In some embodiments, the terminal device 110 determines the part of the first bandwidth in which to measure the set of positioning reference signals by calculating the starting frequency resource for measuring a set of positioning reference signals from the network device 120 and the second bandwidth supported by the terminal device 110. In this way, the method of present disclosure provide a solution of measuring the set of positioning reference signals for the terminal device 110 which supports a limited bandwidth.

For the terminal device 110 supporting a limited bandwidth, and the PRS bandwidth of configured in the PRS resource set may be larger than the maximum bandwidth supported by terminal device 110, the PRS configuration for terminal device 110 should be studied. One of the solutions of the problem above is reusing the PRS configuration in the PRS resource set, and the terminal device 110 may need to calculate the starting PRB and PRS bandwidth according to the supported maximum DL bandwidth.

3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) Release-17 has specified support for RedCap (reduced capability) UEs with reduced bandwidth support and reduced complexity including reduced number of receive chains. Such UEs could support NR positioning functionality.

In some embodiments, the terminal device 110 supports a limited bandwidth, and an example of the terminal device 110 is a reduced capability UE (or called as a RedCap UE) . Accordingly, in these embodiments, the second bandwidth supported by the terminal device 110 is the maximum downlink bandwidth supported by RedCap UE, particularly, maximum bandwidth of an FR1 RedCap UE during and after initial access is 20 MHz, and maximum bandwidth of an FR2 RedCap UE during and after initial access is 100 MHz. In some embodiments, the first bandwidth may be the PRS resource bandwidth of normal UEs (the normal UE’s capability is not reduced, which is different from the RedCap UE) .

Reduced capability UEs may support a limited bandwidth, and the PRS bandwidth of normal UEs in the PRS resource set may be larger than the maximum bandwidth supported by RedCap UEs, the PRS configuration for RedCap UEs should be studied. In some embodiments, the terminal device 110 may reuse the PRS configuration of normal UEs to determine the part of the first bandwidth. The parameters for each PRS resource may be configured via higher layer parameters, such as NR-DL-PRS-PositioningFrequencyLayer, NR-DL-PRS-ResourceSet, NR-DL-PRS-Resource, and so on.

In some embodiments, a positioning frequency layer is configured by NR-DL-PRS-PositioningFrequencyLayer, and it consists of one or more DL PRS resource sets. A DL PRS resource set is configured by NR-DL-PRS-ResourceSet, and it consists of one or more DL PRS resources. The PRS configuration of UE corresponds to the positioning frequency layer, and the resource set and the resource have their own ID respectively. For example, a dl-PRS-ID corresponds to the positioning frequency layer, an nr-DL-PRS-ResourceSetID corresponds to the resource set, and an nr-DL-PRS-ResourceID-r16 corresponds to the resource. The UE expects that one of the dl-PRS-ID along with an nr-DL-PRS-ResourceSetID and an nr-DL-PRS-ResourceID-r16 can be used to uniquely identify a DL PRS resource.

The terminal device 110 can determine the starting frequency resource in different ways according to the measurement timing. In some embodiments, the terminal device 110 can determine a lower boundary of the first bandwidth as the starting frequency resource in response to determining that the measurement timing is in a measurement gap for the set of positioning reference signals. These embodiments will be described in detail in connection with scenario a) mentioned below. In this way, the terminal device 110 can measure the positioning reference signals in the measurement gap.

In other embodiments, the terminal device 110 can determine the starting frequency resource based on a relation between an active downlink bandwidth part (active DL BWP) of the reduced capability terminal device and the first bandwidth in response to determining that the measurement timing is in a processing window for the set of positioning reference signals. These embodiments will be described in detail in connection with scenario b) mentioned below. In this way, the terminal device 110 can measure the positioning reference signals in the processing window.

If the bandwidth of PRS resource of the normal UEs is wider than the maximum downlink bandwidth supported by RedCap UEs, there will be several solutions to utilize the configured PRS resource bandwidth in the following different scenarios. The first scenario may be called as scenario a) , in which the RedCap UE may measure the set of positioning reference signals in a measurement gap. The second scenario can be referred to as scenario b) , in which the RedCap UE may measure the set of positioning reference signals outside the measurement gap in a configured PRS processing window.

Fig. 3 illustrates an example of measuring the DL PRS resource in a measurement gap. As shown in Fig. 3, in the scenario a) , the RedCap UE may measure the DL (downlink) PRS resource in the measurement gap. In some embodiments, the RedCap UE can reuse a starting PRB index of the DL PRS resource with respect to reference Point A, where reference Point A is given by the higher-layer parameter dl-PRS-PointA, and dl-PRS-PointA defines the absolute frequency of the reference resource block. Its lowest subcarrier is also known as Point A. All DL PRS resources belonging to the same DL PRS resource set have common Point A and all DL PRS resources sets belonging to the same DL PRS positioning frequency layer have a common Point A. The starting PRB index has a granularity of one PRB.

In Fig. 3, the dl-PRS-ResourceBandwidth defines the number of resource blocks configured for DL PRS transmission, and thus the dl-PRS-ResourceBandwidth can represent the bandwidth of PRS resource for the normal UEs. The dl-PRS-StartPRB defines the starting PRB index of the DL PRS resource with respect to reference Point A, where reference Point A is given by the higher-layer parameter dl-PRS-PointA. In Fig. 3, the dl-PRS-StartPRB is a lower boundary of the first bandwidth, and it can be obtained based on the starting PRB index of the DL PRS resource with respect to reference Point A. The dl-PRS-Bandwidth-RC represents the part of the first bandwidth for measuring the set of positioning reference signals for the RedCap UEs, and it can be determined based on the maximum number of PRS resource blocks supported by the RedCap UEs and a starting frequency resource for measuring a set of positioning reference signals from the network device 120. In these embodiments, the starting frequency resource is the dl-PRS-StartPRB, i.e. a lower boundary of the first bandwidth, and the dl-PRS-Bandwidth-RC is narrower than the dl-PRS-ResourceBandwidth. The meanings of the variables or parameters involved in Fig. 3 are also applicable to the same variables or parameters appearing in Figs. 5 to 7.

In other embodiments, the terminal device 110 can calculate the number of resource blocks. Take scenario a) as an example, the RedCap UEs can calculate the number of resource blocks configured for DL PRS transmission according to the maximum downlink bandwidth supported by RedCap UE.

In some embodiments, the number of PRS resource blocks for the RedCap UEs can be calculated with a granularity of four PRBs:

In other embodiments, the number of PRS resource blocks for the RedCap UEs can be calculated with a granularity of one PRB:

a=floor ( (Maximun DL bandwidth-Gap) / (dl-PRS-SubcarrierSpacing*12) ) ---- (1)

In the above formulas, the Maximum DL bandwidth represents the maximum downlink bandwidth supported by RedCap UE (the terminal device 110) . The Gap represents a gap value depends on the UE capability, particularly, it depends on the capability of RedCap UE in this case. The dl-PRS-SubcarrierSpacing represents the subcarrier spacing for the DL PRS resource i.e. the subcarrier spacing value of the set of positioning reference signals, and the dl-PRS-SubcarrierSpacing*12 represents size of the resource block. As the resource block is frequency resource block, thus the terminal device 110 can determine the part of the first bandwidth based on the starting frequency resource and the number of resource blocks.

In some embodiments, the terminal device 110 determine the number of resource blocks of the second bandwidth supported by the terminal device, and determine the part of the first bandwidth based on the starting frequency resource and the number of resource blocks. In some embodiments, the terminal device 110 can determine the number of resource blocks of the second bandwidth supported by the terminal device, based on a predefined mapping between a subcarrier spacing value of the set of positioning reference signals and the number of resource blocks, in these embodiments, the number of resource blocks can be predefined. In this way, the terminal device 110 can obtain the number of resource blocks and the calculation amount for calculating the resource block is saved.

With reference to Fig. 4, it illustrates an example of predefining the number of PRS resource blocks for RedCap UEs. According to Fig 4, the RedCap UEs may predefine the number of resource blocks configured for DL PRS transmission according to the maximum downlink bandwidth supported by RedCap UE, in Fig. 4, dl-PRS-SubcarrierSpacing represents the subcarrier spacing value of the set of positioning reference signals, and dl-PRS-ResourceBandwidth represents the number of resource blocks.

In some embodiments, in the scenario b) , with reference to Figs. 5 to 7, which illustrate some examples of measuring the DL PRS resource in a configured PRS processing window, the RedCap UE may measure the set of positioning reference signals outside the measurement gap in a configured PRS processing window, and the active DL BWP of the RedCap UE has the same numerology as the DL PRS.

In the scenario b) , the terminal device 110 can determine the starting frequency resource based on a relation between an active downlink bandwidth part of the reduced capability terminal device and the first bandwidth. In some cases of the scenario b) , the active downlink bandwidth part is within the first bandwidth. Then the terminal device 110 can determine a lower boundary of the active downlink bandwidth part as the starting frequency resource. In this way, the present embodiments provide a method of measuring DL PRS in a processing window when the active downlink bandwidth part is within the first bandwidth.

With reference to Fig. 5, The active DL BWP of RedCap UE is inside the PRS resource bandwidth of normal UEs, then the RedCap UEs calculate the starting frequency resource according to the location of active DL BWP, and calculate the number of resource blocks configured for DL PRS transmission according to the maximum downlink bandwidth supported by RedCap UE, and then detect PRS from the part of PRS of normal UE. The dl-PRS-Bandwidth-RC represents the part of the first bandwidth in which for measuring the set of positioning reference signals, and its start boundary and end boundary may be a RB or RE level.

In some cases of the scenario b) , a lower boundary of the active downlink bandwidth part is lower than a lower boundary of the first bandwidth. Then the terminal device 110 can determine the lower boundary of the first bandwidth as the starting frequency resource. In this way, the present embodiments provide a method of measuring DL PRS in a processing window when the lower boundary of the active downlink bandwidth part is lower than the lower boundary of the first bandwidth.

With reference to Fig. 6, the Redcap UEs reuse the dl-PRS-StartPRB to determine the starting frequency resource, and calculate the number of resource blocks configured for DL PRS transmission according to the bandwidth of active downlink bandwidth part for the RedCap UEs, and then detect PRS from the part of PRS of normal UEs. The end boundary of the dl-PRS-Bandwidth-RC may be a RB or RE level.

In some cases of the scenario b) , an upper boundary of the active downlink bandwidth part is higher than an upper boundary of the first bandwidth. In these cases, the terminal device 110 can determine a lower boundary of the active bandwidth part as the starting frequency resource, and the upper boundary of first bandwidth as an ending frequency resource. In this way, the present embodiments provide a method of measuring DL PRS in a processing window when the upper boundary of the active downlink bandwidth part is higher than the upper boundary of the first bandwidth.

With reference to Fig. 7, the RedCap UEs calculate the starting frequency resource and calculate the number of resource blocks configured for DL PRS transmission according to the upper boundary of the dl-PRS-ResourceBandwidth, and then detect PRS from the part of PRS of normal UEs. The start boundary of the dl-PRS-Bandwidth-RC may be a RB or RE level. In Fig. 3, 5, 6 and 7, the dl-PRS-ResourceBandwidth represents the bandwidth of PRS resource of the normal UEs.

In some embodiments, if the measurement timing is in a processing window for the set of positioning reference signals, and the part of the first bandwidth is narrower than a predefined threshold bandwidth, the terminal device 110 avoids measuring the set of positioning reference signals in the processing window, i.e. canceling the detection of the PRS. Thus, inaccurate PRS detection is avoided.

For example, with reference to Fig. 6 or Fig. 7, if the determined dl-PRS-Bandwidth-RC is smaller than a threshold, for example, if SCS (SubcarrierSpacing) of PRS is 15 kHz , the threshold is 24 PRB, then the PRS detection is cancelled. In this case, RedCap UEs only measure PRS in the measurement gap. In some embodiments, if a lower boundary of the active downlink bandwidth part is lower than a lower boundary of the first bandwidth or an upper boundary of the active downlink bandwidth part is higher than an upper boundary of the first bandwidth, the terminal device 110 avoids measuring the set of positioning reference signals in the processing window, i.e. canceling the detection of the PRS. Thus, inaccurate PRS detection is avoided.

In some embodiments, the terminal device 110 determines the number of resource blocks of the second bandwidth for the terminal device, based on a maximum downlink bandwidth supported by the terminal device 110, a subcarrier spacing value of the set of positioning reference signals, the bandwidth of an active downlink bandwidth part, and a gap value depending on capability of the terminal device, and determine the part of the first bandwidth based on the starting frequency resource and the number of resource blocks. In this way, the number of resource blocks can be determined by calculation, thus determining the part of the first bandwidth.

With reference to Fig 3, the number of PRS resource blocks for the RedCap UEs can be calculated with a granularity of four PRBs or one PRB has already mentioned above, and the number of PRS resource blocks for the RedCap UEs can be calculated likewise for embodiments corresponding to Figs. 5 to 7. For the terminal device 110 supporting a limited bandwidth, and the PRS bandwidth configured in the PRS resource set may be larger than the maximum bandwidth supported by terminal device 110, one of solutions to the problem that the PRS configuration for terminal device is setting dedicated PRS resource for the terminal device 110.

In some embodiments, the network device 120 can provide a dedicated configuration of frequency resources for the terminal device 110. Such embodiments will be detailed with reference to Fig. 8 which shows a communication process 800 between the terminal device 110 and the network device 120.

As shown in Fig. 8, the network device 120 transmit (810) to the terminal device of reduced capability 110, a dedicated configuration of frequency resources (805) for a set of positioning reference signals. Accordingly, the terminal device of reduced capability 110 receive (820) the dedicated configuration of frequency resources (805) for a set of positioning reference signals to be transmitted by the network device.

The network device 120 transmit (830) to the terminal device of reduced capability 110, the set of positioning reference signals (815) based on the dedicated configuration of frequency resources, accordingly, the terminal device of reduced capability 110 receive (840) the set of positioning reference signals (815) based on the dedicated configuration of frequency resources. In this way, the problem of the PRS configuration for the terminal device of reduced capability 110 can be solved.

In some embodiments, the dedicated configuration of frequency resources may comprise a first dedicated information element for configuring a positioning frequency layer of the set of positioning reference signals, and a second dedicated information element for configuring a resource set of the set of positioning reference signals. Thus, the dedicated PRS configuration for the terminal device of reduced capability 110 can be configured at the positioning frequency layer and the resource set.

In some embodiments, the first dedicated information element may include an indication that the first and the second dedicated information elements are dedicated to terminal devices of reduced capability. The second dedicated information element may include an indication that the first and the second dedicated information elements are dedicated to terminal devices of reduced capability.

In some embodiments, the following parameters may be separately set for RedCap UEs. One parameter may be NR-DL-PRS-PositioningFrequencyLayer, which may include dl-PRS-SubcarrierSpacing, dl-PRS-CyclicPrefix, and so on. Another parameter can be NR-DL-PRS-ResourceSet, which may include dl-PRS-Periodicity-and-ResourceSetSlotOffset, dl-PRS-StartPRB, dl-PRS-ResourceBandwidth, dl-PRS-NumSymbols, etc.

In some embodiments, for dedicated PRS resource configuration for RedCap UEs, a new field in NR-DL-PRS-PositioningFrequencyLayer or NR-DL-PRS-ResourceSet may be added, which is used to identify specific parameters of its RedCap UE. For example, the first or the second dedicated information element may include a parameter, such as bool dl-PRS-RedCap, to identify it's a RedCap UE specific parameter.

The dl-PRS-Periodicity-and-ResourceSetSlotOffset defines the DL PRS resource periodicity and can take values

In some embodiments,

slots, where μ=0, 1, 2, 3 for dl-PRS-SubcarrierSpacing=15, 30, 60 and 120 kHz respectively. The dl-PRS-NumSymbols defines the number of symbols of the DL PRS resource within a slot where the allowable values are given in 3GPP TS38.211.

In some embodiments, if there is the dedicated configuration of frequency resources for RedCap UEs, then RedCap UEs measure the PRS according to the dedicated configuration, if there is not the dedicated configuration, then RedCap UEs measure the PRS according to a common PRS configuration predetermined.

In some embodiments, if PRS frequency hopping is enabled for terminal device 110, the terminal device 110 can divide the PRS resources into two groups, wherein one group is for frequency hopping and the other group is not. In addition, higher layer may indicate some new parameters to better reuse the repetitions of normal UEs for PRS frequency hopping.

Fig. 9 illustrates an example of method 900 of communication in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. As shown in Fig. 9, at block 910, the terminal device 110 receives, from the network device 120, a first part of a first repetition of a positioning reference signal in a first sub-band of the positioning reference signal. At block 920, the terminal device 110 determines whether to receive a second repetition of the positioning reference signal from the network device 120, based on a comparison of a frequency hopping interval of the terminal device 110 with a repetition gap between the first repetition and the second repetition.

At block 930, the terminal device 110 determines to receive the second repetition, and then receives a second part of the second repetition in a second sub-band of the positioning reference signal, wherein the second sub-band is determined based on the first sub-band and the frequency hopping interval. In this way, when PRS frequency hopping is enabled for terminal device 110, the problems that how to properly reuse the repetition of normal UEs for frequency hopping can be solved.

Fig. 10 illustrates a schematic diagram of indicating PRS frequency hopping for RedCap UE. As shown in Fig. 10, all the PRS resources for RedCap UEs support hopping. Then the hopping info can be set in NR-DL-PRS-ResourceSet. Fig. 11 illustrates a schematic diagram of indicating PRS frequency hopping for RedCap UE. As shown in Fig. 11, there may be two groups of PRS resources to satisfy different positioning requirement, one is for frequency hopping, and the other one is non-frequency hopping. The hopping info of PRS resource is set in NR-DL-PRS-Resource. In this way, the problem of how to configure hopping information is solved, and allocation of resources is reasonable. If there are two groups for the PRS resource, the location of hopping info can be clarified.

In some embodiments, a dl-PRS-ResourceRepetitionFactor can define how many times each DL-PRS resource is repeated for a single instance of the DL-PRS resource set and may take values

All the DL PRS resources within one resource set have the same resource repetition factor. In some embodiments, dl-PRS-ResourceTimeGap defines the offset in number of slots between two repeated instances of a DL PRS resource with the same nr-DL-PRS-ResourceSetId within a single instance of the DL PRS resource set.

In some embodiments, if PRS repetition and frequency hopping for redcap UEs is enabled simultaneously, a new parameter is configured by high layer –minimum interval for hopping (i.e. a frequency hopping interval of the terminal device 110) , since each hopping needs RF returning, and it is related to UE capability. RedCap UE compares the minimum interval for hopping with the repetition gap. Here, the gap means the timing interval between two repetitions. If it’s smaller than or equal to the repetition gap, the PRS can be measured in the adjacent repetition. If it’s greater than the repetition gap, RedCap UEs jump to next repetition and compare again, until find a proper repetition for PRS sub-band reception. The muting repetition is also skipped. In this way, network and UE can have a consensus about the hopping sub-band location.

With reference to Fig. 12. Fig. 12 illustrates a schematic diagram illustrating reuse the repetitions of normal UE for PRS frequency hopping of RedCap, wherein any of s1, s2, s3 is a part of a repetition of a positioning reference signal, and s4 is a separate subband transmitted from the network device 120, and the terminal device 110 receives the part of a repetition of a positioning reference signal in a sub-band of the positioning reference signal.

In some embodiments, the terminal device 110 determines to receive the second repetition based on determining that the frequency hopping interval is shorter than or equal to the repetition gap. The terminal device 110 skips receiving the second repetition, and determines to receive a next repetition after the second repetition based on determining that the frequency hopping interval is longer than the repetition gap.

With reference to Fig. 12, the RedCap UE compares the interval of each hopping with the repetition gap, if it’s greater than the repetition gap, then RedCap UE jump to next repetition and compare again, until find a proper repetition for PRS sub-band reception. For example, in Fig. 12, take r1 as the first repetition, and the frequency hopping interval of the terminal device equals to the interval between s1 and s2, a repetition gap is the gap between r1 and r2, it can be seen that the frequency hopping interval is longer than the repetition gap, then the terminal device 110 skips receiving the second repetition (r2) , and determines whether to receive a next repetition (r3) after the second repetition (r2) , so r3 is taken as a new second repetition, accordingly, the new repetition gap is the gap between r1 and r3, it can been seen that the frequency hopping interval (interval between s1 and s2) is shorter than or equal to the repetition gap (the gap between r1 and r3) , and then the terminal device 110 determines to receive the second repetition (r3) . In this way, the terminal device 110 can receive the other repetitions of the positioning reference signal from the network device 120. In some embodiments, the frequency hopping interval of the terminal device 110 is configured by a higher layer. In some embodiments, the terminal device 110 will avoid receiving the second repetition if it determines that the second repetition is muted.

With reference to Fig. 12, the two repetitions (r0) are the muting repetitions, and the terminal device 110 avoids receiving the part of these two repetitions of a positioning reference signal in sub-bands of the positioning reference signal, i.e., the muting repetitions are skipped. In this way, the network device 120 and the terminal device 110 can have a consensus about the hopping sub-band location.

Fig. 13 illustrates a schematic diagram illustrating a process 1300 of communication between the terminal device 110 and the network device 120. As shown in Fig. 13, in the communication process 1300, the network device 120 generates (1310) a first information element or a second information element (1305) . In some embodiments, the network device 120 generates the first information element which is for configuring a resource set of a set of positioning reference signals to include a frequency hopping configuration for the resource set. In other embodiments, the network device 120 generates the second information element which is for configuring a resource of a positioning reference signal to include a frequency hopping configuration for the resource.

The network device 120 transmits (1320) the first information element or the second information element (1305) to the terminal device 110. Accordingly, the terminal device 110 receive (1330) , from the network device 120, the first information element or the second information element (1305) . Then the terminal device 110 obtain (1340) , from the first information element, a frequency hopping configuration for the resource set or obtain (1340) , from the second information element, a frequency hopping configuration for the resource. In this way, the problem that how to configure hopping information is solved, and can allocate resources according to requirements.

Fig. 14 illustrates a schematic diagram illustrating a process of communication between a terminal device and a network device. As shown in Fig. 14, in the communication process 1400, the terminal device 110 transmits (1410) a repetition number of the positioning reference signal required for the terminal device to perform frequency hopping for a set of sub-bands. In some embodiments, the repetition number is configured by a higher layer.

If the network device 120 determines (1420) that the repetition number is greater than the number of available repetitions of the positioning reference signal, then configures (1430) at least one additional repetition (1405) of the positioning reference signal for the terminal device 110 to perform the frequency hopping for the set of sub-bands. The network device 120 allocates (1440) at least one additional repetition (1405) to the terminal device 110. Accordingly, the terminal device 110 obtains (1450) at least one additional repetition (1405) . The terminal device 110 performs (1460) the frequency hopping for the set of sub-bands based on the available repetitions and at least one additional repetition of the positioning reference signal configured by the network device.

The process 1400 can be explained in detail with reference to Fig. 15. Fig. 15 illustrates a schematic diagram illustrating reuse the repetitions of normal UE for PRS frequency hopping of RedCap UEs. In this way, resources can be configured according to needs so as to make rational use of resources.

As shown in Fig. 15, There may be another parameter configured by high layer, which is used to indicate a repetition number of the whole hopping sub-bands, wherein the repetition number of the whole hopping sub-bands can also be called as a repetition number of a positioning reference signal required for the terminal device to perform frequency hopping for a set of sub-bands of the positioning reference signal. In Fig. 15, a set of sub-bands includes sub-band1, sub-band2, sub-band3 and sub-band4 which correspond to s1, s2, s3 and s4 respectively. The set of sub-bands repeats three times in Fig. 15, so the repetition number is 3.

In some embodiments, each of r represents a repetition, and r _m represents a muting repetition. The number of available repetitions of the positioning reference signal means number of times that set of sub-bands can be repeated, in Fig. 15, s1 to s4 can be repeated three times, so the number of available repetitions is 3.

In some embodiments, if the repetition number is smaller than or equal to the number of available repetitions, the network device 120 does not need to provide extra resource for the terminal device 110. If the repetition number is bigger than the number of available repetitions, the network device 120 provides extra resource for the terminal device 110 to measure PRS. For example, if the repetition number is 3, the network device 120 do not need to provide extra resource for the terminal device 110, but if the repetition number is 4, it can be seen in Fig. 15, there are not enough sub-bands for the fourth repetition of s3 and s4, thus network device 120 needs to provide extra resource of sub-band3 and sub-band4 for the terminal device 110 to measure PRS. In Fig. 15, s1, s2, s3 and s4 is a part of a repetition of a positioning reference signal.

In some embodiments, for the terminal device 110 positioning, SRS may need to be sent in a limited bandwidth, and frequency hopping is a candidate enhancement. If the dl-PRS-ResourcePower set in PRS-ResourceSet is based on the wide band PRS, how to calculate the pathloss of narrow band SRS or each SRS hopping sub-band should be studied. To solve the problem above, the terminal device 110 can calculate the pathloss based on narrow band PRS, the terminal device 110 also can scale the pathloss of wide band PRS.

Fig. 16 illustrates an example of method 1600 of communication in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. As shown in Fig. 16, at block 1610, the terminal device 110 receives a positioning reference signal from a network device. At block 1620, the terminal device 110 determines whether a narrow band or a wide band of the positioning reference signal is to be used for calculating a pathloss between the terminal device and the network device. The wide band corresponds to a bandwidth of the positioning reference signal, and the narrow band corresponds to a bandwidth supported by the terminal device.

At block 1630, the terminal device 110 determines that the narrow band is to be used, and then calculates the pathloss based on a first transmit power level associated with the narrow band of the positioning reference signal. At block 1640, the terminal device 110 determines that the wide band is to be used, and then calculates the pathloss based on a second transmit power level associated with the wide band of the positioning reference signal. According to these embodiments, if dl-PRS-ResourcePower in the PRS resource set is for the pathloss calculation of wide band DL PRS, it’s not proper for narrow band SRS. With the solutions of these embodiments, it can reduce the SRS transmission power, and low down uplink interference.

In some embodiments, the terminal device 110 receives the positioning reference signal in the narrow band, and then determines that the narrow band is to be used for calculating the pathloss. In some embodiments, the terminal device 110 obtains the positioning reference signal corresponding to the wide band, and then determines the wide band is to be used for calculating the pathloss.

In some embodiments, the terminal device 110 may receive the first transmit power level from the network device. In some embodiments, the terminal device 110 may receive the second transmit power level from the network device. In some embodiments, the terminal device 110 can receive an adjusting parameter for determining the first transmit power level from the network device, and determines the first transmit power level based on the second transmit power level and the adjusting parameter.

In some embodiments, the terminal device 110 determines that the adjusting parameter is an offset, and then determines the first transmit power level by subtracting the offset from the second transmit power level. In some embodiments, the terminal device 110 determines that the adjusting parameter is a scaling factor, and then determines the first transmit power level by multiplying the second transmit power level by the scaling factor. In some embodiments, the terminal device 110 transmits a sounding reference signal to the network device 120, based on the pathloss calculated based on the first transmit power level, in a narrow band corresponding to the bandwidth supported by the terminal device 110.

In some embodiments, the terminal device 110 receives a plurality of parts of the positioning reference signal based on frequency hopping, and each of the plurality of parts corresponds to a respective narrow band of the positioning reference signal, the terminal device 110 can combine the plurality of parts to obtain the positioning reference signal corresponding to the wide band. In some embodiments, the terminal device 110 can scale the pathloss calculated based on the second transmit power level, and transmits a sounding reference signal to the network device 120 based on the scaled pathloss, in a narrow band corresponding to the bandwidth supported by the terminal device.

In some embodiments, the terminal device 110 can determines a scaling factor for scaling the pathloss, and scales the pathloss based on the scaling factor. In some embodiments, the terminal device 110 determines the scaling factor comprises at least one of:determines the scaling factor configured by a higher layer, determines the scaling factor based on the number of times of frequency hopping performed by the terminal device for receiving the positioning reference signal, and determines the scaling factor based on the number of times of frequency hopping performed by the terminal device for transmitting the sounding reference signal.

In some embodiments, in order to scale the pathloss, the terminal device 110 may update an original range of a scaling parameter in a formula for calculating a transmit power level of the sounding reference signal to obtain an updated range of the scaling parameter. The original range of scaling parameter is configured by a higher layer. Then, the terminal device 110 can scale the pathloss based on the updated range of the scaling parameter.

Fig. 17 illustrates a schematic diagram illustrating a process 1700 of communication between a terminal device and a network device. As shown in Fig. 17, the network device 120 transmits (1710) a first transmit power level (1705) to the terminal device 110. Accordingly, the terminal device 110 receives (1720) the first transmit power level (1705) . The first transmit power level (1705) is associated with a narrow band of a positioning reference signal to be transmitted by the network device, and the narrow band corresponds to a bandwidth supported by the terminal device.

The network device 120 transmits (1730) the positioning reference signal (1715) to the terminal device 110. Accordingly, the terminal device 110 receives (1740) the positioning reference signal (1715) . The terminal device 110 determines (1750) that a narrow band of the positioning reference signal is to be used for calculating a pathloss between the terminal device 110 and the network device 120. The terminal device 110 calculates (1760) the pathloss based on the first transmit power level associated with the narrow band of the positioning reference signal.

In some embodiments, the terminal device 110 transmits a sounding reference signal to the network device 120, based on the pathloss calculated based on the first transmit power level, in a narrow band corresponding to the bandwidth supported by the terminal device 110. In this way, whether the narrow band is to be used or the wide band is to be used, the terminal device 110 can calculate the pathloss between the terminal device 110 and the network device 120, for example calculate the pathloss of narrow band SRS.

Fig. 18 illustrates a schematic diagram illustrating a process 1800 of communication between a terminal device and a network device. As shown in Fig. 18, the network device 120 transmits (1810) a second transmit power level (1805) associated with a wide band of a positioning reference signal to the terminal device 110. Accordingly, the terminal device 110 receives (1820) the second transmit power level (1805) . The network device 120 transmits (1830) , to the terminal device 110, an adjusting parameter (1815) for determining, based on the second transmit power level, a first transmit power level associated with a narrow band of the positioning reference signal to be transmitted by the network device 120. Accordingly, the terminal device 110 receives (1840) the adjusting parameter (1815) .

In some embodiments, the adjusting parameter is an offset to be applied to the second transmit power level. In some embodiments, the adjusting parameter is a scaling factor to be applied to the second transmit power level. In some embodiments, the wide band corresponds to a bandwidth of the positioning reference signal. The narrow band corresponds to a bandwidth supported by the terminal device 110.

The terminal device 110 determines (1850) , based on the second transmit power level, the first transmit power level associated with a narrow band of the positioning reference signal to be transmitted by the network device 120. The network device 120 transmits (1860) a positioning reference signal (1825) to the terminal device 110. Accordingly, the terminal device 110 receives the positioning reference signal (1825) . The terminal device 110 determines (1880) that a narrow band of the positioning reference signal is to be used for calculating a pathloss between the terminal device and the network device. The terminal device 110 calculates (1890) the pathloss based on the first transmit power level associated with the narrow band of the positioning reference signal. In this way, for terminal device 110 positioning, SRS should be sent in a limited bandwidth, and frequency hopping is a candidate enhancement. If the dl-PRS-ResourcePower in PRS-ResourceSet is based on the wide band PRS, it can be implemented that calculating the pathloss of narrow band SRS.

In some embodiments, the terminal device 110 transmits a sounding reference signal to the network device 120, based on the pathloss calculated based on the first transmit power level, in a narrow band corresponding to the bandwidth supported by the terminal device 110. According to 3GPP TS (Technical Specification) , if a UE transmits SRS based on a configuration by SRS-PosResourceSet on active UL BWP b of carrier f of serving cell c, the UE determines the SRS transmission power P _{SRS, b, f, c} (i, q _s) in SRS transmission occasion i as :

where, P _{O_SRS, b, f, c} (q _s) and α _{SRS, b, f, c} (q _s) are provided by p0-r16 and alpha-r16 respectively, for active UL BWP b of carrier f of serving cell c, and SRS resource set q _s is indicated by SRS-PosResourceSetId from SRS-PosResourceSet, and PL _b, f, c (q _d) is a downlink pathloss estimate in dB calculated by the UE, as described in clause 7.1.1 (from 3GPP TS 38.213 V17.1.0) in case of an active DL BWP of a serving cell c, using RS resource indexed q _d in a serving or non-serving cell for SRS resource set q _s [6, TS 38.214] . A configuration for RS resource index q _d associated with SRS resource set q _s is provided by pathlossReferenceRS-Pos.

If a ssb-IndexNcell is provided, referenceSignalPower is provided by ss-PBCH-BlockPower-r16. If a dl-PRS-ResourceId is provided, referenceSignalPower is provided by dl-PRS-ResourcePower. If the UE is in the RRC_CONNECTED state and determines that the UE is not able to accurately measure PL _b, f, c (q _d) , or the UE is not provided with pathlossReferenceRS-Pos, the UE calculates PL _b, f, c (q _d) using a RS resource obtained from the SS/PBCH block of the serving cell that the UE uses to obtain MIB. If the UE is in the RRC_INACTIVE state and determines that the UE is not able to accurately measure PL _b, f, c (q _d) , the UE does not transmit SRS for the SRS resource set.

In some embodiments, the UE may indicate a capability for a number of pathloss estimates that the UE can simultaneously maintain for all SRS resource sets provided by SRS-PosResourceSet in addition to the up to four pathloss estimates that the UE maintains per serving cell for PUSCH/PUCCH transmissions and for SRS transmissions configured by SRS-Resource.

Fig. 19 illustrates a schematic diagram of calculating the pathloss based on narrow band PRS. As shown in Fig. 19, for the terminal device 110, for example a RedCap UE, if DL PRS measurement is based on part of DL PRS of normal UEs, but the dl-PRS-ResourcePower in the resource set is for the pathloss calculation of wide band DL PRS. If UL SRS is sent in a limited bandwidth or SRS frequency hopping is enabled, for each sub-band, the pathloss calculation should be based on the narrow band DL PRS, so a new parameter special for sub-band should be added in the PRS resource set to calculate the pathloss of SRS for positioning.

In some embodiments, with reference to Fig. 15, the new parameter may be the first transmit power level associated with the narrow band of the positioning reference signal configured by the network device 120. In some embodiments, a new dl-PRS-ResourcePower of narrow band in PRS information can be added at the network device 120.

In some embodiments, with reference to Fig. 18, the new parameter may be the adjusting parameter for determining the first transmit power level associated with a narrow band of the positioning reference signal to be transmitted by the network device. The IE NR-DL-PRS-Info defines downlink PRS configuration, for example:

For example, dl-RS-ResourcePower-subband-r18 is a new parameter that represents the first transmit power level associated with the narrow band of the positioning reference signal configured by the network device 120. If a ssb-IndexNcell is provided as a reference signal (for example PRS) , then referenceSignalPower is provided by ss-PBCH-BlockPower-r16. If a dl-PRS-ResourceId is provided as the reference signal, then referenceSignalPower is provided by dl-PRS-ResourcePower. For the RedCap UEs with limited bandwidth, if a dl-PRS-ResourceId is provided, then referenceSignalPower is provided by dl-PRS-ResourcePower-subband-r18, in other words, for the RedCap UEs, by configuring the first transmit power level at the network device 120, and the terminal device 110, for example the RedCap UE, can obtain the first transmit power level dedicated for the RedCap UE, to calculate the pathloss.

In some embodiments, the network device 120 add an offset to reference power of wide band in PRS information, the offset is an example of the adjusting parameter for determining the first transmit power level associated with a narrow band of the positioning reference signal to be transmitted by the network device. The IE NR-DL-PRS-Info defines downlink PRS configuration as below:

For example, a parameter of the offset can be configured as dl-PRS-PowerOffset-r18:

dl-PRS-PowerOffset-r18 INTEGER (-60.. 50) ,

The parameter of the offset can be transmitted to the terminal device 110 for determining the first transmit power level by subtracting the offset from the second transmit power level. If a ssb-IndexNcell is provided, referenceSignalPower can be provided by ss-PBCH-BlockPower-r16. If a dl-PRS-ResourceId is provided, referenceSignalPower may be provided by dl-PRS-ResourcePower. For RedCap UEs with limited bandwidth, if a dl-PRS-ResourceId is provided, referenceSignalPower can be provided by dl-PRS-ResourcePower -dl-PRS-PowerOffset-r18.

In some embodiments, the adjusting parameter may be a scaling factor configured by the network device 120, and the terminal device 110 can scale the resource power of wide band DL PRS according to the scaling factor.

The IE NR-DL-PRS-Info can define downlink PRS configuration, for example as below:

For example, the configuration can include a parameter of the scaling factor: dl-PRS-ScalingFactor-r18 ENUMERATED {1, 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, 1/5, 1/6, 1/7, 1/8 } . According to the parameter configured above, The scaling factor value can be 1, 1/2, 1/3, 1/4, 1/5, 1/6, 1/7, 1/8 etc. If an ssb-IndexNcell is provided, referenceSignalPower can be provided by ss-PBCH-BlockPower-r16. If a dl-PRS-ResourceId is provided, referenceSignalPower may be provided by dl-PRS-ResourcePower. For redcap UEs with limited bandwidth, if a dl-PRS-ResourceId is provided, referenceSignalPower can be provided by dl-PRS-ResourcePower*scaling factor.

Fig. 20 illustrates a schematic diagram illustrating a process 2000 of communication between a terminal device and a network device. As shown in Fig. 20, the network device 120 transmits (2010) a second transmit power level (2005) associated with a wide band of a positioning reference signal to the terminal device 110. Accordingly, the terminal device 110 receives (2020) the second transmit power level (2005) . The network device 120 transmits (2030) a positioning reference signal (2015) to the terminal device 110. Accordingly, the terminal device 110 receives (2040) the positioning reference signal (2015) .

The terminal device 110 determines (2050) the wide band is to be used for calculating the pathloss. The terminal device 110 scales (2060) the pathloss calculated based on the second transmit power level. The terminal device 110 transmits (2070) a sounding reference signal (2025) to the network device based on the scaled pathloss, in a narrow band corresponding to the bandwidth supported by the terminal device. Accordingly, the network device 120 receives (2080) the sounding reference signal (2025) .

In some embodiments, the terminal device 110 determines that the wide band is to be used, then calculates the pathloss based on a second transmit power level associated with the wide band of the positioning reference signal, in the way of scaling the pathloss of wide band PRS, the terminal device 110, for example the RedCap UE can calculate the pathloss of narrow band SRS. In this way, when the PRS signal of several hops is treated as a wide band signal, the pathloss can be calculated.

Fig. 21 illustrates a schematic diagram of calculating the pathloss based on wide band PRS. As shown in Fig. 21, the terminal device 110 can combine the plurality of parts of a positioning reference signal to obtain the positioning reference signal corresponding to the wide band. In Fig. 21, PRS hopping corresponds to a part of the positioning reference signal.

In some embodiments, For RedCap UEs, if the PRS signal of several hops is treated as a wide band signal, then the dl-PRS-ResourcePower in the resource set is for the pathloss calculation of wide band DL PRS. If UL SRS is sent in a limited bandwidth or SRS frequency hopping is enabled, for each sub-band, the pathloss calculation should be based on the narrow band DL PRS, so scaling the pathloss of wide band PRS can be considered to calculate the power of sub-band SRS for positioning.

The scaling factor can be set by two ways. In some embodiments, the scaling factor can be configured by higher layer (SRS-PosResourceSet/DL-PRS-ResourceSet) . The factor equals to 1/ (the number of DL PRS hopping) or 1/ (the number of UL SRS hopping) . The number of DL PRS hopping is the number of times of frequency hopping performed by the terminal device for receiving the positioning reference signal. The number of UL SRS hopping is the number of times of frequency hopping performed by the terminal device for transmitting the sounding reference signal.

P _{SRS, b, f, c} (i, q _s) is a transmit power level of the sounding reference signal. α _{SRS, b, f, c} (q _s) is a scaling parameter in a formula for calculating a transmit power level of the sounding reference signal.

For RedCap UEs:

PL _b, f, c (q _d) =scaling factor*PL _b, f, c (q _d)

In the formula above, the PL _b, f, c (q _d) to the right of the equal sign of the formula is a pathloss between the terminal device and the network device. scaling factor is a scaling factor for scaling the pathloss. The PL _b, f, c (q _d) to the left of the equal sign of the formula is the scaled pathloss.

In some embodiments, The scaling factor can be set by adjust the value of alpha, alpha refers to α _{SRS, b, f, c} (q _s) , and it has an original range preconfigured by a higher layer.

Current the definition of alpha-r16 is Alpha : : = ENUMERATED {alpha0, alpha04, alpha05, alpha06, alpha07, alpha08, alpha09, alpha1} . Some new values smaller than 0.4 can be added to the list. In this way, by updating an original range of a scaling parameter in a formula for calculating a transmit power level of the sounding reference signal to obtain an updated range of the scaling parameter, and then the terminal device 110 scales the pathloss based on the updated range of the scaling parameter.

In summary, embodiments of the present disclosure may provide the following solutions.

A method of communication, comprises: determining, at a terminal device, a starting frequency resource for measuring a set of positioning reference signals from a network device, based on a first bandwidth of the set of positioning reference signals and a measurement timing of the measuring; determining a part of the first bandwidth based on the starting frequency resource and a second bandwidth supported by the terminal device; and measuring the set of positioning reference signals in the part of the first bandwidth.

In one embodiment, the method as above, wherein determining the starting frequency resource comprises: in response to determining that the measurement timing is in a measurement gap for the set of positioning reference signals, determining a lower boundary of the first bandwidth as the starting frequency resource.

In one embodiment, the method as above, wherein determining the part of the first bandwidth comprises: determining the number of resource blocks of the second bandwidth supported by the terminal device, based on a predefined mapping between a subcarrier spacing value of the set of positioning reference signals and the number of resource blocks; and determining the part of the first bandwidth based on the starting frequency resource and the number of resource blocks.

In one embodiment, the method as above, wherein determining the starting frequency resource comprises: in response to determining that the measurement timing is in a processing window for the set of positioning reference signals, determining the starting frequency resource based on a relation between an active downlink bandwidth part of the terminal device and the first bandwidth.

In one embodiment, the method as above, wherein determining the starting frequency resource based on the relation comprises: in response to determining that the active downlink bandwidth part is within the first bandwidth, determining a lower boundary of the active downlink bandwidth part as the starting frequency resource.

In one embodiment, the method as above, wherein determining the starting frequency resource based on the relation comprises: in response to determining that a lower boundary of the active downlink bandwidth part is lower than a lower boundary of the first bandwidth, determining the lower boundary of the first bandwidth as the starting frequency resource.

In one embodiment, the method as above, wherein determining the starting frequency resource based on the relation comprises: in response to determining that an upper boundary of the active downlink bandwidth part is higher than an upper boundary of the first bandwidth, determining a lower boundary of the active bandwidth part as the starting frequency resource, and the upper boundary of first bandwidth as an ending frequency resource.

In one embodiment, the method as above, further comprises: in response to determining that the part of the first bandwidth is narrower than a predefined threshold bandwidth, avoiding measuring the set of positioning reference signals in the processing window.

In one embodiment, the method as above, further comprises: in response to determining that a lower boundary of the active downlink bandwidth part is lower than a lower boundary of the first bandwidth or an upper boundary of the active downlink bandwidth part is higher than an upper boundary of the first bandwidth, avoiding measuring the set of positioning reference signals in the processing window.

In one embodiment, the method as above, wherein determining the part of the first bandwidth comprises: determining the number of resource blocks of the second bandwidth supported by the terminal device, based on a maximum downlink bandwidth supported by the terminal device, a subcarrier spacing value of the set of positioning reference signals, the bandwidth of an active downlink bandwidth part, and a gap value depending on capability of the terminal device; and determining the part of the first bandwidth based on the starting frequency resource and the number of resource blocks.

A method of communication, comprises: receiving, at a terminal device of reduced capability and from a network device, a dedicated configuration of frequency resources for a set of positioning reference signals to be transmitted by the network device; and receiving, from the network device, the set of positioning reference signals based on the dedicated configuration of frequency resources.

In one embodiment, the method as above, wherein receiving the dedicated configuration of frequency resources comprises: receiving, from the network device, a first dedicated information element for configuring a positioning frequency layer of the set of positioning reference signals; and receiving, from the network device, a second dedicated information element for configuring a resource set of the set of positioning reference signals.

In one embodiment, the method as above, wherein at least one of: the first dedicated information element includes an indication that the first and the second dedicated information elements are dedicated to terminal devices of reduced capability, and the second dedicated information element includes an indication that the first and the second dedicated information elements are dedicated to terminal devices of reduced capability.

A method of communication, comprises: receiving, at a terminal device from a network device, a first part of a first repetition of a positioning reference signal in a first sub-band of the positioning reference signal; determining whether to receive a second repetition of the positioning reference signal from the network device, based on a comparison of a frequency hopping interval of the terminal device with a repetition gap between the first repetition and the second repetition; and in response to determining to receive the second repetition, receiving a second part of the second repetition in a second sub-band of the positioning reference signal, the second sub-band being determined based on the first sub-band and the frequency hopping interval.

In one embodiment, the method as above, wherein determining whether to receive the second repetition comprises: in response to determining that the frequency hopping interval is shorter than or equal to the repetition gap, determining to receive the second repetition; in response to determining that the frequency hopping interval is longer than the repetition gap, avoiding receiving the second repetition, and determining whether to receive a next repetition after the second repetition.

In one embodiment, the method as above, wherein determining whether to receive the second repetition comprises: in response to determining that the second repetition is muted, avoiding receiving the second repetition.

In one embodiment, the method as above, further comprising: receiving, from the network device, a first information element for configuring a resource set of a set of positioning reference signals including the positioning reference signal; and obtaining, from the first information element, a frequency hopping configuration for the resource set.

In one embodiment, the method as above, further comprising: receiving, from the network device, a second information element for configuring a resource of the positioning reference signal; and obtaining, from the second information element, a frequency hopping configuration for the resource.

In one embodiment, the method as above, further comprises: determining a repetition number of the positioning reference signal required for the terminal device to perform frequency hopping for a set of sub-bands, the repetition number being configured by a higher layer; and in response to determining that the repetition number is greater than the number of available repetitions of the positioning reference signal, performing the frequency hopping for the set of sub-bands based on the available repetitions and at least one additional repetition of the positioning reference signal configured by the network device.

In one embodiment, the method as above, wherein the frequency hopping interval of the terminal device is configured by a higher layer.

A method of communication, comprises: receiving, at a terminal device, a positioning reference signal from a network device; determining whether a narrow band or a wide band of the positioning reference signal is to be used for calculating a pathloss between the terminal device and the network device, the wide band corresponding to a bandwidth of the positioning reference signal, the narrow band corresponding to a bandwidth supported by the terminal device; in response to determining that the narrow band is to be used, calculating the pathloss based on a first transmit power level associated with the narrow band of the positioning reference signal; and in response to determining that the wide band is to be used, calculating the pathloss based on a second transmit power level associated with the wide band of the positioning reference signal.

In one embodiment, the method as above, wherein determining whether the narrow band or the wide band is to be used comprises: in response to receiving the positioning reference signal in the narrow band, determining that the narrow band is to be used for calculating the pathloss.

In one embodiment, the method as above, further comprises: receiving the first transmit power level from the network device.

In one embodiment, the method as above, further comprises: receiving the second transmit power level from the network device; receiving an adjusting parameter for determining the first transmit power level from the network device; and determining the first transmit power level based on the second transmit power level and the adjusting parameter.

In one embodiment, the method as above, wherein determining the first transmit power level comprises: in response to determining that the adjusting parameter is an offset, determining the first transmit power level by subtracting the offset from the second transmit power level.

In one embodiment, the method as above, wherein determining the first transmit power level comprises: in response to determining that the adjusting parameter is a scaling factor, determining the first transmit power level by multiplying the second transmit power level by the scaling factor.

In one embodiment, the method as above, further comprises: transmitting a sounding reference signal to the network device, based on the pathloss calculated based on the first transmit power level, in a narrow band corresponding to the bandwidth supported by the terminal device.

In one embodiment, the method as above, wherein receiving the positioning reference signal comprises: receiving a plurality of parts of the positioning reference signal based on frequency hopping, each of the plurality of parts corresponding to a respective narrow band of the positioning reference signal; and combining the plurality of parts to obtain the positioning reference signal corresponding to the wide band.

In one embodiment, the method as above, wherein determining whether the narrow band or the wide band is to be used comprises: in response to obtaining the positioning reference signal corresponding to the wide band, determining the wide band is to be used for calculating the pathloss.

In one embodiment, the method as above, further comprises: scaling the pathloss calculated based on the second transmit power level; and transmitting a sounding reference signal to the network device based on the scaled pathloss, in a narrow band corresponding to the bandwidth supported by the terminal device.

In one embodiment, the method as above, wherein scaling the pathloss comprises: determining a scaling factor for scaling the pathloss; and scaling the pathloss based on the scaling factor.

In one embodiment, the method as above, wherein determining the scaling factor comprises at least one of: determining the scaling factor configured by a higher layer, determining the scaling factor based on the number of times of frequency hopping performed by the terminal device for receiving the positioning reference signal, and determining the scaling factor based on the number of times of frequency hopping performed by the terminal device for transmitting the sounding reference signal.

In one embodiment, the method as above, wherein scaling the pathloss comprises: updating an original range of a scaling parameter in a formula for calculating a transmit power level of the sounding reference signal to obtain an updated range of the scaling parameter, the original range of scaling parameter being configured by a higher layer; and scaling the pathloss based on the updated range of the scaling parameter.

A method of communication, comprises: transmitting, at a network device to a terminal device of reduced capability, a dedicated configuration of frequency resources for a set of positioning reference signals to be transmitted by the network device; and transmitting, to the terminal device of reduced capability, the set of positioning reference signals based on the dedicated configuration of frequency resources.

In one embodiment, the method as above, wherein transmitting the dedicated configuration of frequency resources comprises: transmitting, to the terminal device of reduced capability, a first dedicated information element for configuring a positioning frequency layer of the set of positioning reference signals; and transmitting, to the terminal device of reduced capability, a second dedicated information element for configuring a resource set of the set of positioning reference signals.

A method of communication, comprises: generating, at a network device, a first information element for configuring a resource set of a set of positioning reference signals to include a frequency hopping configuration for the resource set; and transmitting the first information element to a terminal device.

A method of communication, comprises: generating, at a network device, a second information element for configuring a resource of a positioning reference signal to include a frequency hopping configuration for the resource; and transmitting the second information element to a terminal device.

A method of communication, comprises: determining, at a network device, a repetition number of a positioning reference signal required for a terminal device to perform frequency hopping for a set of sub-bands of the positioning reference signal, the repetition number being configured by a higher layer; and in response to determining that the repetition number is greater than the number of available repetitions of the positioning reference signal, configuring at least one additional repetition of the positioning reference signal for the terminal device to perform the frequency hopping for the set of sub-bands.

A method of communication, comprises: transmitting, at a network device to a terminal device, a first transmit power level associated with a narrow band of a positioning reference signal to be transmitted by the network device, the narrow band corresponding to a bandwidth supported by the terminal device.

A method of communication, comprises: transmitting, at a network device to a terminal device, a second transmit power level associated with a wide band of a positioning reference signal, the wide band corresponding to a bandwidth of the positioning reference signal; and transmitting, to the terminal device, an adjusting parameter for determining, based on the second transmit power level, a first transmit power level associated with a narrow band of the positioning reference signal to be transmitted by the network device, the narrow band corresponding to a bandwidth supported by the terminal device.

In one embodiment, the method as above, wherein the adjusting parameter is an offset or a scaling factor to be applied to the second transmit power level.

A terminal device comprises: a processor; and a memory storing computer program codes; the memory and the computer program codes configured to, with the processor, cause the terminal device to perform the method of communication as above.

A network device comprises: a processor; and a memory storing computer program codes; the memory and the computer program codes configured to, with the processor, cause the network device to perform the method of communication as above.

A computer readable medium having instructions stored thereon, the instructions, when executed by a processor of an apparatus, causing the apparatus to perform the method of communication as above.

Fig. 22 is a simplified block diagram of a device 2200 that is suitable for implementing some embodiments of the present disclosure. The device 2200 can be considered as a further example embodiment of one of the terminal devices 110, or one of the network devices 120 as shown in Fig. 1. Accordingly, the device 2200 can be implemented at or as at least a part of one of the terminal devices 110, or one of the network devices 120.

As shown, the device 2200 includes a processor 2210, a memory 2220 coupled to the processor 2210, a suitable transmitter (TX) and receiver (RX) 2240 coupled to the processor 2210, and a communication interface coupled to the TX/RX 2240. The memory 2220 stores at least a part of a program 2230. The TX/RX 2240 is for bidirectional communications. The TX/RX 2240 has at least one antenna to facilitate communication, though in practice an Access Node mentioned in this application may have several ones. The communication interface may represent any interface that is necessary for communication with other network elements, such as X2 interface for bidirectional communications between gNBs or eNBs, S1 interface for communication between a Mobility Management Entity (MME) /Serving Gateway (S-GW) and the gNB or eNB, Un interface for communication between the gNB or eNB and a relay node (RN) , or Uu interface for communication between the gNB or eNB and a terminal device.

The program 2230 is assumed to include program instructions that, when executed by the associated processor 2210, enable the device 2200 to operate in accordance with the embodiments of the present disclosure, as discussed herein with reference to Figs. 1 to 16. The embodiments herein may be implemented by computer software executable by the processor 2210 of the device 2200, or by hardware, or by a combination of software and hardware. The processor 2210 may be configured to implement various embodiments of the present disclosure. Furthermore, a combination of the processor 2210 and memory 2220 may form processing means 2250 adapted to implement various embodiments of the present disclosure.

The memory 2220 may be of any type suitable to the local technical network and may be implemented using any suitable data storage technology, such as a non-transitory computer readable storage medium, semiconductor based memory devices, magnetic memory devices and systems, optical memory devices and systems, fixed memory and removable memory, as non-limiting examples. While only one memory 2220 is shown in the device 2200, there may be several physically distinct memory modules in the device 2200. The processor 2210 may be of any type suitable to the local technical network, and may include one or more of general purpose computers, special purpose computers, microprocessors, digital signal processors (DSPs) and processors based on multicore processor architecture, as non-limiting examples. The device 2200 may have multiple processors, such as an application specific integrated circuit chip that is slaved in time to a clock which synchronizes the main processor.

The components included in the apparatuses and/or devices of the present disclosure may be implemented in various manners, including software, hardware, firmware, or any combination thereof. In one embodiment, one or more units may be implemented using software and/or firmware, for example, machine-executable instructions stored on the storage medium. In addition to or instead of machine-executable instructions, parts or all of the units in the apparatuses and/or devices may be implemented, at least in part, by one or more hardware logic components. For example, and without limitation, illustrative types of hardware logic components that can be used include Field-programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) , Application-specific Integrated Circuits (ASICs) , Application-specific Standard Products (ASSPs) , System-on-a-chip systems (SOCs) , Complex Programmable Logic Devices (CPLDs) , and the like.

Generally, various embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented in hardware or special purpose circuits, software, logic or any combination thereof. Some aspects may be implemented in hardware, while other aspects may be implemented in firmware or software which may be executed by a controller, microprocessor or other computing device. While various aspects of embodiments of the present disclosure are illustrated and described as block diagrams, flowcharts, or using some other pictorial representation, it will be appreciated that the blocks, apparatus, systems, techniques or methods described herein may be implemented in, as non-limiting examples, hardware, software, firmware, special purpose circuits or logic, general purpose hardware or controller or other computing devices, or some combination thereof.

The present disclosure also provides at least one computer program product tangibly stored on a non-transitory computer readable storage medium. The computer program product includes computer-executable instructions, such as those included in program modules, being executed in a device on a target real or virtual processor, to carry out the process or method as described above with reference to any of Figs. 1 to 16. Generally, program modules include routines, programs, libraries, objects, classes, components, data structures, or the like that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. The functionality of the program modules may be combined or split between program modules as desired in various embodiments. Machine-executable instructions for program modules may be executed within a local or distributed device. In a distributed device, program modules may be located in both local and remote storage media.

Program code for carrying out methods of the present disclosure may be written in any combination of one or more programming languages. These program codes may be provided to a processor or controller of a general purpose computer, special purpose computer, or other programmable data processing apparatus, such that the program codes, when executed by the processor or controller, cause the functions/operations specified in the flowcharts and/or block diagrams to be implemented. The program code may execute entirely on a machine, partly on the machine, as a stand-alone software package, partly on the machine and partly on a remote machine or entirely on the remote machine or server.

The above program code may be embodied on a machine readable medium, which may be any tangible medium that may contain, or store a program for use by or in connection with an instruction execution system, apparatus, or device. The machine readable medium may be a machine readable signal medium or a machine readable storage medium. A machine readable medium may include but not limited to an electronic, magnetic, optical, electromagnetic, infrared, or semiconductor system, apparatus, or device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. More specific examples of the machine readable storage medium would include an electrical connection having one or more wires, a portable computer diskette, a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM) , a read-only memory (ROM) , an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory) , an optical fiber, a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM) , an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing.

Further, while operations are depicted in a particular order, this should not be understood as requiring that such operations be performed in the particular order shown or in sequential order, or that all illustrated operations be performed, to achieve desirable results. In certain circumstances, multitasking and parallel processing may be advantageous. Likewise, while several specific embodiment details are contained in the above discussions, these should not be construed as limitations on the scope of the present disclosure, but rather as descriptions of features that may be specific to particular embodiments. Certain features that are described in the context of separate embodiments may also be implemented in combination in a single embodiment. Conversely, various features that are described in the context of a single embodiment may also be implemented in multiple embodiments separately or in any suitable sub-combination.

Although the present disclosure has been described in language specific to structural features and/or methodological acts, it is to be understood that the present disclosure defined in the appended claims is not necessarily limited to the specific features or acts described above. Rather, the specific features and acts described above are disclosed as example forms of implementing the claims.

Claims

A method of communication, comprising:

determining, at a terminal device, a starting frequency resource for measuring a set of positioning reference signals from a network device, based on a first bandwidth of the set of positioning reference signals and a measurement timing of the measuring;

determining a part of the first bandwidth based on the starting frequency resource and a second bandwidth supported by the terminal device; and

measuring the set of positioning reference signals in the part of the first bandwidth.
The method of claim 1, wherein determining the starting frequency resource comprises:

in response to determining that the measurement timing is in a measurement gap for the set of positioning reference signals, determining a lower boundary of the first bandwidth as the starting frequency resource.
The method of claim 2, wherein determining the part of the first bandwidth comprises:

determining the number of resource blocks of the second bandwidth supported by the terminal device, based on a predefined mapping between a subcarrier spacing value of the set of positioning reference signals and the number of resource blocks; and

determining the part of the first bandwidth based on the starting frequency resource and the number of resource blocks.
The method of claim 1, wherein determining the starting frequency resource comprises:

in response to determining that the measurement timing is in a processing window for the set of positioning reference signals, determining the starting frequency resource based on a relation between an active downlink bandwidth part of the terminal device and the first bandwidth.
The method of claim 4, wherein determining the starting frequency resource based on the relation comprises:

in response to determining that the active downlink bandwidth part is within the first bandwidth, determining a lower boundary of the active downlink bandwidth part as the starting frequency resource.
The method of claim 4, wherein determining the starting frequency resource based on the relation comprises:

in response to determining that a lower boundary of the active downlink bandwidth part is lower than a lower boundary of the first bandwidth, determining the lower boundary of the first bandwidth as the starting frequency resource.
The method of claim 4, wherein determining the starting frequency resource based on the relation comprises:

in response to determining that an upper boundary of the active downlink bandwidth part is higher than an upper boundary of the first bandwidth, determining a lower boundary of the active bandwidth part as the starting frequency resource, and the upper boundary of first bandwidth as an ending frequency resource.
The method of claim 4, further comprising:

in response to determining that the part of the first bandwidth is narrower than a predefined threshold bandwidth, avoiding measuring the set of positioning reference signals in the processing window.
The method of claim 4, further comprising:

in response to determining that a lower boundary of the active downlink bandwidth part is lower than a lower boundary of the first bandwidth or an upper boundary of the active downlink bandwidth part is higher than an upper boundary of the first bandwidth, avoiding measuring the set of positioning reference signals in the processing window.
The method of claim 1, wherein determining the part of the first bandwidth comprises:

determining the number of resource blocks of the second bandwidth supported by the terminal device, based on a maximum downlink bandwidth supported by the terminal device, a subcarrier spacing value of the set of positioning reference signals, the bandwidth of an active downlink bandwidth part, and a gap value depending on capability of the terminal device; and

determining the part of the first bandwidth based on the starting frequency resource and the number of resource blocks.
A method of communication, comprising:

receiving, at a terminal device of reduced capability and from a network device, a dedicated configuration of frequency resources for a set of positioning reference signals to be transmitted by the network device; and

receiving, from the network device, the set of positioning reference signals based on the dedicated configuration of frequency resources.
The method of claim 11, wherein receiving the dedicated configuration of frequency resources comprises:

receiving, from the network device, a first dedicated information element for configuring a positioning frequency layer of the set of positioning reference signals; and

receiving, from the network device, a second dedicated information element for configuring a resource set of the set of positioning reference signals.
The method of claim 12, wherein at least one of:

the first dedicated information element includes an indication that the first and the second dedicated information elements are dedicated to terminal devices of reduced capability, and

the second dedicated information element includes an indication that the first and the second dedicated information elements are dedicated to terminal devices of reduced capability.
A method of communication, comprising:

receiving, at a terminal device from a network device, a first part of a first repetition of a positioning reference signal in a first sub-band of the positioning reference signal;

determining whether to receive a second repetition of the positioning reference signal from the network device, based on a comparison of a frequency hopping interval of the terminal device with a repetition gap between the first repetition and the second repetition; and

in response to determining to receive the second repetition, receiving a second part of the second repetition in a second sub-band of the positioning reference signal, the second sub-band being determined based on the first sub-band and the frequency hopping interval.
The method of claim 14, wherein determining whether to receive the second repetition comprises:

in response to determining that the frequency hopping interval is shorter than or equal to the repetition gap, determining to receive the second repetition;

in response to determining that the frequency hopping interval is longer than the repetition gap,

avoiding receiving the second repetition, and

determining whether to receive a next repetition after the second repetition.
The method of claim 14, wherein determining whether to receive the second repetition comprises:

in response to determining that the second repetition is muted, avoiding receiving the second repetition.
The method of claim 14, further comprising:

receiving, from the network device, a first information element for configuring a resource set of a set of positioning reference signals including the positioning reference signal; and

obtaining, from the first information element, a frequency hopping configuration for the resource set.
The method of claim 14, further comprising:

receiving, from the network device, a second information element for configuring a resource of the positioning reference signal; and

obtaining, from the second information element, a frequency hopping configuration for the resource.
The method of claim 14, further comprising:

determining a repetition number of the positioning reference signal required for the terminal device to perform frequency hopping for a set of sub-bands, the repetition number being configured by a higher layer; and

in response to determining that the repetition number is greater than the number of available repetitions of the positioning reference signal, performing the frequency hopping for the set of sub-bands based on the available repetitions and at least one additional repetition of the positioning reference signal configured by the network device.
The method of claim 14, wherein the frequency hopping interval of the terminal device is configured by a higher layer.