WO2024096380A1

WO2024096380A1 - Apparatus and method for supporting reference user equipment in providing positioning for target user equipment

Info

Publication number: WO2024096380A1
Application number: PCT/KR2023/016050
Authority: WO
Inventors: June Hwang; Mythri Hunukumbure; David Gutierrez Estevez
Original assignee: Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd.
Priority date: 2022-11-04
Filing date: 2023-10-17
Publication date: 2024-05-10
Also published as: GB202216460D0; GB2624523A; GB202315022D0

Abstract

The disclosure relates to a 5G or 6G communication system for supporting a higher data transmission rate. The disclosure relates to a method for supporting one or more reference user equipments, UEs, in providing positioning for one or more of target UEs in a communications network. The method comprises transmitting, by a location management function (LMF) to a plurality of UEs, a first message to request the plurality of UEs to act as the one or more reference UEs; receiving, by the LMF from the one or more reference UEs, a response message to accept the request to establish the one or more reference UEs or to reject the request; transmitting, by the LMF to the one or more reference UEs, a second message to request position information for the one or more target UEs; transmitting, by the LMF to the one or more reference UEs, a third message to request positioning information for the one or more of target UEs; transmitting, by the LMF to the one or more reference UEs, a fourth message to provide positioning assistance information; receiving, by the LMF from the one or more reference UEs, a fifth message to indicate that the one or more reference UEs provide position information for the one or more target UEs; and receiving, by the LMF from the one or more reference UEs, a sixth message to report position information for at least some of the one or more target UEs.

Description

APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR SUPPORTING REFERENCE USER EQUIPMENT IN PROVIDING POSITIONING FOR TARGET USER EQUIPMENT

The disclosure relates to long term evolution (LTE) positioning protocol (LPP) signalling configurations for supporting reference user equipments (UEs), for example signalling configurations in the LPP to support positioning or localization of one or more target UEs through the use of new radio (NR) sidelink (SL), for example within 3^rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) 5th Generation (5G) NR and NR-based relay networks.

5G mobile communication technologies define broad frequency bands such that high transmission rates and new services are possible, and can be implemented not only in "Sub 6GHz" bands such as 3.5GHz, but also in "Above 6GHz" bands referred to as mmWave including 28GHz and 39GHz. In addition, it has been considered to implement 6G mobile communication technologies (referred to as Beyond 5G systems) in terahertz bands (for example, 95GHz to 3THz bands) in order to accomplish transmission rates fifty times faster than 5G mobile communication technologies and ultra-low latencies one-tenth of 5G mobile communication technologies.

At the beginning of the development of 5G mobile communication technologies, in order to support services and to satisfy performance requirements in connection with enhanced Mobile BroadBand (eMBB), Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communications (URLLC), and massive Machine-Type Communications (mMTC), there has been ongoing standardization regarding beamforming and massive MIMO for mitigating radio-wave path loss and increasing radio-wave transmission distances in mmWave, supporting numerologies (for example, operating multiple subcarrier spacings) for efficiently utilizing mmWave resources and dynamic operation of slot formats, initial access technologies for supporting multi-beam transmission and broadbands, definition and operation of BWP (BandWidth Part), new channel coding methods such as a LDPC (Low Density Parity Check) code for large amount of data transmission and a polar code for highly reliable transmission of control information, L2 pre-processing, and network slicing for providing a dedicated network specialized to a specific service.

Currently, there are ongoing discussions regarding improvement and performance enhancement of initial 5G mobile communication technologies in view of services to be supported by 5G mobile communication technologies, and there has been physical layer standardization regarding technologies such as V2X (Vehicle-to-everything) for aiding driving determination by autonomous vehicles based on information regarding positions and states of vehicles transmitted by the vehicles and for enhancing user convenience, NR-U (New Radio Unlicensed) aimed at system operations conforming to various regulation-related requirements in unlicensed bands, NR UE Power Saving, Non-Terrestrial Network (NTN) which is UE-satellite direct communication for providing coverage in an area in which communication with terrestrial networks is unavailable, and positioning.

Moreover, there has been ongoing standardization in air interface architecture/protocol regarding technologies such as Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) for supporting new services through interworking and convergence with other industries, IAB (Integrated Access and Backhaul) for providing a node for network service area expansion by supporting a wireless backhaul link and an access link in an integrated manner, mobility enhancement including conditional handover and DAPS (Dual Active Protocol Stack) handover, and two-step random access for simplifying random access procedures (2-step RACH for NR). There also has been ongoing standardization in system architecture/service regarding a 5G baseline architecture (for example, service based architecture or service based interface) for combining Network Functions Virtualization (NFV) and Software-Defined Networking (SDN) technologies, and Mobile Edge Computing (MEC) for receiving services based on UE positions.

As 5G mobile communication systems are commercialized, connected devices that have been exponentially increasing will be connected to communication networks, and it is accordingly expected that enhanced functions and performances of 5G mobile communication systems and integrated operations of connected devices will be necessary. To this end, new research is scheduled in connection with eXtended Reality (XR) for efficiently supporting AR (Augmented Reality), VR (Virtual Reality), MR (Mixed Reality) and the like, 5G performance improvement and complexity reduction by utilizing Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML), AI service support, metaverse service support, and drone communication.

Furthermore, such development of 5G mobile communication systems will serve as a basis for developing not only new waveforms for providing coverage in terahertz bands of 6G mobile communication technologies, multi-antenna transmission technologies such as Full Dimensional MIMO (FD-MIMO), array antennas and large-scale antennas, metamaterial-based lenses and antennas for improving coverage of terahertz band signals, high-dimensional space multiplexing technology using OAM (Orbital Angular Momentum), and RIS (Reconfigurable Intelligent Surface), but also full-duplex technology for increasing frequency efficiency of 6G mobile communication technologies and improving system networks, AI-based communication technology for implementing system optimization by utilizing satellites and AI (Artificial Intelligence) from the design stage and internalizing end-to-end AI support functions, and next-generation distributed computing technology for implementing services at levels of complexity exceeding the limit of UE operation capability by utilizing ultra-high-performance communication and computing resources.

Currently in 5G-advanced mobile communication standards, the positioning support with the use of the NR SL is being studied. Positioning with the support of a relay or a reference UE in situations of in coverage, partial coverage and out of coverage are being investigated. In situations where a reference UE is connected to a network (in coverage or partial coverage), the signalling between the location management function (LMF) in the network and the reference UE is of significance to orchestrate the NR SL based positioning.

NR SL based positioning of one or more target UEs with the aid of one or more reference UEs is a significant part of the 3GPP 5G Release 18 NR-pos-enh2 study/work items.

The above information is presented as background information only to assist with an understanding of the disclosure. No determination has been made, and no assertion is made, as to whether any of the above might be applicable as prior art with respect to the disclosure.

Embodiments of the disclosure provide an apparatus and a method for supporting reference user equipment in providing positioning for target user equipment.

Accordingly various example embodiments herein disclose a method for supporting one or more reference user equipments, UEs, in providing positioning for one or more of target UEs in a communications network. The method comprising transmitting, by a location management function (LMF) to a plurality of UEs, a first message to request the plurality of UEs to act as the one or more reference UEs; receiving, by the LMF from the one or more reference UEs, a response message to accept the request to establish the one or more reference UEs or to reject the request; transmitting, by the LMF to the one or more reference UEs, a second message to request position information for the one or more target UEs; transmitting, by the LMF to the one or more reference UEs, a third message to request positioning information for the one or more of target UEs; transmitting, by the LMF to the one or more reference UEs, a fourth message to provide positioning assistance information; receiving, by the LMF from the one or more reference UEs, a fifth message to indicate that the one or more reference UEs provide position information for the one or more target UEs; and receiving, by the LMF from the one or more reference UEs, a sixth message to report position information for at least some of the one or more target UEs.

Accordingly various example embodiments herein disclose an apparatus for supporting one or more reference user equipments, UEs, in providing positioning for one or more of target UEs in a communications network. The apparatus comprises a transceiver and at least one processor configured to control the transceiver to transmit, to a plurality of UEs, a first message to request the plurality of UEs to act as the one or more reference UEs, receive, from the one or more reference UEs, a response message to accept the request to establish the one or more reference UEs or to reject the request, transmit, to the one or more reference UEs, a second message to request position information for the one or more target UEs, transmit, to the one or more reference UEs, a third message to request positioning information for the one or more of target UEs, transmit, to the one or more reference UEs, a fourth message to provide positioning assistance information, receive, from the one or more reference UEs, a fifth message to indicate that the one or more reference UEs provide position information for the one or more target UEs, and receive, from the one or more reference UEs, a sixth message to report position information for at least some of the one or more target UEs.

These and other aspects of the various example embodiments herein will be better appreciated and understood when considered in conjunction with the following description and the accompanying drawings. It should be understood, however, that the following descriptions, while indicating various example embodiments and numerous specific details thereof, are given by way of illustration and not of limitation. Many changes and modifications may be made within the scope of the disclosure, and the embodiments herein include all such modifications.

The above and other aspects, features, and advantages of certain embodiments of the disclosure will be more apparent from the following detailed description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein like characters represent like parts throughout the drawings, and in which:

Figure 1 illustrates an example of a LPP signalling configuration for supporting one or more reference UEs in providing positioning for one or more of target UEs.

Figure 2 illustrates an example of a LPP signalling configuration for supporting multiple reference UEs in providing positioning for one target UE.

Figure 3 is a block diagram illustrating an example configuration of a electronic device for a LPP signalling configuration for supporting multiple reference UEs in providing positioning for one or more of target UEs.

Further, skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the drawings are illustrated for simplicity and may not have necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the flowcharts illustrate the method in terms of operations involved to help to improve understanding of aspects of the disclosure. Furthermore, in terms of the construction of the device, one or more components of the device may have been represented in the drawings by conventional symbols, and the drawings may show those specific details that are pertinent to understanding the various example embodiments of the disclosure so as not to obscure the drawings with details that may be readily apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art.

To be better understood by those skilled in the art, the disclosure is described in the following description with reference to the attached drawings.

The ensuing description provides exemplary embodiments only. The embodiments of the disclosure are provided with specific details to provide a thorough understanding of such embodiments. However, these embodiments may be practiced without the provided specific details. For example, various elements such as for e.g., circuits, systems, processes, and other units may be shown as components in block diagram form in order not to obscure the embodiments in unnecessary detail. Also, the disclosure may be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey its scope to those skilled in the art. It should be understood that the function and arrangement of elements might be changed without departing from the essence and scope of the disclosure as set forth. The terminology used in the detailed description of the particular exemplary embodiments illustrated in the accompanying drawings is not intended to be limiting. In the drawings, like numbers refer to like elements.

Also, it is pertinent to note that some of the embodiments may be described as a process which is for e.g., in the form of a flow diagram, a flowchart, a structure diagram, a data flow diagram, or a block diagram. In these embodiments the operations may be described as a sequential process, however many of the operations can be performed in parallel or concurrently. In a process an order of the operations may also be re-arranged. In addition, a figure may indicate that a process is terminated when its operations are completed, however there may be additional steps that are not included in the figure.

Additionally, various features of the disclosure can each be used independently of one another or with any combination of other features. Some of the problems as discussed above may or may not be addressed by an individual feature of the disclosure. However, some of these problems may be addressed by a combination of features of the disclosure.

Terms such as "exemplary" and/or "demonstrative" indicate an illustration, an instance, or an example, and the disclosed subject matter is not limited by such examples. Additionally, it should be noted that no "exemplary" and/or "demonstrative" aspect or design described herein may be construed as preferred or advantageous over other aspects or designs, and it also should not preclude equivalent exemplary structures and techniques known to those of ordinary skill in the art.

Furthermore, the detailed description or the claims may contain terms such as "has," "contains," and "includes," etc., however it is important to note that such terms are intended to be inclusive―in a manner similar to an open transition word such as the term "comprising"―without precluding any additional or other elements.

As used herein, a "processing unit" or "operating processor" includes one or more processors, microprocessors, microcomputers, microcontrollers, digital signal processors, central processing units, state machines, logic circuitries, and / or any devices that manipulate signals based on operational instructions. The processing unit may also refer to any logic circuitry for processing instructions. Among other capabilities, the processing unit may be configured to fetch and execute computer-readable instructions stored in the memory. More specifically, the processor or processing unit is a hardware processor.

As used herein, "storage unit" or "memory unit" refers to a machine or computer-readable medium including any mechanism for storing information in a form readable by a computer or similar machine. The computer-readable medium may include a volatile memory, such as static random-access memory (SRAM) and dynamic random-access memory (DRAM), and / or non - volatile memory, such as read only memory (ROM), erasable programmable ROM, flash memories, hard disks, optical disks, magnetic tapes and/or other types of machine-accessible storage media. The storage unit stores at least the data that may be required by one or more units of the system to perform their respective functions.

As used herein, "a mobile device", "a handheld device", "a wireless communication device", "a mobile communication device", "a user equipment", "a user device", "a smart-user-device", "a smart-device", "an electronic device", and "a communication device" may be any electrical, electronic and/or computing device or equipment, capable of implementing the features of the disclosure. The mobile device may include, but is not limited to, a mobile phone, smart phone, a laptop, a tablet computer, a wearable device or any other computing device which is capable of implementing the features of the disclosure. Also, the mobile device may contain at least one input means configured to receive an input from one or more unit(s)/system(s) which are required to implement the features of the disclosure.

The following examples are applicable to, and use terminology associated with, 3GPP 5G. However, the skilled person will appreciate that the techniques disclosed herein are not limited to these examples or to 3GPP 5G, and may be applied in any suitable system or standard, for example one or more existing and/or future generation wireless communication systems or standards. The skilled person will appreciate that the techniques disclosed herein may be applied in any existing or future releases of 3GPP 5G NR or any other relevant standard.

For example, the functionality of the various network entities and other features disclosed herein may be applied to corresponding or equivalent entities or features in other communication systems or standards. Corresponding or equivalent entities or features may be regarded as entities or features that perform the same or similar role, function, operation or purpose within the network. For example, the functionality of an integrated access and backhaul (IAB) node in the examples below may be applied to any other suitable type of entity performing functions of a network node.

The skilled person will appreciate that the present invention is not limited to the specific examples disclosed herein. For example:

· The techniques disclosed herein are not limited to 3GPP 5G.

· One or more entities in the examples disclosed herein may be replaced with one or more alternative entities performing equivalent or corresponding functions, processes or operations.

· One or more of the messages in the examples disclosed herein may be replaced with one or more alternative messages, signals or other type of information carriers that communicate equivalent or corresponding information.

· One or more further elements, entities and/or messages may be added to the examples disclosed herein.

· One or more non-essential elements, entities and/or messages may be omitted in certain examples.

· The functions, processes or operations of a particular entity in one example may be divided between two or more separate entities in an alternative example.

· The functions, processes or operations of two or more separate entities in one example may be performed by a single entity in an alternative example.

· Information carried by a particular message in one example may be carried by two or more separate messages in an alternative example.

· Information carried by two or more separate messages in one example may be carried by a single message in an alternative example.

· The order in which operations are performed may be modified, if possible, in alternative examples.

· The transmission of information between network entities is not limited to the specific form, type and/or order of messages described in relation to the examples disclosed herein.

According to an embodiment, there is provided in a communications network, a LPP signalling configuration for supporting one or more reference UEs in providing positioning for one or more of target UEs, comprising:

a first sequence of one or more messages between a LMF in the network and a plurality of UEs to establish one or more reference UEs;

a second sequence of one or more messages between the LMF and the one or more reference UEs to request position information for the one or more target UEs, to provide positioning assistance information to the one or more reference UEs for use in SL based positioning of the one or more of target UEs and to indicate if the one or more reference UEs may provide position information for the one or more target UEs, and

a third sequence of one or more messages between the LMF and the one or more reference UEs to report position information for at least some of the one or more target UEs from the one or more reference UEs to the LMF.

The first sequence of one or more messages may comprise:

a message from the LMF to the plurality of UEs to check their capability to act as a reference UE;

a message from the LMF to one or more UEs which have indicated reference UE capability to request the one or more UEs to act as one or more reference UEs, and

a message from the one or more UEs to accept the request to establish the one or more reference UEs or to reject the request.

In dynamic network environments, the message from the LMF to the plurality of UEs to check their capability to act as a reference UE may be sent just prior to a message from the LMF requesting positioning information. In controlled network environments, such as industry Internet of things (IIoT), the message from the LMF to the plurality of UEs to check their capability to act as a reference UE may be sent earlier, e.g. sometime earlier, than a message from the LMF requesting positioning information.

The second sequence of one or more messages may comprise:

a message from the LMF to the one or more reference UEs to request position information for the one or more target UEs;

a message from the LMF to the one or more reference UEs to provide the positioning assistance information to the one or more reference UEs, and

a message from the one or more reference UEs to the LMF to indicate that the one or more reference UEs may provide position information for the one or more of target UEs.

The one or more target UEs may be one or more of target UEs.

The assistance information may comprise common SL positioning configurations for target UEs.

In in-coverage scenarios, the message from the LMF providing the positioning assistance information may be sent to the one or more reference UEs through a air interface between terminal and base station/access point (Uu) interface. The message from the LMF providing the positioning assistance information may also be broadcast to the one or more reference UEs.

The one or more reference UEs may use the positioning assistance information to conduct SL based discovery for the one or more target UEs and indicate that they may provide position information for at least some of the one or more target UEs.

The third sequence of one or more messages may comprise a message from the one or more reference UEs to the LMF to report the position information for at least some of the one or more target UEs comprising any of location related measurements for the at least some of the one or more target UEs, actual location estimates from the at least some of the one or more target UEs.

The message from the one or more reference UEs to the LMF to report the position information may comprise concatenation to include a slot for the target UE or each target UE.

The one or more reference UEs may carry out SL based positioning to obtain the location related measurements for the at least some of the one or more target UEs and the actual location estimates from the at least some of the one or more target UEs.

The LPP signalling configuration may support multiple reference UEs in providing positioning for one target UE, comprising a message from the LMF to the multiple reference UEs to indicate to the reference UEs that multiple reference UEs are in operation and to indicate a quality of service (QoS) class having latency requirements for providing positioning for the one target UE.

The LPP signalling configuration may become part of the LPP. The LPP signalling configuration may become a newly-developed side link positioning protocol (SL-PP).

According to an embodiment, there is provided in a communications network, a LPP signalling method comprising using the LPP signalling configuration of the first aspect of the disclosure for supporting one or more reference UEs in providing positioning for one or more of target UEs.

According to an embodiment, there is provided in a communications network, a LPP signalling apparatus which performs the LPP signalling configuration method of the second aspect of the disclosure for supporting one or more reference UEs in providing positioning for one or more of target UEs.

Referring to Figure 1, the LPP signalling configuration may be split into several sequence of messages between the LMF and reference UEs.

A first sequence of messages,

messages

101, 102 and 103 in Figure 1, may establish one or more reference UEs.

Message 101 is sent from the LMF 120 to a plurality of UEs 110 to check the capability of the UEs to act as reference UEs. A message is sent from the plurality of UEs 110 to the LMF 120 to indicate if the plurality of UEs 110 have reference UE capability.

Message 102 is sent from the LMF 120 to UEs 110 which have indicated reference UE capability to request the UEs 110 to act as reference UEs.

Message 103 is sent from the reference UEs 110 to the LMF 120 to either accept the request, and establish the reference UEs 110, or to reject the request. If the request is rejected, this procedure will be terminated.

In dynamic network environments, message 103 from the LMF 120 to the plurality of UEs 110 is sent prior to a message 104 from the LMF 120 requesting positioning information. In controlled network environments, such as industry IoT, message 102 from the LMF 120 to the plurality of UEs 110 may be sent earlier than a message 104 from the LMF 120 requesting positioning information.

A second sequence of messages,

messages

104, 105 and 107 in Figure 1, may request position information for the one or more target UEs, provide positioning assistance information to the one or more reference UEs for use in SL based positioning of the one or more of target UEs and indicate if the one or more reference UEs may provide position information for the one or more target UEs.

Message 104 from the LMF 120 to the one or more reference UEs 110 requests position information for one or more of target UEs {1, ..., n}.

Message 105 from the LMF 120 to the one or more reference UEs 110 provides the positioning assistance information to the one or more reference UEs 110. In an embodiment, the positioning assistance information may comprise common SL positioning configurations for the one or more of target UEs {1, ..., n}.

In in-coverage scenarios, the message 105 from the LMF 120 providing the positioning assistance information is sent to the one or more reference UEs 110 through a Uu interface. The message 105 from the LMF 120 providing the positioning assistance information may also be broadcast to the one or more reference UEs 110, for example using system information block (SIB). This may reduce signalling overhead.

The one or more reference UEs 110 use the positioning assistance information to conduct SL based discovery for the one or more of {1, ..., n} target UEs at an operation 106. Due to various reasons, for example, target UE(s) refusing to be localized through a reference UE, poor SL channel quality, etc., the reference UEs will be able to provide position information for a subset, comprising one or more of target UEs {1, ..., m}, of the one or more of target UEs {1, ..., n}. The reference UEs may accept the LMF 120 request to locate one or more of target UEs {1, ..., m}.

Message 107 is sent from the one or more reference UEs 110 to the LMF 120 to indicate that the one or more reference UEs 110 may provide position information for the one or more of target UEs {1, ..., m}. The subset of target UEs {1, ..., m} may be smaller than target UEs {1, ..., n}, as some of the target UEs may not have a good enough SL (signal quality wise) or some target UEs may refuse to provide position information through the designated reference UEs. In the special case of n=0, the one or more reference UEs 110 will indicate this to the LMF 120 and this procedure will be terminated.

A message 109 in Figure 1 may report position information for the one or more of target UEs {1, ..., m} and terminate the procedure.

The one or more reference UEs 110 will first of all carry out the SL based positioning to obtain the position information for the one or more of target UEs {1, ..., m} at an operation 108. The position information may comprise either location related measurements for the one or more of target UEs {1, ..., m} or actual location estimates from the one or more of target UEs {1, ..., m}. For the latter, the target UEs may use a non-3GPP positioning method and provide the location estimation to the reference UEs.

Message 109 is sent from the one or more reference UEs 110 to the LMF 120 to report the position information for the one or more of target UEs {1, ..., m}. The message 109 may comprise concatenation to include slots for each target UE.

A message may be sent from the LMF 120 to the one or more reference UEs 110 to terminate the signalling procedure.

The LPP signalling configuration may be adapted for supporting multiple reference UEs in providing positioning for one target UE. This may be useful in ultra reliable low latency communications (URLLC) scenarios, where over-provisioning of resources may be useful to gain required reliability and low latency in positioning (or in end-to end localization results).

A message is sent from the LMF to the multiple reference UEs to indicate to the reference UEs that multiple reference UEs are in operation and to indicate a quality of service (QoS) class as a multiple QoS class. With each reference UE knowing the multiple other reference UEs are also in operation, they may opt to provide the target UE position information quickly - even at the minimum QoS level of the multiple QoS class. This will help achieve low-latency requirements, at the cost of over-provisioning resources.

The modifications needed to the signalling configuration shown in Figure 1 to support the multiple reference UEs and single target UE scenario are as follows.

Figure 2 illustrates an example of a LPP signalling configuration for supporting multiple reference UEs in providing positioning for single target UE.

Referring to Figure 2, the LMF 220 sends

messages

201 and 202 to multiple UEs 210 aiming at localization of a single target UE. The

messages

201 and 202 are substantially same to the

messages

101 and 102 in Figured 1.

Message 203 is sent from the reference UEs 210 to the LMF 120 to either accept the request and establish the reference UEs 210, or to reject the request. If the request is rejected, this procedure will be terminated.

When a set of k UEs have accepted to act as reference UEs in message 203 and a set of k UEs are established as reference UEs, the LMF 220 sends a new message 204 to the k reference UEs to indicate that multiple reference UEs 210 are in operation. The message 204 may be useful to incentivize the multiple reference UEs 210 to provide the position information for the target UE as quickly as possible. Currently in the standardized QoS classes, there is no provision to indicate the latency requirements for a position request. If a multiple QoS class is used, for example, this indication in the message 204 could prompt the reference UEs 210 to provide position information for the target UE at a minimum accuracy level, if this may be achieved quickly.

To satisfy extremely high data rate requirements, the 3GPP 5G NR standard utilises communication frequencies in a relatively high range, from 30 GHz to 300 GHz, corresponding to wavelengths in the millimetre (mm) range (mmWave communication). Such mmWave communication provides a large available bandwidth and high transmission speeds. However, problems with mmWave communication include severe signal path loss and low penetration, resulting in a relatively short transmission range. This in turn requires a greater density of base stations deployment.

Message 205 from the LMF 220 to the reference UEs 210 provides the positioning assistance information to the reference UEs 210. In an embodiment, the positioning assistance information may comprise common SL positioning configurations for the target UE.

The reference UE 210 uses the positioning assistance information to conduct SL based discovery for the target UE at an operation 206.

Message 207 is sent from the reference UEs 210 to the LMF 220 to indicate that the reference UEs 210 may provide position information for the target UE.

A messages 209 in Figure 2 may report position information for the target UE and terminate the procedure.

Figure 3 is a block diagram illustrating an example configuration of a electronic device for a LPP signalling configuration for supporting multiple reference UEs in providing positioning for one or more of target UEs.According to various embodiments, an electronic device 300 shown in Figure 3 may be any one of the devices shown in FIGS. 1 to 2 (e.g.,

UE

110, 210, and LMF 120, 220).

Referring to Figure 3, the electronic device 300 may include a transceiver 302 and a processor 304. The transceiver 302 may transmit/receive signals or messages to/from at least one other device. The processor 304 may control the transceiver 302 and perform operations based on at least one of various embodiments as described above. The processor 304 may include an application processor and a communication processor.

The transceiver 302 and the processor 304 are not necessarily implemented as separate modules but rather as a single component, e.g., a single chip. The transceiver 302 and the processor 304 may be electrically connected with each other. In an embodiment, the processor 304 may indicate a circuit, an application-specific circuit, or at least one processor. The operations of the electronic device 300 may be realized by including a memory device storing a corresponding program code in the electronic device 300 (e.g., the processor 304 and/or another component not shown).The embodiments herein are provided merely for better understanding of the disclosure, and the disclosure should not be limited thereto or thereby. In other words, it is apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art that various changes may be made thereto without departing from the scope of the disclosure. Further, the embodiments may be practiced in combination. For example, the respective, at least portions, of the embodiments of the disclosure may be combined and operated by the base station or the UE.

An example of the disclosure may provide a network or wireless communication system comprising a first network entity and a second network entity according to any example, embodiment, aspect and/or claim disclosed herein.

An example of the disclosure may provide a computer program comprising instructions which, when the program is executed by a computer or processor, cause the computer or processor to carry out a method according to any example, embodiment, aspect and/or claim disclosed herein.

An example of the disclosure may provide a computer or processor-readable data carrier having stored thereon a computer program according to the preceding examples.

An example of the disclosure may be provided in the form of an apparatus/device/network entity configured to perform one or more defined network functions and/or a method therefor. Such an apparatus/device/network entity may comprise one or more elements, for example one or more of receivers, transmitters, transceivers, processors, controllers, modules, units, and the like, each element configured to perform one or more corresponding processes, operations and/or method steps for implementing the techniques described herein. For example, an operation/function of X may be performed by a module configured to perform X (or an X-module). Certain examples of the disclosure may be provided in the form of a system (e.g. a network) comprising one or more such apparatuses/devices/network entities, and/or a method therefor. For example, in the following examples, a network may include one or more IAB nodes.

It will be appreciated that examples of the disclosure may be realized in the form of hardware, software or a combination of hardware and software. Certain examples of the disclosure may provide a computer program comprising instructions or code which, when executed, implement a method, system and/or apparatus in accordance with any aspect, claim, example and/or embodiment disclosed herein. Certain embodiments of the disclosure provide a machine-readable storage storing such a program.

The same or similar components may be designated by the same or similar reference numerals, although they may be illustrated in different drawings.

Detailed descriptions of techniques, structures, constructions, functions or processes known in the art may be omitted for clarity and conciseness, and to avoid obscuring the subject matter of the disclosure.

The terms and words used herein are not limited to the bibliographical or standard meanings, but, are merely used to enable a clear and consistent understanding of the examples disclosed herein.

It is contemplated for embodiments described herein to extend to individual elements and concepts described herein, independently of other concepts, ideas or system, as well as for embodiments to include combinations of elements recited anywhere in this application. It is to be understood that the disclosure is not limited to the embodiments described in detail herein with reference to the accompanying drawings. As such, many variations and modifications will be apparent to practitioners skilled in this art. Illustrative embodiments such as those depicted refer to an example form but is not limited to its constraints and is subject to modification and alternative forms. Accordingly, it is intended that the scope of the disclosure be defined by the following claims and their equivalents. Moreover, it is contemplated that a feature described either individually or as part of an embodiment may be combined with other individually described features, or parts of other embodiments, even if the other features and embodiments make no mention of the said feature. Hence, the absence of describing combinations should not preclude the inventor from claiming rights to such combinations.

Claims

A method for supporting one or more reference user equipments, UEs, in providing positioning for one or more of target UEs in a communications network, the method comprising:

transmitting, by a location management function (LMF) to a plurality of UEs, a first message to request the plurality of UEs to act as the one or more reference UEs;

receiving, by the LMF from the one or more reference UEs, a response message to accept the request to establish the one or more reference UEs or to reject the request;

transmitting, by the LMF to the one or more reference UEs, a second message to request position information for the one or more target UEs;

transmitting, by the LMF to the one or more reference UEs, a third message to request positioning information for the one or more of target UEs;

transmitting, by the LMF to the one or more reference UEs, a fourth message to provide positioning assistance information;

receiving, by the LMF from the one or more reference UEs, a fifth message to indicate that the one or more reference UEs provide position information for the one or more target UEs; and

receiving, by the LMF from the one or more reference UEs, a sixth message to report position information for at least some of the one or more target UEs.
The method of claim 1, further comprising:

transmitting, by the LMF to the plurality of UEs, a message to check capability of the plurality of UEs to act as a reference UE.
The method of claim 2, wherein the message to check the capability of the plurality of UEs to act as a reference UE is sent before the second message.
The method of claim 2, wherein the one or more UEs have indicated reference UE capability.
The method of claim 1, wherein the positioning assistance information is for use in sidelink (SL) based positioning of the one or more of target UEs.
The method of claim 5, wherein the assistance information comprises SL positioning configurations common for the one or more target UEs.
The method of claim 5 or claim 6, wherein the fourth message is sent to the one or more reference UEs through a Uu interface.
The method of any of claims 5 to 7, wherein the fourth message is broadcast to the one or more reference UEs.
The method claim 5, wherein the one or more reference UEs use the positioning assistance information to conduct SL based discovery for the one or more target UEs and indicate that the one or more reference UEs provide position information for at least some of the one or more target UEs.
The method of any preceding claim, wherein the sixth message comprises at least one of location related measurements for the at least some of the one or more target UEs, and actual location estimates from the at least some of the one or more target UEs.
The method of claim 10, wherein the sixth message comprises concatenation to include a slot for the one or more target UEs or each of the one or more target UEs.
The method of claim 10 or claim 11, wherein the one or more reference UEs carry out SL based positioning to obtain the location related measurements for the at least some of the one or more target UEs and the actual location estimates from the at least some of the one or more target UEs.
The method of claim 1, further comprising:

transmitting, by the LMF to multiple reference UEs, a message to indicate to the multiple reference UEs that the multiple reference UEs are in operation and to indicate a quality of service (QoS) class having latency requirements for providing positioning for one target UE.
An apparatus for supporting one or more reference user equipments, UEs, in providing positioning for one or more of target UEs in a communications network, the apparatus comprising:

a transceiver; and

at least one processor configured to control the transceiver to:

transmit, to a plurality of UEs, a first message to request the plurality of UEs to act as the one or more reference UEs,

receive, from the one or more reference UEs, a response message to accept the request to establish the one or more reference UEs or to reject the request,

transmit, to the one or more reference UEs, a second message to request position information for the one or more target UEs,

transmit, to the one or more reference UEs, a third message to request positioning information for the one or more of target UEs,

transmit, to the one or more reference UEs, a fourth message to provide positioning assistance information,

receive, from the one or more reference UEs, a fifth message to indicate that the one or more reference UEs provide position information for the one or more target UEs, and

receive, from the one or more reference UEs, a sixth message to report position information for at least some of the one or more target UEs.
The apparatus of claim 14, wherein the processor is configured to perform one of method of claim 2 to claim 13.