WO2023011187A1 - Communication method and communication apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

The present application discloses a communication method and a communication apparatus. The method comprises: a terminal device receives first indication information from a network device or a location management device, and sends a first request message to the network device or the location management device. The first indication information is used for indicating at least one configuration parameter that is supported by a network side and used for configuring a positioning reference signal, and a first value set corresponding to the at least one configuration parameter. In the method, by indicating one or more configuration parameters to the terminal device, the network device or the location management device can indirectly indicate one or more sets of resource configurations of the positioning reference signal supported by the network side. The amount of data of the multiple configuration parameters is much smaller than the amount of data of the multiple sets of resource configurations formed by combining the multiple configuration parameters, and therefore, the signaling overhead for indicating the resource configurations of the positioning reference signal can be reduced.

Description

A communication method and communication device

Cross References to Related Applications

This application claims the priority of the Chinese patent application with the application number 202110898336.4 and the application title "A communication method and communication device" submitted to the China Patent Office on August 5, 2021, the entire contents of which are incorporated by reference in this application .

technical field

The present application relates to the technical field of positioning, and in particular to a communication method and a communication device.

Background technique

During the positioning process, the terminal device can request the resource configuration of the positioning reference signal as needed. For example, the terminal device requests the network side to change the resource configuration of the positioning reference signal according to the positioning accuracy requirement or the positioning delay requirement. To this end, the network device will notify the terminal device of all supported resource configurations in advance. However, there are multiple configuration parameters for resource configuration, and each configuration parameter has multiple values, and various configuration parameters with different values can be combined to form more sets of resource configurations. If the network device sends all resource configurations to the terminal device, the signaling overhead for sending the resource configuration is relatively large. In addition, more resources are required for sending all resource configurations.

Contents of the invention

The present application provides a communication method and a communication device, which are used to reduce the signaling overhead for a network-side device to notify a terminal-side device of the resource configuration of a positioning reference signal supported by the device.

A first aspect provides a communication method that can be executed by a first communication device, and the first communication device may be a communication device or a communication device capable of supporting the communication device to implement functions required by the method, such as a chip system. The following description is made by taking the communication device as a terminal device as an example. The method includes:

The terminal device receives the first indication information from the network side device (network device or location management device), and sends a first request message to the network device or location management device. Wherein, the first indication information is used to indicate at least one configuration parameter used to configure the resource of the positioning reference signal, and a first value set respectively corresponding to the at least one configuration parameter. The first request message includes a first configuration parameter belonging to at least one configuration parameter. In this solution, the network side device may indicate to the terminal device one or more configuration parameters used to configure resources of the positioning reference signal, and may also recommend values of these configuration parameters to the terminal device. Through a combination of one or more configuration parameters, the resource configuration of the positioning reference signal supported by the network side device can be indicated. Requesting one or more configuration parameters from the network side device by the terminal device is equivalent to requesting resource configuration associated with the one or more configuration parameters from the network side device. Since the data volume of multiple configuration parameters is much smaller than the data volume of multiple sets of resource configurations of the positioning reference signal obtained by combining the multiple configuration parameters. Therefore, compared with the network-side device notifying the terminal device of all supported resource configurations, the network device notifying the terminal device of the supported configuration parameters can reduce the signaling overhead for indicating the resource configuration of the positioning reference signal. In addition, when a terminal device requests resource configuration, it can request according to the smallest unit of configuration parameters, which is more flexible than requesting according to resource configuration.

In a possible implementation manner, the first indication information is carried in auxiliary data.

In a possible implementation manner, the first indication information further includes one or more items of the following information: first information, second information, or third information. Wherein, the first information is used to indicate the valid time of the first value set. The second information is used to indicate whether combination of at least two configuration parameters is supported. The third information is used to indicate whether to allow values other than the first value set. The solution further provides a trigger condition for requesting each configuration parameter, so as to prevent the terminal device from sending unnecessary first request messages as much as possible, and reduce signaling overhead and power consumption of the terminal device. For example, the value set of each configuration parameter supported by the network device has an effective time, and the terminal device sends the first request message to the network device at a time other than the effective time of the first configuration parameter, and the network device cannot configure the terminal device with the second request message. A request message matching resource configuration. Then, during the time except the valid time of the first configuration parameter, the terminal device does not need to send the first request message, which can reduce the signaling overhead and power consumption of the terminal device.

In a possible implementation manner, the first request message includes a second value set of the first configuration parameter. The second value set of the first configuration parameter is a subset of the first value set of the first configuration parameter. In this solution, the terminal device may request the first configuration parameter within the value set of the first configuration parameter supported by the network device, so as to maximize the success rate of obtaining resources of the positioning reference signal.

In a possible implementation manner, the first request message includes a second value set of the first configuration parameter. There is no intersection between the second value set of the first configuration parameter and the first value set of the first configuration parameter. In this solution, the terminal device may request the first configuration parameter beyond the value set of the first configuration parameter supported by the network device. Therefore, it is applicable to a scenario where the value set of the first configuration parameter recommended by the network device or the location management function cannot meet the actual location requirement of the terminal device.

In a possible implementation manner, the first request message includes a second value set of the first configuration parameter. There is an intersection between the second value set of the first configuration parameter and the first value set of the first configuration parameter. In this solution, the terminal device can request the resource configuration of the positioning reference signal matching the first configuration parameter within the value set of the first configuration parameter supported by the network device, or request Resource configuration of positioning reference signals matching the first configuration parameter is requested outside the set. It is not only applicable to the scenario where the value set of the first configuration parameter recommended by the network device or the location management function can meet the actual location requirements of the terminal device, but also applicable to the scenario where the value set of the first configuration parameter recommended by the network device or the location management function cannot Scenarios that meet the actual positioning requirements of terminal devices.

In a possible implementation manner, the first request message includes fourth information. The fourth information is used to indicate multiple value sets respectively corresponding to at least one configuration parameter, where different value sets have different priorities. In this solution, the terminal device may request multiple value sets of a configuration parameter from the network side device. The network device may configure positioning reference signal resources for the terminal device in order of priority, so as to satisfy the request of the terminal device as much as possible. In a scenario where multiple terminal devices request positioning reference signal resources, the multiple value sets of each terminal device can provide a reference for the network device to configure positioning reference signal resources for each terminal device. That is, the network device can combine multiple value sets respectively corresponding to multiple terminal devices to decide to configure reasonable positioning reference signal resources for each terminal device. For example, to try to meet the requirements of multiple terminal devices. In addition, the terminal device can acquire the resource of the positioning reference signal configured by the network device by sending the first request message once. That is, there is no need for the terminal device to send multiple first request messages, thereby reducing the signaling overhead of requesting resources for positioning reference signals.

In a possible implementation manner, the first request message is further used to indicate priorities of multiple value sets. For example, the first request information further includes fifth information, which may be used to indicate priorities of multiple value sets. In this solution, the priority of multiple value sets can be indicated, which is more flexible.

In a possible implementation manner, the method further includes: the terminal device sends a second request message to the location management device or the network device, where the second request message is used to query configuration parameters of the positioning reference signal. In this solution, the terminal device may request in advance the configuration parameters supported by the network side, and/or request the value set of the configuration parameters supported by the network side. The network side sends the first indication information based on the request of the terminal device. That is, the network side can send supported configuration parameters as required without sending unnecessary first indication information, thereby reducing signaling overhead.

In a possible implementation manner, the method further includes: the terminal device receives the first response message from the network device or the location management device. Depending on whether the network device is configured with a positioning reference signal that satisfies the first request message, the implementation form of the first response message is different.

Exemplarily, the first response message includes the first resource configuration of the positioning reference signal. The first resource configuration includes a first configuration parameter, and the value of the first configuration parameter satisfies the first request message. In this solution, if the first configuration parameter requested by the terminal device can be satisfied by the network device, the network device may send the first resource configuration to the terminal device. That is, the network device configures the resource configuration of the positioning reference signal for the terminal device, and the terminal device sends the positioning reference signal according to the resource configuration, so as to perform subsequent positioning.

Exemplarily, the first response message includes the second resource configuration and error indication of the positioning reference signal. The second resource configuration includes the first configuration parameter, and the value of the first configuration parameter is different from the value of the first configuration parameter in the first request message. The error indication is used to indicate that the first configuration parameter does not satisfy the first request message. In this solution, if the first configuration parameter requested by the terminal device cannot be satisfied by the network device, the network device may send the second resource configuration and an error indication to the terminal device. The value of the first configuration parameter in the second resource configuration is not the value requested by the terminal device. In this case, the network device further informs the terminal device that the first configuration parameter does not satisfy the first request message. The terminal device may send the positioning reference signal according to the second resource configuration, so as to perform subsequent positioning, so as to reduce the positioning delay. Alternatively, the terminal device may re-request the network device for the first configuration parameter with other values according to the error indication, so as to meet the positioning requirement as much as possible.

Exemplarily, the first response message is used to indicate that the first request message cannot be satisfied. In this solution, if the network device cannot satisfy the request of the terminal device, the network device may notify the terminal device. In this way, the terminal device can avoid sending the first request message frequently, thereby reducing signaling overhead and power consumption of the terminal device.

In a second aspect, a communication method is provided, which can be executed by a second communication device, and the second communication device can be a communication device or a communication device capable of supporting the communication device to implement functions required by the method, such as a chip system. The following description is made by taking the communication device as a network device as an example. The method includes:

The network device sends the first indication information, and receives the first request message from the location management device. Wherein, the first indication information is used to indicate at least one configuration parameter used to configure the resource of the positioning reference signal, and a first value set respectively corresponding to the at least one configuration parameter. The first request message is used to request the resource configuration of the positioning reference signal, the first request message includes a first configuration parameter, and the first configuration parameter belongs to at least one configuration parameter.

In a possible implementation manner, the first indication information further includes one or more items of the following information: first information, second information, and third information. Wherein, the first information is used to indicate the valid time of the first value set. The second information is used to indicate whether combination of at least two configuration parameters is supported. The third information is used to indicate whether to allow values other than the first value set.

In a possible implementation manner, the first request message includes a second value set of the first configuration parameter. The second value set of the first configuration parameter is a subset of the first value set of the first configuration parameter.

In a possible implementation manner, the first request message includes fourth information. The fourth information is used to indicate multiple value sets respectively corresponding to at least one configuration parameter, where different value sets have different priorities.

In a possible implementation manner, the method further includes: the network device receives the second request message from the location management device. The second request message is used to request configuration parameters of the positioning reference signal.

In a possible implementation manner, the method further includes: the network device sending a first response message to the terminal device. Wherein, the first response message includes a first resource configuration of the positioning reference signal, and the first resource configuration includes a first configuration parameter, and a value of the first configuration parameter satisfies the first request message. Alternatively, the first response message includes a second resource configuration and an error indication of the positioning reference signal, the second resource configuration includes a first configuration parameter, and the value of the first configuration parameter is the same as the value of the first configuration parameter in the first request message different. The error indication is used to indicate that the first configuration parameter does not satisfy the first request message. Alternatively, the first response message is used to indicate that the first request message cannot be satisfied.

As for the technical effects brought about by the second aspect or various possible implementation manners of the second aspect, reference may be made to the introduction of the first aspect and the technical effects of various possible implementation manners of the first aspect, which will not be repeated here.

In a third aspect, a communication method is provided, and the method can be executed by a third communication device. The third communication device can be a communication device or a communication device capable of supporting the communication device to implement functions required by the method, such as a chip system. The following description is made by taking the communication device as a location management device as an example. The method includes:

The location management device sends first indication information to the terminal device, and receives a first request message from the terminal device. Wherein, the first indication information is used to indicate at least one configuration parameter used to configure the resource of the positioning reference signal, and a first value set respectively corresponding to the at least one configuration parameter. The first request message is used to request the resource configuration of the positioning reference signal, the first request message includes a first configuration parameter, and the first configuration parameter belongs to at least one configuration parameter.

In a possible implementation manner, the first indication information further includes one or more items of the following information: first information, second information, and third information. Wherein, the first information is used to indicate the valid time of the first value set. The second information is used to indicate whether combination of at least two configuration parameters is supported. The third information is used to indicate whether to allow values other than the first value set.

In a possible implementation manner, the first request message includes a second value set of the first configuration parameter. The second value set of the first configuration parameter is a subset of the first value set of the first configuration parameter.

In a possible implementation manner, the first request message includes fourth information. The fourth information is used to indicate multiple value sets respectively corresponding to at least one configuration parameter, where different value sets have different priorities.

In a possible implementation manner, the method further includes: the location management device sends a second request message to the network device. The second request message is used to request configuration parameters of the positioning reference signal.

In a possible implementation manner, the method further includes: the location management device sends a first response message to the terminal device. Wherein, the first response message includes a first resource configuration of the positioning reference signal, and the first resource configuration includes a first configuration parameter, and a value of the first configuration parameter satisfies the first request message. Alternatively, the first response message includes a second resource configuration and an error indication of the positioning reference signal, the second resource configuration includes a first configuration parameter, and the value of the first configuration parameter is the same as the value of the first configuration parameter in the first request message different. The error indication is used to indicate that the first configuration parameter does not satisfy the first request message. Alternatively, the first response message is used to indicate that the first request message cannot be satisfied.

Regarding the third aspect or the technical effects brought about by various possible implementations of the third aspect, reference may be made to the introduction of the first aspect and the technical effects of various possible implementations of the first aspect, which will not be repeated here.

A fourth aspect provides a communication method that can be executed by a first communication device. The first communication device may be a communication device or a communication device capable of supporting the communication device to implement the functions required by the method, such as a chip system. The following description is made by taking the communication device as a terminal device as an example. The method includes:

The terminal device receives the third indication information from the network device or the location management function, and sends a fourth request message to the location management device. Wherein, the third indication information includes one or more pieces of identification information, and one piece of identification information is used to indicate a set of resource configurations of the positioning reference signal. The fourth request message is used to request resource configuration of the positioning reference signal. In this solution, the network-side device notifies the terminal device of the resource configuration of the positioning reference signal supported by the network-side device in the form of identification information of the resource configuration of the positioning reference signal. Compared with all resource configurations in which the network side equipment sends the positioning reference signal to the terminal equipment, the signaling overhead is reduced.

In a possible implementation manner, different positioning reference signal resource configurations may be configured according to positioning differences. While reducing the signaling overhead, the actual requirements of each terminal device can be better met. For example, resource configurations corresponding to different positioning methods may be different, that is, identification information corresponding to different positioning methods may be different. It can be understood that a positioning method may correspond to at least one piece of identification information, and identification information corresponding to different positioning methods may be partly or completely different. For another example, the identification information corresponding to different radio resource control (radio resource control, RRC) states of the terminal device may be different. It can be understood that one RRC state may correspond to at least one piece of identification information, and the identification information corresponding to different RRC states may be partially or completely different. For another example, resource configurations corresponding to different positioning requirements may be different, that is, identification information corresponding to different positioning requirements may be different. It can be understood that a positioning requirement may correspond to at least one identification information, and identification information corresponding to different positioning requirements may be partly or completely different. The positioning requirements may include one or more of the following: positioning accuracy, positioning delay, power consumption of terminal equipment, positioning reliability, or positioning reliability.

In a possible implementation manner, the fourth request message includes the first identification information. The first identification information is different according to the differentiation of terminal device positioning.

Exemplarily, the first identification information corresponds to the first positioning method. The first positioning method is the positioning method currently used by the terminal device. In this solution, the network device configures matching identification information for the terminal device according to the positioning method of the terminal device, so as to meet the resource configuration required by the positioning method of the terminal device.

Exemplarily, the first identification information corresponds to the RRC state of the terminal device. In this solution, the network device configures matching identification information for the terminal device according to the RRC state of the terminal device, so as to configure resource configuration matching the RRC state of the terminal device for the terminal device.

Exemplarily, the first identification information corresponds to at least one positioning requirement. In this solution, the network device configures matching identification information for the terminal device according to the positioning requirement of the terminal device, so as to meet the actual positioning requirement of the terminal device.

In a fifth aspect, it is provided that communication can be performed by a second communication device, and the second communication device may be a communication device or a communication device capable of supporting the communication device to implement functions required by the method, such as a chip system. The following description is made by taking the communication device as a network device as an example. The method includes:

The network device sends third indication information, and receives a fourth request message from the location management device. Wherein, the third indication information includes one or more pieces of identification information, and one piece of identification information is used to indicate a set of resource configurations of the positioning reference signal. The fourth request message is used to request resource configuration of the positioning reference signal.

In a possible implementation manner, the fourth request message includes the first identification information. Wherein, the first identification information corresponds to the first positioning method. The first positioning method is a positioning method currently used by the terminal device, and identification information corresponding to different positioning methods is partially or completely different. Or, the first identification information corresponds to the RRC state of the terminal device. The identification information corresponding to different RRC states is partly or completely different. Alternatively, the first identification information corresponds to at least one positioning requirement of the terminal device, and part or all of the identification information corresponding to different positioning requirements is different.

Regarding the fifth aspect or the technical effects brought about by various possible implementations of the fifth aspect, reference may be made to the introduction of the fourth aspect and the technical effects of various possible implementations of the fourth aspect, which will not be repeated here.

A sixth aspect provides a communication method that can be executed by a third communication device. The third communication device may be a communication device or a communication device capable of supporting the communication device to implement the functions required by the method, such as a chip system. The following description is made by taking the communication device as a location management device as an example. The method includes:

The location management device sends third indication information, and receives a fourth request message from the terminal device. The third indication information includes one or more pieces of identification information, and one piece of identification information is used to indicate a set of resource configurations of the positioning reference signal. The first request message is used to request resource configuration of the positioning reference signal.

In a possible implementation manner, the fourth request message includes the first identification information. Wherein, the first identification information corresponds to the first positioning method. The first positioning method is a positioning method currently used by the terminal device, and identification information corresponding to different positioning methods is partially or completely different. Or, the first identification information corresponds to the RRC state of the terminal device. The identification information corresponding to different RRC states is partly or completely different. Alternatively, the first identification information corresponds to at least one positioning requirement of the terminal device, and part or all of the identification information corresponding to different positioning requirements is different.

Regarding the sixth aspect or the technical effects brought about by various possible implementations of the sixth aspect, reference may be made to the introduction of the fourth aspect and the technical effects of various possible implementations of the fourth aspect, which will not be repeated here.

In the seventh aspect, the embodiment of the present application provides a communication device, the communication device has the function of realizing the behavior in the method example of the first aspect or the fourth aspect above, and the beneficial effect can refer to the description of the first aspect or the fourth aspect I won't repeat them here. The communication device may be the terminal device in the first aspect or the fourth aspect, or the communication device may be capable of supporting the terminal device in the first aspect or the fourth aspect to implement the method provided by the first aspect or the fourth aspect A functional device, such as a chip or system-on-a-chip.

In a possible design, the communication device includes corresponding means or modules for performing the method of the first aspect or the fourth aspect. For example, the communication device: includes a processing unit (sometimes also called a processing module) and/or a transceiver unit (sometimes also called a transceiver module). These units (modules) can perform the corresponding functions in the method example of the first aspect or the fourth aspect, for details, refer to the detailed description in the method example, and details are not repeated here.

In the eighth aspect, the embodiment of the present application provides a communication device, the communication device has the function of realizing the behavior in the method example of the second aspect or the fifth aspect above, and the beneficial effect can refer to the description of the second aspect or the fifth aspect I won't repeat them here. The communication device may be the network device in the second aspect or the fifth aspect, or the communication device may be capable of supporting the network device in the second aspect or the fifth aspect to implement the method provided by the second aspect or the fifth aspect A functional device, such as a chip or system-on-a-chip.

In a possible design, the communication device includes corresponding means or modules for performing the method of the second aspect or the fifth aspect. For example, the communication device: includes a processing unit (sometimes also called a processing module) and/or a transceiver unit (sometimes also called a transceiver module). These units (modules) can perform corresponding functions in the method examples of the second aspect or the fifth aspect, for details, refer to the detailed description in the method examples, and details are not repeated here.

In the ninth aspect, the embodiment of the present application provides a communication device, the communication device has the function of realizing the behavior in the method example of the third aspect or the sixth aspect, and the beneficial effect can refer to the description of the third aspect or the sixth aspect I won't repeat them here. The communication device may be the location management device in the third aspect or the sixth aspect, or the communication device may be capable of supporting the location management device in the third aspect or the sixth aspect to implement the method provided in the third aspect or the sixth aspect A device, such as a chip or a system-on-a-chip, that performs the desired function.

In a possible design, the communication device includes corresponding means or modules for performing the method of the third aspect or the sixth aspect. For example, the communication device: includes a processing unit (sometimes also called a processing module) and/or a transceiver unit (sometimes also called a transceiver module). These units (modules) can perform the corresponding functions in the method example of the third aspect or the sixth aspect, for details, refer to the detailed description in the method example, and details are not repeated here.

In the tenth aspect, the embodiment of the present application provides a communication device, which can be the communication device in the seventh aspect, the eighth aspect, or the ninth aspect in the above embodiments, or the communication device set in the seventh aspect or the eighth aspect Or the chip or chip system in the communication device in the ninth aspect. The communication device includes a communication interface, a processor, and optionally, a memory. Wherein, the memory is used to store computer programs or instructions or data, and the processor is coupled with the memory and the communication interface, and when the processor reads the computer programs or instructions or data, the communication device executes the method described above in the embodiment of the terminal device Or a method implemented by a network device or LMF.

In an eleventh aspect, the embodiment of the present application provides a communication device, where the communication device includes an input and output interface and a logic circuit. The input and output interfaces are used to input and/or output information. The logic circuit is used to execute the method described in the first aspect, or the logic circuit is used to execute the method described in the second aspect, or the logic circuit is used to execute the method described in the third aspect. Alternatively, the logic circuit is used to perform the method described in the fourth aspect, or the logic circuit is used to perform the method described in the fifth aspect, or the logic circuit is used to perform the method described in the sixth aspect.

In a twelfth aspect, the embodiment of the present application provides a chip system, the chip system includes a processor, and may also include a memory and/or a communication interface, for implementing the first aspect or the second aspect or the third aspect. Methods. In a possible implementation manner, the chip system further includes a memory, configured to store program instructions and/or data. The system-on-a-chip may consist of chips, or may include chips and other discrete devices.

In a thirteenth aspect, an embodiment of the present application provides a chip system, the chip system includes a processor, and may also include a memory and/or a communication interface, for implementing the fourth aspect, the fifth aspect, or the sixth aspect. Methods. In a possible implementation manner, the chip system further includes a memory, configured to store program instructions and/or data. The system-on-a-chip may consist of chips, or may include chips and other discrete devices.

In the fourteenth aspect, the embodiment of the present application provides a communication system, the communication system includes the communication device for implementing the method in the first aspect in the seventh aspect, and the communication device for implementing the method in the second aspect in the eighth aspect. The communication device and the communication device in the ninth aspect for implementing the method in the third aspect. Alternatively, the communication system includes the communication device used to implement the method in the fourth aspect in the seventh aspect, the communication device used to implement the method in the fifth aspect in the eighth aspect, and the communication device used in the ninth aspect to implement the method in the sixth aspect. method of communication.

In a fifteenth aspect, the present application provides a computer-readable storage medium, the computer-readable storage medium stores a computer program, and when the computer program is executed, any one of the above-mentioned first to sixth aspects can be realized Methods.

In a sixteenth aspect, a computer program product is provided, the computer program product comprising: computer program code, when the computer program code is executed, the method in any one of the above first to sixth aspects be executed.

For the beneficial effects of the seventh to sixteenth aspects and their implementations, reference may be made to the description of the first or fourth aspect or the beneficial effects of the first or fourth aspect and their implementations.

Description of drawings

FIG. 1 is a schematic flow diagram of a terminal device and an LMF requesting resource configuration of a downlink positioning reference signal on demand;

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a positioning architecture of a communication system applicable to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 3 is a network architecture diagram of a communication system applicable to an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 4 is a network architecture diagram of another communication system applicable to the embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 5 is a network architecture diagram of another communication system applicable to the embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 6 is a schematic flowchart of a first communication method provided by an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 7 is a schematic flow diagram of a second communication method provided by an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 8 is a schematic structural diagram of a communication device provided by an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 9 is another schematic structural diagram of a communication device provided by an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 10 is another schematic structural diagram of a communication device provided by an embodiment of the present application;

FIG. 11 is another schematic structural diagram of another communication device provided by an embodiment of the present application.

Detailed ways

In order to make the purpose, technical solutions and advantages of the embodiments of the present application clearer, the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present application will be clearly and completely described below in conjunction with the drawings in the embodiments of the present application.

In order to facilitate understanding of the technical solutions provided by the various embodiments of the present application, some technical terms involved in the embodiments of the present application are explained first.

1) The terminal equipment can be user equipment (user equipment, UE), sometimes also referred to as terminal, access station, UE station, remote station, wireless communication equipment, or user device, etc. A terminal device is a device with a wireless transceiver function, which can send signals to or receive signals from network devices. The terminal device is used to connect people, things, machines, etc., and can be widely used in various scenarios, including but not limited to the following scenarios: cellular communication, device-to-device communication (device-to-device, D2D), car-to-everything (vehicle to everything, V2X), machine-to-machine/machine-type communications (machine-to-machine/machine-type communications, M2M/MTC), Internet of things (Internet of things, IoT), virtual reality (virtual reality, VR) , augmented reality (augmented reality, AR), industrial control (industrial control), unmanned driving (self driving), telemedicine (remote medical), smart grid (smart grid), smart furniture, smart office, smart wear, smart transportation , Terminal equipment for smart cities, drones, robots and other scenarios.

The terminal device in the embodiment of the present application may be a mobile phone (mobile phone), a tablet computer (Pad), a computer with a wireless transceiver function, a virtual reality (virtual reality, VR) terminal, an augmented reality (augmented reality, AR) terminal , wireless terminals in industrial control, wireless terminals in self driving, smart speakers in IoT networks, wireless terminal devices in telemedicine, wireless terminal devices in smart grids, and transportation safety Wireless terminal equipment, wireless terminal equipment in a smart city, or wireless terminal equipment in a smart home, etc. As an example but not a limitation, in the embodiment of the present application, the terminal device may also be a wearable device. Wearable devices can also be called wearable smart devices or smart wearable devices, etc., which is a general term for the application of wearable technology to intelligently design daily wear and develop wearable devices, such as glasses, gloves, watches, clothing and shoes wait.

Terminal devices may also include relays. Or it can be understood that all devices capable of performing data communication with the base station can be regarded as terminal devices. The various terminal devices described above, if they are located on the vehicle (for example, placed in the vehicle or installed in the vehicle), can be considered as vehicle-mounted terminal devices. ). In addition, in this embodiment of the present application, a terminal device may refer to a device for implementing a terminal function, or may be a device capable of supporting a terminal device to implement the function, such as a chip system, and the device may be installed in the terminal device. For example, the terminal can also be a vehicle detector. In the embodiment of the present application, the system-on-a-chip may be composed of chips, or may include chips and other discrete devices. In the technical solutions provided in the embodiments of the present application, the technical solutions provided in the embodiments of the present application are described by taking the terminal equipment as an example for realizing the terminal functions.

2) A network device is an access device for a terminal device to access the mobile communication system through wireless means, including an access network (access network, AN) device, such as a base station. A network device may also refer to a device that communicates with a terminal device over an air interface. The network equipment may include an evolved base station (evolutional Node B) in a long term evolution (long term evolution, LTE) system or an advanced long term evolution (long term evolution-advanced, LTE-A), which may be referred to as eNB or e-NodeB). An eNB is a device deployed in a radio access network that meets the standards of the fourth generation mobile communication technology (the fourth generation, 4G) and provides wireless communication functions for terminal equipment. The network device can also be a new wireless controller (new radio controller, NR controller), it can be a (gNode B, gNB) in the 5G system, it can be a centralized network element (centralized unit), it can be a new wireless base station, it can be a The radio remote module can be a micro base station (also called a small station), a relay, a distributed unit, various forms of macro base stations, or a transmission and receiving point (transmission reception point, TRP), transmission measurement function (transmission measurement function, TMF) or transmission point (transmission point, TP) or any other wireless access device, the embodiment of the present application is not limited thereto. The network equipment may also include a radio network controller (radio network controller, RNC), a node B (Node B, NB), a base station controller (base station controller, BSC), a base transceiver station (base transceiver station, BTS), a home base station (for example, home evolved NodeB, or home Node B, HNB), base band unit (base band unit, BBU), or wireless fidelity (wireless fidelity, Wifi) access point (access point, AP), etc. The embodiment of the present application does not limit the specific technology and specific device form used by the network device. Network equipment can correspond to eNB in the 4G system, and correspond to gNB in the 5G system.

In addition, the base station in this embodiment of the present application may include a centralized unit (centralized unit, CU) and a distributed unit (distributed unit, DU), and multiple DUs may be centrally controlled by one CU. CU and DU can be divided according to the protocol layer functions of the wireless network they have. For example, the functions of the packet data convergence protocol (packet data convergence protocol, PDCP) layer and the protocol layer above are set in the protocol layer below the CU and PDCP, such as the wireless link Functions such as the radio link control (radio link control, RLC) layer and the medium access control (medium access control, MAC) layer are set in the DU. It should be noted that the division of such protocol layers is only an example, and may also be divided in other protocol layers. The radio frequency device can be remote, not placed in the DU, or integrated in the DU, or partially remote and partially integrated in the DU, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present application. In addition, in some embodiments, the control plane (control plan, CP) and the user plane (user plan, UP) of the CU can also be separated and divided into different entities for implementation, respectively being the control plane CU entity (CU-CP entity) And user plane CU entity (CU-UP entity). In this network architecture, the signaling generated by the CU can be sent to the terminal device through the DU, or the signaling generated by the UE can be sent to the CU through the DU. The DU can directly transmit the signaling to the UE or CU through protocol layer encapsulation without parsing the signaling. In this network architecture, the CU is divided into network devices on the radio access network (radio access network, RAN) side. In addition, the CU can also be divided into network devices on the core network (core network, CN) side. This is not limited.

3) The location management device has a location function. The location management device involved in the embodiment of the present application may include a location management function (location management function, LMF) or a location management component (location management component, LMC), or may be a local location management function (local location management function) located in a network device , LLMF), which is not limited in this embodiment of the present application. For convenience of description, the following embodiments are introduced by taking the location management device as an LMF as an example.

4) Positioning method, according to the source of the positioning reference signal (positioning reference signal, PRS), the positioning method is divided into the following three categories: downlink positioning method, uplink positioning method and uplink and downlink joint positioning method. It should be noted that the uplink and downlink are relative terms. If the transmission direction from the network device to the terminal device is downlink (this article takes this as an example), then the transmission direction from the terminal device to the network device is uplink. On the contrary, if the transmission direction from the network device to the terminal device is uplink, then the transmission direction from the terminal device to the network device is downlink.

In the downlink positioning method, the terminal device measures the downlink positioning reference signal (DL-PRS) sent by the network side. The terminal device estimates the position of the terminal device according to the measurement result, and realizes downlink positioning.

In the uplink positioning method, the network device measures an uplink positioning reference signal (uplink positioning reference signal, UL-PRS) sent by the terminal device. The network device estimates the location of the terminal device based on the measurement results to realize uplink positioning. The uplink positioning reference signal may be a sounding reference signal (sounding reference signal, SRS), or other reference signals that can be used for uplink measurement. This embodiment of the present application does not limit it.

In the uplink and downlink joint positioning method, the network device measures the uplink positioning signal from the terminal device, and the terminal device measures the downlink positioning reference signal from the network device. The location of the terminal device is estimated based on the measurements of the network device and the measurements of the terminal device.

5) The positioning frequency layer (positioning frequency layer, PFL), which may be referred to as the frequency layer (frequency layer, FL) for short, refers to a set of downlink positioning reference signal resource sets of TRPs with one or more of the following characteristics: the same subcarrier Interval (sub-carrier space, SCS), the same cyclic prefix (cyclic prefix, CP) type, the same center frequency, the same Point A, and the same PRS bandwidth and starting physical resource block (physical resource block, PRB) . Point A refers to the common reference point of the entire resource. Point A is the center frequency of the lowest initial subcarrier (subcarrier 0) of the lowest common resource block (common resource block 0, CRB0) of the NR carrier, that is, the lowest boundary of the frequency domain.

6) Positioning assistance information, information used to assist in positioning the position of the terminal device. For example, the positioning assistance information may include a cell index that the terminal device needs to measure, such as a cell index of a neighboring cell and/or a cell index of a reference cell. For another example, the positioning assistance information may also include configuration information of the positioning reference signal and the like. Before positioning, the terminal device can request positioning assistance information from the LMF, and the LMF provides assistance data (provide assistance data) through LTE positioning protocol (LPP) signaling to send positioning assistance information to the terminal device.

7) The resource configuration of the positioning reference signal can be understood as configuring one or more configuration parameters for the positioning reference signal. One or more sets of resource configurations can be indicated by a combination of one or more configuration parameters. It can be understood that there are multiple configuration parameters for resource configuration, and each configuration parameter may also have multiple values, and various configuration parameters with different values may be combined to form multiple sets of resource configurations. The resource configuration of the downlink positioning reference signal is taken as an example. Please refer to Table 1, which shows some typical configuration parameters of the downlink positioning reference signal, and a value set of each typical parameter. For example, the configuration parameters may include PFL, TRP, downlink positioning reference signal resource set and downlink positioning reference signal resource in Table 1. PFL has 4 index values, and each PFL corresponds to 64 TRP index values. Each TRP corresponds to 8 downlink positioning reference signal resource set index values. Each downlink positioning reference signal resource set corresponds to 64 downlink positioning reference signal resource index values. It should be noted that, for ease of understanding, Table 1 is only an example, listing some configuration parameters of the downlink positioning reference signal. The network device may indicate each configured configuration parameter through an index characterizing each configured parameter, that is, indicate the configured resource configuration of one or more sets of downlink positioning reference signals. Each resource configuration includes one or more configuration parameters. The value of the same parameter in different sets of resource configurations can be the same or different. If the configuration parameters of the downlink positioning reference signal include resource bandwidth (63 possible values) and resource period (20 possible values), then the network device can configure at least 63×20=1260 sets of resource configurations for the terminal device . It should be noted that, in this embodiment of the application, the value range is also referred to as a value set. Unless otherwise specified, in this article, the range of values and the set of values are interchangeable.

Table 1

[Corrected 19.08.2022 under Rule 91]
8) "At least one" means one or more, and "multiple" means two or more. "And/or" describes the association relationship of associated objects, indicating that there may be three types of relationships, for example, A and/or B, which can mean: A exists alone, A and B exist simultaneously, and B exists alone, where A, B can be singular or plural. The character "/" generally indicates that the contextual objects are an "or" relationship. "At least one of the following" or similar expressions refer to any combination of these more than ten items, including any combination of single or plural items. For example, at least one item (piece) of a, b, or c can represent: a, b, c, ab, ac, bc, or abc, where a, b, c can be single or multiple .

And, unless otherwise stated, the ordinal numerals such as "first" and "second" mentioned in the embodiments of the present application are used to distinguish multiple objects, and are not used to limit the order, timing, priority or priority of multiple objects. Importance. For example, the first request message and the second request message are only used to distinguish different request messages, and do not represent the difference in content, priority, sending order, or importance of the two request messages.

Some technical terms involved in the embodiments of the present application are introduced above, and the technical features involved in the embodiments of the present application are introduced below.

Release (Rel)-17 of the 3rd generation partnership project (3rd generation partnership project, 3GPP) introduces a mechanism to request resource allocation of positioning reference signals on demand. That is, the terminal device may request the network side to change the resource configuration of the positioning reference signal according to its own positioning requirements. For example, the resource configuration currently used by the terminal device does not meet the positioning delay requirement, and the terminal device can request the network side to change the configuration such as the cycle and transmission interval of the positioning reference signal according to the positioning delay requirement. For another example, the resource configuration currently used by the terminal device does not meet the positioning accuracy requirements, and the terminal device may request the network side to change configurations such as the bandwidth of the positioning reference signal and the number of TRPs according to the positioning accuracy requirements.

The downlink positioning reference signal is taken as an example. There are two ways to request the configuration of the downlink positioning reference signal (On-demand DL-PRS). One way (for example, referred to as the first way) is that the terminal device requests resource configuration of a downlink positioning reference signal (UE-initiated on-demand DL-PRS) on demand. Another way (for example called the second way) is that the LMF requests resource configuration of a downlink positioning reference signal (LMF-initiated on-demand DL-PRS) on demand.

Please refer to FIG. 1 , which is a schematic flow diagram of requesting resource allocation of downlink positioning reference signals on demand by a terminal device and an LMF. The process of requesting the resource configuration of the downlink positioning reference signal on demand mainly includes the following steps:

S101a. The terminal device sends a first resource request message to the LMF, and correspondingly, the LMF receives the first resource request message. The first resource request message may be used to request resource configuration of the downlink positioning reference signal.

The first resource request message may include configuration parameters desired by the terminal device according to requirements. It can also be understood that the first resource request message is used to recommend configuration parameters of the downlink positioning reference signal to the LMF. For example, the first resource request message may include one or more of the following: a positioning reference signal pattern (PRS pattern), a positioning reference signal resource bandwidth, a positioning reference signal resource period, or a positioning reference signal resource identifier. The LMF may refer to the configuration parameters included in the first resource request message, and directly or indirectly determine the resource configuration configured by the terminal device for sending the downlink positioning reference signal.

There are multiple configuration parameters of the downlink reference signal, and combinations of different configuration parameters can form different resource configurations, that is, there are multiple sets of resource configurations. The network device can support or allow at least one set of resource configurations among the multiple sets of resource configurations, but the terminal device does not know which set or sets of resource configurations are supported by the network device. If the first resource request message sent by the terminal device to the network device includes a resource configuration not supported by the network side, it is an invalid request, which will additionally increase signaling overhead and cause waste of resources.

S102, the LMF and the network device exchange signaling.

Similar to terminal devices, LMF does not know which set or sets of resource configurations network devices support. To this end, the LMF and the network device may perform signaling interactions multiple times to determine the resource configuration supported by the network device. For example, the LMF requests the resource configuration supported by the network device from the network device. In response to the request, the network device sends the resource configuration supported by the network device to the LMF.

S101b. The LMF sends a second resource request message to the network device, and correspondingly, the network device receives the second resource request message. The second resource request message is used to request resource configuration of the downlink positioning reference signal.

When the terminal device needs to be positioned, the LMF requests to obtain the resource configuration of the downlink positioning reference signal. For example, the LMF may send a second resource request message to the network device (serving base station), so as to acquire the resource configuration of the downlink positioning reference signal. The second resource request message may include some configuration parameters desired (expected) by the terminal device. Through S102, the LMF can determine whether the network device supports the configuration parameters desired by the terminal device. If the network device supports the configuration parameters expected by the terminal device, the LMF may send a second resource request message to the network device. The network device may configure resources for sending the downlink positioning reference signal for the terminal device according to the configuration parameters included in the second resource request message. Since the configuration parameters included in the second resource request message are desired by the terminal device, it can be considered that the configuration parameters included in the second resource request message are recommended to the network device, and the network device configures the terminal device for sending downlink positioning based on these configuration parameters. Resources for reference signals. For example, the second resource request message may include one or more of a positioning reference signal pattern (PRS pattern), a positioning reference signal resource bandwidth, a positioning reference signal resource period, or a positioning reference signal resource identifier.

It should be noted that the execution order of S102 and S101b is not limited. That is, S102 may be performed before S101b, or may be performed after S101b.

S103. The network device sends the resource configuration of the downlink positioning reference signal in a broadcast manner.

The LMF receives a request from the terminal device for resource configuration of the downlink positioning reference signal, and the LMF may send a trigger indication to the network device, so as to trigger the network device to send the resource configuration to the terminal device. It can be understood that, after receiving the trigger indication of the LMF, the network device may broadcast the resource configuration of the downlink positioning reference signal. For example, the network device broadcasts system information, where the system information includes the resource configuration of the downlink positioning reference signal.

S104. The LMF sends the resource configuration of the downlink positioning reference signal to the terminal device.

After the terminal device requests the resource configuration of the downlink positioning reference signal to the LMF, the LMF may also send the resource configuration of the downlink positioning reference signal to the terminal device in response to the request.

It should be noted that not both of S103 and S104 must be executed. That is, when S103 is executed, S104 may not be executed; or, when S104 is executed, S103 may not be executed. In the case that both S103 and S104 are executed, S103 may be executed before S104, or may be executed after S104. It can be understood that the first way may include S101a, S102 and S103 (or S104); or, the first way may include S101a, S102, S103 and S104. The second manner may include S101b, S102, and S103 (or S104); or, the second manner may include S101b, S102, S103, and S104.

In order to let the terminal device know in advance the resource configuration of the positioning reference signal supported by the network side, so that the terminal device can request the resource configuration of the positioning reference signal from the network device as needed. The network device will notify the terminal device of some or all of the supported resource configurations in advance, so as to minimize the sending of unnecessary first resource request messages by the terminal device. Existing protocols support network devices or LMFs to provide assistance data (provide assistance data) to send positioning assistance information to terminal devices. The network device or the LMF may also send the resource configuration of the positioning reference signal to the terminal device in the form of assistance data. Alternatively, the network device or the LMF may also send the resource configuration of the positioning reference signal to the terminal device in other messages or other forms, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present application.

It should be understood that there are multiple configuration parameters for configuring the resource configuration of the positioning reference signal, and each configuration parameter has multiple values. Therefore, various configuration parameters with different values can form multiple sets of resource configurations. For example, configuration parameters include PRS resource set ID, resource bandwidth, resource period, and resource set time slot offset. PRS resource set ID has 8 possible values, resource bandwidth has 63 possible values, resource period has 20 possible values, resource set time slot offset has 81920 possible values, then these configuration parameters are at least There are 8×63×20×81920=825753600 sets of resource configurations. The auxiliary data sent by the network device or the LMF to the terminal device includes at least 825,753,600 sets of resource configurations. Correspondingly, the signaling overhead for sending the auxiliary data is large, and the resources required for sending the auxiliary data are also large. For a terminal device, receiving so many sets of resource configurations by the terminal device will also increase power consumption. The storage of multiple sets of resource configurations received by the terminal device requires a larger storage space, that is, the requirement for the storage space of the terminal device is relatively high.

In view of this, the embodiment of the present application provides a technical solution. In this solution, the network side device may recommend to the terminal device one or more configuration parameters of resources for sending positioning reference signals, and may also recommend a value set of these configuration parameters to the terminal device. Through a combination of one or more configuration parameters, the network side device can indicate one or more sets of resource configurations of positioning reference signals supported by the network side device. The terminal device requests the network side for one or more configuration parameters, which is equivalent to the terminal device requesting the network side for resource configuration associated with the one or more configuration parameters. It should be understood that the data volume of multiple sets of resource configurations of positioning reference signals obtained by combining multiple configuration parameters is greater than the data volume of these multiple configuration parameters. Therefore, compared with the network-side device notifying the terminal device of all supported resource configurations, the network device notifying the terminal device of the supported configuration parameters can reduce the signaling overhead for indicating the resource configuration of the positioning reference signal. In addition, when a terminal device requests resource configuration, it can request according to the granularity of configuration parameters, which is more flexible than requesting according to the granularity of resource configuration. It can be understood that, herein, the network side device may include a network device or a location management device.

The solutions provided by the embodiments of the present application will be described in detail below in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

The communication method provided in the embodiment of the present application can be applied to various communication systems, for example: LTE system, 5G system, such as a new radio (new radio, NR) system, or a next-generation communication system, such as a 6G system. Of course, the technical solution of the embodiment of the present application can also be applied to other communication systems, as long as the communication system has a positioning requirement for the terminal. In addition, the communication system can also be applied to future-oriented communication technologies. The system described in the embodiment of this application is to illustrate the technical solution of the embodiment of the application more clearly, and does not constitute a reference to the technical solution provided in the embodiment of the application. As a limitation, those of ordinary skill in the art know that, with the evolution of the network architecture, the technical solutions provided in the embodiments of the present application are also applicable to similar technical problems.

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram of a positioning architecture of a communication system applicable to an embodiment of the present application. As shown in FIG. 2, the network elements/modules involved mainly include a next generation radio access network (next generation radio access network, NG RAN), There are three parts: terminal equipment and core network. Among them, the core network includes LMF, access and mobility management function (access and mobility management function, AMF), service location protocol (service location protocol, SLP) and evolved serving mobile location center (Evolved serving mobile location center, E-SMLC )wait. The location server is the location management function (location management function, LMF) connected to the AMF, and the LMF and AMF are connected through the NLs interface. The LMF is responsible for supporting different types of location services related to the terminal, including positioning the terminal and delivering assistance data to the terminal. AMF can receive terminal-related location service requests from 5th generation core network location services (5GC LCS) entities, or AMF itself can initiate some location services on behalf of specific terminals and forward location service requests to LMF. After obtaining the location information returned by the terminal, return the relevant location information to the 5GC LCS entity.

The NG RAN may include a next generation node B (next generation node B, gNB), a next generation evolved base station (next generation evolved nodeB, ng-eNB) or a future evolved network node, etc. The gNB and ng-eNB are connected through the Xn interface, and the LMF and ng-eNB/gNB are connected through the NG-C interface.

It should be understood that the foregoing FIG. 2 is an exemplary illustration of a communication system applicable to the embodiment of the present application, and does not specifically limit the type, quantity, and connection mode of network elements included in the communication system applicable to the present application.

For example, FIG. 3 shows a network architecture of a communication system to which this embodiment of the present application applies, and the communication system includes a core network, an NG-RAN, and a terminal. The core network includes network elements/modules such as LMF, AMF, secure user plane location (secure user plane location, SUPL) location platform (SUPL location platform, SLP) and enhanced serving mobile location center (E-SMLC) , NG RAN includes network elements/modules such as gNB and ng-eNB, among which the specific functions of network elements/modules such as LMF, AMF, SLP, E-SMLC, gNB and ng-eNB, and the connection relationship between each network element/module You can refer to the introduction of the relevant part in FIG. 2 above, and details will not be repeated here.

The difference from Figure 2 is that in the network architecture shown in Figure 3, LMC is added to NG-RAN, and the specific deployment method of LMC is to set it inside the base station, such as setting it in gNB or ng-ENB. In this network architecture, the LMC is an internal function of the base station, so there is no need to introduce a new interface.

FIG. 4 shows a network architecture of another communication system to which the embodiment of the present application is applicable. As shown in FIG. 4 , the communication system also includes a core network, NG-RAN, and terminals. The difference from Figure 3 is that the LMC in the network architecture shown in Figure 4 acts as an independent logical node in the NG-RAN and is connected to the base station through a new interface. For example, in Figure 4, the LMC communicates with the gNB- The CUs are connected.

Figure 5 shows the network architecture of another communication system applicable to the embodiment of the present application. As shown in Figure 5, the communication system also includes the core network, NG-RAN and terminals, and the LMC acts as an independent logic in the NG-RAN Node, different from Figure 4 is that the LMC can be connected to multiple base stations at the same time through the new interface as shown in Figure 5 . FIG. 5 takes an example in which the LMC is connected to two base stations at the same time, and the LMC can also be connected to more base stations during specific implementation.

The above-mentioned Fig. 2-Fig. 5 is an exemplary description of the communication system applicable to the embodiment of the present application, and does not specifically limit the type, quantity, connection mode, etc. of the network elements included in the communication system applicable to the present application. And the network element/module indicated by the dotted line in Figure 2-Figure 5 is not essential, but optional, for example, E-SMLC or SLP is not essential; or, the network element/module indicated by the dotted line is another Existing forms, such as gNB or ng-eNB are also called TRP in some embodiments, and terminal devices are called secure user plane location (secure user plane location, SUPL) enabled terminal (SUPL enabled terminal, SET) in some embodiments.

The communication method provided in the embodiment of the present application can be applied to the positioning of the terminal device. For example, uplink positioning, downlink positioning, and uplink and downlink positioning. It should be noted that the uplink and downlink are relative terms here. If the transmission direction from the network device to the terminal device is downlink (this article takes this as an example), then the transmission direction from the terminal device to the network device is uplink; on the contrary, if the network The transmission direction from the device to the terminal device is uplink, then the transmission direction from the terminal device to the network device is downlink.

Please refer to FIG. 6 , which is a flow chart of the first communication method provided by the embodiment of the present application. In the following introduction process, it is taken as an example that the method is applied to any communication system shown in FIG. 2-FIG. 5 . In addition, the method may be executed by three communication devices, such as a first communication device, a second communication device and a third communication device. For ease of introduction, in the following, the method is executed by network equipment, terminal equipment and location management equipment as an example, that is, the first communication device is a network device, the second communication device is a terminal device, and the third communication device is a location management device. Take management devices as an example. It should be noted that the embodiment of the present application only takes the communication system in FIG. 2-FIG. 5 as an example, and is not limited to this scenario. In the following, the location management device is an LMF network element as an example. It should be understood that in future communications such as 6G, the location management device may still be an LMF network element or have other names, which are not limited in this embodiment of the present application. In addition, the network device may be a network device currently serving the terminal device. The network device may be a device in NG RAN, such as gNB, ng-eNB. Alternatively, the network device may be an LMC. As mentioned above, if the LMC functions as a function inside the network device, then the network device is the network device where the LMC is located. If the deployment scheme of the LMC is shown in Figure 4 or Figure 5, that is, the LMC acts as an independent logical node and is connected to a network device or multiple network devices through an interface, then the network device is any network device connected to the LMC. The following uses the application of the communication method provided in the embodiment of the present application to downlink positioning as an example.

Specifically, the specific flow of the first communication method provided in the embodiment of the present application is described as follows:

S601a. The network device sends first indication information to the terminal device, and correspondingly, the terminal device receives the first indication information. The first indication information is used to indicate at least one configuration parameter and value sets respectively corresponding to the at least one configuration parameter.

The first indication information may be used to indicate at least one configuration parameter of the PRS resource configuration, and a value set corresponding to the at least one configuration parameter. The at least one configuration parameter of the PRS resource configuration is at least one configuration parameter for configuring the PRS resource. Various configuration parameters with different values can be combined to form more sets of PRS resource configurations. That is, the network device indicates the PRS resource configuration supported by the network device by indicating (or recommending or suggesting) the configuration parameters supported by the network device and the corresponding value set (range) to the terminal device. It can also be understood that the network device indicates (or recommends or suggests) to the terminal device the PRS resource configuration that the terminal device can initiate a request on demand. For example, if the network device supports the resource period of the first value and the time slot offset of the second value, then the network device supports a resource period configured by the resource period of the first value and/or the time slot offset of the second value. One or more sets of PRS resource configurations. It should be understood that the data volume of multiple configuration parameters is smaller than the data volume of multiple sets of PRS resource configuration obtained by combining these multiple configuration parameters. Therefore, compared with sending all sets of PRS resource configurations by the network side device, the network side device sends the configuration parameters for configuring the PRS resources, which reduces the signaling overhead for indicating the PRS resource configuration. Moreover, the configuration parameters used to configure the positioning reference signal are variable, for example, the types of configuration parameters are variable, and the value of each configuration parameter may also be variable. In the embodiment of the present application, the terminal device may request PRS resource configuration according to the granularity of configuration parameters, which is more flexible than the terminal device requesting PRS resource configuration according to the granularity of resource configuration.

The embodiment of the present application does not limit the specific name of the first indication information. For example, the first indication information may be used as positioning assistance information and sent to the terminal device in the form of assistance data (assistance data). That is, when the network device sends the first indication information to the terminal device, it may be considered that the network device sends auxiliary data to the terminal device, and the auxiliary data may include the first indication information, or the auxiliary data may include content indicated by the first indication information.

As an example, the first indication information may include at least one configuration parameter of PRS resource configuration. In this case, it can be considered that the value set of each configuration parameter in at least one configuration parameter includes all possible values. For example, if the configuration parameter is the resource bandwidth in Table 1, then the resource bandwidth value set includes 63 possible values in Table 1. In this embodiment of the present application, the corresponding relationship between at least one configuration parameter and the value set of each configuration parameter can be preset or preconfigured. In a possible implementation, the corresponding relationship is represented by Table 2 similar to the aforementioned Table 1. This table 2 includes multiple configuration parameters supported by the network device, and all possible values corresponding to the multiple configuration parameters. According to Table 2 and the first indication information, the terminal device can determine value sets corresponding to at least one configuration parameter. It should be noted that Table 2 is used as an example, and the embodiment of the present application does not limit the types of configuration parameters included in Table 2, nor does it limit the values included in the value sets of each configuration parameter.

Table 2

configuration parameters collection of values A {a1,...,an} B {b1,...,bn}

As another example, the first indication information may include at least one configuration parameter of PRS resource configuration, and a value set respectively corresponding to the at least one configuration parameter. In this case, the value set corresponding to each configuration parameter may include some possible values or all possible values. Following the above example, if the configuration parameter is the resource bandwidth in Table 1, then the resource bandwidth value set may include some or all of the 63 possible values in Table 1.

As yet another example, the first indication information may include at least one configuration parameter of PRS resource configuration, and a value set of some configuration parameters in the at least one configuration parameter. The value set of configuration parameters other than this part of parameters includes all possible values. The value set of some configuration parameters may include all possible values, or may include some possible values.

The configuration parameters supported by the network device may change, and the values of the supported configuration parameters may also change. For example, in the first time period, the value set of a certain configuration parameter (such as the first configuration parameter) supported by the network device is the first value set, and in the second time period, the value set of the first configuration parameter supported by the network device The value set of is the fourth value set. If the terminal device requests the network device for the first configuration parameter in the first value set within the second time period, the network device may not be able to satisfy the terminal device's request, that is, the network device cannot configure a PRS resource configuration that matches the terminal device's request. In this case, it is unnecessary for the terminal device to still request the first configuration parameter in the first value set from the network device. In order to reduce unnecessary requests sent by the terminal device, the network device may also notify the terminal device of triggering conditions for requesting various configuration parameters. That is, the terminal device requests the configuration parameter from the network device when the trigger condition of matching the configuration parameter is met. A configuration parameter may have one or more trigger conditions, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present application. The terminal device meets any trigger condition of the configuration parameter, and may request the configuration parameter from the network device. Alternatively, the terminal device meets multiple trigger conditions of the configuration parameter, and requests the configuration parameter from the network device.

Exemplarily, the first indication information may further include one or more of the following first information, second information, or third information. The first information, the second information, and the third information are respectively introduced below.

In addition to including at least one configuration parameter, the first indication information may also include first information respectively corresponding to some configuration parameters or all configuration parameters in the at least one configuration parameter. Taking the first information of the first configuration parameter as an example, the first information may be used to indicate the valid time of the first configuration parameter, that is, the valid request time (or effective time). Correspondingly, according to the first information, the terminal device may request the network device for the PRS resource configured based on the first configuration parameter within the valid time. Alternatively, the first information may be used to indicate the valid time of the first value set of the first configuration parameter, and correspondingly, the terminal device may request the network device for the first configuration in the first value set within the valid time according to the first information PRS resources configured by parameters. It should be noted that if there is no corresponding first information for a certain configuration parameter, it can be considered that the configuration parameter is always valid; or, it can be considered that the configuration parameter is valid within a preset time (such as the default time); or, the configuration parameter can be considered The value set of the parameter is always valid; it can be considered that the value set of the configuration parameter is valid within a preset time (for example, a default time). In this way, it can reduce the request of the terminal device to the network device for the PRS resource based on the configuration parameter during the time outside the valid time of the configuration parameter. That is, unnecessary requests sent by the terminal device are reduced, thereby reducing signaling overhead and power consumption of the terminal device.

The second information may be used to indicate whether combination of at least two configuration parameters is supported. The terminal device determines how to send a request message requesting PRS resource configuration to the network device according to the second information. For example, if the network device does not support the combination of at least two configuration parameters, the terminal device may request the network device for PRS resource configuration of one configuration parameter. In this way, the terminal device does not need to decide which configuration parameters to combine, and initiates a corresponding PRS resource configuration request to the network device, which can reduce the processing complexity of the terminal device. Assuming that the network device supports the combination of at least two configuration parameters, then the terminal device can initiate a PRS resource configuration request to the network device in a manner of combining configuration parameters, so as to meet the requirements of the terminal device as much as possible.

For example, the configuration parameters supported by the network device include the period of the PRS and the number of symbols of the PRS. Wherein, the value set of the period of the positioning reference signal is {10ms, 20ms, 40ms}, and the value set of the number of symbols of the positioning reference signal is {2, 4, 6}. In other words, the network device supports that the terminal device can request to send PRS on the corresponding resource every 10 ms, 20 ms or 40 ms (that is, the above cycle), and each positioning reference signal can occupy 2, 4 or 6 symbols. For example, the terminal device sends a PRS occupying 2 symbols on the corresponding resource every 10 ms. If the network device does not support the combination of the PRS period and the number of PRS symbols, the terminal device can only request the PRS period or the number of PRS symbols from the network alone. For example, a terminal device requests PRS resource configuration with a period of 10 ms. In this case, the network device configures the terminal device with a period of 10 ms and the number of PRS symbols of 2, 4 or 6 symbols (determined by the network device) according to the request of the terminal device. It is equivalent to that the network device finally decides which PRS resource to configure for the terminal device, without the terminal device making a decision, and has relatively low requirements on the computing capability of the terminal device.

Using the above example, if the network device supports the combination of the period of the PRS and the number of symbols of the PRS. The terminal device can request PRS resource configuration from the network device according to the period of the PRS and the number of PRS symbols. For example, the terminal device requests PRS resource configuration with a period of 10 ms and a PRS symbol of 2 symbols. A possible implementation manner is that the network device configures PRS resources with a period of 10 ms and 2 symbols for the terminal device, so as to meet the actual needs of the terminal device as far as possible.

Further, the second information may also indicate at least two configuration parameters that support combination, that is, indicate which configuration parameters among the at least one configuration parameter supported by the network device can be combined with the request. For example, the first indication information includes at least one configuration parameter and second information, and the second information may include at least two configuration parameters in the at least one configuration parameter. In this case, when the terminal device receives the first indication information, it may be considered that the at least two configuration parameters included in the second information can be combined with the request.

The third information of the first configuration parameter may be used to indicate whether the network device supports other value sets (for example, a third value set) of the first configuration parameter other than the first value set. For example, the third information of the first configuration parameter may indicate that the network device does not support the third value set, or supports the third value set. Alternatively, the third information of the first configuration parameter may indicate a third value set. In this case, it may be considered that the network device supports the third value set of the first configuration parameter. If the network device supports the first configuration parameter in the first value set, it does not support the first configuration parameter in the third value set. The terminal device still requests the first configuration parameter in the third value set from the network device, and it can be considered that the request sent by the terminal device to the network device is unnecessary and will bring additional signaling overhead. For each configuration parameter, the network device can inform the terminal device whether it supports values other than the first value set of the configuration parameter through the third information, so as to reduce unnecessary requests sent by the terminal device, reduce signaling overhead of the terminal device and power consumption. It can be understood that the first indication information may also include one or more third information. It should be understood that one piece of third information corresponds to one configuration parameter. If there is no corresponding third information for a configuration parameter, it can be considered that the network device supports values other than the first value set of the configuration parameter. The configuration parameter is always valid, or the value set of the configuration parameter is always valid.

The first indication information may be sent to the terminal device in various ways. As an example, the first indication information may be included in a system information block (system information block, SIB), the network device sends the SIB in a broadcast manner, and the terminal may obtain the first indication information by receiving the SIB. A terminal device in the RRC_Inactive or RRC_Idle state can receive the SIB, that is, a terminal device in the RRC_Inactive or RRC_Idle state can also acquire the first indication information. Certainly, the first indication information may be carried in an existing field of the SIB or a newly defined field, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present application.

As another example, the first indication information may be carried in an SIB used for positioning, such as a positioning system information block (positioning system information block, posSIB). Similarly, the network device broadcasts the pos SIB, and the terminal device can obtain the first indication information by receiving the pos SIB. A terminal device in the RRC_Inactive or RRC_Idle state can also receive the pos SIB, that is, a terminal device in the RRC_Inactive or RRC_Idle state can also obtain the first indication information. Of course, the first indication information may be carried in an existing pos SIB or a newly defined pos SIB, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present application.

As yet another example, the first indication information may be carried in a radio resource control (radio resource control, RRC) message. In a possible implementation manner, the terminal device may request the network device to inform the terminal device of the supported configuration parameters and the value set of the supported configuration parameters when there is a positioning requirement. The RRC message can also be regarded as a response message sent to the request of the terminal device. In another possible implementation manner, the LMF triggers the network device to inform the terminal device of the supported configuration parameters and the value set of the supported configuration parameters. For the terminal device, the response message can be received, that is, it is not necessary to periodically read information such as the SIB, thereby saving energy consumption of the terminal.

It should be understood that if the terminal device does not need to obtain the PRS resource configuration, the network device actively sends the first indication information to the terminal device, which will cause waste. In some embodiments, the network device may send the first indication information to the terminal device at the request or trigger of the LMF or the terminal device.

In S601a, take the network device sending the first indication information to the terminal device as an example. As an alternative solution, the LMF may also send the first indication information to the terminal device. That is, the LMF can inform the terminal device of at least one configuration parameter supported by the network device for configuring PRS resources, and the values of these configuration parameters. That is, the LMF executes S601b in FIG. 6 .

S601b. The LMF sends the first indication information to the terminal device, and correspondingly, the terminal device receives the first indication information.

If the LMF knows which configuration parameters the network device supports and the values of each configuration parameter, the LMF may send the first indication information to the terminal device. The difference from S600a is that the first indication information sent by the LMF may be carried in the LPP message. For example, the first indication information may be carried in an LPP provide assistance data (ProvideAssistanceData) message. That is, the LMF sends the first indication information to the terminal device. It can be considered that the LMF sends an LPP ProvideAssistanceData message to the terminal device. The LPP ProvideAssistanceData message may include the first indication information, or the LPP ProvideAssistanceData message may include content indicated by the first indication information.

S600a. The terminal device sends a second request message to the LMF, and correspondingly, the LMF receives the second request message.

The second request message may be used to request the configuration parameters of the positioning reference signal, or the second request message is used to query the configuration parameters supported by the network device and the value set of the supported configuration parameters. Optionally, when the terminal device needs to obtain the PRS resource configuration, it can request the PRS resource configuration supported by the network device from the LMF, so as to avoid that the configuration parameter information sent by the network device to the terminal device is not information that the terminal device is interested in. That is to reduce sending unnecessary messages for requesting PRS resource configuration to LMF or network equipment. It should be noted that, the embodiment of the present application does not limit the specific name of the second request message. For example, the second request message may be carried in the LPP ProvideAssistanceData message as positioning assistance data.

Optionally, the second request message may include one or more configuration parameters. The one or more configuration parameters may be considered as configuration parameters that the terminal device expects to be provided by the network-side device, and may also be considered as configuration parameters that the terminal device may request from the network-side device. It should be understood that there are multiple configuration parameters for configuring the resources of the positioning reference signal, and the configuration parameters expected by the terminal device may be some configuration parameters in all configuration parameters. The configuration parameters supported by the device feedback. That is, there is no need for the LMF to feed back all configuration parameters, so as to reduce signaling overhead. For example, the second request message may include the first configuration parameter, and the LMF sends the first indication information to the terminal device in response to the second request message. The first indication information may include the first configuration parameter, to indicate that the LMF supports the first configuration parameter. Alternatively, the second request message may include one or more configuration parameters and a value set of the one or more configuration parameters. That is, the second request message may include one or more configuration parameters with expected values. That is, the end device expects a configuration parameter with a certain value or values. If the first indication information includes a certain configuration parameter but does not include the value of the configuration parameter, all possible values of the configuration parameter of the LMF or the network device may be defaulted. For example, the first indication information includes the first configuration parameter and a value set of the first configuration parameter, indicating that the LMF or the network device supports the first configuration parameter in the value set. For another example, the first indication information includes the first configuration parameter, indicating that the LMF or the network device supports all possible values of the first configuration parameter.

Further, the second request message may be used to indicate desired PRS resource configuration. For example, the second request message may include auxiliary information related to the desired PRS resource configuration. For example, the second request message may include a certain positioning accuracy requirement, or a certain positioning delay requirement, or a certain power consumption requirement. The LMF may send the first indication information to the terminal device according to the second request message. The configuration parameters indicated by the first indication information may be used to configure the desired PRS resource configuration of the terminal device. For example, the LMF indicates a PRS resource configuration that meets a certain positioning accuracy requirement, or a certain positioning delay requirement, or a certain power consumption requirement.

It should be noted that, in S600a, the terminal device sends the second request message to the LMF as an example. In some embodiments, the terminal device may also send the second request message to the network device. For example, the terminal device in the RRC_Inactive or RRC_Idle state may also send the second request message to the network device. In addition, S600a is not a step that must be executed, therefore, S600a is illustrated by a dotted line in FIG. 6 .

Optionally, upon receiving the second request message, the LMF may send a trigger indication to the network device, so as to instruct the network device to send the first indication information to the terminal device. If the LMF knows the configuration parameters supported by the network device in advance, the LMF may execute S601b after receiving the second request message, that is, the LMF sends the first indication information to the terminal device. For example, before S601b, the LMF may exchange signaling with the network device to know which configuration parameters the network device supports and the values of each configuration parameter.

S600b. The LMF sends a second request message to the network device, and correspondingly, the network device receives the second request message.

The second request message in S600b has the same function as the second request message in S600a, and both are used to request one or more configuration parameters supported by the network side device. It should be understood that the LMF may receive second request messages from multiple terminal devices, and the LMF may request configuration parameters from the network device according to the configuration parameters requested by the second request messages from multiple terminal devices. Therefore, the content included in the second request message in S600b may be the same as or different from the content included in the second request message in S600a. The difference here means that the types of configuration parameters included in the second request message may be different, or that the value sets of the configuration parameters are different when the types of configuration parameters are the same. Therefore, for details of the second request message in S600b, reference may be made to relevant content in S600a, which will not be repeated here. Different from the second request message in S600a, the second request message in S600b may be an NR positioning protocol A (NR positioning protocol A, NRPPa) message.

S600c. The network device sends fourth indication information to the LMF, and correspondingly, the LMF receives the fourth indication information.

The specific implementation of the fourth indication information is the same as the specific implementation of the first indication information, for details, reference may be made to relevant content of the first indication information, which will not be repeated here.

It should be noted that the execution of S600b-S600c is independent of S600a and S601a, that is, the execution sequence of S600b-S600c is not limited by S600a and S601a. In other words, S600b-S600c can be performed before or after S600a or S601a. One of S601a and S601b can be executed. For example, S601a may be performed, but S601b may not be performed. Alternatively, S601b is also executed, and S601a is not executed. FIG. 6 is an example in which S601a is executed but S601b is not executed. Therefore, S601b is also indicated by a dotted line in FIG. 6 . If S601b is executed, then the LMF also needs to execute S600b and S600c. If S601b is not executed, S600b and S600c may not be executed. Since S600a, S600b, and S600c are not mandatory steps, they are shown with dotted lines in FIG. 6 . Of course, both S601a and S601b can be executed, and the execution sequence of S601a and S601b is not limited. That is, S601a may be performed before or after S601b, or S601a and S601b1 may be performed simultaneously. In addition, the content included in the first indication information in S601a may be different from the content included in the first indication information in S601b. For example, if the configuration parameters included in the first indication information are applicable to all terminal devices, the first indication information may include configuration parameters applicable to all terminal devices, and the network device broadcasts the first indication information to the terminal devices. If a configuration parameter included in the first indication information is applicable to a specific terminal device, the LMF includes the configuration parameter applicable to the specific terminal device, and sends the first indication information to the terminal device in a unicast manner.

S602. The terminal device sends a first request message to the LMF, and correspondingly, the LMF receives the first request message.

The first request message may be used to request the LMF for PRS resource configuration. The content carried in the first request message may be determined based on the first indication information, that is, the terminal device refers to the content of the first indication information to request PRS resource configuration from the LMF as needed. The embodiment of the present application does not limit the specific name of the first request message. For example, the first request message may be an LPP message (such as LPP ProvideAssistanceData) or a newly defined LPP message, or an RRC message. Alternatively, the first request message may be a msg3 message or a msgA message, which is applicable to a terminal device in the RRC_Inactive or RRC_Idle state. Implementation forms of the first request message include but are not limited to the following two manners.

Implementation manner 1, the first request message may include one or more configuration parameters among the at least one configuration parameter indicated by the first indication information, and a second value set respectively corresponding to the one or more configuration parameters. That is, the first request message requests the LMF or the network device to configure the PRS resource configuration according to the one or more configuration parameters of the second value set.

Take the first indication information including the first configuration parameter and the second configuration parameter as an example. The first request message may include the first configuration parameter or the second configuration parameter. If the first indication information includes the second information, and the second information indicates that the combination of at least two configuration parameters is supported, the first request message may include the first configuration parameter and the second configuration parameter.

The first request message may also include a value set corresponding to the configuration parameter. Taking the first request message including the first configuration parameter as an example, the first request message may also include a second value set of the first configuration parameter. If the first request message includes the first configuration parameter but does not include the value set, then the value set of the first configuration parameter included in the first request message may be defaulted as the first value set.

The embodiment of the present application does not limit the relationship between the second value set and the first value set. For example, the second value set may be a subset of the first value set or other relationships. In this way, the terminal device can request the first configuration parameter within the value range of the first configuration parameter supported by the network device, so as to improve the success rate of acquiring positioning reference signal resources. The relationship between the second set of values and the first set of values is further described in Example 1 and Example 2 as follows.

Example 1, there is no intersection between the second value set and the first value set. It can be understood that there are no identical elements in the second value set and the first value set. In this way, the terminal device can request the first configuration parameter within the first value set of the first configuration parameter supported by the network device, or request the first configuration outside the first value set of the first configuration parameter supported by the network device parameter. That is, a certain degree of freedom is provided for the value range requested by the terminal device, so that it is applicable to a scenario where the value range of the first configuration parameter recommended by the network device or the location management function cannot meet the actual location requirements of the terminal device.

Example 2, the second set of values overlaps with the first set of values. In this case, the terminal device may request the resource configuration of the positioning reference signal matching the first configuration parameter within the value set of the first configuration parameter supported by the network device, or may request The resource configuration of positioning reference signals matching the first configuration parameter is requested outside the value set. It is not only applicable to the scenario where the value set of the first configuration parameter recommended by the network device or the location management function can meet the actual location requirements of the terminal device, but also applicable to the scenario where the value set of the first configuration parameter recommended by the network device or the location management function cannot Scenarios that meet the actual positioning requirements of terminal devices. For example, the first indication information includes third information, where the third information is used to indicate that values other than the first value set are allowed. According to the first indication information and the positioning requirement, the terminal device may request configuration parameters with values other than the first value set from the network device.

For ease of understanding, Table 3 shows configuration parameters requested by the terminal device, a scenario where the terminal device sends the first request message, and a schematic table of requirements. It is understandable that terminal devices may have different requirements in different scenarios. Due to different requirements, the configuration parameters that the terminal equipment expects to request are also different. As shown in Table 3, when the measurement quality of the terminal device in a certain beam direction is poor, the terminal device expects to improve the positioning accuracy. Correspondingly, the configuration parameters that the terminal device expects to request may include positioning reference signal resources.

table 3

It should be noted that Table 3 is only an example, and this embodiment of the present application does not limit configuration parameters, scenarios and requirements for the terminal device to send the first request message. In a possible implementation, the terminal device may determine the scenario for initiating the first request message and/or the configuration parameters requested by the terminal device according to its own policy, service requirements, and functions it has.

For example, if the first indication information includes the configuration parameters in Table 3 above and the first value sets corresponding to each configuration parameter in Table 3 respectively. Exemplarily, the terminal device gives priority to positioning accuracy, then the terminal device may request PRS resource configuration from the network device according to the resource bandwidth of the positioning reference signal, the TRP priority or the resources of the positioning reference signal. For example, the first request message may include the resource bandwidth of the positioning reference signal, and a second value set of the resource bandwidth of the positioning reference signal. Exemplarily, the terminal device gives priority to positioning delay, then the terminal device may request PRS resource configuration from the network side device according to the cycle or time slot offset or time interval. For example, the first request message may include a period and a second value set corresponding to the period.

For another example, if the first indication information further includes the first information, the terminal device may also determine the content included in the first request message according to the first information. Exemplarily, the first information indicates that the resource bandwidth of the positioning reference signal is valid within the first duration, then the resource bandwidth of the positioning reference signal included in the first request message may be within the first duration.

For another example, if the first indication information further includes the second information, the terminal device may also determine the content included in the first request message according to the second information. For example, if the second information is used to indicate that the network device does not support the combination of at least two configuration parameters, the first request message may include the resource bandwidth of the positioning reference signal, the TRP priority or the resource of the positioning reference signal. If the second information is used to indicate that the network device supports a combination of at least two configuration parameters, the first request message may include resource bandwidth and TRP priority of the positioning reference signal.

For another example, if the first indication information further includes third information, the terminal device may determine the content included in the first request message according to the third information. Exemplarily, the third information is used to indicate that the network device does not support values other than the first value set. Taking the period included in the first request message as an example, the second value set of the period included in the first request message may be within the first value set, so as to reduce unnecessary sending of the first request message by the terminal device. The third information is used to indicate that the network device supports values other than the first value set. Taking the period included in the first request message as an example, the second value set of the period included in the first request message can be located within the first value set, or outside the first value set, or the second value set There may be an intersection with the first value set, so as to meet the actual positioning requirements of the terminal device as much as possible.

Implementation manner 2, the first request message includes fourth information, where the fourth information is used to indicate multiple value sets respectively corresponding to at least one configuration parameter, where different value sets have different priorities. In some embodiments, the priorities of different value sets can be defaulted (or stipulated by the protocol). Specifically, the network device may determine the priorities of the multiple value sets according to the sequence of the multiple value sets. In some other embodiments, the terminal device may indicate the priorities of the multiple value sets through signaling, that is, dynamically indicate the priorities of the multiple value sets through signaling, which is more flexible.

The network device can configure resources of the positioning reference signal for the terminal device according to the priority of each value set. For example, the network device preferentially configures PRS resources for the terminal device according to the value set of the highest priority. The set of values called the second priority) configures PRS resources for the terminal device, and so on. And in a scenario where multiple terminal devices request positioning reference signal resources, the multiple value sets of each terminal device can provide a reference for the network device to configure positioning reference signal resources for each terminal device. For example, the network device may configure reasonable PRS resources for each terminal device with respect to the first request message of each terminal device, that is, multiple value sets requested by each terminal device. For example, assume that there are a first terminal device and a second terminal device. The first terminal device requests the PRS resource from the network side according to the positioning delay requirement, and the second terminal device requests the PRS resource from the network side according to the positioning accuracy requirement. The first request message sent by the first terminal device requests a first configuration parameter, and the first configuration parameter corresponds to two value sets, for example, value set 1 and value set 2. The first request message sent by the second terminal device requests the first configuration parameter, and the first configuration parameter corresponds to two value sets, for example, value set 1 and value set 2 . The priority of value set 1 is higher than that of value set 2. The PRS is sent according to the first configuration parameter of the value set 1, and the positioning accuracy is high, and the PRS is sent according to the first configuration parameter of the value set 2, and the positioning delay is low. The network device receives the first request message from the first terminal device and the first request message from the second terminal device, and may assign a value set to the first terminal device according to the positioning requirements of the first terminal device and the second terminal device 2. Assign value set 1 to the second terminal device. That is, the PRS resources configured by the network device for the first terminal device and the second terminal device can not only meet the requirements of the first terminal device, but also meet the requirements of the second terminal device. In addition, since the first request message can indicate multiple value sets corresponding to each configuration parameter, the terminal device can obtain the resource of the positioning reference signal configured by the network device by sending the first request message once. That is, there is no need for the terminal device to send multiple first request messages, thereby reducing the signaling overhead of requesting resources for positioning reference signals.

Optionally, the first request message may also include some reference information to provide reference for the network device to configure PRS resources for the terminal device. For example, the first request message may include positioning accuracy, positioning delay, or power consumption requirements, and the like. The LMF may configure the PRS resource configuration for the terminal device according to the first request message. The configuration parameters included in the PRS resource configuration can meet the requirements of the terminal equipment. For another example, the terminal device does not have positioning services at a specific time or in a specific area, and may request the network device not to configure PRS resources at a specific time or in a specific area, so as to reduce resource waste on the network side. Correspondingly, the first request message may include a specific time or a specific area.

Optionally, the terminal device may also request the network side device to adjust some configuration parameters through the first request message, so as to match the measurement capability of the terminal device as much as possible.

For example, the first request message may include a periodicity scaling factor (periodicity scaling) of the PRS. The network side device may determine the measurement configuration of the positioning reference signal of the terminal device according to the first request message and other configuration parameters. For example, the configuration parameters of PRS resource configuration include TRP, the PRS period of TRP#1 is 80ms, and the PRS period of TRP#2 is 160ms. The TRP configured by the network device for the terminal device is TRP#1. When the terminal equipment is positioned, the positioning reference signal is measured at a period of 80 ms, and it is found that the processing capability of the terminal equipment is highly required. To this end, the terminal device may request the network side device to double the PRS period of TRP#1, that is, request the network side device to adjust the PRS period of the TRP configured for the terminal device. For example, the first request message may further include a period scaling factor, where the period scaling factor is 2. That is, the terminal device requests to expand the PRS period by 2 times. Although the PRS period of the TRP configured by the network-side device for the terminal device is 80 ms, the terminal device requests the network-side device to double the PRS period. The terminal equipment measures the positioning reference signal at a period of 160 ms, which can reduce the measurement complexity of the terminal equipment.

For another example, the TRP priority recommended by the network device for the terminal device may not match the measurement capability of the terminal device, then the terminal device may request the network side device to adjust the TRP priority configured for the terminal device. For example, the first request message may include the TRP priority recommended by the terminal device to match the measurement capability of the terminal device. Similarly, the first request message may include the priority of the positioning reference signal resource set recommended by the terminal device, so as to match the measurement capability of the terminal device. It can be understood that the terminal device requesting the network side device to adjust the PRS period of the TRP, the priority of the TRP, or the priority of the positioning reference signal resource set through the first request message is only an example. The embodiment of the present application does not limit the configuration parameters that the terminal device requests the network side device to adjust through the first request message.

S603a. The LMF sends a first response message to the terminal device, and correspondingly, the terminal device receives the first response message.

S603b. The network device sends a first response message to the terminal device, and correspondingly, the terminal device receives the first response message.

When the LMF receives the first request message, if the LMF knows which configuration parameters the network device supports and the value sets corresponding to each configuration parameter. The LMF may send a response message to the first request message, such as a first response message, to the terminal device. That is, the LMF can execute S603a. If the LMF does not know which configuration parameters the network device supports and the value sets corresponding to each configuration parameter, the LMF may send a trigger indication to the network device to instruct the network device to send a first response message to the terminal device. It can be understood that the content of the first response message sent by the LMF is the same as the content of the first response message sent by the network device. The difference is that the first response message sent by the LMF can be carried in the NRPPa message.

The network side device may send a response message to the terminal device in response to the first request message sent by the terminal device. Although the network side device supports at least one configuration parameter and a value set of the at least one configuration parameter. However, the PRS resource configuration configured by the network side device for the terminal device may not meet the requirements (or requests) of the terminal device, that is, the first request message may not be satisfied. Depending on whether the network side device satisfies the first request message, the implementation form of the first response message is also different. The following takes the first response message sent by the network device to the terminal device as an example, and describes the content of the response message in combination with the two cases that the network side device does not meet the first request message and meets the first request message:

Case A: The network-side device meets the first request message, that is, the network-side device supports all configuration parameters included in the first request message, and supports the second value set corresponding to all configuration parameters respectively.

As an example, if the network side device can satisfy the first request message, then the network side device may send the PRS resource configuration, for example, the first resource configuration, to the terminal device. That is, the network side device can configure PRS resources for the terminal device. After receiving the first response message, the terminal device sends a PRS according to the first resource configuration included in the first response message for subsequent positioning. For example, the first request message includes a first configuration parameter and a second value set of the first configuration parameter. The first response message includes a first resource configuration, where the first resource configuration includes a first configuration parameter, and a value of the first configuration parameter is located in a second value set.

Situation B: The network side device does not satisfy the first request message, including two cases of not satisfying the first request message entirely and partially satisfying the first request message.

All unsatisfied first request messages may include any one of the cases 1-3. Case 1, that is, the network side device does not support one or more configuration parameters included in the first request message. Case 2, that is, the network side device supports all configuration parameters included in the first request message, but does not support the second value set of some or all configuration parameters in all configuration parameters. Case 3, that is, the network side device does not support one or more configuration parameters included in the first request message, nor does it support the second value set of some of the configuration parameters included in the first request message.

If all configuration parameters of the PRS resource configuration configured by the network device or the LMF for the terminal device do not satisfy the first request message, the first response message may include an error indication, and the error indication is used to indicate that all do not meet the first request message. In this case, after receiving the first response message, the terminal device may re-request PRS resource configuration of other configurations from the network side device. Therefore, frequent sending of the first request message by the terminal device is avoided, signaling overhead is reduced, and power consumption of the terminal device is reduced. In a possible implementation manner, the error indication may indicate whether the configuration parameter satisfies the first request message through a value of a bit corresponding to the configuration parameter. For example, for N configuration parameters included in the first request message, the error indication may occupy N bits, where N bits correspond to N configuration parameters one by one, and N is a positive integer greater than or equal to 1. If one of the N configuration parameters does not satisfy the first request message, the bit value of the configuration parameter can be "0"; on the contrary, one of the N configuration parameters satisfies the first request message , and the bit value of this configuration parameter can be "1". Alternatively, if one of the N configuration parameters does not satisfy the first request message, the value of the bit of the configuration parameter may be "1"; on the contrary, if one of the N configuration parameters satisfies the first request message In a request message, the bit value of the configuration parameter may be "0". Optionally, the correspondence between N configuration parameters and N bits may be preset by the protocol, or indicated by the network device; optionally, the order of the N configuration parameters corresponding to the error indication is the same as the N bits included in the first request message. The order of the configuration parameters may be the same or different, which is not limited in this application. Optionally, the error indication may also occupy 1 bit to indicate that all configuration parameters included in the PRS resource configuration satisfy the first request message. For example, the value of the 1 bit is "0", indicating that all configuration parameters included in the PRS resource configuration satisfy the first request message. Alternatively, the value of the 1 bit is "1", indicating that all configuration parameters included in the PRS resource configuration satisfy the first request message. Alternatively, an error indication may be identified by a field. For example, if the first response message includes this field, it indicates that all configuration parameters included in the PRS resource configuration satisfy the first request message. Or, the first response message does not include this field, indicating that all configuration parameters included in the PRS resource configuration satisfy the first request message.

If the configuration parameters of the PRS resource configured by the network device or the LMF for the terminal device partially meet the first request message, that is, the configuration parameters of the PRS resource configured by the network side device for the terminal device partially meet the first request message. In this case, the network device or the LMF can also configure the PRS resource configuration for the terminal device. For example, the first request message includes a first configuration parameter and a second value set of the first configuration parameter. The first response message may also include the PRS resource configuration configured by the network side device for the terminal device, for example, the second resource configuration. For example, the second resource configuration does not include the first configuration parameter. Since the configuration parameters of the PRS resources configured by the network side device for the terminal device partially meet the first request message, the first response message may further include an error indication, and the error indication may be used to indicate that the configuration parameters of the request message are not satisfied. For example, the error indication is used to indicate the first configuration parameter, that is, it is the first configuration parameter that indicates that the first request message is not satisfied. Alternatively, the first response message includes the second resource configuration and an error indication, the second resource configuration includes the first configuration parameter, but the value of the first configuration parameter is not in the second value set. The error indication is used to indicate the first configuration parameter, that is, it is the first configuration parameter that indicates that the first request message is not satisfied. It can be understood that the first response message may include one or more configuration parameters (for example, M configuration parameters) of PRS resource configuration and an error indication. It can be understood that the error indication may occupy M bits, where M bits correspond to M configuration parameters one-to-one, and M is an integer greater than or equal to 1. The error indication may indicate whether the configuration parameter satisfies the first request message through the value of the bit corresponding to the configuration parameter. After receiving the first response message, the terminal device can determine which configuration parameters do not satisfy the first request message according to the error indication. Optionally, if the first request message requests N1 configuration parameters, the first response message includes a second resource configuration, and the second resource configuration includes M1 configuration parameters among the N1 configuration parameters, where N1 and M1 are both positive Integer, N1 is greater than M1. The error indication included in the first response message may occupy M1 bits, and the M1 configuration parameters correspond to the M1 bits one by one. In this case, the error indication may implicitly indicate that the N1 configuration parameters except the M1 configuration parameters do not satisfy the first request message. In a possible implementation manner, if the configuration parameters of the first request message are not satisfied and does not affect the positioning of the terminal device, then the terminal device may send a positioning reference signal according to the second resource configuration for subsequent positioning, so as to reduce the positioning delay. If the terminal device determines that the second resource configuration affects the positioning requirement of the terminal device, the terminal device may re-request PRS resources from the network side device to meet the positioning requirement as much as possible.

It should be noted that, the embodiment of the present application does not limit the specific name of the first response message. For example, the first response message may be called an On-demand PRS Assistance Data-Response (On-demand PRS Assistance Data-Response) message. Similar to the first indication information, if the LMF sends the first response message to the terminal device, the first response message may be carried in the LPP signaling. If the network device sends the first response message to the terminal device, the first response message may be carried in the SIB, or the pos SIB, or the RRC message. It should be noted that one of S603a and S603b may be executed, and it is not necessary to execute both of them. For example, S603a may be executed, and S603b may not be executed. Alternatively, S603b is also executed, and S603a is not executed. FIG. 6 is an example in which S603a is executed but S603b is not executed. Therefore, S603b is indicated by a dotted line in FIG. 6 . Of course, both S603a and S603b can be executed, and the execution sequence of S603a and S603b is not limited.

In the process shown in FIG. 6 , the network-side device may recommend to the terminal device one or more configuration parameters of resources for sending positioning reference signals, and value sets corresponding to these configuration parameters. Multiple sets of PRS resource configurations supported by the network side device are indicated through the configuration parameters supported by the network side device. Compared with sending all sets of PRS resource configuration supported by the network side device to the terminal device, the signaling overhead for sending the PRS resource configuration is reduced.

As an alternative solution, the network side device may send identification information used to identify the PRS resource configuration to the terminal device. Compared with sending all sets of PRS resource configurations supported by the network side device to the terminal device, the signaling overhead for sending the PRS resource configuration can also be reduced.

Please refer to FIG. 7 , which is a flow chart of the second communication method provided by the embodiment of the present application. Similar to FIG. 6 , the method provided in FIG. 7 is also applied to the communication system shown in any one of FIGS. 2-5 as an example. In addition, the method may be executed by three communication devices, such as a first communication device, a second communication device and a third communication device. For the first communication device, the second communication device, and the third communication device, reference may be made to relevant content of the foregoing embodiment in FIG. 6 , which will not be repeated here.

Specifically, the specific flow of the second communication method provided in the embodiment of the present application is described as follows:

S701a. The network device sends third indication information to the terminal device, and correspondingly, the terminal device receives the third indication information.

The third indication information may be used to indicate one or more sets of PRS resource configurations supported by the network device. For example, the third indication information may include one or more pieces of identification information, and each piece of identification information may be used to indicate a set of resource configurations of the positioning reference signal. Exemplarily, the identification information may be an index of PRS resource configuration, or a combined identification of positioning frequency layer identification, TRP identification, PRS resource set identification, PRS resource identification, or other forms, which is not limited in the present invention. The network device notifies the terminal device of the PRS resource configuration supported by the network device in the form of identification information of the PRS resource configuration. Compared with sending all resource configurations of the PRS to the terminal device by the network device, the signaling overhead is reduced.

Similar to the first indication information, the third indication information may include sixth information, and the sixth information may be used to indicate the valid time of each identifier. The third indication information may also include seventh information, and the seventh information may be used to indicate whether the network device supports PRS resource configuration other than the identification information.

The embodiment of the present application does not limit the specific name of the third indication information. Similar to the first indication information, the third indication information may also be used as positioning assistance information and sent to the terminal device in the form of assistance data. In addition, like the first indication information, the third indication information may also be carried in the SIB, or pos SIB or RRC message, for details, please refer to the relevant content of the first indication information, which will not be repeated here.

S700. The terminal device sends a third request message to the LMF, and correspondingly, the LMF receives the third request message.

Similar to S600a, when the terminal device needs to obtain the PRS resource configuration, it may request the PRS resource configuration supported by the network side device from the LMF, so as to reduce unnecessary sending of request messages for requesting PRS resources to the network side. The difference from S600a is that the third request message is used to request configuration of one or more sets of PRS resources. It should be noted that the embodiment of the present application does not limit the specific name of the third request message, for example, the third request message may be called an assistance data request (RequestAssistanceData) message. The third request message can be carried in the LPP message. In addition, S700 is not a step that must be executed, therefore, S700 is indicated by a dotted line in FIG. 7 .

In a possible implementation manner, after receiving the third request message, the LMF may request or trigger the network device to send the third indication information to the terminal device. S701a takes this as an example. In some embodiments, if the LMF knows which sets of PRS resource configurations the network device supports, the LMF may send third indication information to the terminal device, that is, the LMF performs S701b in FIG. 7 .

S701b. The LMF sends third indication information to the terminal device, and correspondingly, the terminal device receives the third indication information.

It should be understood that before S701b, the LMF may perform signaling interaction with the network device, so as to acquire the PRS resource configuration supported by the network device from the network device.

S700b. The LMF sends a third request message to the network device, and correspondingly, the network device receives the third request message.

The function, content and bearer mode of the third request message in S700b are similar to those of the second request message in S600b. For details, please refer to the relevant content in S600b, and the same will not be repeated here.

S700c. The network device sends fifth indication information to the LMF, and correspondingly, the LMF receives the fifth indication information.

The specific implementation of the fifth indication information is the same as that of the third indication information, for details, reference may be made to the relevant content of the third indication information, which will not be repeated here.

It should be noted that the execution of S700b-S700c is independent of S700 and S701a, that is, the execution sequence of S700b-S700c is not limited by S700 and S701a. In other words, S700b-S700c can be executed before or after S700 or S701a. One of S701a and S701b can be executed, and there is no need to execute all of them. For example, S701a may be executed, but S701b may not be executed. Alternatively, S701b is also executed, and S701a is not executed. FIG. 7 takes execution of S701a and not execution of S701b as an example. Therefore, S700b-S700c and S701b are illustrated by dotted lines in FIG. 7 . Of course, both S701a and S701b can be executed, and the execution sequence of S701a and S701b is not limited.

S702. The terminal device sends a fourth request message to the LMF, and correspondingly, the LMF receives the fourth request message.

The fourth request message may be used to request the LMF for PRS resource configuration. The content carried in the fourth request message may be determined based on the third indication information, and it may be considered that the terminal device requests PRS resource configuration from the LMF on demand. The embodiment of the present application does not limit the specific name of the fourth request message. For example, the fourth request message may be a defined LPP message, such as an LPP (ProvideAssistanceData) message. Alternatively, the fourth request message may also be a newly defined LPP message, or an RRC message, or a msg3 message, or a msgA message.

In different situations, the network side device may configure different PRS resource configurations. For example, for different positioning methods, the network side device may configure different PRS resource configurations. Similarly, for different RRC states of the terminal device, the network side device may also configure different PRS resource configurations. For different positioning requirements, the network device may also be configured with different PRS resource configurations. Positioning requirements include one or more of the following: positioning accuracy, positioning delay, power consumption of terminal equipment, positioning reliability, and positioning reliability. Positioning reliability is used to measure the trust in the accuracy of location-related data provided by the positioning system and the ability to provide timely and effective warnings to location service (LCS) clients when the positioning system does not meet the expected operating conditions. The confidence can be regarded as positioning integrity, and can also be called positioning integrity or positioning integrity.

A positioning method may correspond to at least one piece of identification information, and identification information corresponding to different positioning methods may be partly or completely different. In other words, PRS resource configurations corresponding to different positioning methods may be the same or different. For another example, one RRC state may correspond to at least one piece of identification information, and the identification information corresponding to different RRC states may be partly or completely different. That is, the PRS resource configurations corresponding to different RRC states of the terminal equipment may be the same or different. For another example, a positioning requirement may correspond to at least one piece of identification information, and identification information corresponding to different positioning requirements may be partially or completely different. That is, PRS resource configurations corresponding to different positioning requirements may be the same or different.

The terminal device can request a reasonable PRS resource configuration from the network side device according to the RRC state of the terminal device, the positioning method, or the corresponding PRS resource configuration according to the positioning requirements, so as to meet the actual needs of the terminal device. The RRC state, positioning method, or positioning requirement of the terminal equipment can be regarded as one or more request conditions for requesting PRS resource configuration. Each set of PRS resource configuration may be associated with one or more conditions, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present application. For example, the request condition of each set of PRS resource configuration may include one or more positioning requirements. For another example, the request condition for each set of PRS resource configuration may include the positioning method and/or the RRC status of the terminal. The terminal device determines the identification information of the PRS resource configuration to be requested according to the request condition satisfied by itself.

For example, the fourth request message may include identification information of the PRS resource configuration to be requested, for example, one or more pieces of identification information. If the fourth request message includes multiple pieces of identification information, different pieces of identification information correspond to different priorities. For example, the priorities of the pieces of identification information may be from high to low by default according to the order of the pieces of identification information, or the priorities of the pieces of identification information may also be indicated by the terminal device. For example, the fourth request message includes second indication information, and the second indication information may be used to indicate priorities of pieces of identification information. The network device may combine multiple identification information included in the fourth request message from multiple terminal devices to allocate reasonable PRS resources for each terminal device.

Exemplarily, the network side device supports 3 sets of PRS resource configurations, and the identification information of the 3 sets of PRS resource configurations are identification information 0, identification information 1, and identification information 2 respectively. The PRS resource configuration identified by the identification information 0 is suitable for the downlink positioning method, the PRS resource configuration identified by the identification information 1 is suitable for the uplink positioning method, and the PRS resource configuration identified by the identification information 2 is suitable for the uplink and downlink positioning method. If the terminal device uses the downlink positioning method, the first identification information included in the fourth request message may be identification information 0. If the terminal device uses the uplink positioning method, the first identification information included in the fourth request message may be identification information 1.

Exemplarily, the network side device supports 3 sets of PRS resource configurations, and the identification information of the 3 sets of PRS resource configurations are identification information 0, identification information 1, and identification information 2 respectively. The PRS resource configuration identified by identification information 0 is suitable for terminal devices in the RRC connected state, the PRS resource configuration identified by identification information 1 is suitable for terminal devices in the RRC inactive state, and the PRS resource configuration identified by identification information 2 is suitable for terminal devices in the RRC idle state. If the terminal device is in the RRC idle state, the first identification information included in the fourth request message may be identification information 2 . If the terminal device is in the RRC connection state, the first identification information included in the fourth request message may be identification information 0.

It can be understood that the PRS resource configuration applicable to multiple terminal devices can be sent in a broadcast manner through the network device. The PRS resource configuration applicable to a specific terminal device can be sent in unicast through the LMF. For example, a certain set of PRS resource configuration is applicable to terminal devices in various RRC states, applicable to different positioning requirements, or applicable to multiple positioning methods, such as uplink positioning method, downlink positioning method and uplink and downlink positioning method. In this case, the set of PRS resource configurations can be applied to multiple terminal devices, and can be sent in a broadcast manner, thereby saving signaling overhead.

Exemplarily, the network side device supports 5 sets of PRS resource configurations, and the identification information of these 5 sets of PRS resource configurations are identification information 0, identification information 1, identification information 2, identification information 3 and identification information 4 respectively. The PRS resource configuration identified by the identification information 0 is suitable for the downlink positioning method, the PRS resource configuration identified by the identification information 1 is suitable for the uplink positioning method, and the PRS resource configuration identified by the identification information 2 is suitable for the uplink and downlink positioning method. The PRS resource configurations respectively identified by the identification information 3 and the identification information 4 are applicable to various positioning methods, such as an uplink positioning method, a downlink positioning method, and an uplink and downlink positioning method. In this case, the PRS resource configuration identified by the identification information 0 or the identification information 1 or the identification information 2 can be sent in a unicast manner through the LMF. The PRS resource configurations respectively identified by the identification information 3 and the identification information 4 can be broadcasted by the network device. In this way, if there are multiple terminal devices with different positioning methods, the multiple terminal devices may request the PRS resource configuration identified by the identification information 3 or the identification information 4 . There is no need for the network device to send the PRS resource configurations respectively identified by the identification information 3 and the identification information 4 to multiple terminal devices, thereby saving signaling overhead. In a possible implementation manner, the effective time of the PRS resource configuration broadcast by the network device is relatively long, that is, the terminal device may request the PRS resource configuration broadcast by the network device within a relatively long period of time.

S703a. The LMF sends a second response message to the terminal device, and correspondingly, the terminal device receives the second response message.

S703b. The network device sends a second response message to the terminal device, and correspondingly, the terminal device receives the second response message.

When the LMF receives the fourth request message, if the LMF knows which sets of PRS resource configurations the network equipment supports. The LMF may send a response message to the fourth request message, such as a second response message, to the terminal device. That is, the LMF can execute S703a. If the LMF does not know which sets of PRS resource configurations the network device supports, the LMF may send a trigger indication to the network device to instruct the network device to send the second response message to the terminal device. It should be noted that, the embodiment of the present application does not limit the specific name of the second response message. For example, the second response message may be referred to as an on-demand positioning reference signal assistance data response message. Similar to the third indication information, if the LMF sends the second response message to the terminal device, the second response message may be carried in the LPP signaling. If the network device sends the second response message to the terminal device, the second response message may be carried in the SIB, or the pos SIB, or the RRC message. It should be noted that, one of S703a and S703b may be executed, and there is no need to execute both of them. For example, S703a may be executed, and S703b may not be executed. Alternatively, S703b is also executed, and S703a is not executed. FIG. 7 is an example in which S703a is executed but S703b is not executed. Therefore, S703b is indicated by a dotted line in FIG. 7 . Of course, both S703a and S703b can be executed, and the execution sequence of S703a and S703b is not limited.

It should be understood that, if there are multiple terminal devices, and none of the multiple terminal devices has a special positioning requirement, the network device may configure the same PRS resource configuration for the multiple terminal devices. The network device can send the PRS resource configuration to multiple terminal devices by broadcasting. If there is a terminal device with special positioning requirements among the multiple terminal devices, the network device can configure a dedicated PRS resource configuration for the terminal device, and configure the same PRS resource configuration for other multiple terminal devices. In this case, the network device sends common configuration information to multiple terminal devices by broadcasting. For a terminal device with special positioning requirements, the network device may additionally send configuration information for the terminal device, thereby saving signaling overhead.

In the embodiment of the present application, the network side device indicates the PRS resource configuration supported by the network side device through the identification information of the PRS resource configuration. It is applicable to the situation where the terminal device or the LMF can request a limited set (small number) of PRS resource configuration, has little impact on the current positioning procedure protocol, and can reduce the signaling overhead for sending the PRS resource configuration. Since the terminal device requests a whole set of PRS resource configuration from the network side device, the network side device does not need to analyze which configuration parameters the terminal device requests, which can reduce the complexity of the network side device.

In the above-mentioned embodiments provided in the present application, the method provided in the embodiments of the present application is introduced from the perspective of interaction among the terminal device, the network device, and the location management device. Wherein, the steps performed by the network device may also be respectively implemented by different communication devices. For example: the first device is used to generate the first instruction information, and the second device is used to send the first instruction information, that is to say, the first device and the second device jointly complete the steps performed by the network device in the embodiment of this application. The specific division method is not limited. When the network architecture includes one or more distributed units (distributed unit, DU), one or more centralized units (centralized unit, CU) and one or more radio frequency units (RU), the steps performed by the above network equipment can be respectively It is realized by DU, CU and RU. In order to realize the various functions in the method provided by the above-mentioned embodiments of the present application, the terminal device and the network device may include a hardware structure and/or a software module, and realize the above-mentioned functions in the form of a hardware structure, a software module, or a hardware structure plus a software module . Whether one of the above-mentioned functions is executed in the form of a hardware structure, a software module, or a hardware structure plus a software module depends on the specific application and design constraints of the technical solution.

Based on the same inventive concept as the method embodiment, this embodiment of the present application provides a communication device. The following describes the communication device used to implement the above method in the embodiment of the present application with reference to the accompanying drawings.

As shown in FIG. 8 , it is a possible exemplary block diagram of a communication device involved in this application. The communication device 800 can correspondingly implement the functions implemented by the terminal device or network device or location management device in the above-mentioned various method embodiments or step. The communication device may include a transceiver module 801 and a processing module 802 . Optionally, a storage module may also be included, and the storage module may be used to store instructions (code or program) and/or data. The transceiver module 801 and the processing module 802 may be coupled with the storage module, for example, the processing module 802 may read instructions (code or program) and/or data in the storage module to implement corresponding methods. Each of the above modules can be set independently, or can be partially or fully integrated.

It should be understood that the processing module 802 may be a processor or a controller, such as a general-purpose central processing unit (central processing unit, CPU), a general-purpose processor, digital signal processing (digital signal processing, DSP), an application specific integrated circuit (application specific integrated circuits, ASIC), field programmable gate array (field programmable gate array, FPGA) or other programmable logic devices, transistor logic devices, hardware components, or any combination thereof. It can implement or execute the various illustrative logical blocks, modules and circuits described in connection with the present disclosure. The processor may also be a combination that implements computing functions, for example, a combination of one or more microprocessors, a combination of a DSP and a microprocessor, and the like. The transceiver module 801 is an interface circuit of the device for receiving signals from other devices. For example, when the device is implemented as a chip, the transceiver module 801 is an interface circuit for the chip to receive signals from other chips or devices, or an interface circuit for the chip to send signals to other chips or devices.

The communication device 800 may be the network device, the terminal device, and the location management device in the foregoing embodiments, or may be a chip used for the network device, the terminal device, and the location management device. For example, when the communication apparatus 800 is a network device, a terminal device or a location management device, the processing module 802 may be, for example, a processor, and the transceiver module 801 may be, for example, a transceiver. Optionally, the transceiver may include a radio frequency circuit, and the storage unit may be, for example, a memory. For example, when the communication device 800 is a chip for network equipment, terminal equipment or location management equipment, the processing module 802 may be a processor, and the transceiver module 801 may be an input/output interface, pins or circuits, etc. The processing module 802 can execute the computer-executed instructions stored in the storage unit. Optionally, the storage unit is a storage unit in the chip, such as a register, cache, etc., and the storage unit can also be the network device, terminal device or location management Storage units located outside the chip within the device, such as read-only memory (ROM) or other types of static storage devices that can store static information and instructions, random access memory (random access memory, RAM), etc. .

In some possible implementation manners, the communication apparatus 800 can correspondingly implement the behavior and function of the terminal device in the foregoing method embodiments. For example, the communication apparatus 800 may be a terminal device, or may be a component (such as a chip or a circuit) applied in the terminal device. The transceiver module 801 may be used to support communication between the terminal device and other network entities, for example, support communication between the terminal device and the network device and/or location management device shown in FIG. 6 or FIG. 7 . The processing module 802 is used to control and manage the actions of the terminal device. For example, the processing module 802 is used to support the terminal device to perform all the operations of the terminal device in FIG. 6 or 7 except sending and receiving.

For example, the transceiver module 801 can be used to perform all receiving or sending operations performed by the terminal device in the embodiment shown in FIG. 6, such as S600a, S601a, S601b, S602, S603a, and S603b, and/or other processes for supporting the techniques described herein. Wherein, the processing module 802 is configured to execute all operations performed by the terminal device in the embodiment shown in FIG. 6 except the transceiving operation, and/or other processes for supporting the technology described herein.

In some embodiments, the transceiving module 801 is configured to receive first indication information from a network device or a location management function. The transceiver module 801 is also configured to send the first request message to the network device or the location management function. Wherein, the first indication information is used to indicate at least one configuration parameter used to configure the resource of the positioning reference signal, and the first value set respectively corresponding to the at least one configuration parameter. The first request message is used to request resource configuration of the positioning reference signal. The first request message includes a first configuration parameter, and the first configuration parameter belongs to at least one configuration parameter.

As an optional implementation manner, the first indication information further includes one or more items of the following information: first information, second information, and third information. Wherein, the first information is used to indicate the valid time of the first value set. The second information is used to indicate whether combination of at least two configuration parameters is supported. The third information is used to indicate whether to allow values other than the first value set.

As an optional implementation manner, the first indication information is carried in the SIB, Pos SIB, RRC message or LPP signaling.

As an optional implementation manner, the first request message includes the second value set of the first configuration parameter. The second value set of the first configuration parameter is a subset of the first value set of the first configuration parameter.

As an optional implementation manner, the first request message includes the second value set of the first configuration parameter. There is no intersection between the second value set of the first configuration parameter and the first value set of the first configuration parameter.

As an optional implementation manner, the first request message includes the second value set of the first configuration parameter. There is an intersection between the second value set of the first configuration parameter and the first value set of the first configuration parameter.

As an optional implementation manner, the first request message includes fourth information. The fourth information is used to indicate multiple value sets respectively corresponding to the at least one configuration parameter, where different value sets have different priorities.

As an optional implementation manner, the first request message is also used to indicate priorities of multiple value sets.

As an optional implementation manner, the transceiver module 801 is further configured to send the second request message to the network device or the location management device. The second request message is used to request configuration parameters of the positioning reference signal.

As an optional implementation manner, the transceiver module 801 is further configured to receive a first response message from a network device or a location management device. Wherein, the first response message includes the first resource configuration of the positioning reference signal. The first resource configuration includes a first configuration parameter, and the value of the first configuration parameter satisfies the first request message. Alternatively, the first response message includes the second resource configuration and error indication of the positioning reference signal. The second resource configuration includes the first configuration parameter, and the value of the first configuration parameter is different from the value of the first configuration parameter in the first request message. The error indication is used to indicate that the first configuration parameter does not satisfy the first request message. Alternatively, the first response message is used to indicate that the first request message cannot be satisfied.

For another example, the transceiver module 801 may be configured to perform all receiving or sending operations performed by the terminal device in the embodiment shown in FIG. 7, for example, S700, S701a (and/or S701b), S702, and S703a (and/or 703b), and/or other processes for supporting the techniques described herein. Wherein, the processing module 802 is configured to execute all operations performed by the terminal device in the embodiment shown in FIG. 7 except the transceiving operation, and/or other processes for supporting the technology described herein.

In some embodiments, the transceiving module 801 is configured to receive third indication information from the network device or the location management function, and send a fourth request message to the network device or the location management function. Wherein, the third indication information includes one or more pieces of identification information, and one piece of identification information is used to indicate a set of resource configurations of the positioning reference signal. The fourth request message is used to request resource configuration of the positioning reference signal.

As an optional implementation manner, the third indication information is carried in the SIB, Pos SIB, RRC message or LPP signaling.

As an optional implementation manner, the fourth request message includes the first identification information. Wherein, the first identification information corresponds to the first positioning method. The first positioning method is a positioning method currently used by the terminal device, and identification information corresponding to different positioning methods is partially or completely different. Or, the first identification information corresponds to the RRC state of the terminal device. The identification information corresponding to different RRC states is partly or completely different. Alternatively, the first identification information corresponds to at least one positioning requirement of the terminal device, and part or all of the identification information corresponding to different positioning requirements is different. Positioning requirements include one or more of the following: positioning accuracy, positioning delay, power consumption of terminal equipment, positioning reliability, and confidence.

In some possible implementation manners, the communication apparatus 800 can correspondingly implement the behaviors and functions of the network devices in the foregoing method embodiments. For example, the communication apparatus 800 may be a network device, or may be a component (such as a chip or a circuit) applied in the network device. The transceiver module 801 may be used to support communication between the network device and other network entities, for example, support communication between the network device and the terminal device or the location management device shown in FIG. 6 or FIG. 7 . The processing module 802 is used to control and manage the actions of the network device, for example, the processing module 802 is used to support the network device to perform all the operations in Figure 6 or Figure 7 except sending and receiving.

For example, the transceiver module 801 may be configured to perform all receiving or sending operations performed by the network device in the embodiment shown in FIG. 6, such as S601a, S600b, S600c, S603b in the embodiment shown in FIG. Other procedures used to support the techniques described herein. Wherein, the processing module 802 is configured to execute all the operations performed by the network device in the embodiment shown in FIG. 6 except the transceiving operation, and/or other processes for supporting the technology described herein.

In some embodiments, the transceiving module 801 is configured to send first indication information, and receive a first request message from a terminal device or a location management device. The first indication information is used to indicate at least one configuration parameter used to configure the resource of the positioning reference signal, and a first value set respectively corresponding to the at least one configuration parameter. The first request message is used to request resource configuration of the positioning reference signal. The first request message includes a first configuration parameter, and the first configuration parameter belongs to at least one configuration parameter.

As an optional implementation manner, the first indication information further includes one or more items of the following information: first information, second information, and third information. Wherein, the first information is used to indicate the valid time of the first value set. The second information is used to indicate whether combination of at least two configuration parameters is supported. The third information is used to indicate whether to allow values other than the first value set.

As an optional implementation manner, the first indication information is carried in the SIB, Pos SIB, RRC message or LPP signaling.

As an optional implementation manner, the first request message includes the second value set of the first configuration parameter. The second value set of the first configuration parameter is a subset of the first value set of the first configuration parameter.

As an optional implementation manner, the first request message includes the second value set of the first configuration parameter. There is no intersection between the second value set of the first configuration parameter and the first value set of the first configuration parameter.

As an optional implementation manner, the first request message includes the second value set of the first configuration parameter. There is an intersection between the second value set of the first configuration parameter and the first value set of the first configuration parameter.

As an optional implementation manner, the first request message includes fourth information. The fourth information is used to indicate multiple value sets respectively corresponding to the at least one configuration parameter, where different value sets have different priorities.

As an optional implementation manner, the first request message is also used to indicate priorities of multiple value sets.

As an optional implementation manner, the transceiver module 801 is further configured to receive a second request message from a terminal device or a location management device. The second request message is used to request configuration parameters of the positioning reference signal.

As an optional implementation manner, the transceiver module 801 is further configured to send the first response message to the terminal device. Wherein, the first response message includes the first resource configuration of the positioning reference signal. The first resource configuration includes a first configuration parameter, and the value of the first configuration parameter satisfies the first request message. Alternatively, the first response message includes the second resource configuration and error indication of the positioning reference signal. The second resource configuration includes the first configuration parameter, and the value of the first configuration parameter is different from the value of the first configuration parameter in the first request message. The error indication is used to indicate that the first configuration parameter does not satisfy the first request message. Alternatively, the first response message is used to indicate that the first request message cannot be satisfied.

For another example, the transceiver module 801 may be used to perform all receiving or sending operations performed by the network device in the embodiment shown in FIG. 7, such as S701a and S703b in the embodiment shown in FIG. 7, and/or to support Other procedures of the techniques described herein. Wherein, the processing module 802 is configured to execute all the operations performed by the network device in the embodiment shown in FIG. 7 except the transceiving operation, and/or other processes for supporting the technology described herein.

In some embodiments, the transceiver module 801 is configured to send the third indication information, and receive a fourth request message from the location management device. The third indication information includes one or more pieces of identification information, wherein one piece of identification information is used to indicate a set of resource configurations of the positioning reference signal. The fourth request message is used to request resource configuration of the positioning reference signal.

As an optional implementation manner, the third indication information is carried in the SIB, Pos SIB, RRC message or LPP signaling.

As an optional implementation manner, the fourth request message includes the first identification information. Wherein, the first identification information corresponds to the first positioning method. The first positioning method is a positioning method currently used by the terminal device, and identification information corresponding to different positioning methods is partially or completely different. Or, the first identification information corresponds to the RRC state of the terminal device. The identification information corresponding to different RRC states is partly or completely different. Alternatively, the first identification information corresponds to at least one positioning requirement of the terminal device, and part or all of the identification information corresponding to different positioning requirements is different. Positioning requirements include one or more of the following: positioning accuracy, positioning delay, power consumption of terminal equipment, positioning reliability, and confidence.

In some possible implementation manners, the communication apparatus 800 can correspondingly implement the behavior and functions of the location management device in the foregoing method embodiments. For example, the communication apparatus 800 may be a location management device, and may also be a component (such as a chip or a circuit) applied in the location management device. The transceiver module 801 may be used to support communication between the location management device and other network entities, for example, support communication between the network device and the terminal device or network device shown in FIG. 6 or FIG. 7 . The processing module 802 is used to control and manage the actions of the location management device, for example, the processing module 802 is used to support the location management device to perform all the operations in FIG. 6 or 7 except sending and receiving.

For example, the transceiver module 801 can be used to perform all the receiving or sending operations performed by the location management device in the embodiment shown in FIG. 6, such as S600a, S600b, S600c, S601b, S602, S603a, and/or other processes for supporting the techniques described herein. Wherein, the processing module 802 is configured to execute all operations performed by the location management device in the embodiment shown in FIG. 6 except the transceiving operation, and/or other processes for supporting the technology described herein.

In some embodiments, the transceiving module 801 is configured to send first indication information to the terminal device, and receive a first request message from the terminal device. The first indication information is used to indicate at least one configuration parameter used to configure the resource of the positioning reference signal, and a first value set respectively corresponding to the at least one configuration parameter. The first request message is used to request resource configuration of the positioning reference signal. The first request message includes a first configuration parameter, and the first configuration parameter belongs to at least one configuration parameter.

As an optional implementation manner, the first indication information further includes one or more items of the following information: first information, second information, and third information. Wherein, the first information is used to indicate the valid time of the first value set. The second information is used to indicate whether combination of at least two configuration parameters is supported. The third information is used to indicate whether to allow values other than the first value set.

As an optional implementation manner, the first indication information is carried in the SIB, Pos SIB, RRC message or LPP signaling.

As an optional implementation manner, the first request message includes the second value set of the first configuration parameter. The second value set of the first configuration parameter is a subset of the first value set of the first configuration parameter.

As an optional implementation manner, the first request message includes the second value set of the first configuration parameter. There is no intersection between the second value set of the first configuration parameter and the first value set of the first configuration parameter.

As an optional implementation manner, the first request message includes the second value set of the first configuration parameter. There is an intersection between the second value set of the first configuration parameter and the first value set of the first configuration parameter.

As an optional implementation manner, the first request message includes fourth information. The fourth information is used to indicate multiple value sets respectively corresponding to the at least one configuration parameter, where different value sets have different priorities.

As an optional implementation manner, the first request message is further used to indicate priorities of multiple value sets.

As an optional implementation manner, the transceiver module 801 is further configured to send the second request message to the network device. The second request message is used to request configuration parameters of the positioning reference signal.

As an optional implementation manner, the transceiver module 801 is further configured to send the first response message to the terminal device. Wherein, the first response message includes the first resource configuration of the positioning reference signal. The first resource configuration includes a first configuration parameter, and the value of the first configuration parameter satisfies the first request message. Alternatively, the first response message includes the second resource configuration and error indication of the positioning reference signal. The second resource configuration includes the first configuration parameter, and the value of the first configuration parameter is different from the value of the first configuration parameter in the first request message. The error indication is used to indicate that the first configuration parameter does not satisfy the first request message. Alternatively, the first response message is used to indicate that the first request message cannot be satisfied.

For another example, the transceiver module 801 may be configured to perform all the receiving or sending operations performed by the location management device in the embodiment shown in FIG. 7, such as S700, S701b, S702, S703a in the embodiment shown in FIG. and/or other processes used to support the techniques described herein. Wherein, the processing module 802 is configured to execute all operations performed by the location management device in the embodiment as shown in FIG. 7 except the transceiving operation, and/or other processes for supporting the technology described herein.

In some embodiments, the transceiver module 801 is configured to send the third indication information, and receive a fourth request message from the terminal device. The third indication information includes one or more pieces of identification information, where one piece of identification information is used to indicate a set of resource configurations of the positioning reference signal. The fourth request message is used to request resource configuration of the positioning reference signal.

As an optional implementation manner, the third indication information is carried in an RRC message or LPP signaling.

As an optional implementation manner, the fourth request message includes the first identification information. Wherein, the first identification information corresponds to the first positioning method. The first positioning method is a positioning method currently used by the terminal device, and identification information corresponding to different positioning methods is partially or completely different. Or, the first identification information corresponds to the RRC state of the terminal device. The identification information corresponding to different RRC states is partly or completely different. Alternatively, the first identification information corresponds to at least one positioning requirement of the terminal device, and part or all of the identification information corresponding to different positioning requirements is different. Positioning requirements include one or more of the following: positioning accuracy, positioning delay, power consumption of terminal equipment, positioning reliability, and confidence.

It should be understood that the processing module 802 in this embodiment of the present application may be implemented by a processor or a processor-related circuit component, and the transceiver module 801 may be implemented by a transceiver or a transceiver-related circuit component.

The embodiment of the present application also provides a communication system. Specifically, the communication system includes a network device, a terminal device, and a location management device, or may further include more network devices, multiple terminal devices, and more location management devices. Exemplarily, the communication system includes a network device, a terminal device, and a location management device for implementing related functions of the embodiment in FIG. 6 above. The network devices are respectively used to realize the functions of the relevant network devices in the embodiments of the present application, for example, to realize the functions of the relevant network devices in the embodiment shown in FIG. 6 above. The terminal device is used to realize the functions of the relevant terminal device in the embodiment of the present application, for example, to realize the functions of the relevant terminal device in the above embodiment shown in FIG. 6 . The location management device is used to implement the functions of the part of the location management device in FIG. 6 above. For details, please refer to relevant descriptions in the foregoing method embodiments, and details are not repeated here.

Exemplarily, the communication system includes a network device, a terminal device, and a location management device for implementing related functions of the embodiment in FIG. 7 above. The network devices are respectively used to realize the functions of the related network devices in the embodiments of the present application, for example, to realize the functions of the related network devices in the above embodiment shown in FIG. 7 . The terminal device is used to realize the functions of the relevant terminal device in the embodiment of the present application, for example, to realize the functions of the relevant terminal device in the above embodiment shown in FIG. 7 . The location management device is used to implement the functions of the part of the location management device in FIG. 7 above. For details, please refer to the relevant descriptions in the above method embodiments, and details will not be repeated here.

As shown in Figure 9, it is a communication device 900 provided by the embodiment of the present application, wherein the communication device 900 may be a network device capable of realizing the functions of the network device in the method provided by the embodiment of the present application, or the communication device 900 may be a terminal device , which can realize the function of the terminal device in the method provided by the embodiment of the present application; or, the communication device 900 can be a location management device, which can realize the function of the location management device in the method provided by the embodiment of the present application; or, the communication device 900 can also It is an apparatus capable of supporting a network device or a terminal device or a location management device to implement corresponding functions in the method provided by the embodiment of the present application. Wherein, the communication device 900 may be a system on a chip. In the embodiment of the present application, the system-on-a-chip may be composed of chips, or may include chips and other discrete devices.

In terms of hardware implementation, the transceiver module 801 may be a transceiver, and the transceiver is integrated in the communication device 900 to form the communication interface 910 .

The communication device 900 includes at least one processor 920, and the processor 920 may be a CPU, a microprocessor, an ASIC, or one or more integrated circuits used to control the program execution of the program of this application, for implementing or supporting the communication device 900 implements the functions of the network device or the terminal or the location management device in the method provided by the embodiment of the present application. For details, refer to the detailed description in the method example, and details are not repeated here.

The communication device 900 may also include at least one memory 930 for storing program instructions and/or data. The memory 930 is coupled to the processor 920 . The coupling in the embodiments of the present application is an indirect coupling or a communication connection between devices, units or modules, which may be in electrical, mechanical or other forms, and is used for information exchange between devices, units or modules. Processor 920 may cooperate with memory 930 . The processor 920 may execute program instructions and/or data stored in the memory 930, so that the communication device 900 implements a corresponding method. At least one of the at least one memory may be included in the processor 920 .

The communication device 900 may also include a communication interface 910, using any device such as a transceiver for communicating with other devices or communication networks, such as RAN, wireless local area networks (wireless local area networks, WLAN), wired access networks, and the like. The communication interface 910 is used to communicate with other devices through a transmission medium, so that devices used in the communication device 900 can communicate with other devices. Exemplarily, when the communication device 900 is a network device, the other device is a terminal device or a location management function; or, when the communication device 900 is a terminal device, the other device is a network device or a location management function. The processor 920 can utilize the communication interface 910 to send and receive data. The communication interface 910 may specifically be a transceiver.

In this embodiment of the present application, a specific connection medium among the communication interface 910, the processor 920, and the memory 930 is not limited. In the embodiment of the present application, in FIG. 9, the memory 930, the processor 920, and the communication interface 910 are connected through the bus 940. The bus is represented by a thick line in FIG. , is not limited. The bus can be divided into address bus, data bus, control bus and so on. For ease of representation, only one thick line is used in FIG. 9 , but it does not mean that there is only one bus or one type of bus.

In the embodiment of the present application, the processor 920 may be a general-purpose processor, a digital signal processor, an application-specific integrated circuit, a field programmable gate array or other programmable logic device, a discrete gate or transistor logic device, or a discrete hardware component, and may realize Or execute the methods, steps and logic block diagrams disclosed in the embodiments of the present application. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor or any conventional processor or the like. The steps of the methods disclosed in connection with the embodiments of the present application may be directly implemented by a hardware processor, or implemented by a combination of hardware and software modules in the processor.

Memory 930 can be ROM or other types of static storage devices that can store static information and instructions, RAM or other types of dynamic storage devices that can store information and instructions, and can also be electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (electrically erasable programmable read-only memory) read-only memory, EEPROM), compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM) or other optical disc storage, optical disc storage (including compact disc, laser disc, optical disc, digital versatile disc, Blu-ray disc, etc.), magnetic disk Storage media or other magnetic storage devices, or any other media that can be used to carry or store desired program code in the form of instructions or data structures and that can be accessed by a computer, without limitation. The memory may exist independently and be connected to the processor through the communication line 940 . Memory can also be integrated with the processor.

Wherein, the memory 930 is used to store computer-executed instructions for implementing the solutions of the present application, and the execution is controlled by the processor 920 . The processor 920 is configured to execute computer-executed instructions stored in the memory 930, so as to implement the communication method provided by the above-mentioned embodiments of the present application.

Optionally, the computer-executed instructions in the embodiments of the present application may also be referred to as application program codes, which is not specifically limited in the embodiments of the present application.

It should be noted that the communication device in the above embodiments may be a terminal device or a circuit, or may be a chip applied in the terminal device or other combined devices or components having the functions of the above-mentioned terminal device. When the communication device is a terminal device, the transceiver module may be a transceiver, which may include an antenna and a radio frequency circuit, etc., and the processing module may be a processor, such as a central processing unit (CPU). When the communication device is a component having the functions of the above-mentioned terminal equipment, the transceiver module may be a radio frequency unit, and the processing module may be a processor. When the communication device is a chip system, the communication device may be a field programmable gate array (field programmable gate array, FPGA), a dedicated ASIC, a system on chip (SoC), or a CPU. It can also be a network processor (network processor, NP), it can also be a digital signal processing circuit (digital signal processor, DSP), it can also be a microcontroller (micro controller unit, MCU), it can also be a programmable controller ( programmable logic device, PLD) or other integrated chips. The processing module 802 may be a processor of the chip system. The transceiver module 801 or the communication interface may be an input/output interface or an interface circuit of the chip system. For example, the interface circuit may be a code/data read/write interface circuit. The interface circuit can be used to receive code instructions (the code instructions are stored in the memory, can be read directly from the memory, or can also be read from the memory through other devices) and transmitted to the processor; the processor can be used to run all The above-mentioned code instructions are used to execute the methods in the above-mentioned method embodiments. For another example, the interface circuit may also be a signal transmission interface circuit between the communication processor and the transceiver.

Exemplarily, the communication device in the foregoing embodiments may be a chip, and the chip may include a logic circuit, an input/output interface, and may also include a memory. Wherein, the input-output interface can be used to receive code instructions (the code instructions are stored in the memory, can be read directly from the memory, or can also be read from the memory through other devices) and transmitted to the logic circuit; the logic circuit, It can be used to run the code instructions to execute the methods in the above method embodiments. Alternatively, the input and output interface may also be a signal transmission interface circuit between the logic circuit and the transceiver.

Fig. 10 shows a schematic structural diagram of a simplified communication device. For ease of understanding and illustration, in FIG. 10 , it is taken that the communication device is a base station as an example. The base station can be applied to the system shown in FIG. 2-FIG. 5, and can be the network device in FIG. 2-FIG. 5, and execute the function of the network device in the foregoing method embodiments.

The communication device 1000 may include a transceiver 1010 , a memory 1021 and a processor 1022 . The transceiver 1010 may be used by a communication device to perform communication, such as sending or receiving the above indication information and the like. The memory 1021 is coupled with the processor 1022 and can be used to save programs and data necessary for the communication device 1000 to realize various functions. The processor 1022 is configured to support the communication device 1000 to execute corresponding functions in the above methods, and the functions may be implemented by calling programs stored in the memory 1021 .

Specifically, the transceiver 1010 may be a wireless transceiver, and may be used to support the communication device 1000 to receive and send signaling and/or data through a wireless air interface. The transceiver 1010 may also be referred to as a transceiver unit or a communication unit, and the transceiver 1010 may include one or more radio frequency units 1012 and one or more antennas 1011, wherein the radio frequency unit is such as a remote radio unit (remote radio unit, RRU) Or an active antenna unit (active antenna unit, AAU), which can be specifically used for the transmission of radio frequency signals and the conversion of radio frequency signals and baseband signals, and the one or more antennas can be specifically used for radiating and receiving radio frequency signals. Optionally, the transceiver 1010 may only include the above radio frequency unit, and at this time the communication device 1000 may include the transceiver 1010, the memory 1021, the processor 1022, and the antenna.

The memory 1021 and the processor 1022 can be integrated or independent of each other. As shown in FIG. 10 , the memory 1021 and the processor 1022 can be integrated into the control unit 1020 of the communication device 1000 . Exemplarily, the control unit 1020 may include a baseband unit (baseband unit, BBU) of an LTE base station, and the baseband unit may also be called a digital unit (digital unit, DU), or the control unit 1020 may include 5G and future wireless access Distributed unit (distributed unit, DU) and/or centralized unit (centralized unit, CU) in the base station under the technology. The above-mentioned control unit 1020 can be composed of one or more antenna panels, where multiple antenna panels can jointly support a wireless access network of a single access standard (such as an LTE network), and multiple antenna panels can also respectively support wireless access networks of different access standards. Radio access network (such as LTE network, 5G network or other networks). The memory 1021 and processor 1022 may serve one or more antenna panels. That is to say, the memory 1021 and the processor 1022 may be separately provided on each antenna panel. It is also possible that multiple antenna panels share the same memory 1021 and processor 1022 . In addition, each antenna panel may be provided with a necessary circuit, for example, the circuit may be used to realize the coupling of the memory 1021 and the processor 1022 . The above transceiver 1010, processor 1022 and memory 1021 may be connected through a bus structure and/or other connection media.

Based on the structure shown in FIG. 10, when the communication device 1000 needs to send data, the processor 1022 can perform baseband processing on the data to be sent, and then output the baseband signal to the radio frequency unit, and the radio frequency unit will perform radio frequency processing on the baseband signal and pass the radio frequency signal through the antenna. Sent in the form of electromagnetic waves. When data is sent to the communication device 1000, the radio frequency unit receives the radio frequency signal through the antenna, converts the radio frequency signal into a baseband signal, and outputs the baseband signal to the processor 1022, and the processor 1022 converts the baseband signal into data and converts the data to process.

Based on the structure shown in FIG. 10 , the transceiver 1010 can be used to perform the above steps performed by the transceiver module 801 . And/or, the processor 1022 can be used to invoke instructions in the memory 1021 to perform the above steps performed by the processing module 802 .

Fig. 11 shows a schematic structural diagram of a simplified terminal device. For ease of understanding and illustration, in FIG. 11 , the terminal device takes a mobile phone as an example. As shown in FIG. 11 , the terminal device includes a processor, a memory, a radio frequency circuit, an antenna, and an input and output device. The processor is mainly used for processing the communication protocol and communication data, controlling the on-board unit, executing software programs, and processing data of the software programs. Memory is primarily used to store software programs and data. The radio frequency circuit is mainly used for the conversion of the baseband signal and the radio frequency signal and the processing of the radio frequency signal. Antennas are mainly used to send and receive radio frequency signals in the form of electromagnetic waves. Input and output devices, such as touch screens, display screens, and keyboards, are mainly used to receive data input by users and output data to users. It should be noted that some types of equipment may not have input and output devices.

When data needs to be sent, the processor performs baseband processing on the data to be sent, and outputs the baseband signal to the radio frequency circuit. When data is sent to the device, the radio frequency circuit receives the radio frequency signal through the antenna, converts the radio frequency signal into a baseband signal, and outputs the baseband signal to the processor, and the processor converts the baseband signal into data and processes the data. For ease of illustration, only one memory and processor are shown in FIG. 11 . In an actual device product, there may be one or more processors and one or more memories. A memory may also be called a storage medium or a storage device. The memory may be set independently of the processor, or may be integrated with the processor, which is not limited in this embodiment of the present application.

In the embodiment of the present application, the antenna and the radio frequency circuit having the function of transmitting and receiving can be regarded as the transmitting and receiving unit of the device, and the processor having the function of processing can be regarded as the processing unit of the device. As shown in FIG. 11 , the device includes a transceiver unit 1110 and a processing unit 1120 . The transceiver unit 1110 may also be called a transceiver, a transceiver, a transceiver device, and the like. The processing unit 1120 may also be called a processor, a processing board, a processing module, a processing device, and the like. Optionally, the device in the transceiver unit 1111 for realizing the receiving function can be regarded as a receiving unit, and the device in the transceiver unit 1110 for realizing the sending function can be regarded as a sending unit, that is, the transceiver unit 1110 includes a receiving unit and a sending unit. The transceiver unit 1110 may sometimes be called a transceiver, a transceiver, or a transceiver circuit and the like. The receiving unit may sometimes be called a receiver, a receiver, or a receiving circuit, etc. The sending unit may sometimes be called a transmitter, a transmitter, or a transmitting circuit, etc.

It should be understood that the transceiving unit 1110 is used to perform the sending and receiving operations on the terminal side in the above method embodiments, and the processing unit 1120 is used to perform other operations on the terminal in the above method embodiments except the transceiving operation.

When the communication device is a chip-like device or circuit, the device may include a transceiver unit and a processing unit. Wherein, the transceiver unit may be an input-output circuit and/or a communication interface; the processing unit is an integrated processor or a microprocessor or an integrated circuit.

The embodiment of the present application also provides a computer-readable storage medium, including instructions, which, when run on a computer, cause the computer to perform the method performed by the network device, terminal device or location management device in FIG. 6 or 7 .

An embodiment of the present application also provides a computer program product, including instructions, which, when run on a computer, cause the computer to execute the method performed by the network device, terminal device, or location management device in FIG. 6 or 7 .

An embodiment of the present application provides a chip system, the chip system includes a processor, and may further include a memory, configured to implement the functions of the network device, the terminal device, and the location management device in the foregoing method. The system-on-a-chip may consist of chips, or may include chips and other discrete devices.

The methods provided in the embodiments of the present application may be implemented in whole or in part by software, hardware, firmware or any combination thereof. When implemented using software, it may be implemented in whole or in part in the form of a computer program product. The computer program product includes one or more computer instructions. When the computer program instructions are loaded and executed on the computer, the processes or functions according to the embodiments of the present invention will be generated in whole or in part. The computer may be a general purpose computer, a special purpose computer, a computer network, network equipment, user equipment or other programmable devices. The computer instructions may be stored in or transmitted from one computer-readable storage medium to another computer-readable storage medium, for example, the computer instructions may be transmitted from a website, computer, server or data center Transmission to another website site, computer, server, or data center by wired (such as coaxial cable, optical fiber, digital subscriber line (DSL) or wireless (such as infrared, wireless, microwave, etc.) means. The computer-readable storage medium can be any available medium that can be accessed by a computer or a data storage device such as a server, data center, etc. integrated with one or more available media. The available medium can be a magnetic medium (for example, a floppy disk, a hard disk, a magnetic tape), optical media (for example, digital video disc (digital video disc, DVD for short)), or semiconductor media (for example, SSD).

Obviously, those skilled in the art can make various changes and modifications to the application without departing from the spirit and scope of the application. In this way, if these modifications and variations of the present application fall within the scope of the claims of the present application and their equivalent technologies, the present application is also intended to include these modifications and variations.

Claims (30)

A communication method, characterized in that, comprising: Receive first indication information from a network device or a location management function, where the first indication information is used to indicate at least one configuration parameter used to configure resources of a positioning reference signal, and first values corresponding to the at least one configuration parameter respectively. collection of values; sending a first request message to the network device or the location management function, where the first request message is used to request resource configuration of a positioning reference signal, where the first request message includes a first configuration parameter, and the first configuration A parameter belongs to the at least one configuration parameter. The method according to claim 1, wherein the first indication information further includes one or more of the following information: The first information is used to indicate the valid time of the first value set; The second information is used to indicate whether the combination of at least two configuration parameters is supported; or, The third information is used to indicate whether to allow values other than the first value set. The method according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the first request message includes a second value set of the first configuration parameter, and the second value set of the first configuration parameter is A subset of the first value set of the first configuration parameter. The method according to any one of claims 1-3, wherein the first request message includes fourth information, and the fourth information is used to indicate multiple values respectively corresponding to the at least one configuration parameter Collection, where different value collections have different priorities. The method according to any one of claims 1-4, wherein the method further comprises: Sending a second request message to the network device or the location management device, where the second request message is used to request configuration parameters of the positioning reference signal. The method according to any one of claims 1-5, wherein the method further comprises: receiving a first response message from the network device or the location management device, wherein, The first response message includes a first resource configuration of the positioning reference signal, the first resource configuration includes the first configuration parameter, and the value of the first configuration parameter satisfies the first request message; or , The first response message includes the second resource configuration and error indication of the positioning reference signal, the second resource configuration includes the first configuration parameter, and the value of the first configuration parameter is the same as that of the first request The value of the first configuration parameter in the message is different, and the error indication is used to indicate that the first configuration parameter does not satisfy the first request message; or, The first response message is used to indicate that the first request message cannot be satisfied. A communication method, characterized in that, comprising: Sending first indication information, where the first indication information is used to indicate at least one configuration parameter used to configure the resource of the positioning reference signal, and a first value set respectively corresponding to the at least one configuration parameter; receiving a first request message from a terminal device or a location management device, the first request message is used to request resource configuration of a positioning reference signal, the first request message includes a first configuration parameter, and the first configuration parameter belongs to the at least one configuration parameter. The method according to claim 7, wherein the first indication information further includes one or more of the following information: The first information is used to indicate the valid time of the first value set; The second information is used to indicate whether the combination of at least two configuration parameters is supported; or, The third information is used to indicate whether to allow values other than the first value set. The method according to claim 7 or 8, wherein the first request message includes a second value set of the first configuration parameter, and the second value set of the first configuration parameter is A subset of the first value set of the first configuration parameter. The method according to any one of claims 7-9, wherein the first request message includes fourth information, and the fourth information is used to indicate multiple values respectively corresponding to the at least one configuration parameter Collection, where different value collections have different priorities. The method according to any one of claims 7-10, wherein the method further comprises: Receive a second request message from the terminal device or the location management device, where the second request message is used to request configuration parameters of the positioning reference signal. The method according to any one of claims 7-11, wherein the method further comprises: sending a first response message to the terminal device or the location management device, wherein, The first response message includes a first resource configuration of the positioning reference signal, the first resource configuration includes the first configuration parameter, and the value of the first configuration parameter satisfies the first request message; or , The first response message includes the second resource configuration and error indication of the positioning reference signal, the second resource configuration includes the first configuration parameter, and the value of the first configuration parameter is the same as that of the first request The value of the first configuration parameter in the message is different, and the error indication is used to indicate that the first configuration parameter does not satisfy the first request message; or, The first response message is used to indicate that the first request message cannot be satisfied. A communication method, characterized in that, comprising: Sending first indication information to the terminal device, where the first indication information is used to indicate at least one configuration parameter used to configure the resource of the positioning reference signal, and a first value set respectively corresponding to the at least one configuration parameter; receiving a first request message from the terminal device, the first request message is used to request resource configuration of a positioning reference signal, the first request message includes a first configuration parameter, and the first configuration parameter belongs to the at least A configuration parameter. The method according to claim 13, wherein the first indication information further includes one or more of the following information: The first information is used to indicate the valid time of the first value set; The second information is used to indicate whether the combination of at least two configuration parameters is supported; or, The third information is used to indicate whether to allow values other than the first value set. The method according to claim 13 or 14, wherein the first request message includes a second value set of the first configuration parameter, and the second value set of the first configuration parameter is A subset of the first value set of the first configuration parameter. The method according to any one of claims 13-15, wherein the first request message includes fourth information, and the fourth information is used to indicate multiple values respectively corresponding to the at least one configuration parameter Collection, where different value collections have different priorities. The method according to any one of claims 13-16, further comprising: Sending a second request message to the network device, where the second request message is used to request configuration parameters of the positioning reference signal. The method according to any one of claims 13-17, further comprising: sending a first response message to the terminal device, wherein, The first response message includes a first resource configuration of the positioning reference signal, the first resource configuration includes the first configuration parameter, and the value of the first configuration parameter satisfies the first request message; or , The first response message includes the second resource configuration and error indication of the positioning reference signal, the second resource configuration includes the first configuration parameter, and the value of the first configuration parameter is the same as that of the first request The value of the first configuration parameter in the message is different, and the error indication is used to indicate that the first configuration parameter does not satisfy the first request message; or, The first response message is used to indicate that the first request message cannot be satisfied. A communication method, characterized in that, comprising: Receive third indication information from a network device or a location management function, where the third indication information includes one or more pieces of identification information, where one piece of identification information is used to indicate a set of resource configurations of positioning reference signals; Sending a fourth request message to the network device or the location management function, where the fourth request message is used to request resource configuration of the positioning reference signal, and the fourth request message includes the first identification information. The method according to claim 19, wherein the first identification information corresponds to a first positioning method, the first positioning method is the positioning method currently used by the terminal device, and the identification information part corresponding to different positioning methods different or all different; or, The first identification information corresponds to the radio resource control RRC state of the terminal device, and the identification information corresponding to different RRC states is partly or completely different; or, The first identification information corresponds to at least one positioning requirement, and the identification information corresponding to different positioning requirements is partly or completely different, and the positioning requirement includes one or more of the following: positioning accuracy, positioning delay, terminal device Power consumption, positioning reliability, and positioning reliability. A communication method, characterized in that, comprising: Sending third indication information, where the third indication information includes one or more pieces of identification information, where one piece of identification information is used to indicate a set of resource configurations of positioning reference signals; Receive a fourth request message from the terminal device or the location management device, where the fourth request message is used to request resource configuration of the positioning reference signal, where the fourth request message includes the first identification information. The method according to claim 21, wherein the first identification information corresponds to the first positioning method, the first positioning method is the positioning method currently used by the terminal device, and the identification information part corresponding to different positioning methods different or all different; or, The first identification information corresponds to the radio resource control RRC state of the terminal device, and the identification information corresponding to different RRC states is partly or completely different; or, The first identification information corresponds to at least one positioning requirement, and the identification information corresponding to different positioning requirements is partly or completely different, and the positioning requirement includes one or more of the following: positioning accuracy, positioning delay, terminal device Power consumption, positioning reliability, and positioning reliability. A communication method, characterized in that, comprising: Sending third indication information, where the third indication information includes one or more pieces of identification information, where one piece of identification information is used to indicate a set of resource configurations of positioning reference signals; Receive a fourth request message from the terminal device, where the fourth request message is used to request resource configuration of the positioning reference signal, where the fourth request message includes the first identification information. The method according to claim 23, wherein the first identification information corresponds to a first positioning method, the first positioning method is the positioning method currently used by the terminal device, and the identifications corresponding to different positioning methods some or all of the information is different; or, The first identification information corresponds to the radio resource control RRC state of the terminal device, and the identification information corresponding to different RRC states is partly or completely different; or, The first identification information corresponds to at least one positioning requirement, and the identification information corresponding to different positioning requirements is partly or completely different, and the positioning requirement includes one or more of the following: positioning accuracy, positioning delay, terminal device Power consumption, positioning reliability, and positioning reliability. A communication device, characterized in that the communication device includes a processor, a communication interface, and a memory, the processor is coupled to the communication interface, and is used to invoke computer instructions in the memory to make the communication device execute such as The method according to any one of claims 1-6, or causing the communication device to execute the method according to any one of claims 19-20. A communication device, characterized in that the communication device includes a processor, a communication interface, and a memory, the processor is coupled to the communication interface, and is used to invoke computer instructions in the memory to make the communication device execute such as The method according to any one of claims 7-12, or causing the communication device to execute the method according to any one of claims 21-22. A communication device, characterized in that the communication device includes a processor, a communication interface, and a memory, the processor is coupled to the communication interface, and is used to invoke computer instructions in the memory to make the communication device execute such as The method according to any one of claims 13-18, or causing the communication device to execute the method according to any one of claims 23-24. A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that the computer-readable storage medium stores computer instructions, and when the computer instructions are executed, the computer is made to execute the method described in any one of claims 1-6. method, or causing the computer to execute the method according to any one of claims 19-20. A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that the computer-readable storage medium stores computer instructions, and when the computer instructions are executed, the computer is made to execute the method according to any one of claims 7-12. method, or make the computer execute the method according to any one of claims 21-22. A computer-readable storage medium, characterized in that the computer-readable storage medium stores computer instructions, and when the computer instructions are executed, the computer is made to execute the method according to any one of claims 13-18. method, or make the computer execute the method according to any one of claims 23-24.

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