WO2024250558A1

WO2024250558A1 - Method, apparatus, and system for mapping between radio environment information and geometry information

Info

Publication number: WO2024250558A1
Application number: PCT/CN2023/130349
Authority: WO
Inventors: Mengyao Ma; Jianglei Ma; Xiaoyan Bi
Original assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Current assignee: Huawei Technologies Co Ltd
Priority date: 2023-06-09
Filing date: 2023-11-08
Publication date: 2024-12-12
Anticipated expiration: 2025-12-09

Abstract

Example embodiments relate to mapping between radio environment information and geometry information. In a method, a first device obtains a mapping configuration comprising a set of mapping elements. A mapping element of the set of mapping elements indicates mapping between at least one element in a first map and at least one element in a second map. The first map represents one of radio environment information and geometry information and the second map represents the other one of the environment information and the geometry information. Then, the first device determines radio environment information associated with the first device based on the mapping configuration. In this way, the mapping configuration between the radio environment information and geometry information can be communicated between communication devices.

Description

METHOD, APPARATUS, AND SYSTEM FOR MAPPING BETWEEN RADIO ENVIRONMENT INFORMATION AND GEOMETRY INFORMATION

FIELD

Example embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to the field of communications, and in particular, to methods for mapping between radio environment information and geometry information.

BACKGROUND

Developments in various technologies enables an environment sensing capability in communication systems, particularly wireless communication systems, which typically already possess some communication-related hardware having potential for sensing operations. That is, a communication system with an environment sensing capability can perform a sensing operation in addition to performing communication operations. The development and application of these systems may be referred to by various names such as integrated communication and sensing, integrated sensing and communication, joint sensing and communication, and the like. By means of these sensing operations, the communication system may sense environment information including radio environment information, geometry/geography information, information about objects in the environment, location and movement information of the objects associated with the communication system, etc. The environment sensing capability can be beneficial in several major scenarios and technology areas, such as smart transportation, smart city, smart home, industrial IoT, environmental sensing, and sensing assisted communications. In turn, the data or information obtained by performing environment sensing may be used to improve the performance of the communication system.

User Equipment (UE) position information is often used in cellular communication networks to improve various performance metrics for the network. Such performance metrics may, for example, include capacity, agility, and efficiency. In addition, simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) can keep track of UE location and simultaneously construct/update associated radio environment information. Accordingly, the construction, the representation and/or indication of mapping configuration (or association) between radio environment information and geometry/geography information are expected to be key aspects of future communication systems.

SUMMARY

In general, example embodiments of the present disclosure provide a solution for mapping between radio environment information and geometry/geography information.

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

In a first aspect, there is provided a method implemented at a first device. In the method, the first device obtains a mapping configuration comprising a set of mapping elements from a second device. A mapping element of the set of mapping elements indicates mapping between at least one element in a first map and at least one element in a second map. The first map represents one of radio environment information and geometry information and the second map represents the other one of the environment information and the geometry information. Then, the first device determines radio environment information associated with the first device based on the mapping configuration. In this way, the mapping configuration between the radio environment information and geometry information can be communicated between communication devices. As such, if one device cannot autonomously determine the mapping configuration with high quality, the other device having higher sensing capability is able to share the mapping configuration having high quality. Then, the devices may correctly determine associated radio environment information for improving the communication performance.

In some embodiments, an element in the first map is identified by an index. Moreover, the first device receives the mapping configuration by receiving the second map and an element in the second map comprises an index of an element in the first map. In this way, the mapping configuration may be received implicitly. That is, the mapping between the first map and the second map can be indicated or included in one of the first map and the second map. As such, the overhead for transmitting the mapping configuration may be reduced.

In some embodiments, the mapping configuration is represented as a third map having a same dimension as the second map, and each mapping element in the third map includes an index of an element in the first map. In this way, the mapping configuration may be also represented as a map or matrix associated with the second map, and the mapping indicated by the third map can be associated with an element in the second map implicitly. Furthermore, the element of at least one of the first map and the second map can be identified by a corresponding index, so that the mapping between the first map and the second map can be represented concisely.

In some embodiments, the number of mapping elements in the mapping configuration is the same as the number of elements in the second map, and a data item in the mapping configuration is associated with the element in the second map and the data item comprises the element in the first map. In this way, the mapping configuration may be also represented as a list or an array, and the mapping indicated by the list or array can be associated with an element in the second map implicitly.

In some embodiments, at least one of the first map, the second map is represented as a matrix, a list, or an array; or the mapping configuration is represented as a map, a matrix, a list or an array. In this way, there is no limitation on the representation of the first map, the second map and the mapping configuration. As such, the representations of the first map, second map and the mapping configuration can be used in any combination manner.

In some embodiments, an element in the first map represents a portion of the one of the radio environment information and the geometry information; and an element in the second map represents a portion of the other one of the radio environment information and the geometry information. In this way, the first map and second map may include a plurality of elements and each of the plurality of elements represents the respective radio environment range or geometry information. As such, the devices may retrieve associated radio environment information or geography geometry information.

In some embodiments, an element in the first map has the first number of dimensions, a mapping element in the mapping configuration has the second number of dimensions, and the second number is more than or equal to the first number. In this way, the mapping and association between any element of the first map and another element of the second map may be indicated or represented correctly.

In some embodiments, an element in the second map is mapped to a first plurality of elements in the first map. In this way, the mapping and association between the first map and the second map can be constructed flexibly.

In some embodiments, the mapping configuration is represented as a mapping list including the set of mapping elements. Moreover, a mapping element in the mapping list is associated with the element in the second map that is mapped to the first plurality of elements in the first map; and the mapping element in the mapping list indicates the number of elements of the first plurality of elements and includes indices of the first plurality of elements. In this way, the one-to-multiple mapping between the first map and the second map can be represented by a list or array.

In some embodiments, the mapping configuration is represented as a fourth map and a first additional mapping. Moreover, the fourth map has a same dimension as the second map, and a mapping element in the fourth map that is associated with the element mapped to the first plurality of elements includes an index of one of the first plurality of elements; and a mapping element in the first additional mapping list is associated with the element mapped to the first plurality of elements and includes indices of one or more remaining elements of the first plurality of elements. In this way, the one-to-multiple mapping between the first map and the second map can be represented by matrix plus a list.

In some embodiments, the mapping configuration is represented as more than one map, and a mapping element in one of the more than one maps includes an index of one of the first plurality of elements. In this way, the one-to-multiple mapping between the first map and the second map can be represented by more than one matrix, and a mapping element in each matrix represents a one-to-one mapping.

In some embodiments, the mapping configuration indicates that an element in the second map corresponds to one or more ranges in the first map. In some embodiments, an element in the second map corresponds to a range in the first map, and wherein a mapping element of the set of mapping elements includes a starting position and a size of the range in the first map. In this way, the mapping between the first map and the second map may be represented in a more flexible manner.

In some embodiments, an element in the second map corresponds to a plurality of ranges in the first map. A mapping element of the set of mapping elements includes the following: the number of ranges of the plurality of ranges in the first map; and a starting position and a size for a range of the plurality of ranges in the first map. In this way, the mapping between the first map and the second map can be indicated or represented in a more flexible manner, for example, in an irregular manner.

In some embodiments, the mapping configuration indicates that an element in the second map corresponds to a range for indices of elements in the first map. In some embodiments, a mapping element of the set of mapping elements includes at least one of the following: a first index of a starting element in the range for the indices and a second index of an ending element in the range for the indices; or the first index and the number of indices in the range for the indices of elements in the first map. In this way, the one-to-multiple mapping between the first map and the second map can be represented concisely.

In some embodiments, a mapping element of the set of mapping elements is a mapping pair associated with a first element in the first map and a second element in the second map. In this way, the mapping configuration can be represented by a list or array having multiple mapping pairs. As such, different mapping configurations may be employed on demand.

In some embodiments, the mapping pair includes one of the following: the first element and the second element; a first index of the first element and a second index of the second element; the first element and the second index; or the first index and the second element. In this way, the mapping configuration may also indicate the first map or the second map implicitly.

In some embodiments, the first device may further perform a sensing operation based on the radio environment information; perform communication based on the radio environment information; determine a set of beams for at least one of the sensing operation and the communication based on the radio environment information; determine a transmitting power for at least one of the sensing operation and the communication based on the radio environment information; or determine a reference signal for at least one of the sensing operation and the communication based on the radio environment information. In this way, with the mapping configuration from the second device, the first device may perform the sensing operation and communication in a more accuracy manner.

In some embodiments, at least one of the mapping configuration, the first map or the second map is of a compression format. In this way, the payload of the mapping configuration, the first map or the second map may be reduced.

In some embodiments, the mapping configuration is carried in at least one of the following: synchronization signal block (SSB) signaling; a first message specific to the first device; a second message specific to a group of devices including the first device; or a broadcast message. In this way, the mapping configuration can be transmitted periodically or dynamically.

In some embodiments, the first device may obtain the mapping configuration by receiving, from a second device, the mapping configuration comprising the set of mapping elements.

In a second aspect, there is provided a method implemented at a second device. In the method, the second device transmits a mapping configuration comprising a set of mapping elements to a first device. A mapping element of the set of mapping elements indicates mapping between at least one element in a first map and at least one element in a second map. The first map represents one of radio environment information and geometry information and the second map represents the other one of the environment information and the geometry information.

In some embodiments, an element in the first map is identified by an index. Moreover, the second device transmits the mapping configuration by transmitting the second map and an element in the second map comprises an index of an element in the first map. In this way, the mapping configuration may be received implicitly. That is, the mapping between the first map and the second map can be indicated or included in one of the first map and the second map. As such, the overhead for transmitting the mapping configuration may be reduced.

In some embodiments, the mapping configuration is represented as a third map having a same dimension as the second map, and a mapping element in the third map includes an index of an element in the first map. In this way, the mapping configuration may be also represented as a map or matrix associated with the second map, and the mapping indicated by the third map can be associated with an element in the second map implicitly. Furthermore, the element of at least one of the first map and the second map can be identified by a corresponding index, so that the mapping between the first map and the second map can be represented concisely.

In a third aspect, there is provided a first device. The first device comprises a transceiver and a processor communicatively coupled with the transceiver. The processor is configured to obtain a mapping configuration comprising a set of mapping elements, wherein a mapping element of the set of mapping elements indicates mapping between at least one element in a first map and at least one element in a second map, and wherein the first map represents one of radio environment information and geometry information and the second map represents the other one of the environment information and the geometry information; and; and determine, based on the mapping configuration, radio environment information associated with the first device. In this way, the mapping configuration between the radio environment information and geometry information can be communicated between communication devices. As such, if one device cannot autonomously determine the mapping configuration with high quality, the other device having higher sensing capability is able to share the mapping configuration having high quality. Then, the devices may correctly determine associated radio environment information for improving the communication performance.

In a fourth aspect, there is provided a second device. The second device comprises a transceiver and a processor communicatively coupled with the transceiver. The processor is configured to transmit, via the transceiver and to a first device, a mapping configuration comprising a set of mapping elements, wherein a mapping element of the set of mapping elements indicates mapping between at least one element in a first map and at least one element in a second map, and wherein the first map represents one of radio environment information and geometry information and the second map represents the other one of the environment information and the geometry information. In this way, the mapping configuration between the radio environment information and geometry information can be communicated between communication devices. As such, if one device cannot autonomously determine the mapping configuration with high quality, the other device having higher sensing capability is able to share the mapping configuration having high quality. Then, the devices may correctly determine associated radio environment information for improving the communication performance.

In a fifth aspect, there is provided a non-transitory computer readable medium comprising computer program stored thereon, the computer program, when executed on at least one processor, causing the at least one processor to perform the method of any one of the first aspect or second aspect.

In a sixth aspect, there is provided an apparatus comprising at least one processing circuit configured to perform the method of any one of the first aspect or second aspect.

In a seventh aspect, there is provided a computer program product tangibly stored on a computer-readable medium and comprising computer-executable instructions which, when executed, cause an apparatus to perform the method of any one of the first aspect or second aspect.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Some example embodiments will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1A illustrates an example environment in which some embodiments of the present disclosure can be implemented;

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

FIG. 1C illustrates example devices in the example environments of FIG. 1A and FIG. 1B;

FIG. 1D illustrates example modules in the devices of the present disclosure;

FIG. 1E illustrates an example sensing management function (SMF) of the present disclosure;

FIG. 2 illustrates a signaling process for the indication of mapping configuration according to some embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIGS. 3A to FIG. 3D illustrate some examples of mapping between the RF-map and G-map according to some embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 4A to FIG. 4D illustrate examples of mapping from G-map to RF-map according to some embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 5A to FIG. 5E illustrate examples of mapping from RF-map to G-map according to some embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 6 illustrates a flowchart of an example method implemented at a first device according to some embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 7 illustrates a flowchart of an example method implemented at a first device according to some embodiments of the present disclosure; and

FIG. 8 illustrates a simplified block diagram of a device that is suitable for implementing example embodiments of the present disclosure.

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

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

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

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

References in the present disclosure to “one embodiment” , “an embodiment” , “an example embodiment” , and the like indicate that the embodiment described may include a particular feature, structure, or characteristic, but it is not necessary that every embodiment includes the particular feature, structure, or characteristic. The term “another embodiment” is to be read as “at least one other embodiment. ” Moreover, such phrases are not necessarily referring to the same embodiment. Further, when a particular feature, structure, or characteristic is described in connection with an embodiment, it is within the knowledge of one skilled in the art to adapt or modify such feature, structure, or characteristic in connection with other embodiments, whether or not such adaptations are explicitly described.

It shall be understood that although the terms “first” and “second” etc. may be used herein to describe various elements, these elements should not be limited by these terms. These terms are only used to distinguish one element from another. For example, a first element could be termed a second element, and similarly, a second element could be termed a first element, without departing from the scope of example embodiments. As used herein, the term “and/or” includes any and all combinations of one or more of the listed terms. Other definitions, explicit and implicit, may be included below.

The terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing particular embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting of example embodiments. As used herein, the singular forms “a” , “an” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. It will be further understood that the terms “comprises” , “comprising” , “has” , “having” , “includes” and/or “including” , when used herein, specify the presence of stated features, elements, and/or components etc., but do not preclude the presence or addition of one or more other features, elements, components and/or combinations thereof.

As used herein, the term “terminal device” refers to any device having wireless or wired communication capabilities. Examples of the terminal device include, but not limited to, user equipment (UE) , personal computers, desktops, mobile phones, cellular phones, smart phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs) , portable computers, tablets, wearable devices, internet of things (IoT) devices, Ultra-reliable and Low Latency Communications (URLLC) devices, Internet of Everything (IoE) devices, machine type communication (MTC) devices, devices for vehicle to everything (V2X) communication, devices for Integrated Access and Backhaul (IAB) , devices for Small Data Transmission (SDT) , devices for mobility, devices for Multicast and Broadcast Services (MBS) , devices for positioning, devices for dynamic/flexible duplexing in commercial networks, reduced capability (RedCap) devices, space-borne vehicles or air-borne vehicles in non-terrestrial networks (NTN) including satellites and High Altitude Platforms (HAPs) encompassed in Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) , eXtended Reality (XR) devices including different types of realities such as Augmented Reality (AR) , Mixed Reality (MR) and Virtual Reality (VR) , an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) , a drone, devices on high speed train (HST) , image capture devices such as digital cameras, sensors, gaming devices, music storage and playback devices, Internet-connected appliances, and the like. The terminal device may further include a “multicast/broadcast” feature to support public safety and/or mission critical applications. The terminal device may further include transparent IPv4/IPv6 multicast delivery such as for IPTV, smart TV, radio services, software delivery over wireless, group communications, and IoT applications. The terminal may be incorporate a Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) or multiple SIMs, also known as Multi-SIM. The term “terminal device” can also be used interchangeably with variations of some of all of the preceding terms, such as a UE, a mobile station, a subscriber station, a mobile terminal, a user terminal, a wireless device, or a reduced capability terminal device.

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

The terminal device or the network device may have artificial intelligence (AI) or machine learning (ML) capability. AI/ML generally refers to a model which has been trained from numerous collected data for a specific function, and can be used to predict some information. The terminal or the network device may function in several frequency ranges, e.g. FR1 (410 MHz –7125 MHz) , FR2 (24.25 GHz to 71 GHz) , 71 GHz to 114 GHz, and ranges of frequencies greater than 100 GHz, including Tera Hertz (THz) frequencies. The terminal or the network device can further function in licensed, unlicensed, or shared spectra. The terminal device may have multiple connections with multiple network devices, such as under a Multi-Radio Dual Connectivity (MR-DC) application scenario. The terminal device or the network device may be capable of advanced duplexing functions, such as full duplex, flexible duplex, and cross-division duplex (XDD) modes.

The network device may have functions or capabilities for network energy saving, self-organizing network (SON) automation, or minimization of drive tests (MDT) mechanisms. The terminal may have functions or capabilities for power saving.

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

The embodiments of the present disclosure may be performed according to communication protocols of any generation either currently known or to be developed in the future. Examples of these communication protocols include, but are not limited to, cellular protocols including the first generation (1G) , the second generation (2G, 2.5G, 2.75G) , the third generation (3G) , the fourth generation (4G, sometimes known as “LTE” , 4.5G, sometimes known as “LTE Advanced” and “LTE Advanced Pro” ) , the fifth generation (5G, sometimes known as “NR” , 5.5G, 5G-Advanced) , and the sixth generation (6G) , as well as various generations of Wireless Fidelity (WiFi) , and Ultra Wideband (UWB) .

In one embodiment, the terminal device may be connected to a first network device and a second network device. One of the first network device and the second network device may be a master node and the other one may be a secondary node. The first network device and the second network device may use different radio access technologies (RATs) . In one embodiment, the first network device may be a first RAT device and the second network device may be a second RAT device. In one embodiment, the first RAT device is eNB and the second RAT device is gNB. In another embodiment, the first RAT device is 5G network device and the second RAT device is a 6G network device. Information related to different RATs may be transmitted to the terminal device from at least one of the first network device and the second network device. In one embodiment, first information may be transmitted to the terminal device from the first network device and second information may be transmitted to the terminal device from the second network device directly or via the first network device. In one embodiment, information related to configuration for the terminal device, and configured by the second network device, may be transmitted from the second network device via the first network device. Information related to reconfiguration for the terminal device, and configured by the second network device, may be transmitted to the terminal device from the second network device directly or via the first network device.

In some examples, values, procedures, or apparatus may be referred to as “best, ” “lowest, ” “highest, ” “minimum, ” “maximum, ” or the like. It will be appreciated that such descriptions are intended to indicate that a selection among many functional alternatives may be made; however, and such selections may be superlatives in some respects but need not be better, smaller, higher, or otherwise preferable to other selections in other respects.

The term “circuitry” used herein may refer to hardware circuits and/or combinations of hardware circuits and software. For example, the circuitry may be a combination of analog and/or digital hardware circuits with software/firmware. As a further example, the circuitry may be any portions of hardware processors with software including digital signal processor (s) , software, and memory that work together to cause an apparatus, such as a terminal device or a network device, to perform various functions. In a still further example, the circuitry may be hardware circuits and or processors, such as a microprocessor or a portion of a microprocessor, that requires software/firmware for operation, but the software may not be present when it is not needed for operation. As used herein, the term circuitry also covers an implementation of merely a hardware circuit or processor (s) or a portion of a hardware circuit or processor (s) and its (or their) accompanying software and/or firmware.

The term “mapping” used herein represents a form of indication, and can also be replaced by other names such as list, matrix, group, set, range, area, relationship, lookup table, information, etc. The term “mapping” represents a relationship, and can also be replaced by other names such as relationship, matching, lookup table, etc.

The term “Radio Frequency-map, RF-map” used herein represents radio environment information, and may also be referred to as a radio environmental map, a radio frequency (RF) map, a radio map, a radio-based map, a radio-signal-based map, a wireless-signal-based map, or other maps with similar meanings.

The term “Geometry-map, G-map” used herein represents geography and/or geometry information, and may also be referred to as location/geometry/geographic information or map (G-map) , or some intermediate results after processing of location/geometry/geography information, or other maps with similar meanings.

The term “size” used herein represents a measurement or metric of an element in a map in different aspects. That is, the term “size” used herein can be understood in a broader sense than a strictly physical sense. For example, the size may represent a measurement or metric for at least one aspect of the following: the dimension, compression ratio/bits, orders of types, the number of parameters in an element and the like. Without any limitation, the size may represent other similar metric of the element.

In this disclosure, the element in the RF-map may be also referred to as an “RF-map element” . The element in the G-map may be also referred to as a “G-map element” . The element in the mapping configuration may be also referred to as a “mapping element” .

As mentioned above, for the communication system, the representation and/or indication of mapping configuration (or association) between radio environment information and geometry/geography information is a key aspect. In general, the processing functions for localization/positioning, environment map construction/updating, and/or mapping configuration between environment maps may be performed locally, for example, at UE side. However, a locally processed SLAM does not utilize information from other nodes in the network, such as, information from a base station (BS) . Therefore, the local environment map at the UE is usually inaccurate or incomplete.

A sensing system may be used to help gather UE pose information, including its location in a global coordinate system, its velocity and direction of movement in the global coordinate system, orientation information, and information about the wireless environment. “Location” is also known as “position” and these two terms may be used interchangeably herein. Examples of well-known sensing systems include RADAR (Radio Detection and Ranging) and LIDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) . While the sensing system can be separate from the communication system, it could be advantageous to gather the information using an integrated system, which reduces the hardware (and cost) in the system as well as the time, frequency, or spatial resources needed to perform both functionalities. However, using the communication system hardware to perform sensing of UE pose and environment information is a highly challenging and open problem. The difficulty of the problem relates to factors such as the limited resolution of the communication system, the dynamicity of the environment, and the huge number of objects whose electromagnetic properties and position are to be estimated.

In addition, terrestrial and non-terrestrial networks can enable a new range of services and applications such as earth monitoring, remote sensing, passive sensing and positioning, navigation, and tracking, autonomous delivery and mobility. Terrestrial networks based sensing and non-terrestrial networks based sensing could provide intelligent context-aware networks to enhance the UE experience. For an example, terrestrial networks based sensing and non-terrestrial networks based sensing will involve opportunities for localization and sensing applications based on a new set of features and service capabilities. Applications such as THz imaging and spectroscopy have the potential to provide continuous, real-time physiological information via dynamic, non-invasive, contactless measurements for future digital health technologies. Simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) methods will not only enable advanced cross reality (XR) applications but also enhance the navigation of autonomous objects such as vehicles and drones. Further terrestrial and non-terrestrial networks, the measured channel data and sensing and positioning data can be obtained by the large bandwidth, new spectrum, dense network and more light-of-sight (LOS) links. Based on these data, a radio environmental map can be drawn, where channel information is linked to its corresponding positioning or environmental information to provide an enhanced physical layer design based on this map.

Since the base stations or other network devices can collect and use their own channel and/or sensing data or channel and/or sensing data of a UE, the base station or other network devices may have a larger field of view, longer sensing distance, more detailed global information, and higher resolution environmental maps and mapping configuration between the environmental maps. If the network provides the mapping configuration between the environment maps to UE, the mapping configuration and the environment maps can help the UE to improve its sensing function, e.g. improve sensing accuracy or reduce sensing complexity, or assist UE communication, such as MIMO or beamforming procedures.

In view of the above, the example embodiments of the present disclosure propose a mechanism for the representation of mapping configuration for mapping between the radio environment and the geometry and/or geography information. In this mechanism, the first device receives a mapping configuration comprising a set of mapping elements from a second device. A mapping element of the set of mapping elements indicates a mapping between at least one element in a first map and at least one element in a second map. The first map represents one of radio environment information and geometry information and the second map represents the other one of the environment information and the geometry information. Then, the first device determines radio environment information associated with the first device based on the mapping configuration.

In this way, the mapping configuration between the radio environment information and geometry information can be communicated between communication devices. As such, if one device cannot autonomously determine the mapping configuration with high quality, the other device having higher sensing capability is able to share the mapping configuration having high quality. Then, the devices may correctly determine associated radio environment information for improving the communication performance.

For illustrative purposes, principles and example embodiments of the present disclosure will be described below with reference to FIGS. 1A-8. However, it is to be noted that these embodiments are given to enable the person skilled in the art to understand inventive concepts of the present disclosure and implement the solution as proposed herein, and are not intended to limit the scope of the present application in any way to explicitly illustrated structures and combinations of features.

FIG. 1A illustrates an example environment 100A in which some embodiments of the present disclosure can be implemented.

Referring to FIG. 1A, as an illustrative example without limitation, a simplified schematic illustration of a communication system is provided. The communication system 100 comprises a radio access network 120. The radio access network 120 may be a next generation (e.g. sixth generation (6G) or later) radio access network, or a legacy (e.g. 5G, 4G, 3G or 2G) radio access network. One or more communication electronic device (ED) 110a, 110b, 110c, 110d, 110e, 110f, 110g, 110h, 110i, 110j (generically referred to as 110) may be interconnected to one another or connected to one or more network nodes (170a, 170b, generically referred to as 170) in the radio access network 120. A core network 130 may be a part of the communication system and may be dependent or independent of the radio access technology used in the communication system 100. Also the communication system 100 comprises a public switched telephone network (PSTN) 140, the internet 150, and other networks 160.

FIG. 1B illustrates an example system 100B in which some embodiments of the present disclosure can be implemented. In general, the communication system 100B enables multiple wireless or wired elements to communicate data and other content. The purpose of the communication system 100B may be to provide content, such as voice, data, video, signaling and/or text, via broadcast, multicast and unicast, etc. The communication system 100B may operate by sharing resources, such as carrier spectrum bandwidth, between its constituent elements. The communication system 100B may include a terrestrial communication system and/or a non-terrestrial communication system. The communication system 100 may provide a wide range of communication services and applications (such as earth monitoring, remote sensing, passive sensing and positioning, navigation and tracking, autonomous delivery and mobility, etc. ) . The communication system 100 may provide a high degree of availability and robustness through a joint operation of a terrestrial communication system and a non-terrestrial communication system. For example, integrating a non-terrestrial communication system (or components thereof) into a terrestrial communication system can result in what may be considered a heterogeneous network comprising multiple layers. Compared to conventional communication networks, the heterogeneous network may achieve better overall performance through efficient multi-link joint operation, more flexible functionality sharing, and faster physical layer link switching between terrestrial networks and non-terrestrial networks.

The terrestrial communication system and the non-terrestrial communication system could be considered sub-systems of the communication system. In the example shown in FIG. 1b, the communication system 100 includes electronic devices (ED) 110a, 110b, 110c, 110d (generically referred to as ED 110) , radio access networks (RANs) 120a-120b, a non-terrestrial communication network 120c, a core network 130, a public switched telephone network (PSTN) 140, the Internet 150, and other networks 160. The RANs 120a-120b include respective base stations (BSs) 170a-170b, which may be generically referred to as terrestrial transmit and receive points (T-TRPs) 170a-170b. The non-terrestrial communication network 120c includes an access node 172, which may be generically referred to as a non-terrestrial transmit and receive point (NT-TRP) 172. Without any limitation, the above EDs 110, TRPs 170, RANs 120, core network 130, PSTN 140, Internet 150 and other networks 160 in FIG. 1B may be the corresponding devices, stations, RAN, networks in FIG. 1A. Alternatively, the above EDs 110, TRPs 170, RANs 120, core network 130, PSTN 140, Internet 150 and other networks 160 in FIG. 1B may be the devices, stations, RAN, networks other than FIG. 1A.

Any ED 110 may be alternatively or additionally configured to interface, access, or communicate with any T-TRP 170a-170b and NT-TRP 172, the Internet 150, the core network 130, the PSTN 140, the other networks 160, or any combination of the preceding. In some examples, ED 110a may communicate an uplink and/or downlink transmission over a terrestrial air interface 190a with T-TRP 170a. In some examples, the EDs 110a, 110b, 110c and 110d may also communicate directly with one another via one or more sidelink air interfaces 190b. In some examples, ED 110d may communicate an uplink and/or downlink transmission over a non-terrestrial air interface 190c with NT-TRP 172.

The air interfaces 190a and 190b may use similar communication technology, such as any suitable radio access technology. For example, the communication system 100 may implement one or more channel access methods, such as code division multiple access (CDMA) , space division multiple access (SDMA) , time division multiple access (TDMA) , frequency division multiple access (FDMA) , orthogonal FDMA (OFDMA) , Direct Fourier Transform spread OFDMA (DFT-OFDMA) or single-carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA) in the air interfaces 190a and 190b. The air interfaces 190a and 190b may utilize other higher dimension signal spaces, which may involve a combination of orthogonal and/or non-orthogonal dimensions.

The non-terrestrial air interface 190c can enable communication between the ED 110d and one or multiple NT-TRPs 172 via a wireless link or simply a link. For some examples, the link is a dedicated connection for unicast transmission, a connection for broadcast transmission, or a connection between a group of EDs 110 and one or multiple NT-TRPs 172for multicast transmission.

The RANs 120a and 120b are in communication with the core network 130 to provide the EDs 110a 110b, and 110c with various services such as voice, data, and other services. The RANs 120a and 120b and/or the core network 130 may be in direct or indirect communication with one or more other RANs (not shown) , which may or may not be directly served by core network 130, and may or may not employ the same radio access technology as RAN 120a, RAN 120b or both. The core network 130 may also serve as a gateway access between (i) the RANs 120a and 120b or EDs 110a 110b, and 110c or both, and (ii) other networks (such as the PSTN 140, the Internet 150, and the other networks 160) . In addition, some or all of the EDs 110a 110b, and 110c may include functionality for communicating with different wireless networks over different wireless links using different wireless technologies and/or protocols. Instead of wireless communication (or in addition thereto) , the EDs 110a 110b, and 110c may communicate via wired communication channels to a service provider or switch (not shown) , and to the Internet 150. PSTN 140 may include circuit switched telephone networks for providing plain old telephone service (POTS) . Internet 150 may include a network of computers and subnets (intranets) or both, and incorporate protocols, such as Internet Protocol (IP) , Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) , User Datagram Protocol (UDP) . EDs 110a 110b, and 110c may be multimode devices capable of operation according to multiple radio access technologies, and incorporate multiple transceivers necessary to support such.

Any or all of the EDs 110 and BS 170 as shown in FIG. 1B may be sensing nodes in the system 100A. Sensing nodes are network entities that perform sensing by transmitting and receiving sensing signals. Some sensing nodes are communication equipment that perform both communications and sensing. However, it is possible that some sensing nodes do not perform communications, and are instead dedicated to sensing. The sensing agent 174 is an example of a sensing node that is dedicated to sensing. Unlike the EDs 110 and BS 170, the sensing agent 174 does not transmit or receive communication signals. However, the sensing agent 174 may communicate configuration information, sensing information, signaling information, or other information within the communication system 100. The sensing agent 174 may be in communication with the core network 130 to communicate information with the rest of the communication system 100. By way of example, the sensing agent 174 may determine the location of the ED 110a, and transmit this information to the base station 170a via the core network 130. Although only one sensing agent 174 is shown in FIG. 2, any number of sensing agents may be implemented in the communication system 100. In some embodiments, one or more sensing agents may be implemented at one or more of the RANs 120.

A sensing node may combine sensing-based techniques with reference signal-based techniques to enhance UE pose determination. This type of sensing node may also be known as a sensing management function (SMF) . In some networks, the SMF may also be known as a location management function (LMF) . The SMF may be implemented as a physically independent entity located at the core network 130 with connection to the multiple BSs 170. In other aspects of the present application, the SMF may be implemented as a logical entity co-located inside a BS 170 through logic carried out by the processor 182.

FIG. 1C illustrates example devices in the example environments of FIG. 1A and FIG. 1B. Specifically, FIG. 1C illustrates another example of the ED 110 and a base station 170a, 170b and/or 170c according to some embodiments of this disclosure. The ED 110 is used to connect persons, objects, machines, etc. The ED 110 may be widely used in various scenarios, for example, cellular communications, device-to-device (D2D) , vehicle to everything (V2X) , peer-to-peer (P2P) , machine-to-machine (M2M) , machine-type communications (MTC) , Internet of things (IOT) , virtual reality (VR) , augmented reality (AR) , mixed reality (MR) , metaverse, digital twin, industrial control, self-driving, remote medical, smart grid, smart furniture, smart office, smart wearable, smart transportation, smart city, drones, robots, remote sensing, passive sensing, positioning, navigation and tracking, autonomous delivery and mobility, etc.

Each ED 110 represents any suitable end user device for wireless operation and may include such devices (or may be referred to) as a user equipment/device (UE) , a wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) , a mobile station, a fixed or mobile subscriber unit, a cellular telephone, a station (STA) , a machine type communication (MTC) device, a personal digital assistant (PDA) , a smartphone, a laptop, a computer, a tablet, a wireless sensor, a consumer electronics device, a smart book, a vehicle, a car, a truck, a bus, a train, or an IoT device, wearable devices such as a watch, head mounted equipment, a pair of glasses, an industrial device, or apparatus (e.g. communication module, modem, or chip) in the forgoing devices, among other possibilities. Future generation EDs 110 may be referred to using other terms. Each base station 170a and 170b is a T-TRP and will hereafter be referred to as T-TRP 170. Also shown in FIG. 3, a NT-TRP will hereafter be referred to as NT-TRP 172. Each ED 110 connected to T-TRP 170 and/or NT-TRP 172 can be dynamically or semi-statically turned-on (i.e., established, activated, or enabled) , turned-off (i.e., released, deactivated, or disabled) and/or configured in response to one of more of: connection availability and connection necessity.

The ED 110 includes one or more antennas 104, a transmitter 111 and a receiver 113 coupled to the one or more antennas 104. Only one antenna 104 is illustrated. One, some, or all of the antennas 104 may alternatively be panels. The transmitter 111 and the receiver 113 may be integrated, e.g. as a transceiver. The transceiver is configured to modulate data or other content for transmission by at least one antenna 104 or network interface controller (NIC) . The transceiver is also configured to demodulate data or other content received by the at least one antenna 104. Each transceiver includes any suitable structure for generating signals for wireless or wired transmission and/or processing signals received wirelessly or by wire. Each antenna 104 includes any suitable structure for transmitting and/or receiving wireless or wired signals.

The ED 110 includes at least one memory 115. The memory 115 stores instructions and data used, generated, or collected by the ED 110. For example, the memory 115 could store software instructions or modules configured to implement some or all of the functionality and/or embodiments described herein and that are executed by one or more processing unit (s) (e.g., a processor 117) . Each memory 115 includes any suitable volatile and/or non-volatile storage and retrieval device (s) . Any suitable type of memory may be used, such as random access memory (RAM) , read only memory (ROM) , hard disk, optical disc, subscriber identity module (SIM) card, memory stick, secure digital (SD) memory card, on-processor cache, and the like.

The ED 110 may further include one or more input/output devices (not shown) or interfaces (such as a wired interface to the Internet 150 in FIG. 1A or FIG. 1B) . The input/output devices permit interaction with a user or other devices in the network. Each input/output device includes any suitable structure for providing information to or receiving information from a user, such as through operation as a speaker, a microphone, a keypad, a keyboard, a display, or a touch screen, including network interface communications.

The ED 110 includes the processor 117 for performing operations including those operations related to preparing a transmission for uplink transmission to the NT-TRP 172 and/or the T-TRP 170, those operations related to processing downlink transmissions received from the NT-TRP 172 and/or the T-TRP 170, and those operations related to processing sidelink transmission to and from another ED 110. Processing operations related to preparing a transmission for uplink transmission may include operations such as encoding, modulating, transmit beamforming, and generating symbols for transmission. Processing operations related to processing downlink transmissions may include operations such as receive beamforming, demodulating and decoding received symbols. Depending upon the embodiment, a downlink transmission may be received by the receiver 113, possibly using receive beamforming, and the processor 117 may extract signaling from the downlink transmission (e.g. by detecting and/or decoding the signaling) . An example of signaling may be a reference signal transmitted by the NT-TRP 172 and/or by the T-TRP 170. In some embodiments, the processor 117 implements the transmit beamforming and/or the receive beamforming based on the indication of beam direction, e.g. beam angle information (BAI) , received from the T-TRP 170. In some embodiments, the processor 117 may perform operations relating to network access (e.g. initial access) and/or downlink synchronization, such as operations relating to detecting a synchronization sequence, decoding and obtaining the system information, etc. In some embodiments, the processor 117 may perform channel estimation, e.g. using a reference signal received from the NT-TRP 172 and/or from the T-TRP 170.

Although not illustrated, the processor 117 may form part of the transmitter 111 and/or part of the receiver 113. Although not illustrated, the memory 115 may form part of the processor 117.

The processor 117, the processing components of the transmitter 111 and the processing components of the receiver 113 may each be implemented by the same or different one or more processors that are configured to execute instructions stored in a memory (e.g. in the memory 115) . Alternatively, some or all of the processor 117, the processing components of the transmitter 111 and the processing components of the receiver 113 may each be implemented using dedicated circuitry, such as a programmed field-programmable gate array (FPGA) , a graphical processing unit (GPU) , a Central Processing Unit (CPU) or an application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) .

The T-TRP 170 may be known by other names in some implementations, such as a base station, a base transceiver station (BTS) , a radio base station, a network node, a network device, a device on the network side, a transmit/receive node, a Node B, an evolved NodeB (eNodeB or eNB) , a Home eNodeB, a next Generation NodeB (gNB) , a transmission point (TP) , a site controller, an access point (AP) , a wireless router, a relay station, a remote radio head, a terrestrial node, a terrestrial network device, a terrestrial base station, a base band unit (BBU) , a remote radio unit (RRU) , an active antenna unit (AAU) , a remote radio head (RRH) , a central unit (CU) , a distributed unit (DU) , a positioning node, among other possibilities. The T-TRP 170 may be a macro BS, a pico BS, a relay node, a donor node, or the like, or combinations thereof. The T-TRP 170 may refer to the forgoing devices or refer to apparatus (e.g. a communication module, a modem, or a chip) in the forgoing devices.

In some embodiments, the parts of the T-TRP 170 may be distributed. For example, some of the modules of the T-TRP 170 may be located remote from the equipment that houses the antennas 106 for the T-TRP 170, and may be coupled to the equipment that houses the antennas 106 over a communication link (not shown) sometimes known as front haul, such as common public radio interface (CPRI) . Therefore, in some embodiments, the term T-TRP 170 may also refer to modules on the network side that perform processing operations, such as determining the location of the ED 110, resource allocation (scheduling) , message generation, and encoding/decoding, and that are not necessarily part of the equipment that houses the antennas 106 of the T-TRP 170. The modules may also be coupled to other T-TRPs. In some embodiments, the T-TRP 170 may actually be a plurality of T-TRPs that are operating together to serve the ED 110, e.g. through the use of coordinated multipoint transmissions.

The T-TRP 170 includes at least one transmitter 181 and at least one receiver 183 coupled to one or more antennas 106. Only one antenna 106 is illustrated. One, some, or all of the antennas 106 may alternatively be panels. The transmitter 181 and the receiver 183 may be integrated as a transceiver. The T-TRP 170 further includes a processor 182 for performing operations including those related to: preparing a transmission for downlink transmission to the ED 110, processing an uplink transmission received from the ED 110, preparing a transmission for backhaul transmission to the NT-TRP 172, and processing a transmission received over backhaul from the NT-TRP 172. Processing operations related to preparing a transmission for downlink or backhaul transmission may include operations such as encoding, modulating, precoding (e.g. multiple input multiple output (MIMO) precoding) , transmit beamforming, and generating symbols for transmission. Processing operations related to processing received transmissions in the uplink or over backhaul may include operations such as receive beamforming, demodulating received symbols and decoding received symbols. The processor 182 may also perform operations relating to network access (e.g. initial access) and/or downlink synchronization, such as generating the content of synchronization signal blocks (SSBs) , generating the system information, etc. In some embodiments, the processor 182 also generates an indication of beam direction, e.g. BAI, which may be scheduled for transmission by a scheduler 184. The processor 182 performs other network-side processing operations described herein, such as determining the location of the ED 110, determining where to deploy the NT-TRP 172, etc. In some embodiments, the processor 182 may generate signaling, e.g. to configure one or more parameters of the ED 110 and/or one or more parameters of the NT-TRP 172. Any signaling generated by the processor 182 is sent by the transmitter 181. Note that “signaling” , as used herein, may alternatively be called control signaling. Dynamic signaling may be transmitted in a control channel, e.g. a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) , and static or semi-static higher layer signaling may be included in a packet transmitted in a data channel, e.g. in a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) .

The scheduler 184 may be coupled to the processor 182. The scheduler 184 may be included within or operated separately from the T-TRP 170. The scheduler 184 may schedule uplink, downlink, and/or backhaul transmissions, including issuing scheduling grants and/or configuring scheduling-free ( “configured grant” ) resources. The T-TRP 170 further includes a memory 185 for storing information and data. The memory 185 stores instructions and data used, generated, or collected by the T-TRP 170. For example, the memory 185 could store software instructions or modules configured to implement some or all of the functionality and/or embodiments described herein and that are executed by the processor 182.

Although not illustrated, the processor 182 may form part of the transmitter 181 and/or part of the receiver 183. Also, although not illustrated, the processor 182 may implement the scheduler 184. Although not illustrated, the memory 185 may form part of the processor 182.

The processor 182, the scheduler 184, the processing components of the transmitter 181 and the processing components of the receiver 183 may each be implemented by the same or different one or more processors that are configured to execute instructions stored in a memory, e.g. in the memory 185. Alternatively, some or all of the processor 182, the scheduler 184, the processing components of the transmitter 181 and the processing components of the receiver 183 may be implemented using dedicated circuitry, such as a FPGA, a GPU, a CPU, or an ASIC.

Although the NT-TRP 172 is illustrated as a drone only as an example, the NT-TRP 172 may be implemented in any suitable non-terrestrial form, such as high altitude platforms, satellite, high altitude platform as international mobile telecommunication base stations and unmanned aerial vehicles, which forms will be discussed hereinafter. Also, the NT-TRP 172 may be known by other names in some implementations, such as a non-terrestrial node, a non-terrestrial network device, or a non-terrestrial base station. The NT-TRP 172 includes a transmitter 186 and a receiver 187 coupled to one or more antennas 108. Only one antenna 108 is illustrated. One, some, or all of the antennas may alternatively be panels. The transmitter 186 and the receiver 187 may be integrated as a transceiver. The NT-TRP 172 further includes a processor 188 for performing operations including those related to: preparing a transmission for downlink transmission to the ED 110, processing an uplink transmission received from the ED 110, preparing a transmission for backhaul transmission to T-TRP 170, and processing a transmission received over backhaul from the T-TRP 170. Processing operations related to preparing a transmission for downlink or backhaul transmission may include operations such as encoding, modulating, precoding (e.g. MIMO precoding) , transmit beamforming, and generating symbols for transmission. Processing operations related to processing received transmissions in the uplink or over backhaul may include operations such as receive beamforming, demodulating received symbols and decoding received symbols. In some embodiments, the processor 188 implements the transmit beamforming and/or receive beamforming based on beam direction information (e.g. BAI) received from the T-TRP 170. In some embodiments, the processor 188 may generate signaling, e.g. to configure one or more parameters of the ED 110. In some embodiments, the NT-TRP 172 implements physical layer processing, but does not implement higher layer functions such as functions at the medium access control (MAC) or radio link control (RLC) layer. As this is only an example, more generally, the NT-TRP 172 may implement higher layer functions in addition to physical layer processing.

The NT-TRP 172 further includes a memory 189 for storing information and data. Although not illustrated, the processor 188 may form part of the transmitter 186 and/or part of the receiver 187. Although not illustrated, the memory 189 may form part of the processor 188.

The processor 188, the processing components of the transmitter 186 and the processing components of the receiver 187 may each be implemented by the same or different one or more processors that are configured to execute instructions stored in a memory, e.g. in the memory 189. Alternatively, some or all of the processor 188, the processing components of the transmitter 186 and the processing components of the receiver 187 may be implemented using dedicated circuitry, such as a programmed FPGA, a GPU, a CPU, or an ASIC. In some embodiments, the NT-TRP 172 may actually be a plurality of NT-TRPs that are operating together to serve the ED 110, e.g. through coordinated multipoint transmissions. The T-TRP 170, the NT-TRP 172, and/or the ED 110 may include other components, but these have been omitted for the sake of clarity.

FIG. 1D illustrates example modules in the devices of the present disclosure. One or more steps of the embodiment methods provided herein may be performed by corresponding units or modules, according to FIG. 1D. FIG. 1D illustrates units or modules in a device, such as in the ED 110, in the T-TRP 170, or in the NT-TRP 172. For example, a signal may be transmitted by a transmitting unit or by a transmitting module. A signal may be received by a receiving unit or by a receiving module. A signal may be processed by a processing unit or a processing module. Other steps may be performed by an AI or ML module. The respective units or modules may be implemented using hardware, one or more components or devices that execute software, or a combination thereof. For instance, one or more of the units or modules may be an integrated circuit, such as a programmed FPGA, a GPU, a CPU, or an ASIC. It will be appreciated that where the modules are implemented using software for execution by a processor for example, the modules may be retrieved by a processor, in whole or part as needed, individually or together for processing, in single or multiple instances, and that the modules themselves may include instructions for further deployment and instantiation.

Additional details regarding the EDs 110, the T-TRP 170, and the NT-TRP 172 are known to those of skill in the art. As such, these details are omitted here.

FIG. 1E illustrates an example sensing management function (SMF) of the present disclosure.

As shown in FIG. 1E, the SMF 176, when implemented as a physically independent entity, includes at least one transmitter 192, at least one processor 194, one or more antennas 195, at least one receiver 196, a scheduler 198, and at least one memory 199. A transceiver, not shown, may be used instead of the transmitter 192 and receiver 196. The scheduler 198 may be coupled to the processor 194. The scheduler 198 may be included within or operated separately from the SMF 176. The processor 194 implements various processing operations of the SMF 176, such as signal coding, data processing, power control, input/output processing, or any other functionality. The processor 194 can also be configured to implement some or all of the functionality and/or embodiments described in more detail above. Each processor 194 includes any suitable processing or computing device configured to perform one or more operations. Each processor 194 could, for example, include a microprocessor, microcontroller, digital signal processor, field programmable gate array, or application specific integrated circuit.

A reference signal-based pose determination technique belongs to an “active” pose estimation paradigm. In an active pose estimation paradigm, the enquirer of pose information (i.e., the UE) takes part in process of determining the pose of the enquirer. The enquirer may transmit or receive (or both) a signal specific to pose determination process. Positioning techniques based on a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) such as Global Positioning System (GPS) are other examples of the active pose estimation paradigm.

In contrast, a sensing technique, based on radar for example, may be considered as belonging to a “passive” pose determination paradigm. In a passive pose determination paradigm, the target is oblivious to the pose determination process.

By integrating sensing and communications in one system, the system need not operate according to only a single paradigm. Thus, the combination of sensing-based techniques and reference signal-based techniques can yield enhanced pose determination.

The enhanced pose determination may, for example, include obtaining UE channel sub-space information, which is particularly useful for UE channel reconstruction at the sensing node, especially for a beam-based operation and communication. The UE channel sub-space is a subset of the entire algebraic space, defined over the spatial domain, in which the entire channel from the TP to the UE lies. Accordingly, the UE channel sub-space defines the TP-to-UE channel with very high accuracy. The signals transmitted over other sub-spaces result in a negligible contribution to the UE channel. Knowledge of the UE channel sub-space helps to reduce the effort needed for channel measurement at the UE and channel reconstruction at the network-side. Therefore, the combination of sensing-based techniques and reference signal-based techniques may enable the UE channel reconstruction with much less overhead as compared to traditional methods. Sub-space information can also facilitate sub-space based sensing to reduce sensing complexity and improve sensing accuracy.

In view of the above, aspect of this disclosure provides methods for indicating and defining relationship and/or mapping between location/geometry/geographic information and the radio environmental map. Specifically, this disclosure provides a novel indication manner to indicate the relationship/mapping between the location/geometry/geographic information and a radio environmental map. Different maps and mappings can be used in different scenarios. Based on the present disclosure, the network can provide the most up-to-date knowledge of mapping configuration associated with the radio environmental information to the UE according to the location/geometry/geographic information, or the UE may obtain the mapping configuration according the location/geometry/geographic information. In this way, a novel indication manner for indicating the relationship/mapping between G-map and R-map is provided. The mapping can include one or multiple mapping elements. Furthermore, different maps and mappings can be used in different scenarios. As such, the sensing and/or communication performance of UE is improved, or the processing delay/complexity is reduced, or both.

In some example embodiments, the methods and devices of this disclosure are described by interaction and processing procedures between the user equipment (UE) and the base station (BS) . Alternatively, the exchange of information and protocol flows in these procedures can also be performed by other network nodes described in FIG. 1A to 1E, for example, between ED 110 and TRP 170, between ED 110 and core network, between ED 110 and ED 110, between TRP 170 and TRP 170. The UE in the procedure described in the present disclosure may be replaced with a sensing node. The BS in the procedure described in the present disclosure may be replaced with a sensing coordinator. Sensing coordinators are nodes in a network that can assist in the sensing operation. These nodes can be stand-alone nodes dedicated to just sensing operations or may be other nodes (for example TRP 170, ED 110, or core network node as discussed above) performing sensing operations in parallel with communication operations.

The example communication environment, communication system, electronic device, UE, BS, sensing node, etc. of this disclosure have heretofore been discussed with reference to FIGS. 1A to 1E. Methods and procedures in accordance with embodiments of this disclosure are further discussed with reference to FIGS. 2 to 7.

FIG. 2 illustrates a signaling process 200 for indicating a mapping configuration between an RF-map and G-map according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. For illustrative purposes, the process 200 will be described with reference to FIGS. 1A to 1E. Only as an example and without limitation, as shown in FIG. 2, the first device 110 may be the UE 110 or ED 110 as shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B, the second device 170 may be the BS 170 or TRP 170 as shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B.

In the signaling process 200, the first device 110 obtains (210) a mapping configuration comprising a set of mapping elements. A mapping element of the set of mapping elements indicates mapping between at least one element in a first map and at least one element in a second map. Furthermore, the first map represents one of radio environment information and geometry information and the second map represents the other one of the radio environment information and the geometry information. In some embodiments, the first map may represent the radio environment information and the second map may represent the geometry information. In this case, the first map may be the “RF-map” as mentioned above, and the second map may be the “G-map” as mentioned above. Alternatively, the first map may represent the geometry information and the second map may represent the radio environment information. In this case, the first map may be the “G-map” , and the second map may be the “RF-map” .

In addition, the first map may comprise a first set of elements and the second map may comprise a second map of elements. A first element in the first set of elements may represent a portion of the one of the radio environment information and the geometry information, and a second element in the second set of elements represents a portion of the other one of the radio environment information and the geometry information. That is, if the first map represents radio environment information, the first element in the first set of elements may represent a portion of the radio environment information. Accordingly, if the second map represents the geometry information, the second element in the second set of elements may represent a portion of the geometry information. Alternatively, if the first map represents the geometry information, the first element in the first set of elements may represent a portion of the geometry information. Accordingly, if the second map represents the radio environment information, the second element in the second set of elements may represent a portion of the radio information.

In some embodiments, the first device 110 may obtain the mapping configuration 203 by receiving the mapping configuration 203 from the second device 170. For example, the second device 170 may transmit (201) a mapping configuration 203 to the first device 110. In turn, the first device 110 may receive (205) the mapping configuration 203 accordingly. In addition or alternatively, the mapping configuration 203 may be preconfigured at the first device 110. In addition or alternatively, the mapping configuration 203 may be also download from a server device. Without any limitation, the first device 110 may obtain or determine the mapping configuration 203 in any other manners.

Still with respect to the first map and the second map, in some embodiments, the second device 170 may determine the first map and the second map by performing sensing operations or measuring operations on the environment associated with the first device 110 and second device 170. Then, the second device 170 may transmit (230) the first map and/or the second map 235 to the first device 110. In addition or alternatively, the second device 170 may also obtain the first map and second map from other network devices, core networks, other networks and so on, then the second device 170 indicate (230) the obtained first map and/or second map 235 to the first device 110. In this way, the first device 110 may obtain (240) the first map and/or second map with high accuracy and redundancy information. In addition or alternatively, the first map and second may be also preconfigured at the first device 110 and the second device 170. For greater clarity, the first map and the second map are further discussed with reference to FIGS. 3A to 3D.

As shown in FIGs. 3A to 3D, a grid in a RF-map (for example, the first map or the second map) may be an element in the RF-map. In some embodiments, RF-map may include N RF-map elements, N ≥ 1. In some embodiments, the RF-map (which may be also referred to as RF-map) may be divided evenly or unevenly. In other words, the grids in the RF-map may be divided evenly or unevenly or the elements in the RF-map are regular or irregular. For example, if the RF-map is divided evenly (or the elements in the RF-map are regular) , then the element in the RF-map may be of the same element type/modality (s) . Moreover, the value range or size of each element in the RF-map is the same. For example, if the element is of the signal to noise ratio (SNR) type, a value range of the elements in the RF-map may be 20dB. Specifically, the value of the first element in the RF-map may be 0-20dB, and the value of the second element in the RF-map may be 20-40dB.

Without any limitation, the element in the RF-map may be of one or more types and/or modalities. For example, the element in the RF-map may be at least one of: a multi-path or ray tracing information type, a channel matrix information type characterizing a channel, a beamforming information type, a reference signal information type, or a channel quality or status information type. In an example, the element in the RF-map (which may be also referred to as RF-map element) may have the following representations.

The RF-map element may include ray tracing or multi-path information. For example, each path/ray may include information about the amplitude, delay, angle, etc. of the path/ray. Moreover, the RF-map element can include one or multiple paths/rays, e.g. a set of {amplitude, delay, angle…} . In addition or alternatively, the RF-map element can include channel, H, information. The channel, H, can be represented in a vectorized format, in a matrix-based format, or by a scalar value. In addition or alternatively, the RF-map element can include beamforming information. For example, each beam may include information about the angle, beam gradient, beam width, etc. of the beam. Moreover, the RF-map element can include one or multiple beams, e.g. a set of {angle, beam gradient, beam width …} . In addition or alternatively, the RF-map element can include reference signal information. For example, each RF-map element can include one or multiple reference signals. In addition or alternatively, the RF-map element may include one or multiple channel quality indicator (CQI) metrics. In addition or alternatively, the RF-map element may be a direct or indirect representation of the channel status and/or quality, such as CQI, MCS, SNR, a range of MSC, a range of SNR, etc. Just for illustration, as shown in FIG. 3A, the RF-map 301 is divided evenly (or expressed in another way, the elements in the RF-map 301 have a regular shape and size) .

Alternatively, the RF-map may be divided unevenly or the elements in the RF-map may be irregular. In an example, elements in the RF-map may be of different types and/or modalities. For example, an element in the RF-map is of a first plurality of types and/or modalities and another element in the RF-map is of a second plurality of types and/or modalities. In this case, at least a part of the first plurality of types and/or modalities may be different from the second plurality of types and/or modalities. In a specific example, the first element may include multi-path information and the second element may include channel, H, information. In a further example, a third element may include beamforming information. These elements in the RF-map can include different types (or a different number of types) .

In addition or alternatively, in some embodiments, a first size of a first element in the RF-map may be the same as or different from a second size of a second element in the RF-map, regardless of whether the element types are exactly consistent. In some embodiments, if the element types of the first and second elements are the same, the first size may be different, in respect of its dimensions, from the second size. For example, the first element, the second element, and a further third element are of the channel, H, information type. The dimension of the first element is 512 x 64 x 80. The dimension of the second element is 256 x 128. The dimension of the third element is a 1 x 100 vector. In this example, the sizes of these elements are different in respect of their dimensions.

In addition or alternatively, in some embodiments, the first size may be different from the second size in terms of bits, ratio, or level of compression or quantization. That is, the compression or quantization ratio/levels of elements are different. In an example, the first element is of the channel H information type and the channel H information is compressed or quantized to 5 bits of information. The second element is the channel H information type and the channel H information is compressed or quantized to 4 bits of information. If the original quantization level for channel H information is 16 bits of information (i.e., the information is originally stored in 16 bits) , the compression ratio associated with quantization of the first element and the second element is 3.2 and 4, respectively. Accordingly, even for a same element type, the compression or quantization ratio/levels of elements can be different. While quantization and compression in general refer to different yet related concepts, the terms are interchangeable for certain purposes in the context of the preceding example. In addition, in another example, the first element is of the multi-path information type and the amplitude, delay, and angle information of each path are compressed or quantized to 6, 8, and 5 bits, respectively. The second element may be the beamforming information type and the angle, beam gradient, and beam width information of each beam are compressed or quantized to 6, 5, and 7 bits, respectively. The quantization levels of elements may also be different for different element types. Even for the example of angle in path information and angle in beamforming information, the quantization levels may be different.

In addition or alternatively, the first size may be different from the second size in terms of the order of types of information in each element. In an example, the first element may be {channel H information, beamforming information} , and the second element may be {beamforming information, channel H information} . That is, the elements can include multiple types, and the orders of types can be different.

In addition or alternatively, the first size may be different from the second size in terms of the number of parameters of an element. In an example, the first element may be of beamforming information and the number of beams is 5. The second element may be of beamforming information and the number of beams is 3. Accordingly, the elements include different number of parameters. In another example, the first element is of the ray tracing type and the channel quality type and the ray tracing type includes 4 rays/paths, however, the second element may be only of the ray tracing type/path and the ray tracing type includes 2 rays/paths.

In addition or alternatively, in some embodiments, a first value range of the first element and a second value range of the second element are the same or different. In an example, in the case that the elements in the RF-map are of the same type, a first value range of the first element in the RF-map and a second value range of the second element in the RF-map may be the same or different, and this may depend on whether the RF-map is divided evenly. Just for illustration, as shown in FIG. 3B, the RF-map are divided unevenly or the elements in these maps have the irregular shape/size. In a further example, the first element is of reference signal information and the value range is 0 to 20 dB; the second element is of reference signal information and the value range is 0 to 30 dB. The value range of elements are different. In turn, in another example, in the case that the first element and the second element are of different element types, the first value range should be different from the second value range accordingly since the “physical dimension” of these elements is different already.

In addition, as mentioned above, the elements in the RF-map can be of the same type/modality. For example, all the N RF-map elements in the map include channel H information. Alternatively, in some other scenarios, the RF-map can include multiple types and/or modalities of RF-map elements. For example, N1 RF-map elements include channel H information, N2 RF-map elements include multi-path information, N3 RF-map elements include beamforming information…etc. In this way, different RF-maps (including specific types of RF-map elements) can be provided according to different scenarios and sensing and/or communication tasks.

In turn, the G-map representing the geometry/geography information may also represent some intermediate results after processing of geometry/geography information, etc. G-map can be a grid-based map or may be represented in other formats. G-map may include M G-map elements/grids, where M ≥ 1. The G-map element/grid can indicate 2D/3D locations, or a 2D/3D region or areas, or the geometric information about the surrounding scenes, or geographical coordinates, or other geometry/geography information or preprocessed geometry/geography information.

As shown in FIGS. 3A to 3D, a grid in the G-map may be an element in the G-map. Similarly, G-map may be also divided evenly or unevenly. In other words, the elements in the G-map may be regular or irregular. In some embodiments, if G-map is evenly divided, the geography/geometry scope associated with each of elements in G-map may have the same size or shape. In addition, the element in G-map may be also one or more types and/or modalities. In some embodiments, the element in G-map is of at least one of: a two-dimensional (2D) location area type; a three-dimensional (3D) location area type; a geographical coordinate type; or a processed data type associated with the geography/geometry information. In addition, in an example, an element in the G-map may include 3D location area information and geographical coordinate information, and another element in the G-map may include geometric information about the surrounding scenes. That is, the elements in the G-map may include different types (or different number of types) . Just for illustration, as shown in 3A, the G map is divided evenly. For example, the G-map elements/grids are the same size and have the same shape

Alternatively, the G-map may be divided unevenly, or the elements/grids in the G-map may be irregular. In some embodiments, a value range of a third element in the G-map and a value range of a fourth element in the G-map may be different. In addition or alternatively, the elements/grids in the G-map can have different sizes or shapes. Moreover, the element/grid shape can be regular or irregular. As shown in FIGS 3C-3D, the G-map elements/grids are different in size and shape.

Specifically, in some embodiments, the sizes of elements in G-map may be different in respect of the dimensions of the elements. For example, an element in G-map is a 2D location area type and the dimension are 100 x 200; another element in G-map is a 2D location area type and the dimension are 200 x 200. In addition or alternatively, an element in G-map is a 2D location area type and the dimension is 100 x 200; another element in G-map is a 3D location area type and the dimension are 50 x 250 x 100.

In addition or alternatively, the sizes of elements in G-map may be different in terms of the compression or quantization ratio/levels. For example, an element in G-map is of the 2D location area type and the 2D location area information is compressed or quantized to 8 bits. Another element in G-map may be the 3D location area type and the 3D location area information is compressed or quantized to 12 bits. A further element in G-map is of the geographical coordinate type and the geographical coordinate (x, y, z) is compressed or quantized to 16 bits. Thus, the compression or quantization ratio/levels of elements may be different.

In addition or alternatively, the sizes of elements in G-map may be different in terms of the order of types of information in each element. For example, an element in G-map includes {2D location area, geographical coordinate} . Another element in G-map includes {geographical coordinate, 2D location area} . That is, the elements in G-map can include multiple types, and the orders of types can be different.

In addition or alternatively, the sizes of elements in G-map may be different in the number of parameters of the element. For example, an element in G-map is of the 2D geographical coordinate type and includes 3 sets of coordinates (x, y) . Another element in G-map is of the 2D geographical coordinate type and includes 4 sets of coordinates (x, y) . That is, the elements in G-map may include different numbers of parameters. In this way, the description of the geometry/geography information may be flexibly provided to UE.

In this way, the description of the geometry/geography information may be flexibly provided to UE. FIGS. 3A to 3D also show the example mapping configuration between the RF-map and the G-map, which will be discussed in the following.

Referring back to FIG. 2, as mentioned above, the first map may be one of the above RF-map and the G-map and second map may be the other one of the RF-map and the G-map. Then, after receiving (205) the mapping configuration 203, the first device 110 may be aware of the association between the radio environment information and the geometry information. In turn, the first device 110 determines (250) radio environment information associated with the first device. Accordingly, with the RF-map, the G-map and the mapping configuration, the first device 110 may perform the sensing operation and communication in a more accuracy way. For example, once the first device 110 determines the element in the first map associated with the first device 110 (that is, the radio environment information associated with the first device 110) , the first device 110 may perform a sensing operation based on the element in the first map associated with the first device. In addition or alternatively, the first device 110 may perform communication based on the element in the first map associated with the first device. In addition or alternatively, the first device 110 may determine set of beams for at least one of the sensing operation and the communication based on the element in the first map associated with the first device. In addition or alternatively, the first device 110 may determine a transmitting power for at least one of the sensing operation and the communication based on the element in the first map associated with the first device. In addition or alternatively, the first device 110 may determine a reference signal for at least one of the sensing operation and the communication based on the element in the first map associated with the first device.

In view of the above, with the mapping configuration 203, the first device 110 may perform sensing operation and/or communication with a better performance. The details regarding the mapping configuration 203 will be further discussed with reference to FIGS. 3A to 5E.

In the example embodiments of the disclosure, there are several mapping or association approaches provided. In one embodiment, G-map may refer to RF-map. For example, one element in G-map may be mapped to one or multiple elements in RF-map, or one or multiple ranges/boxes in the RF-map. In addition or alternatively, multiple elements of G-map may be mapped to the same element in RF-map. In another embodiment, RF-map may refer to G-map. For example, one element of RF-map may be mapped to one or multiple elements in G-map, or a range of indices, or one or multiple ranges/boxes in the G-map. Alternatively, multiple elements of RF-map may be mapped to the same element in G-map. In a further embodiment, the mapping configuration may be represented as one or more paired indications. For example, a paired indication may indicate the match-pair (G-map element, RF-map element) , or match-index-pair (G-map element index, RF-map element index) , or mixed match-pair (G-map element index, RF-map element) pair, or (G-map element, RF-map element index) information. In this case, the RF-map and G-map may be indicated by the mapping configuration implicitly. It is to be understood that the disclosure is not limited to the above embodiments, and there may be any other mapping representation. Only for discussion purposes, the mapping configuration representation is further discussed with reference to FIGS. 3A to 5E.

FIGS. 3A to FIG. 3D illustrate some examples of mappings between the RF-map and G-map according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. The example mappings may be indicated in the mapping configuration

As shown in FIGS. 3A to 3D, the elements in the RF-map and the G-map can be divided arbitrarily (for example, even, uneven, regular or irregular) . In FIG. 3A, the elements 301 and 303 in G-map are mapped with element 305 in RF-map, and the element 307 in G-map is mapped with element 309 in RF-map. In FIG. 3B, the elements 311 and 313 in G-map are mapped with element 315 in RF-map, and the element 317 is mapped with element 319 in G-map. In FIG. 3C, the elements 321 and 323 are mapped with element 325 in RF-map, and the element 327 is mapped with element 329 in G-map. In FIG. 3D, the elements 331 and 333 in G-map are mapped with the element 335 in RF-map, and the element 337 is mapped with element 339 in the RF-map. In view of the above, FIGs. 3A to 3D generally show some example mapping between the RF-map and G-map, i.e., between the first map and the second map.

For greater clarity, the mapping from the G-map to the RF-map is further discussed with reference to FIGS. 4A to 4D.

In some embodiments, an element in the RF-map may be identified by an index. In this case, if an element in the G-map is mapped to another element in the RF-map, this mapping may be indicated based on the index of the other element in the RF-map. In an example, each element in the G-map may refer to an index of a corresponding element in the RF-map. In some embodiments, the first device 110 may receive the mapping configuration 203 by receiving the G-map, and an element in G-map refers to an index of an element in RF-map, for example, the element in G-map may directly include the index of the element in RF-map. That is, the mapping configuration may be carried by G-map, i.e., the mapping configuration can be indicated implicitly based on G-map. In turn, in addition to the case that the elements of mapping configuration are comprised in a G-map element, the mapping configuration may be also individually represented as a third map having the same dimensions as the G-map. Furthermore, a mapping element in the third map is associated with an element in G-map based on, for example, the element location in the map having the same dimension, and the element may include one or more indices of one or more elements in the RF-map. In this case, the mapping configuration may be transmitted separately, rather than carried by the G-map. That is, the mapping configuration may be contained in the G-map, or may be represented as an individual matrix that has the same dimensions with the G-map.

FIG. 4A illustrates an example of mapping from G-map to RF-map according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

As shown in FIG. 4A, via the mapping configuration 403, the first G-map element in the G map 401 is mapped to the RF-map element with index 1, the second G-map element is mapped to the RF-map element with index 5, the third G-map element is mapped to the RF-map element with index 1, and the fourth G-map element is mapped to the RF-map element with index 0, and so on. Based on the preceding mapping examples, the mapping configuration 203 itself may be represented as or comprise a map, or an index map (which is also referred to as third map in this disclosure) . As shown in the mapping configuration 203 is: a 4x4 map 403 with elements {1, 5, 1, 0, 2, 3…1, 5} . In this case, the third map 403 may have the same dimension as the G-map 401. Furthermore, each element in the third map is associated with an element in the G-map, for example, the element in the third map may be associated with the element which is at the same position in G-map . In addition, each element in the third map may include an index of the element in the RF-map. Then, each element in the third map may indicate that the associated element in G-map is mapped to the element identified by the index in the RF-map. Alternatively, in some embodiments, the mapping configuration may be represented as or comprises a mapping list. In this case, the number of data items in the mapping is the same as the number of elements in G-map. Moreover, a data item in the mapping list is associated with the element in G-map and the data item comprises the element in the RF-map. Also referring to FIG. 4A, the mapping configuration can be represented by a list: {1, 5, 1, 0, 2, 3…1, 5} , where the ith element in the list represents the corresponding RF-map element index of the ith G-map element. Alternatively, in some embodiments, the number of data items in the mapping list may be also the same as the number of elements in the RF-map. In this case, a data item in the mapping list is associated with the element in the RF-map and the data item comprises the element in the G-map. Without any limitation the mapping configuration may be also represented as a matrix, and the number of elements in the matrix may be the same as the number of elements in G-map.

In addition, in some embodiments, an element in the RF-map may have the first number of dimensions, a mapping element in the mapping configuration may have the second number of dimensions. Furthermore, the second number may be more than or equal to the first number. For example, if RF-map element index is represented by a high-dimensional, or multi-dimensional index (explicitly or implicitly) , the mapping index can also be high-dimensional, or multi-dimensional. In the above example, the mapping configuration {1, 5, 1, 0, 2, 3…1, 5} may become { (0, 1) , (2, 1) , (0, 1) , (0, 0) , (1, 0) , …, (2, 1) } , where the mapping element (0, 1) means the row index 0 and column index 1 (i.e. RF-map element with index 1 in FIG. 4A) , and where (2, 1) means the row index 2 and column index 1 (i.e. RF-map element with index 5 in FIG. 4A) .

In addition or alternatively, the RF-map may comprise, or be represented by a list or array. In this case, an element in the G-map may also refer or correspond to one or more indices in the list/array representation of RF-map. FIG. 4B illustrates another example of mapping from G-map to RF-map according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

As shown in FIG. 4B, if RF-map may comprise, or be represented by a list or array, which is composed by multiple map elements, for example, {Element 0, Element 1, …, Element k} , including k elements. Each RF-map element may have an index, which can be configured explicitly or implicitly, for example, the implicit index may be based on the order of the elements. Each element of G-map may be mapped to one (or more) elements in the list/array representation of RF-map, as shown in FIG. 4B. In addition, multiple G-map element/grids may refer to the same element in the RF-map. As shown in FIG. 4B, two G-map elements may be mapped to the RF-map element with index 0. Similarly, the mapping itself can become a map/matrix, or an index map/matrix, or can be represented by a list or a vector. Specifically, the elements 407 and 411 in G-map are mapped to the element 0 in the list representation of the RF-map, and the element 409 in G-map is mapped to the element 1 in the list representation of the RF-map.

In the above examples, a G-map element is mapped to one RF-map element. In addition or alternatively, an element in G-map may be mapped to a first plurality of elements in RF-map.

FIG. 4C illustrates a further example of mapping from G-map to RF-map according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. In some embodiments, if an element in G-map is mapped to more than one elements in RF-map, the mapping configuration may be represented as a mapping list including the set of mapping elements. Moreover, a mapping element in the mapping list is associated with the element in G-map that may be mapped to the first plurality of elements in RF-map. The mapping element in the mapping list may further indicate the number of elements of the first plurality of elements and includes indices of the first plurality of elements. As shown in FIG. 4C, one G-map element/grid can refer to multiple elements of the RF-map. As showing in FIG. 4C, one G-map element 415 may be mapped to two RF-map elements, with index 5 and 6 respectively. In addition, the element 413 in G-map may be mapped to RF-map element with index 0, and the element 417 in G-map may be mapped to RF-map element with index 0. As mentioned above, the mapping configuration may be represented as the mapping list. In this case, the mapping configuration may be represented by the following example list: {…, {num=1, index 0} , …, {num=2, index 5, 6} , …} , where each mapping element indicate the mapped index number, and then one or multiple mapped indices. For example, {num=2, index 5, 6} indicates that the corresponding G-map element is mapped to two RF-map elements, with index 5 and 6 respectively.

Alternatively, if an element in G-map is mapped to more than one elements in RF-map, the mapping configuration may be represented as a fourth map and a first additional mapping list. Specifically, the fourth map has the same dimension as the second map, and a mapping element in the fourth map that is associated with the element mapped to the first plurality of elements includes an index of one of the first plurality of elements. Furthermore, a mapping element in the first additional mapping list is associated with the element mapped to the first plurality of elements and includes indices of one or more remaining elements of the first plurality of elements. In an example, the mapping is represented by a map/matrix and an additional list. This map/matrix may be as similarly as the mapping configuration 403 in FIG. 4A, i.e., each mapping element only includes one mapped RF-map index for the corresponding G-map element. In turn, the remaining mapped indices may be included in the additional list, which is similar as the above list { {num=1, index 1} , …, {num=2, index 5, 6} , …} . In this way, the one-to-multiple mapping can be represented by one matrix an additional list. Taking the mapping configuration in FIG. 4C, the element in one map/matrix for the mapping configuration which is associated with the G-map element 415 may comprise the index 5. In addition, the element in the additional list for the mapping configuration which is associated with the G-map element 415 may comprise the index 6.

Alternatively, if an element in G-map is mapped to more than one elements in RF-map, the mapping configuration may be represented as more than one map, and a mapping element in one of the more than one maps includes an index of one of the first plurality of elements. For example, the mapping configuration is represented by multiple maps/matrices, and each mapping element includes, for the corresponding G-map element, only one of indices of the plurality of elements in the RF-map. Moreover, each map/matrix of the more than one maps/matrices may be as similarly as the embodiments associated with FIG. 4A. Taking the mapping configuration in FIG. 4C as an example, the element in one map/matrix for the mapping configuration which is associated with the G-map element 415 may comprise the index 5. In addition, the element in another map/matrix for the mapping configuration which is associated with the G-map element 415 may comprise the index 6.

In the above embodiments, the mapping configuration 203 may comprise, or be represented by indices of elements in at least one of the RF-map and G-map, and the mapping configuration may be map, matrix, list or array. Alternatively, the mapping configuration 203 may be also represented based on a range in the RF-map. In some embodiments, an element in G-map may correspond to a range in the RF-map, and a mapping element in the mapping configuration may include a starting position and a size of the range in RF-map. In addition, an element in the G-map may correspond to a plurality of ranges in the RF-map. In this case, the mapping element in the mapping configuration may include the number of ranges of the plurality of ranges in RF-map, and a starting position and a size for a range of the plurality of ranges in RF-map. For greater clarity, the mapping configuration related to the range of the RF-map is further discussed with reference to FIG. 4D.

FIG. 4D illustrates yet another example of mapping from a G-map to an RF-map, according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

As shown in FIG. 4D, one G-map element/grid 415 may correspond to the range/box 425 in the RF-map. In this case, the mapping element corresponding to the element 415 may be represented by {start x0, y0, range d0, d0’ } , where (x0, y0) is the staring position of the range/box 425, and (d0, d0’ ) is the size of the range/box 425. Another G-map element/grid 419 may correspond to two ranges/boxes 421 and 423 in the RF-map. In this case, the mapping element corresponding the element 419 may be represented by {num=2, {start x1, y1, range d1, d1’ } , {start x2, y2, range d2, d2’} } , i.e. the mapping element indicates the number of mapped range (s) /box (es) , and the one or multiple mapped ranges/boxes. In some embodiments, the mapping configuration 203 can be represented by a list including t elements: {mapping element 0, mapping element 1, …, mapping element t} . Alternatively, the mapping configuration 203 may be also represented by a high-dimensional matrix.

It is to be understood that although the above mapping configurations are discussed based on the perspective from the G-map to the RF-map, these mapping configurations may also be applied to the case of mapping from the RF-map to the G-map. That is, the RF-map element may also refer to the element in the G-map in the same way as discussed above.

Without any limitation, in the following embodiments, some further mapping configurations are discussed based on the case of mapping from the RF-map to the G-map. It is to be understood that the following embodiments may also be applied to the case of mapping from the G-map to the RF-map.

FIG. 5A to FIG. 5E illustrate examples of mapping from RF-map to G-map according to some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Similarly, in some embodiments, each RF-map element may refer to one or multiple element indices in the G-map. In addition, RF-map may BE resented by a matrix or list/array. As shown in the example of FIG. 5A, the mapping configuration 203 can be represented by { {num=2, {4, 8} } , {num=2, {2, 3} } , {num=1, 9} …} , where mapping element { {num=2, {4, 8} indicates that the first RF-map element 501 is mapped to two G-map elements, with indices 4 and 8 respectively. In addition, { {num=2, {2, 3} indicates that the second RF-map element 505 is mapped to two G-map elements, with indices 2 and 3 respectively. In addition, {num=1, 9} …} indicates that the third RF-map element 503 is mapped to G-map element with index 9. In addition, if the RF-map is represented by a list/array. The mapping configuration 203 may be represented similarly. Without any limitation, although G-map in FIG. 5A is regular, G-map may be also irregular. As shown in the example of FIG. 5B, G-map is irregular. Furthermore, the RF-map element with index 0 is mapped to G-map element 507, and the RF-map element with index 2 is mapped to G-map element 509. In addition, in the case that RF-map is represented by a list/array, the RF-element with index 0 is mapped to G-map element 511. Moreover, in the example of FIG. 5C, both the G-map and RF-map are represented as the list/array. In the example, the RF-map element 513 is mapped to the second element and fourth element in the list representation of the G-map, the RF-map element 515 is mapped to the fourth element in the list representation of the G-map; and RF-map element 517 is mapped to the third element in the list representation of the G-map.

In addition or alternatively, each RF-map element may correspond to a range of indices in the G-map. As shown in FIG. 5D, each RF-map element corresponds to a range of indices of elements in the G-map. In this case, the mapping configuration 203 may be represented as below. In some embodiments, the first RF-map element 519 may correspond to the G-map element with indices 2, 3 and 4. In this case, the corresponding mapping element may be represented by {start 2, end 4} , instead of three indices {2, 3, 4} , so as to save representation bits. Furthermore, the mapping configuration 203 can be represented by { {start 2, end 4} , {start 7, end 8} , {9} , …} . Alternatively, the above mapping element {start 2, end 4} may be also represented by {start 2, num=3} , where “num=3” means there are three successive indices. In this case, the mapping configuration 203 may be represented by { {start 2, num=3} , {start 7, num=2} , {start 9, num=1} , …} .

In addition or alternatively, similarly, an element in RF-map may correspond to one or multiple range/box in G-map. As shown in FIG. 5E, an RF-map element corresponds to one or multiple ranges/boxes in the G-map. Specifically, one RF-map element with index 0 may correspond to two ranges/boxes 527 and 529 in the RF-map. In this case, the corresponding mapping element may be represented by {num=2, {start x0, y0, range d0, d0’ } , {start x1, y1, range d1, d1’} } , where (x0, y0) is the staring position of the range/box 527, (d0, d0’ ) is the size of the range/box 527, (x1 y1) is the staring position of the range/box 529, and (d1, d1’ ) is the size of the range/box 529. In turn, the mapping configuration 203 may be represented by a list: {mapping element 0, mapping element 1, …, mapping element t} , including t elements. In addition, the mapping configuration may also be represented by a high-dimensional matrix.

Without any limitation, a plurality of RF-map elements may refer to the same element in G-map. Similarly, the mapping may become another map (or multiple maps) , or list representations, or a combination of map and list representation.

In addition to the above map, matrix, list or array representation or alternatively, the mapping configuration may be also represented based on a “paired indication” . In some embodiments, a mapping element of the set of mapping elements in the mapping configuration 203 is a mapping pair associated with a first element in the first map and a second element in the second map.

In an example, the mapping pair may include the first element and the second element. That is, the mapping configuration 203 may include one or multiple match-pairs, and each pair indicates a (G-map element, RF-map element) . pair. Specifically, the mapping configuration may include one or multiple match-pairs, each pair indicates a (G-map element a, RF-map element b) pair, which means that “G-map element a” corresponds to “RF-map element b” . For example, if the G-map element is location (x, y, z) , and the RF-map element is ray tracing/multi-path information including two paths/rays {amplitude, delay, angle} . Then the mapping element (match-pair) can be represented by (location, multi-path info) : ( (x, y, z) , {path num=2, {amplitude 0, delay 0, angle 0} , {amplitude 1, delay 1, angle 1} } ) . In another example, if the G-map element is geometry/location range {start x0, y0, range d0, d0’ } , where (x0, y0) is the staring position of the location range, and (d0, d0’ ) is the size of the location range. The RF-map element is channel H information may comprise, or be represented by a size Mt x Nt matrix, or a scalar value. Then the mapping element (match-pair) can be represented by (location range, H info) : ( {start x0, y0, range d0, d0’ } , {size Mt x Nt H matrix} ) , or, ( {start x0, y0, range d0, d0’ } , scalar value of H) . Moreover, the mapping configuration may may comprise, or be represented by by {pair number, (G-map element a, RF-map element b) , (G-map c, RF-map d) , …} . The “pair number” is optionally included. For example, if the number is pre-defined, the “pair number” may be not included. To indicate { (G-map element a, RF-map element b) , (G-map c, RF-map d) , …} , the mapping can be represented by a list, or another map/matrix.

In addition or alternatively, in another example, the mapping pair may include a first index of the first element and a second index of the second element. In other words, the mapping configuration 203 may include one or multiple match-index-pairs, each pair indicates a (G-map element index, RF-map element index) pair. Specifically, the mapping includes one or multiple match-index-pairs, each pair indicates a (G-map element index i, RF-map element index j) pair, which means that “G-map element with index i” corresponds to “RF-map element with index j” . For example, mapping element (match-index-pair) may be represented by (location index i, RF-map index j) . In this case the mapping configuration 203 may be represented by {pair number, (G-map element index i, RF-map element index j) , (G-map element index i', RF-map element index j’ ) , …} . The “pair number” is optionally included. For example, if the number is pre-defined, the “pair number” may be not included. To indicate { (G-map element index i, RF-map element index j) , (G-map element index i', RF-map element index j’ ) , …} , the mapping can be represented by a list, or another map/matrix.

In addition or alternatively, in a further example, the mapping pair may include the first element and the second index or the first index and the second element. That is, the mapping configuration 203 may include one or multiple mixed match-pairs, each pair indicates a (G-map element index, RF-map element) pair, or (G-map element, RF-map element index) . Specifically, the mapping includes one or multiple match-index-pairs, each pair indicates a (G-map element index i, RF-map element a) pair, which means that “G-map element with index i” corresponds to “RF-map element a” . Or each pair indicates a (G-map element b, RF-map element index j) pair, which means that “G-map element b” corresponds to “RF-map element with index j” . In this case, the mapping configuration 203 may be represented by { (G-map element index i, RF-map element a) , (G-map element index i', RF-map element a’ ) , …} . Alternatively, the mapping configuration 203 may be also represented by { (G-map element b, RF-map element index j) , (G-map element b’ , RF-map element index j’ ) , …} .

In addition, the mapping configuration 203 may be also represented in a combination manner. For example: { (G-map element index i, RF-map element index j) , { (G-map element a, RF-map element b) , (G-map element index i', RF-map element a’ ) , (G-map element b’ , RF-map element index j’ ) , …} . In addition, the above mapping can be represented by a list, or another map/matrix.

Referring back to FIG. 2, for transmitting the mapping configuration 203 in an efficiency way, some example embodiments are provided as below. In some embodiments, at least one of the mapping configuration, the first map or the second map may be of a compression format. In this case, the overhead of the mapping configuration transmission may be reduced. In addition, the mapping configuration 203 may be carried in at least one of: synchronization signal block (SSB) signaling; a first message specific to the first device; a second message specific to a group of devices including the first device; or a broadcast message. For example, the BS can broadcast, multicast, or unicast the mapping indication to the UE 110, which is composed by one or multiple mapping elements. This mapping message/indication can be carried in SSB for broadcast, or in multicast messages targeted to a group of UEs, or even dedicated to one UE. Without any limitation, the RF-map, the G-map, and the mapping indication can be included different messages from BS to UE. And the timing for sending the RF-map, G-map, and the mapping can be different.

Similarly, as discussed above, to indicate the mapping configuration, there are the following example embodiments. If the relationship/mapping between G-map and R-map is represented by approach “G-map referring to RF-map” : each mapping element in the mapping corresponds to one index or multiple indices, or one or multiple ranges/boxes in the RF-map. If the relationship/mapping between G-map and R-map is represented by approach “RF-map referring to G-map” : each mapping element in the mapping corresponds to one index or multiple indices, or a range of indices, or one or multiple ranges/boxes in the G-map. If the relationship/mapping between G-map and R-map is represented by approach “Paired indication” , each mapping element in the mapping corresponds to the match-pair (G-map element, RF-map element) , or match-index-pair (G-map element index, RF-map element index) , or mixed match-pair (G-map element index, RF-map element) pair, or (G-map element, RF-map element index) .

In view of the above, the example embodiments in this disclosure provides methods for indicating the relationship and/or mapping between G-map and R-map. The mapping can include one or multiple mapping elements. Several approaches are given, to indicate the relationship/mapping between G-map and R-map, G-map may refer to RF-map, e.g. one element in G-map will be mapped to one or multiple elements in RF-map, or one or multiple ranges/boxes in the RF-map. Multiple elements of G-map may be mapped to the same element in RF-map. In addition or alternatively, RF-map may refer to G-map, e.g. one element of RF-map will be mapped to one or multiple elements in G-map, or a range of indices, or one or multiple ranges/boxes in the G-map. Multiple elements of RF-map may be mapped to the same element in G-map. In addition or alternatively, a paired indication may be induced to indicate the match-pair (G-map element, RF-map element) , or match-index-pair (G-map element index, RF-map element index) , or mixed match-pair (G-map element index, RF-map element) pair, or (G-map element, RF-map element index) information.

In this way, UE may obtain the latest radio environmental map according the location/geometry/geographic information. In this way, the sensing/communication performance of UE is improved, and/or the processing delay/complexity is reduced.

In addition, BS can broadcast, or multicast, or unicast the mapping indication to UE, which is composed by one or multiple mapping elements. Optionally, the mapping can be compressed. The RF-map, the G-map, and the mapping indication can be included different messages from BS to UE. The timing for sending the RF-map, G-map, and the mapping can be different.

FIG. 6 illustrates a flowchart of a method 600 of communication implemented at a first device in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. The method 600 can be implemented at the first device 110 shown in FIG. 1A. For the purpose of discussion, the method 600 will be described with reference to FIG. 1A. It is to be understood that the method 600 may include additional acts not shown and/or may omit some shown acts, and the scope of the present disclosure is not limited in this regard.

At 610, the first device 110 obtains a mapping configuration comprising a set of mapping elements from a second device. A mapping element of the set of mapping elements indicates mapping between at least one element in a first map and at least one element in a second map. The first map represents one of radio environment information and geometry information and the second map represents the other one of the environment information and the geometry information. At 620, the first device 110 determines radio environment information associated with the first device based on the mapping configuration.

In some embodiments, an element in the first map is identified by an index. Moreover, the first device receives the mapping configuration by receiving the second map and an element in the second map comprises an index of an element in the first map.

In some embodiments, the mapping configuration is represented as a third map having a same dimension as the second map, and each mapping element in the third map includes an index of an element in the first map.

In some embodiments, the number of mapping elements in the mapping configuration is the same as the number of elements in the second map, and a data item in the mapping configuration is associated with the element in the second map and the data item comprises the element in the first map.

In some embodiments, at least one of the first map, the second map is represented as a matrix, a list, or an array; or the mapping configuration is represented as a map, a matrix, a list or an array.

In some embodiments, an element in the first map represents a portion of the one of the radio environment information and the geometry information; and an element in the second map represents a portion of the other one of the radio environment information and the geometry information.

In some embodiments, an element in the first map has the first number of dimensions, a mapping element in the mapping configuration has the second number of dimensions, and the second number is more than or equal to the first number.

In some embodiments, an element in the second map is mapped to a first plurality of elements in the first map.

In some embodiments, the mapping configuration is represented as a mapping list including the set of mapping elements. Moreover, a mapping element in the mapping list is associated with the element in the second map that is mapped to the first plurality of elements in the first map; and the mapping element in the mapping list indicates the number of elements of the first plurality of elements and includes indices of the first plurality of elements.

In some embodiments, the mapping configuration is represented as a fourth map and a first additional mapping. Moreover, the fourth map has a same dimension as the second map, and a mapping element in the fourth map that is associated with the element mapped to the first plurality of elements includes an index of one of the first plurality of elements; and a mapping element in the first additional mapping list is associated with the element mapped to the first plurality of elements and includes indices of one or more remaining elements of the first plurality of elements.

In some embodiments, the mapping configuration is represented as more than one map, and a mapping element in one of the more than one maps includes an index of one of the first plurality of elements.

In some embodiments, the mapping configuration indicates that an element in the second map corresponds to one or more ranges in the first map. In some embodiments, an element in the second map corresponds to a range in the first map, and wherein a mapping element of the set of mapping elements includes a starting position and a size of the range in the first map.

In some embodiments, an element in the second map corresponds to a plurality of ranges in the first map. A mapping element of the set of mapping elements includes the following: the number of ranges of the plurality of ranges in the first map; and a starting position and a size for a range of the plurality of ranges in the first map.

In some embodiments, the mapping configuration indicates that an element in the second map corresponds to a range for indices of elements in the first map. In some embodiments, a mapping element of the set of mapping elements includes at least one of the following: a first index of a starting element in the range for the indices and a second index of an ending element in the range for the indices; or the first index and the number of indices in the range for the indices of elements in the first map.

In some embodiments, a mapping element of the set of mapping elements is a mapping pair associated with a first element in the first map and a second element in the second map.

In some embodiments, the mapping pair includes one of the following: the first element and the second element; a first index of the first element and a second index of the second element; the first element and the second index; or the first index and the second element.

In some embodiments, the first device may further perform a sensing operation based on the radio environment information; perform communication based on the radio environment information; determine a set of beams for at least one of the sensing operation and the communication based on the radio environment information; determine a transmitting power for at least one of the sensing operation and the communication based on the radio environment information; or determine a reference signal for at least one of the sensing operation and the communication based on the radio environment information.

In some embodiments, at least one of the mapping configuration, the first map or the second map is of a compression format. In some embodiments, the mapping configuration is carried in at least one of the following: synchronization signal block (SSB) signaling; a first message specific to the first device; a second message specific to a group of devices including the first device; or a broadcast message.

In some embodiments, the first device obtains the mapping configuration by receiving, from a second device, the mapping configuration comprising the set of mapping elements.

FIG. 7 illustrates a flowchart of a method 700 of communication implemented at a second device in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. The method 700 can be implemented at the second device 170 shown in FIG. 1A. For the purpose of discussion, the method 700 will be described with reference to FIG. 1A. It is to be understood that the method 700 may include additional acts not shown and/or may omit some shown acts, and the scope of the present disclosure is not limited in this regard.

At 710, the second device 170 transmits a mapping configuration comprising a set of mapping elements to a first device. A mapping element of the set of mapping elements indicates mapping between at least one element in a first map and at least one element in a second map. The first map represents one of radio environment information and geometry information and the second map represents the other one of the environment information and the geometry information.

In some embodiments, an element in the first map is identified by an index. Moreover, the second device transmits the mapping configuration by transmitting the second map, and an element in the second map comprises an index of an element in the first map.

In some embodiments, at least one of the mapping configuration, the first map or the second map is of a compression format.

In some embodiments, the mapping configuration is carried in at least one of the following: synchronization signal block (SSB) signaling; a first message specific to the first device; a second message specific to a group of devices including the first device; or a broadcast message.

FIG. 8 is a simplified block diagram of a device 800 that is suitable for implementing some embodiments of the present disclosure. The device 800 can be considered as a further example embodiment of the first device 110 or the second device 170 as shown in FIG. 1A. Accordingly, the device 800 can be implemented at or as at least a part of the above devices.

As shown, the device 800 includes a processor 810, a memory 820 coupled to the processor 810, a suitable transmitter (TX) and receiver (RX) 840 coupled to the processor 810, and a communication interface coupled to the TX/RX 840. The TX/RX 840 may also be known as a transceiver. The TX/RX 840 may be coupled to the processor 810 via any suitable interface configured for inputting signals into, and outputting signals from, the processor. The memory 820 stores at least a part of a program 830. The TX/RX 840 is for bidirectional communications. The TX/RX 840 has at least one antenna to facilitate communication, though in practice an access node or base station mentioned in this application may have several antennas. The communication interface may represent any interface that is necessary for communication with other network elements, such as an X2 or Xn interface for bidirectional communications between gNBs or eNBs, an S1 interface for communication between a Mobility Management Entity (MME) /Serving Gateway (S-GW) and the gNB or eNB, a Un interface for communication between the gNB or eNB and a relay node (RN) , or a Uu interface for communication between the gNB or eNB and a terminal device.

The program 830 is assumed to include program instructions that, when executed by the associated processor 810, enable the device 800 to operate in accordance with the embodiments of the present disclosure, as discussed herein with reference to FIGS. 1-7. The embodiments herein may be implemented by computer software executable by the processor 810 of the device 800, or by hardware, or by a combination of software and hardware. The processor 810 may be configured to implement various embodiments of the present disclosure. Furthermore, a combination of the processor 810 and memory 820 may form processing means 850 adapted to implement various embodiments of the present disclosure.

The memory 820 may be of any type suitable to the local technical network and may be implemented using any suitable data storage technology, such as a non-transitory computer readable storage medium, semiconductor based memory devices, magnetic memory devices and systems, optical memory devices and systems, fixed memory and removable memory, as non-limiting examples. While only one memory 820 is shown in the device 800, there may be several physically distinct memory modules in the device 800. The processor 810 may be of any type suitable to the local technical network, and may include one or more of general purpose computers, special purpose computers, microprocessors, digital signal processors (DSPs) and processors based on multicore processor architecture, as non-limiting examples. The device 800 may have multiple processors, such as an application specific integrated circuit chip that is slaved in time to a clock which synchronizes the main processor.

In some embodiments, a terminal device comprises circuitry configured to perform method 600.

In some embodiments, a network device comprises circuitry configured to perform method 700.

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

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

The present disclosure also provides at least one computer program product tangibly stored on a non-transitory computer readable storage medium. The computer program product includes computer-executable instructions, such as those included in program modules, being executed in a device on a target real or virtual processor, to carry out the process or method as described above with reference to any of FIGS. 3 to 14. Generally, program modules include routines, programs, libraries, objects, classes, components, data structures, or the like that perform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. The functionality of the program modules may be combined or split between program modules as desired in various embodiments. Machine-executable instructions for program modules may be executed within a local or distributed device. In a distributed device, program modules may be located in both local and remote storage media.

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

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

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

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

When the functions are implemented in the form of a software functional unit and sold or used as an independent product, the functions may be stored in a computer-readable storage medium. Based on such an understanding, the technical solutions of this application essentially, or the part contributing to the prior art, or some of the technical solutions may be implemented in a form of a software product. The software product is stored in a storage medium, and includes several instructions for instructing a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, or a network device) to perform all or some of the steps of the methods described in the embodiments of this application. The foregoing storage medium includes: any medium that can store program code, such as a USB flash drive, a removable hard disk, a read-only memory (Read-Only Memory, ROM) , a random access memory (Random Access Memory, RAM) , a magnetic disk, or an optical disc.

The foregoing descriptions are merely specific implementations of this application, but are not intended to limit the protection scope of this application. Any variation or replacement readily figured out by a person skilled in the art within the technical scope disclosed in this application shall fall within the protection scope of this application. Therefore, the protection scope of this application shall be subject to the protection scope of the claims.

Claims

A method comprising:

obtaining a mapping configuration comprising a set of mapping elements, wherein a mapping element of the set of mapping elements indicates mapping between at least one element in a first map and at least one element in a second map, and wherein the first map represents one of radio environment information and geometry information and the second map represents the other one of the radio environment information and the geometry information; and

determining, based on the mapping configuration, radio environment information associated with the first device.
The method of claim 1, wherein an element in the first map is identified by an index, and wherein receiving the mapping configuration comprises:

receiving the second map, and an element in the second map comprises an index of an element in the first map.
The method of claim 1 or 2, wherein:

the mapping configuration is represented as a third map having a same dimension as the second map, and

each mapping element in the third map comprises an index of an element in the first map.
The method of claim 1 or 2, wherein:

the number of mapping elements in the mapping configuration is the same as the number of elements in the second map, and

a data item in the mapping configuration is associated with the element in the second map and the data item comprises the element in the first map.
The method of any of claims 1 to 4, wherein at least one of the following:

at least one of the first map, the second map is represented as a matrix, a list, or an array; or

the mapping configuration is represented as a map, a matrix, a list or an array.
The method of claim any of claims 1 to 5, wherein:

an element in the first map represents a portion of the one of the radio environment information and the geometry information; and

an element in the second map represents a portion of the other one of the radio environment information and the geometry information.
The method of any of claims 1 to 6, wherein an element in the first map has the first number of dimensions, a mapping element in the mapping configuration has the second number of dimensions, and the second number is more than or equal to the first number.
The method of claim 1, wherein an element in the second map is mapped to a first plurality of elements in the first map.
The method of claim 8, wherein the mapping configuration is represented as a mapping list including the set of mapping elements, and wherein:

a mapping element in the mapping list is associated with the element in the second map that is mapped to the first plurality of elements in the first map; and

the mapping element in the mapping list indicates the number of elements of the first plurality of elements and includes indices of the first plurality of elements.
The method of claim 8, wherein the mapping configuration is represented as a fourth map and a first additional mapping list, and wherein:

the fourth map has a same dimension as the second map, and a mapping element in the fourth map that is associated with the element mapped to the first plurality of elements includes an index of one of the first plurality of elements; and

a mapping element in the first additional mapping list is associated with the element mapped to the first plurality of elements and includes indices of one or more remaining elements of the first plurality of elements.
The method of claim 8, wherein the mapping configuration is represented as more than one map, and a mapping element in one of the more than one maps includes an index of one of the first plurality of elements.
The method of claim 1, wherein the mapping configuration indicates that an element in the second map corresponds to one or more ranges in the first map.
The method of claim 12, wherein an element in the second map corresponds to a range in the first map, and wherein a mapping element of the set of mapping elements includes a starting position and a size of the range in the first map.
The method of claim 12, wherein an element in the second map corresponds to a plurality of ranges in the first map, and wherein a mapping element of the set of mapping elements includes the following:

the number of ranges of the plurality of ranges in the first map; and

a starting position and a size for a range of the plurality of ranges in the first map.
The method of claim 1, wherein the mapping configuration indicates that an element in the second map corresponds to a range for indices of elements in the first map.
The method of claim 15, wherein a mapping element of the set of mapping elements includes at least one of the following:

a first index of a starting element in the range for the indices and a second index of an ending element in the range for the indices; or

the first index and the number of indices in the range for the indices of elements in the first map.
The method of claim 1, wherein a mapping element of the set of mapping elements is a mapping pair associated with a first element in the first map and a second element in the second map.
The method of claim 17, wherein the mapping pair comprises one of the following:

the first element and the second element;

a first index of the first element and a second index of the second element;

the first element and the second index; or

the first index and the second element.
The method of any of claims 1 to 18, further comprising:

performing a sensing operation based on the radio environment information;

performing communication based on the radio environment information;

determining a set of beams for at least one of the sensing operation and the communication based on the radio environment information;

determining a transmission power for at least one of the sensing operation and the communication based on the radio environment information; or

determining a reference signal for at least one of the sensing operation and the communication based on the radio environment information.
The method of any of claims 1 to 19, wherein at least one of the mapping configuration, the first map or the second map is of a compression format.
The method of any of claims 1 to 20, wherein the mapping configuration is carried in at least one of the following:

synchronization signal block (SSB) signaling;

a first message specific to the first device;

a second message specific to a group of devices including the first device; or

a broadcast message.
The method of claims 1 to 21, wherein obtaining the mapping configuration comprises:

receiving, from a second device, the mapping configuration comprising the set of mapping elements.
A method comprising:

outputting a mapping configuration comprising a set of mapping elements, wherein a mapping element of the set of mapping elements indicates mapping between at least one element in a first map and at least one element in a second map, and wherein the first map represents one of radio environment information and geometry information and the second map represents the other one of the radio environment information and the geometry information.
The method of claim 23, wherein an element in the first map is identified by an index, and wherein outputting the mapping configuration comprises:

transmitting the second map, and an element in the second map comprises an index of an element in the first map.
The method of claim 23 or 24, wherein:

the mapping configuration is represented as a third map having a same dimension as the second map, and

each mapping element in the third map comprises an index of an element in the first map.
The method of claim 23 or 24, wherein:

the number of mapping elements in the mapping configuration is the same as the number of elements in the second map, and

a data item in the mapping configuration is associated with the element in the second map and the data item comprises the element in the first map.
The method of any of claims 23 to 26, wherein at least one of the following:

at least one of the first map, the second map is represented as a matrix, a list, or an array; or

the mapping configuration is represented as a map, a matrix, a list or an array.
The method of any of claims 23 to 27, wherein:

an element in the first map represents a portion of the one of the radio environment information and the geometry information; and

an element in the second map represents a portion of the other one of the radio environment information and the geometry information.
The method of any of claims 23 to 28, wherein an element in the first map has the first number of dimensions, a mapping element in the mapping configuration has the second number of dimensions, and the second number is more than or equal to the first number.
The method of claim 23, wherein an element in the second map is mapped to a first plurality of elements in the first map.
The method of claim 30, wherein the mapping configuration is represented as a mapping list including the set of mapping elements, and wherein:

a mapping element in the mapping list is associated with the element in the second map that is mapped to the first plurality of elements in the first map; and

the mapping element in the mapping list indicates the number of elements of the first plurality of elements and includes indices of the first plurality of elements.
The method of claim 30, wherein the mapping configuration is represented as a fourth map and a first additional mapping list, and wherein:

the fourth map has a same dimension as the second map, and a mapping element in the fourth map that is associated with the element mapped to the first plurality of elements includes an index of one of the first plurality of elements; and

a mapping element in the first additional mapping list is associated with the element mapped to the first plurality of elements and includes indices of one or more remaining elements of the first plurality of elements.
The method of claim 30, wherein the mapping configuration is represented as more than one map, and a mapping element in one of the more than one maps includes an index of one of the first plurality of elements.
The method of claim 23, wherein the mapping configuration indicates that an element in the second map corresponds to one or more ranges in the first map.
The method of claim 34, wherein an element in the second map corresponds to a range in the first map, and wherein a mapping element of the set of mapping elements includes a starting position and a size of the range in the first map.
The method of claim 34, wherein an element in the second map corresponds to a plurality of ranges in the first map, and wherein a mapping element of the set of mapping elements includes the following:

the number of ranges of the plurality of ranges in the first map;

a starting position and a size for a range of the plurality of ranges in the first map.
The method of claim 23, wherein the mapping configuration indicates that an element in the second map corresponds to a range for indices of elements in the first map.
The method of claim 37, wherein a mapping element of the set of mapping elements includes at least one of the following:

a first index of a starting element in the range for the indices and a second index of an ending element in the range for the indices; or

the first index and the number of indices in the range for the indices of elements in the first map.
The method of claim 23, wherein a mapping element of the set of mapping elements is a mapping pair associated with a first element in the first map and a second element in the second map.
The method of claim 39, wherein the mapping pair includes one of the following:

the first element and the second element;

a first index of the first element and a second index of the second element;

the first element and the second index; or

the first index and the second element.
The method of any of claims 23 to 40, wherein at least one of the mapping configuration, the first map or the second map is of a compression format.
The method of any of claims 23 to 41, wherein the mapping configuration is carried in at least one of the following:

synchronization signal block (SSB) signaling;

a first message specific to the first device;

a second message specific to a group of devices including the first device; or

a broadcast message.
A first device comprising:

an interface; and

a processor communicatively coupled with the interface,

wherein the processor is configured to:

obtain a mapping configuration comprising a set of mapping elements, wherein a mapping element of the set of mapping elements indicates mapping between at least one element in a first map and at least one element in a second map, and wherein the first map represents one of radio environment information and geometry information and the second map represents the other one of the radio environment information and the geometry information; and

determine, based on the mapping configuration, radio environment information associated with the first device.
A second device comprising:

an interface; and

a processor communicatively coupled with the interface,

wherein the processor is configured to:

output, via the interface, a mapping configuration comprising a set of mapping elements, wherein a mapping element of the set of mapping elements indicates mapping between at least one element in a first map and at least one element in a second map, and wherein the first map represents one of radio environment information and geometry information and the second map represents the other one of the radio environment information and the geometry information.
A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising computer program stored thereon, the computer program, when executed on at least one processor, causing the at least one processor to perform the method of any of claims 1-42.
An apparatus comprising at least one processor configured to cause the apparatus to perform the method of any of claims 1-42.
A computer program product comprising computer-executable instructions which, when executed, cause an apparatus to perform the method of any of claims 1-42.