WO2025060057A1

WO2025060057A1 - Frequency hopping of positioning reference signal

Info

Publication number: WO2025060057A1
Application number: PCT/CN2023/120661
Authority: WO
Inventors: Hyun-Su Cha; Gilsoo LEE; Tao Tao
Original assignee: Nokia Shanghai Bell Co Ltd; Nokia Solutions and Networks Oy; Nokia Technologies Oy
Current assignee: Nokia Shanghai Bell Co Ltd; Nokia Solutions and Networks Oy; Nokia Technologies Oy
Priority date: 2023-09-22
Filing date: 2023-09-22
Publication date: 2025-03-27
Anticipated expiration: 2026-03-22

Abstract

Example embodiments of the present disclosure relate to devices, methods, apparatuses and computer readable storage medium for frequency hopping. In a method, a first device receives, from a second device, a first configuration of at least one positioning reference signal (PRS). The first device transmits, to the second device, at least one indication of at least one requested configuration for at least one PRS, based on at least one measurement of the at least one PRS, wherein the at least one indication of the at least one requested configuration comprises at least one requested frequency hopping parameter of the at least one PRS. The first device receives, from the second device, a second configuration of the at least one PRS, wherein the second configuration comprises at least one frequency hopping parameter of the at least one PRS.

Description

FREQUENCY HOPPING OF POSITIONING REFERENCE SIGNAL

FIELDS

Various example embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to the field of telecommunication and in particular, to methods, devices, apparatuses and computer readable storage medium for frequency hopping of a positioning reference signal (PRS) .

BACKGROUND

Downlink (DL) positioning reference signal (PRS) frequency hopping (FH) may be used for positioning of Reduced Capability (RedCap) user equipment (UE) . For DL PRS FH a radio frequency (RF) bandwidth of the UE needs to be limited in one “hop” , but the UE is allowed to stitch (for example, concatenate) the DL signal over multiple PRS frequency hops together to provide an effective wide bandwidth for improved timing estimation accuracy. There may be a time gap between DL PRS frequency hops and there may be a small overlap in a frequency domain between hops such that the hops may be stitched together. There is a need for a proper configuration for DL PRS frequency hopping to improve frequency hopping performance.

SUMMARY

In a first aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a method. The method comprises at a first device, receiving, from a second device, a first configuration of at least one positioning reference signal (PRS) ; transmitting, to the second device, at least one indication of at least one requested configuration for at least one PRS, based on at least one measurement of the at least one PRS, wherein the at least one indication of the at least one requested configuration comprises at least one requested frequency hopping parameter of the at least one PRS; and receiving, from the second device, a second configuration of the at least one PRS, wherein the second configuration comprises at least one frequency hopping parameter of the at least one PRS.

In a second aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a method. The method comprises at a second device, transmitting, to a first device, a first configuration of at least one positioning reference signal (PRS) ; receiving, from the first device, at least one indication of at least one requested configuration for the at least one PRS, wherein the at least one indication of the at least requested configuration comprises at least one requested frequency hopping parameter of the at least one PRS; and transmitting, to the first device, based on the at least one indication of the at least one requested configuration, a second configuration of the at least one PRS, wherein the second configuration comprises at least one frequency hopping parameter of the at least one PRS.

In a third aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a first apparatus. The first apparatus comprises means for receiving, from a second device, a first configuration of at least one positioning reference signal (PRS) ; means for transmitting, to the second device, at least one indication of at least one requested configuration for at least one PRS, based on at least one measurement of the at least one PRS, wherein the at least one indication of the at least one requested configuration comprises at least one requested frequency hopping parameter of the at least one PRS; and means for receiving, from the second device, a second configuration of the at least one PRS, wherein the second configuration comprises at least one frequency hopping parameter of the at least one PRS.

In a fourth aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a second apparatus. The first apparatus comprises means for transmitting, to a first device, a first configuration of at least one positioning reference signal (PRS) ; means for receiving, from the first device, at least one indication of at least one requested configuration for the at least one PRS, wherein the at least one indication of the at least requested configuration comprises at least one requested frequency hopping parameter of the at least one PRS; and means for transmitting, to the first device, based on the at least one indication of the at least one requested configuration, a second configuration of the at least one PRS, wherein the second configuration comprises at least one frequency hopping parameter of the at least one PRS.

In a fifth aspect of the present disclosure, there is provided a computer readable medium. The computer readable medium comprises instructions stored thereon for causing an apparatus to perform at least the method according to the first aspect or the second aspect.

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

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

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

FIG. 1A to FIG. 1C illustrate example DL PRS frequency hops within a measurement gap instance;

FIG. 2 illustrates an example communication environment in which example embodiments of the present disclosure can be implemented;

FIG. 3 illustrates a signaling diagram for an example communication process according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIGS. 4A and 4B illustrate PRS frequency hopping across 4 PRS frequency hops based on 2 repetitions of a single DL PRS resource;

FIG. 4C illustrates an example of the two different PRS resources transmitted from different transmission reception points (TRPs) ;

FIG. 5 illustrates a flowchart of an example process of frequency hopping based on coverage control in accordance with some example embodiments of the present disclosure;

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

FIG. 7 illustrates a flowchart of an example method implemented at the second device in accordance with some example embodiments of the present disclosure;

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

FIG. 9 illustrates a block diagram of an example computer readable medium in accordance with some example embodiments of the present disclosure.

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

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

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

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

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. 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 submitted that it is within the knowledge of one skilled in the art to affect such feature, structure, or characteristic in connection with other embodiments whether or not explicitly described.

It shall be understood that although the terms “first, ” “second, ” …, etc. in front of noun (s) and the like 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 and they do not limit the order of the noun (s) . 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.

As used herein, “at least one of the following: <a list of two or more elements>” and “at least one of <a list of two or more elements>” and similar wording, where the list of two or more elements are joined by “and” or “or” , mean at least any one of the elements, or at least any two or more of the elements, or at least all the elements.

As used herein, unless stated explicitly, performing a step “in response to A” does not indicate that the step is performed immediately after “A” occurs and one or more intervening steps may be included.

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 in this application, the term “circuitry” may refer to one or more or all of the following:

(a) hardware-only circuit implementations (such as implementations in only analog and/or digital circuitry) and

(b) combinations of hardware circuits and software, such as (as applicable) :

(i) a combination of analog and/or digital hardware circuit (s) with software/firmware and

(ii) any portions of hardware processor (s) with software (including digital signal processor (s) ) , software, and memory (ies) that work together to cause an apparatus, such as a mobile phone or server, to perform various functions) and

(c) hardware circuit (s) and or processor (s) , such as a microprocessor (s) or a portion of a microprocessor (s) , that requires software (e.g., firmware) for operation, but the software may not be present when it is not needed for operation.

This definition of circuitry applies to all uses of this term in this application, including in any claims. As a further example, as used in this application, the term circuitry also covers an implementation of merely a hardware circuit or processor (or multiple processors) or portion of a hardware circuit or processor and its (or their) accompanying software and/or firmware. The term circuitry also covers, for example and if applicable to the particular claim element, a baseband integrated circuit or processor integrated circuit for a mobile device or a similar integrated circuit in server, a cellular network device, or other computing or network device.

As used herein, the term “communication network” refers to a network following any suitable communication standards, such as New Radio (NR) , Long Term Evolution (LTE) , LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) , Wideband Code Division Multiple Access (WCDMA) , High-Speed Packet Access (HSPA) , Narrow Band Internet of Things (NB-IoT) and so on. Furthermore, the communications between a terminal device and a network device in the communication network may be performed according to any suitable generation communication protocols, including, but not limited to, the first generation (1G) , the second generation (2G) , 2.5G, 2.75G, the third generation (3G) , the fourth generation (4G) , 4.5G, the fifth generation (5G) , the sixth generation (6G) communication protocols, and/or any other protocols either currently known or to be developed in the future. Embodiments of the present disclosure may be applied in various communication systems. Given the rapid development in communications, there will of course also be future type communication technologies and systems with which the present disclosure may be embodied. It should not be seen as limiting the scope of the present disclosure to only the aforementioned system.

As used herein, the term “network device” refers to a node in a communication network via which a terminal device accesses the network and receives services therefrom. The network device may refer to a base station (BS) or an access point (AP) , for example, a node B (NodeB or NB) , an evolved NodeB (eNodeB or eNB) , an NR NB (also referred to as a gNB) , a Remote Radio Unit (RRU) , a radio header (RH) , a remote radio head (RRH) , a relay, an Integrated Access and Backhaul (IAB) node, a low power node such as a femto, a pico, a non-terrestrial network (NTN) or non-ground network device such as a satellite network device, a low earth orbit (LEO) satellite and a geosynchronous earth orbit (GEO) satellite, an aircraft network device, and so forth, depending on the applied terminology and technology. In some example embodiments, radio access network (RAN) split architecture comprises a Centralized Unit (CU) and a Distributed Unit (DU) at an IAB donor node. An IAB node comprises a Mobile Terminal (IAB-MT) part that behaves like a UE toward the parent node, and a DU part of an IAB node behaves like a base station toward the next-hop IAB node.

The term “terminal device” refers to any end device that may be capable of wireless communication. By way of example rather than limitation, a terminal device may also be referred to as a communication device, user equipment (UE) , a Subscriber Station (SS) , a Portable Subscriber Station, a Mobile Station (MS) , or an Access Terminal (AT) . The terminal device may include, but not limited to, a mobile phone, a cellular phone, a smart phone, voice over IP (VoIP) phones, wireless local loop phones, a tablet, a wearable terminal device, a personal digital assistant (PDA) , portable computers, desktop computer, image capture terminal devices such as digital cameras, gaming terminal devices, music storage and playback appliances, vehicle-mounted wireless terminal devices, wireless endpoints, mobile stations, laptop-embedded equipment (LEE) , laptop-mounted equipment (LME) , USB dongles, smart devices, wireless customer-premises equipment (CPE) , an Internet of Things (IoT) device, a watch or other wearable, a head-mounted display (HMD) , a vehicle, a drone, a medical device and applications (e.g., remote surgery) , an industrial device and applications (e.g., a robot and/or other wireless devices operating in an industrial and/or an automated processing chain contexts) , a consumer electronics device, a device operating on commercial and/or industrial wireless networks, and the like. The terminal device may also correspond to a Mobile Termination (MT) part of an IAB node (e.g., a relay node) . In the following description, the terms “terminal device” , “communication device” , “terminal” , “user equipment” and “UE” may be used interchangeably.

As used herein, the term “resource, ” “transmission resource, ” “resource block, ” “physical resource block” (PRB) , “uplink resource, ” or “downlink resource” may refer to any resource for performing a communication, for example, a communication between a terminal device and a network device, such as a resource in time domain, a resource in frequency domain, a resource in space domain, a resource in code domain, or any other combination of the time, frequency, space and/or code domain resource enabling a communication, and the like. In the following, unless explicitly stated, a resource in both frequency domain and time domain will be used as an example of a transmission resource for describing some example embodiments of the present disclosure. It is noted that example embodiments of the present disclosure are equally applicable to other resources in other domains.

Release-18 (Rel-18) NR positioning may support RedCap UE positioning. For support of positioning for UEs with RedCap capabilities, Frequency Hopping (FH) is needed for reception of a DL PRS beyond maximum RedCap UE bandwidth. Also, transmission of a UL sounding reference signal (SRS) for positioning with FH is necessary so that the gNB can perform measurement from a wideband SRS beyond the maximum RedCap UE bandwidth. Moreover, radio resource management (RRM) requirements for positioning including RRM measurements and procedures for RedCap UEs needed to be specified with frequency hopping.

For DL PRS Rx hopping, a single instance of a measurement gap is used for receiving all the hops for DL PRS with Rx frequency hopping. FIG. 1A illustrates example DL PRS frequency hops within a measurement gap instance. As shown in FIG. 1A, three PRS frequency hops including a PRS frequency hop #1 120, a PRS frequency hop #2 122 and a PRS frequency hop #3 124 are within a measurement gap. It is to be noted that the reported measurement is not assumed to be based on only a single instance of a measurement gap. The UE reports the positioning measurement based on a single or multiple instances within a measurement gap.

For the positioning of RedCap UEs, for the DL PRS reception and UL SRS transmission, the maximum hopping bandwidth for a single hop is 20MHz for frequency range 1 (FR1) and 100MHz for frequency range 2 (FR2) . The main goal of DL PRS frequency hopping for positioning is to enable a UE to perform PRS measurements on these reduced RF BWs in one hop but, after the receptions over the multiple hops, the UE is enabled to measure a larger effective PRS bandwidth.

In general, switching time is needed between two frequency hops. For RedCap UE DL PRS reception (Rx) frequency hopping, the switching time may be 70us or 140us for FR1 as the starting point. PRS Rx frequency hopping range may be up to 100MHz. For DL PRS Rx frequency hopping, the switching time may be 35us, 70us or 140us for FR2 as the starting point. PRS Rx frequency hopping range may be up to 400MHz. In case that multiple values are agreed, a specific value for frequency hopping may be applied depending on capability of the UE.

Therefore, a UE may be able to perform measurement DL PRS frequency hops with 70 us RF switching time between two DL PRS frequency hops. Thus, the minimum switching time (for example, RF switching to measure different frequency hop) may be 70 us for FR1. Then, the minimum time gap between frequency hop measurement may be two Orthogonal Frequency Domain Multiplexing (OFDM) symbols in case of 30 kHz subcarrier spacing.

Further, additional switching time may be needed. For example, for UL SRS for positioning transmission (Tx) frequency hopping, the switching time before the first hop and after the last hop may be defined for the SRS for positioning with Tx frequency hopping. It may be needed to evaluate the applicable switching time (if any) required ahead of the first hop and after the last hop, considering potential differences (in e.g. subcarrier spacing (SCS) , bandwidth, cyclic prefix (CP) ) between initial/active UL bandwidth part (BWP) and UL SRS for positioning Tx frequency hopping.

The UE may perform DL PRS frequency hopping within a single DL PRS resource. FIG. 1B illustrates the DL PRS frequency hopping within a DL PRS resource. In this example, a 12-symbol PRS resource 132 is necessary to support measurement of three PRS frequency hops including the PRS frequency hop #1 120, the PRS frequency hop #2 122, and the PRS frequency hop #3 124. In this example, switching time 126 is two symbols.

An issue arises in the case that the 12-symbol PRS resource is originally intended for the UE to perform measurement across 12 symbols of the PRS from the configured 12-symbol PRS resources. The 12 symbol configurations of a PRS resource are used to increase power gain by receiving the same PRS sequence multiple times across multiple symbols within the PRS resource. However, if the PRS frequency hopping is implemented with the switching time 126 of 2 symbols, coverage performance is degraded since the RedCap UE may receive each frequency hop by using only 2 symbols.

The coverage performance here means the distance between the UE and the gNB where the UE may perform measurement properly. For example, there may be a RSRP measurement requirement on DL PRS such as -5 dB. Then, at least the UE needs to attain -5 dB of RSRP measurement from a DL PRS resource. For the DL PRS, the UE needs to receive the DL PRS transmitted from a neighbor cell as well as a serving cell, so the distance to receive the DL PRS may be longer than the distance to receive data from a serving cell. In consideration of the longer distance between a UE and a TRP, the LMF may configure a DL PRS resource composed of many symbols such as 12 symbols and/or a repetition across slots. In the frequency hopping operation, however, the UE may not have a chance to receive multiple times to achieve the requirement.

However, three PRS frequency hops may not be enough to achieve wideband measurements. At least four frequency hops may be needed to provide a measurement result of near 80 MHz bandwidth. FIG. 1C illustrates example of the DL PRS frequency hopping across four PRS frequency hops within a DL PRS resource. In this case, the UE may only have a chance to perform measurement for each frequency hop at one symbol within a PRS resource as the UE still needs switching time 140, 142, 144 and 146 of 2 symbols.

The repetition feature may be utilized to mitigate this issue. However, a location management function (LMF) is still unable to know the proper configuration for DL PRS frequency hopping considering the coverage. In particular, if the UE measures PRS transmitted from different TRPs, it is challenging to determine a proper configuration for DL PRS frequency hopping since many TRPs may not be located close to the target UE. Therefore, a coverage issue for DL PRS frequency hopping need to be addressed.

Example embodiments of the present disclosure propose a frequency hopping scheme. With this scheme, a first configuration of a PRS is received by a first device from a second device. The first configuration may comprise positioning assistance information based on which the first device may perform reference signal received power (RSRP) measurements. Then, an indication of a requested configuration for PRS is transmitted from the first device to the second device. After that, a second configuration comprising a frequency hopping parameter of the PRS is transmitted from the second device to the first device.

In this case, the second configuration related to the frequency hopping parameter may be used by the first device. Thus, frequency hopping of a PRS (also called PRS frequency hopping) may be performed based on a request from the first device, which may be more effective and efficient, thereby improving the positioning performance.

FIG. 2 illustrates an example communication environment 200 in which example embodiments of the present disclosure can be implemented.

The communication environment 200 comprises a first device 210 which may operate as a terminal device such as a UE. In an NR positioning scenario, the first device 210 may operate as a RedCap UE. The first device 210 may communicate with a second device 220 which may operate as a location device or a location server such as an LMF. The second device 220 may provide positioning-related services to the first device 210. The second device 220 may be implemented by a physical or virtual device. The second device 220 may be implemented as a hardware, firmware, and/or algorithm-based software component within any of the network nodes (such as the terminal device, the base station, and/or the like) . In some example embodiments, the second device 220 may be physically integrated into or implemented as a part of an access network device (such as a gNB) or a core network device.

As shown in FIG. 2, the communication environment 200 further comprises a third device 230 which may operate as a network device such as a gNB. The third device 230 may communicate with the first device 210 and the second device 220. The third device 230 may serve one or more cells and/or manage one or more transmission reception points (TRPs) where one cell or TRP may enable one or more beams.

It is to be understood that the number and types of devices are shown in FIG. 2 for the purpose of illustration without suggesting any limitation. For example, only for illustration, the second device 220 is shown to be physically separate from the third device 230. In some example embodiments, the second device 220 may be collocated with the third device 230 or physically integrated into or implemented as a part of the third device 230.

In some example embodiments, a link from the second device 220 or the third device 230 to the first device 210 may be referred to as a downlink, and a link from the first device 210 to the second device 220 or the third device 230 may be referred to as an uplink. In DL, the second device 220 or the third device 230 is a transmitting (TX) device (or a transmitter) and the first device 210 is a receiving (RX) device (or a receiver) . In UL, the first device 210 is a TX device (or a transmitter) and the second device 220 or the third device 230 is an RX device (or a receiver) .

In the following, for the purpose of illustration, some example embodiments are described with the first device 210 operating as a terminal device, the second device 220 operating as a location device and the third device 230 operating as a network device. However, in some example embodiments, operations described with respect to a terminal device may be implemented at a network device or other devices, and operations described with respect to a network device may be implemented at a terminal device or other devices.

Communications in the communication environment 200 may be implemented according to any proper communication protocol (s) , comprising, but not limited to, cellular communication protocols of the first generation (1G) , the second generation (2G) , the third generation (3G) , the fourth generation (4G) , the fifth generation (5G) , the sixth generation (6G) , and the like, wireless local network communication protocols such as Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11 and the like, and/or any other protocols currently known or to be developed in the future. Moreover, the communication may utilize any proper wireless communication technology, comprising but not limited to: Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) , Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) , Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) , Frequency Division Duplex (FDD) , Time Division Duplex (TDD) , Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) , Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple (OFDM) , Discrete Fourier Transform spread OFDM (DFT-s-OFDM) and/or any other technologies currently known or to be developed in the future.

In the communication environment 200, the first device 210 may be positioned based on a PRS from the third device 230. Frequency hopping of the PRS is used for improving the positioning performance. In various example embodiments, the first device 210 may request a configuration related to frequency hopping parameters to the second device 220. Then, the second device 220 provides a configuration of PRS to the first device 210 based on the frequency hopping parameters requested by the first device 210. Some example implementations will be described below with reference to FIG. 3.

FIG. 3 illustrates a signaling diagram for an example communication process 300 in the communication environment 200 according to some example embodiments of the present disclosure.

As shown in FIG. 3, the second device 220 may transmit (310) , to the first device 210, a first configuration of at least one positioning reference signal (PRS) . The first configuration may comprise positioning assistance information or data broadcast from the second device 220 in system information (for example, a positioning system information block, or POS-SIB) .

After the first device 210 receives the first configuration from the second device 220, the first device 210 may perform at least one measurement of the at least one PRS. For example, the first device 210 may obtain PRS configuration (such as the positioning assistance information or data) from the first configuration, for example, before connecting to an RRC_CONNECTED mode. In an example, based on the first configuration, the first device 210 may perform RSRP measurements for one or more PRSs which may be transmitted by one or more TRPs. For example, the second device 220 may configure multiple PRS resources where each PRS resource is associated with a TRP. A PRS resource may comprise a time and frequency resource for transmission and reception of a PRS. In an example, in the case that the first device 210 operates as a RedCap UE, the first device 210 may measure RSRP of a DL PRS for a specific DL PRS resource based on a 20 MHz bandwidth of the DL PRS, since a maximum bandwidth supported by the RedCap UE is 20 MHz.

In some example embodiments, the RSRP measurements may be performed for at least one of a cell, a transmission reception point, a beam, a group of cells, or a group of transmission reception points. For example, it is assumed that the first device 210 is configured with a 12-symbol PRS resource transmitted from a specific entity (for example, a cell, a transmission reception point, a beam, a group of cells, or a group of transmission reception points) via broadcast signaling such as POS-SIB.

In some example embodiments, the measurements may be performed based on an outside of a measurement gap configuration or within a positioning processing window. For example, the first device 210 may perform PRS measurement based on a bandwidth of 20 MHz outside of the measurement gap configuration or within the positioning processing window. Measurement Gap is a type of time window, which can be periodic. In this time window, the first device 210 is not required to monitor a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) and transmit any UL signals/channels with the third device 230, and the first device 210 may focus on performing measurement only. The positioning processing window, also known as PRS processing window, is a type of window to support the first device to perform PRS measurement. This window is configured by the gNB (or the third device 230) and priority of the PRS reception is configured. The first device 210 needs to perform PRS measurement within this window by following the configured priority. For example, if the PRS reception is configured as a low priority than other downlink reference signals or channels, the first device 210 needs to receive other downlink reference signals and channels within the positioning processing window.

In some example embodiments, based on a respective RSRP of a part of symbols or resource blocks of the at least one PRS, a positioning requirement, and/or an RSRP measurement requirement of a frequency hop, the first device 210 may determine at least one indication of at least one requested configuration which comprises one or more frequency hopping parameters. Then, the first device 210 may transmit (330) , to the second device 220, at least one indication of at least one requested configuration for at least one PRS, based on at least one measurement of the at least one PRS. The at least one indication of the at least one requested configuration comprises at least one requested frequency hopping parameter of the at least one PRS.

The frequency hopping parameters may comprise any parameters related to frequency hopping. In some example embodiments, the frequency hopping parameters may comprise a number of symbols for a frequency hop. For example, the first device 210 may determine a number of symbols per frequency hop that is expected or required based on the RSRP or another metric related to the received signal strength such as SNR and SINR, for example, to satisfy a minimum requirement on RSRP (for example, -5 dB) . In some example embodiments, the first device 210 may determine at least one PRS resource for the at least one PRS based on the first configuration. The first device 210 may perform RSRP measurements for a respective PRS of the at least one PRS on a plurality of symbols of a respective PRS resource of the at least one PRS resource without frequency hopping. The first device 210 may determine the number of symbols per frequency hop based on a comparison of results of the RSRP measurements and an RSRP measurement requirement.

By way of example, for the PRS resource, the first device 210 may perform the RSRP measurements for various cases such as 1-symbol, 2-symbol, 4-symbol, 8-symbol, and/or 12-symbol. For example, if the first device 210 is configured with a 12-symbol PRS resource, the first device 210 is supposed to perform RSRP measurement for the received signals of 12 symbols. However, the first device 210 tries to obtain RSRP measurement for various cases within the DL PRS resource. In an example, the first device 210 may determine that 4-symbol per frequency hop meets the minimum RSRP requirement.

In some example embodiments, the frequency hopping parameters may comprise further a number of frequency hops and/or a number of symbols of at least one PRS resource associated with the at least one PRS. In some example embodiments, the first device 210 may determine a number of frequency hops based on at least one of a positioning requirement or the capability of the first device for frequency hopping of the at least one PRS. For example, the first device 210 may use its capability for DL PRS frequency hopping such as the maximum number of frequency hops and RF switching delay either or both of FR1 and FR2 to determine the number of frequency hops. In some example embodiments, the first device 210 may determine a number of repetitions for at least one PRS resource for the at least one PRS based on the number of symbols per frequency hop and the number of frequency hops.

By way of example, the first device 210 may need 4 frequency hops to achieve accurate positioning. In case that a 12-symbol PRS resource is configured and 4-symbol per frequency hop is needed, the first device 210 may determine that the 4 frequency hops within a 12-symbol PRS resource with two repetitions of the PRS resource may be needed for the PRS frequency hopping.

In some example embodiments, the first device 210 may determine at least one indication of at least one requested configuration based on a number of transmission reception points. For example, the first device 210 may determine a requested configuration (including one or more frequency hopping parameters) per a TRP and indicates a plurality of requested configuration for a plurality of TRPs to the second device 220.

In some example embodiments, the at least one requested configuration may comprise a plurality of requested configurations associated with at least one of a plurality of cells, a plurality of transmission reception points, or a plurality of beams. A requested configuration of the plurality of requested configurations is associated with at least one of a cell of the plurality of cells, a transmission reception point of the plurality of transmission reception points, or a beam of the plurality of beams.

In some example embodiments, the at least one indication of at least one requested configuration may be determined by the first device 210 in response to a request from the second device 220. For example, as shown in FIG. 3, the second device 220 may transmit (320) , to the first device 210, at least one request for at least one frequency hopping parameter of the at least one PRS. For example, the second device 220 may request the first device 210 to provide a message containing the required or preferred configuration for DL PRS frequency hopping. Then, the first device 210 may need to send a message to the second device 220 to request a proper configuration for DL PRS frequency hopping satisfying a requirement, for example, defined in the third generation Partnership Project (3GPP) standards.

In some example embodiments, the at least one request from the second device 220 may comprise a request for a number of frequency hops, a request for a number of symbols of at least one PRS resource associated with the at least one PRS, a request for a number of symbols for a frequency hop, a request to indicate whether a repetition for the at least one PRS resource is required, a request for a number of repetitions for the at least one PRS resource, and/or a request to provide the at least one frequency hopping parameter of the at least one PRS for at least one of a cell, a transmission reception point, a beam, a group of cells or a group of transmission reception points. Furthermore, the second device 220 may request the first device 210 to indicate whether repetition configuration is necessary or not. Accordingly, the first device 210 may transmit the indication of the requested configuration including the corresponding frequency hopping parameter (s) .

In some example embodiments, the second device 220 may request the first device 210 to provide the required configuration parameters per group of TRPs/cells. In some example embodiments, the at least one requested configuration may comprise a requested configuration associated with at least one of a group of cells, a group of transmission reception points, or a group of PRS resources for PRSs transmitted from a group of transmission reception points, and the group of cells, the group of transmission reception points, or the group of PRS resources for PRSs requires a same number of symbols per frequency hop. For example, the second device 220 may request the first device 210 to provide information on different TRP groups where each group needs the same or similar level of coverages.

In some example embodiments, the second device 220 may transmit, to the first device 210, at least one criterion for determining the at least one of the group of cells or the group of transmission reception points. For example, the criterion may be related to how to determine the group of cells or transmission reception points. For example, multiple RSRP ranges (such as N RSRP ranges) may be provided from the second device 220 to the first device 210, so that the first device 210 may determine N groups based on the RSRP measurements from multiple PRS resources from multiple TRPs/cells.

For a case of more than one group of PRS resources, each group of PRS resources may correspond to one requested configuration. The first device 210 may report multiple groups of PRS resources transmitted from multiple TRPs to the second device 220. Each group of PRS resources transmitted from multiple TRPs requires the same number of OFDM symbols per frequency hop in consideration of the coverage performance. For a case of more than one TRP, each TRP may correspond to one requested configuration, and the first device 210 may report multiple requested configurations of TRPs to the second device 220.

In some example embodiments, the at least one indication of the at least one requested configuration may comprise a number of frequency hops, a number of symbols of at least one PRS resource associated with the at least one PRS, a number of symbols for a frequency hop, an indication whether a repetition for the at least one PRS resource is required, a number of repetitions for the at least one PRS resource, an identification of at least one of a cell, a transmission reception point, a transmission beam of a transmission reception point, a reception beam of the first device, a PRS resource, a group of cells, or a group of transmission reception points, and/or a capability of the first device for frequency hopping of the at least one PRS.

In some example embodiments, the at least one indication of the at least one requested configuration may comprise respective symbol offsets for a plurality of repetitions for the at least one PRS resource. For example, the first device 210 may request the second device 220 to provide a different symbol offset of a repeated PRS resource, so that the symbol offset of a specific DL PRS resource may be different in the individual repetitions. The first device 210 may request a repetition configuration for a specific DL PRS resource except for other PRS resources within the same PRS resource set. The repetition configuration may be implemented per PRS resource. Such repetitions per PRS resource may be more flexible and efficient.

FIGS. 4A and 4B illustrates PRS frequency hopping across 4 PRS frequency hops based on 2 repetitions of a single DL PRS resource without and with an offset respectively. In this example, there are 4 PRS frequency hops including a PRS frequency hop #1 402, a PRS frequency hop #2 404, a PRS frequency hop #3 406, a PRS frequency hop #4 408.

In case that the second device 220 configures multiple repetitions of a PRS resource set, and all PRS resources included in the PRS resource set are repeated and the time offset of each PRS resource may be the same. However, for the PRS frequency hopping, an asymmetric time offset of a single PRS resource may occur at the different repetition occasion. As shown in FIG. 4A, there is a gap 412 with 4 symbols between the frequency hop #2 404 and the PRS frequency hop#3 406, which is larger than a gap 410 with 2 symbols between the PRS frequency hop#1 402 and the PRS frequency hop#2 404. This may result in an unnecessary additional delay to complete the frequency hopping over the four frequency hops, which is 2 symbols in this case.

In some example embodiments, each specific DL PRS resource may be determined by the first device 210 to correspond to a different symbol offset. As shown in FIG. 4B, a time offset 422 (which may be indicated by a symbol offset) of a PRS resource #1 420 is 2 symbols, so that the transmission of the PRS resource #1 420 starts after the offset 422. However, after a slot boundary 424, a time offset of a repetition 426 of the PRS resource #1 420 at a next slot is 0. In this way, the delay for the frequency hopping may be reduced.

In some example embodiments, the repetitions may use a same frequency resource or different frequency resources. For example, if the PRS is transmitted based on a wideband for the first device 210, the first device 210 may only receive a part of the bandwidth, which may correspond to a frequency hop. If the PRS is transmitted targeting only the first device 210, the repetition of RPS resource may use different frequency resources to optimize the frequency resource and avoid resource inefficiency.

In some cases, the first device 210 may need a different number of symbols per hop depending on the Rx beam direction. In some example embodiments, the requested configuration may comprise Quasi-Colocation (QCL) information which may be associated with beam directions. The QCL information may indicate a QCL type-D. Therefore, by transmitting the information on the number of symbols per hop per QCL type-D from the first device 210 to the second device 220, the second device 220 may understand the required number of symbols per hop for a specific Rx beam.

In some example embodiments, the at least one indication of the at least one requested configuration may comprise an adjusted symbol offset for the at least one PRS resource. In some case, the first device 210 may request adjustment of the time offset of an PRS resource that is already configured.

FIG. 4C illustrates an example of the two different PRS resources transmitted from different TRPs. In this example, it is assumed that the PRS resource #2 430 is transmitted from another TRP, and the time offset of the PRS resource #2 430 is already configured.

The first device 210 may need to perform the PRS measurement for multiple cells and TRPs, so the required number of symbols may be different between different DL PRS resources transmitted from different TRPs. Since the second device 220 would not be able to know the symbol index (es) used for RF switching timing at the first device 210 side. The RF switching during the PRS frequency hopping may be up to implementations of the first device 210. For example, as shown in FIG. 4C, the second device 220 may provide a configuration for PRS resource #2 430, where the PRS resource#2 430 has 6 symbols and the starting symbol location of DL PRS resource #2 430 with a symbol offset 422 of 2 symbols is aligned with the DL PRS resource #1 420.

Based on this configuration, the first device 210 is not able to perform PRS frequency hopping for the PRS resource #2 430, as it measures the PRS frequency hop of the PRS resource #1 420 for the first four consecutive symbols and performs RF switching during the next two symbols. Consequently, there is no chance to measure two PRS frequency hops of the PRS resource #2 430.

In this case, the first device 210 may request an adjust symbol offset 432 (i.e., 4 symbols) for the PRS resource #2 430 which is moved to a location 434. Based on the requested configuration for the PRS resource #2, the PRS frequency hopping may be performed effectively and efficiently.

Still with reference to FIG. 3, after the second device 220 receives the at least one indication of the at least one requested configuration from the first device 210, the second device 220 may transmit (340) , to the first device 210, based on the at least one indication of the at least one requested configuration, a second configuration of the at least one PRS. The second configuration comprises at least one frequency hopping parameter of the at least one PRS which may be determined based on the requested frequency hopping parameter indicated by the first device 210. In some example embodiments, the second device 220 may transmit the second configuration to the first device 210 via dedicated signaling. The dedicated signaling may be UE-specific signaling targeting a specific target UE.

In some example embodiments, the second device 220 may also transmit (350) , to the third device 230, the second configuration of the at least one PRS. Accordingly, the third device 230 causes the at least one PRS to be transmitted towards the first device 210. For example, the third device 230 may cases the PRS to be transmitted from the requested cell (s) or TRP (s) or beam towards the first device 210.

In some example embodiments, the first device 210 may perform DL PRS frequency hopping and report obtained measurements to the second device 220. For example, the first device 210 may perform positioning measurements, and report the measurements to the second device 220, so that the second device 220 may estimate the location of the first device 210.

An example frequency hopping based on a coverage control process will be described in detail below with reference to FIG. 5.

FIG. 5 illustrates a flowchart of an example process 500 of frequency hopping based on coverage control in accordance with some example embodiments of the present disclosure. In this example, a UE 502 operates as an example implementation of the first device 210 in FIG. 2, and a gNB 504 operates as an example implementation of the third device 230 in FIG. 2. An LMF 506 operates as an example implementation of the second device 220.

As shown in FIG. 5, in the process 500, at 510, the LMF 508 may broadcast positioning assistance data via a system information block. At 512, the UE 502 may transmit its capability to the gNB 504 and the LMF 506. At 514, the UE 502 may perform PRS measurements based on the positioning assistance data. At 516, the LMF 506 may request preferred configurations for DL PRS frequency hopping and grouping information on TRPs, and/or PRS resources requiring the same coverage.

At 518, the UE 502 may determine coverage and a request message. Then, at 520, the UE 502 may provide the request message to the LMF 506. In particular, at 522, the UE 502 may transmit the required number of symbols per frequency hops for a specific DL PRS resource or a specific TRP to the LMF 506. At 524, the UE 502 may transmit groups of cells, TRPs and/or PRS resources requiring the similar coverage to the LMF 506. At 526, the UE 502 may transmit time offset (s) of cell ID, TRP ID, PRS resource set ID, and/or PRS resource ID to the LMF 506.

At 528, the LMF 506 may determine DL PRS configurations to support DL PRS frequency hopping based on the provided information. At 530, the LMF 506 may transmit PRS configurations for PRS frequency hopping to the UE 502 and the gNB 504. At 532, the gNB 504 may transmit DL PRSs to the UE 502. At 534, the UE 502 may perform PRS frequency hopping and obtain positioning measurements. At 536, the UE 502 may report positioning measurements to the LMF 506. At 538, the LMF 506 may estimate the location of the UE 502.

Example Methods

FIG. 6 shows a flowchart of an example method 600 implemented at the first device 210 in accordance with some example embodiments of the present disclosure. For the purpose of discussion, the method 600 will be described from the perspective of the first device 210 in FIG. 2.

At block 610, the first device 210 receives, from the second device 220, a first configuration of at least one positioning reference signal (PRS) ;

At block 620, the first device 210 transmits, to the second device 220, at least one indication of at least one requested configuration for at least one PRS, based on at least one measurement of the at least one PRS, wherein the at least one indication of the at least one requested configuration comprises at least one requested frequency hopping parameter of the at least one PRS; and

At block 630, the first device 210 receives, from the second device 220, a second configuration of the at least one PRS, wherein the second configuration comprises at least one frequency hopping parameter of the at least one PRS.

In some example embodiments, the at least one indication of the at least one requested configuration comprises at least one of: a number of frequency hops, a number of symbols of at least one PRS resource associated with the at least one PRS, a number of symbols for a frequency hop, an indication whether a repetition for the at least one PRS resource is required, a number of repetitions for the at least one PRS resource, respective symbol offsets for a plurality of repetitions for the at least one PRS resource, an adjusted symbol offset for the at least one PRS resource, an identification of at least one of a cell, a transmission reception point, a transmission beam of a transmission reception point, a reception beam of the first device, a PRS resource, a group of cells, or a group of transmission reception points, or a capability of the first device for frequency hopping of the at least one PRS.

In some example embodiments, the first device 210 determines the at least one indication of the at least one requested configuration based on at least one of a respective reference signal received power (RSRP) of a part of symbols or resource blocks of the at least one PRS, a positioning requirement, a RSRP measurement requirement of a frequency hop, or a number of transmission reception points.

In some example embodiments, the at least one indication of the at least one requested configuration comprises a number of symbols per frequency hop, and the first device 210 determines at least one PRS resource for the at least one PRS based on the first configuration; performs reference signal received power (RSRP) measurements for a respective PRS of the at least one PRS on a plurality of symbols of a respective PRS resource of the at least one PRS resource without frequency hopping; and determines the number of symbols per frequency hop based on a comparison of results of the RSRP measurements and a RSRP measurement requirement.

In some example embodiments, the at least one indication of the at least one requested configuration further comprises a number of frequency hops, and the first device 210 determines the number of frequency hops based on at least one of a positioning requirement or the capability of the first device for frequency hopping of the at least one PRS.

In some example embodiments, the at least one indication of the at least one requested configuration further comprises a number of repetitions for at least one PRS resource for the at least one PRS, and the first device 210 determines the number of repetitions based on the number of symbols per frequency hop and the number of frequency hops.

In some example embodiments, the measurements are performed outside of a measurement gap configuration or within a positioning processing window.

In some example embodiments, the RSRP measurements are performed for at least one of a cell, a transmission reception point, a beam, a group of cells, or a group of transmission reception points.

In some example embodiments, the first device 210 receives, from the second device 220, at least one request for at least one frequency hopping parameter of the at least one PRS.

In some example embodiments, the at least one request comprises at least one of: a request for a number of frequency hops, a request for a number of symbols of at least one PRS resource associated with the at least one PRS, a request for a number of symbols for a frequency hop, a request to indicate whether a repetition for the at least one PRS resource is required, a request for a number of repetitions for the at least one PRS resource, or a request to provide the at least one frequency hopping parameter of the at least one PRS for at least one of a cell, a transmission reception point, a beam, a group of cells or a group of transmission reception points.

In some example embodiments, the first device 210 receives, from the second device 220, at least one criterion for determining the at least one of the group of cells or the group of transmission reception points.

In some example embodiments, the at least one requested configuration comprises a plurality of requested configurations associated with at least one of a plurality of cells, a plurality of transmission reception points, or a plurality of beams, and a requested configuration of the plurality of requested configurations is associated with at least one of a cell of the plurality of cells, a transmission reception point of the plurality of transmission reception points, or a beam of the plurality of beams.

In some example embodiments, the at least one requested configuration comprises a requested configuration associated with at least one of a group of cells, a group of transmission reception points, or a group of PRS resources for PRSs transmitted from a group of transmission reception points, and the group of cells, the group of transmission reception points, or the group of PRS resources for PRSs requires a same number of symbols per frequency hop.

In some example embodiments, the second configuration is received from the second device 220 via dedicated signaling.

In some example embodiments, the first device 210 comprises a terminal device, and the second device 220 comprises a location server.

FIG. 7 shows a flowchart of an example method 700 implemented at the second device 220 in accordance with some example embodiments of the present disclosure. For the purpose of discussion, the method 700 will be described from the perspective of the second device 220 in FIG. 2.

At block 710, the second device 220 transmits, to the first device, a first configuration of at least one positioning reference signal (PRS) .

At block 720, the second device 220 receives, from the first device 210, at least one indication of at least one requested configuration for the at least one PRS, wherein the at least one indication of the at least requested configuration comprises at least one requested frequency hopping parameter of the at least one PRS.

At block 730, the second device 220 transmits, to the first device 210, based on the at least one indication of the at least one requested configuration, a second configuration of the at least one PRS, wherein the second configuration comprises at least one frequency hopping parameter of the at least one PRS.

In some example embodiments, the at least one indication of the at least one requested configuration comprises at least one of: a number of frequency hops, a number of symbols of at least one PRS resource associated with the at least one PRS, a number of symbols for a frequency hop, an indication whether a repetition for the at least one PRS resource is required, a number of repetitions for at least one PRS resource, respective symbol offsets for a plurality of repetitions for the at least one PRS resource, an adjusted symbol offset for the at least one PRS resource, an identification of at least one of a cell, a transmission reception point, a transmission beam of a transmission reception point, a reception beam of the first device, a PRS resource, a group of cells, or a group of transmission reception points, or a capability of the first device for frequency hopping of the at least one PRS.

In some example embodiments, the second device 220 transmits, to the first device 210, at least one request for at least one frequency hopping parameter of the at least one PRS.

In some example embodiments, the second device 220 transmits, to the first device 210, at least one criterion for determining the at least one of the group of cells or the group of transmission reception points.

In some example embodiments, the second device 220 transmits, to a third device 230, the second configuration of the at least one PRS, wherein the third device causes the at least one PRS to be transmitted towards the first device.

In some example embodiments, the at least one requested configuration comprises a plurality of requested configuration associated with at least one of a plurality of cells, a plurality of transmission reception points, or a plurality of beams, and a requested configuration of the plurality of requested configurations is associated with at least one of a cell of the plurality of cells, a transmission reception point of the plurality of transmission reception points, or a beam of the plurality of beams.

In some example embodiments, the at least one requested configuration comprises a requested configuration associated with at least one of a group of cells, a group of transmission reception points, or a group of resources for PRSs transmitted from a group of transmission reception points, and the group of cells, the group of transmission reception points, or the group of resources for PRSs requires a same number of symbols per frequency hop.

In some example embodiments, the second configuration is transmitted to the first device via dedicated signaling.

In some example embodiments, the first device comprises a terminal device, and the second device comprises a location server.

Example Apparatus, Device and Medium

In some example embodiments, a first apparatus capable of performing any of the method 600 (for example, the first device 210 in FIG. 2 may comprise means for performing the respective operations of the method 600. The means may be implemented in any suitable form. For example, the means may be implemented in a circuitry or software module. The first apparatus may be implemented as or included in the first device 210 in FIG. 2.

In some example embodiments, the first apparatus comprises means for receiving, from a second device, a first configuration of at least one positioning reference signal (PRS) ; means for transmitting, to the second device, at least one indication of at least one requested configuration for at least one PRS, based on at least one measurement of the at least one PRS, wherein the at least one indication of the at least one requested configuration comprises at least one requested frequency hopping parameter of the at least one PRS; and means for receiving, from the second device, a second configuration of the at least one PRS, wherein the second configuration comprises at least one frequency hopping parameter of the at least one PRS.

In some example embodiments, the first apparatus comprises means for determining the at least one indication of the at least one requested configuration based on at least one of a respective reference signal received power (RSRP) of a part of symbols or resource blocks of the at least one PRS, a positioning requirement, a RSRP measurement requirement of a frequency hop, or a number of transmission reception points.

In some example embodiments, the at least one indication of the at least one requested configuration comprises a number of symbols per frequency hop, and the first apparatus comprises means for determining at least one PRS resource for the at least one PRS based on the first configuration; performs reference signal received power (RSRP) measurements for a respective PRS of the at least one PRS on a plurality of symbols of a respective PRS resource of the at least one PRS resource without frequency hopping; and determines the number of symbols per frequency hop based on a comparison of results of the RSRP measurements and a RSRP measurement requirement.

In some example embodiments, the at least one indication of the at least one requested configuration further comprises a number of frequency hops, and the first apparatus comprises means for determining the number of frequency hops based on at least one of a positioning requirement or the capability of the first device for frequency hopping of the at least one PRS.

In some example embodiments, the at least one indication of the at least one requested configuration further comprises a number of repetitions for at least one PRS resource for the at least one PRS, and the first apparatus comprises means for determining the number of repetitions based on the number of symbols per frequency hop and the number of frequency hops.

In some example embodiments, the first apparatus comprises means for receiving, from the second device 220, at least one request for at least one frequency hopping parameter of the at least one PRS.

In some example embodiments, the first apparatus comprises means for receiving, from the second device 220, at least one criterion for determining the at least one of the group of cells or the group of transmission reception points.

In some example embodiments, a second apparatus capable of performing any of the method 700 (for example, the second device 220 in FIG. 2 may comprise means for performing the respective operations of the method 700. The means may be implemented in any suitable form. For example, the means may be implemented in a circuitry or software module. The second apparatus may be implemented as or included in the second device 220 in FIG. 2.

In some example embodiments, the second apparatus comprises means for transmitting, to the first device 210, a first configuration of at least one positioning reference signal (PRS) ; means for receiving, from the first device 210, at least one indication of at least one requested configuration for the at least one PRS, wherein the at least one indication of the at least requested configuration comprises at least one requested frequency hopping parameter of the at least one PRS; and means for transmitting, to the first device 210, based on the at least one indication of the at least one requested configuration, a second configuration of the at least one PRS, wherein the second configuration comprises at least one frequency hopping parameter of the at least one PRS.

In some example embodiments, the second apparatus comprises means for transmitting, to the first device 210, at least one request for at least one frequency hopping parameter of the at least one PRS.

In some example embodiments, the second apparatus comprises means for transmitting, to the first device 210, at least one criterion for determining the at least one of the group of cells or the group of transmission reception points.

In some example embodiments, the second apparatus comprises means for transmitting, to a third device 230, the second configuration of the at least one PRS, wherein the third device causes the at least one PRS to be transmitted towards the first device.

FIG. 8 is a simplified block diagram of a device 800 that is suitable for implementing example embodiments of the present disclosure. The device 800 may be provided to implement a communication device, for example, the first device 210, the second device 220, or the third device 230 as shown in FIG. 2. As shown, the device 800 includes one or more processors 810, one or more memories 820 coupled to the processor 810, and one or more communication modules 840 coupled to the processor 810.

The communication module 840 is for bidirectional communications. The communication module 840 has one or more communication interfaces to facilitate communication with one or more other modules or devices. The communication interfaces may represent any interface that is necessary for communication with other network elements. In some example embodiments, the communication module 840 may include at least one antenna.

The processor 810 may be of any type suitable to the local technical network and may include one or more of the following: 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.

The memory 820 may include one or more non-volatile memories and one or more volatile memories. Examples of the non-volatile memories include, but are not limited to, a Read Only Memory (ROM) 824, an electrically programmable read only memory (EPROM) , a flash memory, a hard disk, a compact disc (CD) , a digital video disk (DVD) , an optical disk, a laser disk, and other magnetic storage and/or optical storage. Examples of the volatile memories include, but are not limited to, a random access memory (RAM) 822 and other volatile memories that will not last in the power-down duration.

A computer program 830 includes computer executable instructions that are executed by the associated processor 810. The instructions of the program 830 may include instructions for performing operations/acts of some example embodiments of the present disclosure. The program 830 may be stored in the memory, e.g., the ROM 824. The processor 810 may perform any suitable actions and processing by loading the program 830 into the RAM 822.

The example embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented by means of the program 830 so that the device 800 may perform any process of the disclosure as discussed with reference to FIG. 2 to FIG. 9. The example embodiments of the present disclosure may also be implemented by hardware or by a combination of software and hardware.

In some example embodiments, the program 830 may be tangibly contained in a computer readable medium which may be included in the device 800 (such as in the memory 820) or other storage devices that are accessible by the device 800. The device 800 may load the program 830 from the computer readable medium to the RAM 822 for execution. In some example embodiments, the computer readable medium may include any types of non-transitory storage medium, such as ROM, EPROM, a flash memory, a hard disk, CD, DVD, and the like. The term “non-transitory, ” as used herein, is a limitation of the medium itself (i.e., tangible, not a signal) as opposed to a limitation on data storage persistency (e.g., RAM vs. ROM) .

FIG. 9 shows an example of the computer readable medium 900 which may be in form of CD, DVD or other optical storage disk. The computer readable medium 900 has the program 830 stored thereon.

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, and other aspects may be implemented in firmware or software which may be executed by a controller, microprocessor or other computing device. Although various aspects of embodiments of the present disclosure are illustrated and described as block diagrams, flowcharts, or using some other pictorial representations, it is to be understood that the block, apparatus, system, technique or method 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.

Some example embodiments of the present disclosure also provide at least one computer program product tangibly stored on a computer readable medium, such as a non-transitory computer readable medium. The computer program product includes computer-executable instructions, such as those included in program modules, being executed in a device on a target physical or virtual processor, to carry out any of the methods as described above. 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. The program code 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 code, 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.

In the context of the present disclosure, the computer program code or related data may be carried by any suitable carrier to enable the device, apparatus or processor to perform various processes and operations as described above. Examples of the carrier include a signal, computer readable medium, and the like.

The computer readable medium may be a computer readable signal medium or a computer readable storage medium. A computer 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 computer 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, although 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, although several specific implementation 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. Unless explicitly stated, certain features that are described in the context of separate embodiments may also be implemented in combination in a single embodiment. Conversely, unless explicitly stated, various features that are described in the context of a single embodiment may also be implemented in a plurality of embodiments separately or in any suitable sub-combination.

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

Claims

A method comprising:

at a first device,

receiving, from a second device, a first configuration of at least one positioning reference signal (PRS) ;

transmitting, to the second device, at least one indication of at least one requested configuration for at least one PRS, based on at least one measurement of the at least one PRS, wherein the at least one indication of the at least one requested configuration comprises at least one requested frequency hopping parameter of the at least one PRS; and

receiving, from the second device, a second configuration of the at least one PRS, wherein the second configuration comprises at least one frequency hopping parameter of the at least one PRS.
The method of claim 1, wherein the at least one indication of the at least one requested configuration comprises at least one of:

a number of frequency hops,

a number of symbols of at least one PRS resource associated with the at least one PRS,

a number of symbols for a frequency hop,

an indication whether a repetition for the at least one PRS resource is required,

a number of repetitions for the at least one PRS resource,

respective symbol offsets for a plurality of repetitions for the at least one PRS resource,

an adjusted symbol offset for the at least one PRS resource,

an identification of at least one of a cell, a transmission reception point, a transmission beam of a transmission reception point, a reception beam of the first device, a PRS resource, a group of cells, or a group of transmission reception points, or

a capability of the first device for frequency hopping of the at least one PRS.
The method of claim 2, further comprising:

determining the at least one indication of the at least one requested configuration based on at least one of a respective reference signal received power (RSRP) of a part of symbols or resource blocks of the at least one PRS, a positioning requirement, a RSRP measurement requirement of a frequency hop, or a number of transmission reception points.
The method of any of claims 1-3, wherein the at least one indication of the at least one requested configuration comprises a number of symbols per frequency hop, and the method further comprises:

determining at least one PRS resource for the at least one PRS based on the first configuration;

performing reference signal received power (RSRP) measurements for a respective PRS of the at least one PRS on a plurality of symbols of a respective PRS resource of the at least one PRS resource without frequency hopping; and

determining the number of symbols per frequency hop based on a comparison of results of the RSRP measurements and a RSRP measurement requirement.
The method of claim 4, wherein the at least one indication of the at least one requested configuration further comprises a number of frequency hops, and the method further comprises:

determining the number of frequency hops based on at least one of a positioning requirement or the capability of the first device for frequency hopping of the at least one PRS.
The method of claim 5, wherein the at least one indication of the at least one requested configuration further comprises a number of repetitions for at least one PRS resource for the at least one PRS, and the method further comprises:

determining the number of repetitions based on the number of symbols per frequency hop and the number of frequency hops.
The method of any of claims 4-6, wherein the measurements are performed outside of a measurement gap configuration or within a positioning processing window.
The method of any of claims 4-7, wherein the RSRP measurements are performed for at least one of a cell, a transmission reception point, a beam, a group of cells, or a group of transmission reception points.
The method of any of claims 1-8, further comprising:

receiving, from the second device, at least one request for at least one frequency hopping parameter of the at least one PRS.
The method of claim 9, wherein the at least one request comprises at least one of:

a request for a number of frequency hops,

a request for a number of symbols of at least one PRS resource associated with the at least one PRS,

a request for a number of symbols for a frequency hop,

a request to indicate whether a repetition for the at least one PRS resource is required,

a request for a number of repetitions for the at least one PRS resource, or

a request to provide the at least one frequency hopping parameter of the at least one PRS for at least one of a cell, a transmission reception point, a beam, a group of cells or a group of transmission reception points.
The method of claim 10, further comprising:

receiving, from the second device, at least one criterion for determining the at least one of the group of cells or the group of transmission reception points.
The method of any of claims 1-11, wherein

the at least one requested configuration comprises a plurality of requested configurations associated with at least one of a plurality of cells, a plurality of transmission reception points, or a plurality of beams, and

a requested configuration of the plurality of requested configurations is associated with at least one of a cell of the plurality of cells, a transmission reception point of the plurality of transmission reception points, or a beam of the plurality of beams.
The method of any of claims 1-11, wherein

the at least one requested configuration comprises a requested configuration associated with at least one of a group of cells, a group of transmission reception points, or a group of PRS resources for PRSs transmitted from a group of transmission reception points, and

the group of cells, the group of transmission reception points, or the group of PRS resources for PRSs requires a same number of symbols per frequency hop.
The method of any of claims 1-13, wherein the second configuration is received from the second device via dedicated signaling.
The method of any of claims 1-14, wherein the first device comprises a terminal device, and the second device comprises a location server.
A method comprising:

at a second device,

transmitting, to a first device, a first configuration of at least one positioning reference signal (PRS) ;

receiving, from the first device, at least one indication of at least one requested configuration for the at least one PRS, wherein the at least one indication of the at least requested configuration comprises at least one requested frequency hopping parameter of the at least one PRS; and

transmitting, to the first device, based on the at least one indication of the at least one requested configuration, a second configuration of the at least one PRS, wherein the second configuration comprises at least one frequency hopping parameter of the at least one PRS.
The method of claim 16, wherein the at least one indication of the at least one requested configuration comprises at least one of:

a number of frequency hops,

a number of symbols of at least one PRS resource associated with the at least one PRS,

a number of symbols for a frequency hop,

an indication whether a repetition for the at least one PRS resource is required,

a number of repetitions for at least one PRS resource,

respective symbol offsets for a plurality of repetitions for the at least one PRS resource,

an adjusted symbol offset for the at least one PRS resource,

an identification of at least one of a cell, a transmission reception point, a transmission beam of a transmission reception point, a reception beam of the first device, a PRS resource, a group of cells, or a group of transmission reception points, or

a capability of the first device for frequency hopping of the at least one PRS.
The method of claim 16 or 17, further comprising:

transmitting, to the first device, at least one request for at least one frequency hopping parameter of the at least one PRS.
The method of claim 18, wherein the at least one request comprises at least one of:

a request for a number of frequency hops,

a request for a number of symbols of at least one PRS resource associated with the at least one PRS,

a request for a number of symbols for a frequency hop,

a request to indicate whether a repetition for the at least one PRS resource is required,

a request for a number of repetitions for the at least one PRS resource, or

a request to provide the at least one frequency hopping parameter of the at least one PRS for at least one of a cell, a transmission reception point, a beam, a group of cells or a group of transmission reception points.
The method of claim 19, further comprising:

transmitting, to the first device, at least one criterion for determining the at least one of the group of cells or the group of transmission reception points.
The method of any of claims 16-20, further comprising:

transmitting, to a third device, the second configuration of the at least one PRS, wherein the third device causes the at least one PRS to be transmitted towards the first device.
The method of any of claims 16-21, wherein

the at least one requested configuration comprises a plurality of requested configuration associated with at least one of a plurality of cells, a plurality of transmission reception points, or a plurality of beams, and

a requested configuration of the plurality of requested configurations is associated with at least one of a cell of the plurality of cells, a transmission reception point of the plurality of transmission reception points, or a beam of the plurality of beams.
The method of any of claims 16-21, wherein

the at least one requested configuration comprises a requested configuration associated with at least one of a group of cells, a group of transmission reception points, or a group of resources for PRSs transmitted from a group of transmission reception points, and

the group of cells, the group of transmission reception points, or the group of resources for PRSs requires a same number of symbols per frequency hop.
The method of any of claims 16-23, wherein the second configuration is transmitted to the first device via dedicated signaling.
The method of any of claims 16-24, wherein the first device comprises a terminal device, and the second device comprises a location server.
A first device, comprising:

at least one processor; and

at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the first device at least to perform the method of any of claims 1-15.
A second device, comprising:

at least one processor; and

at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the first device at least to perform the method of any of claims 16-25.
A first apparatus comprising:

means for receiving, from a second device, a first configuration of at least one positioning reference signal (PRS) ;

means for transmitting, to the second device, at least one indication of at least one requested configuration for at least one PRS, based on at least one measurement of the at least one PRS, wherein the at least one indication of the at least one requested configuration comprises at least one requested frequency hopping parameter of the at least one PRS; and

means for receiving, from the second device, a second configuration of the at least one PRS, wherein the second configuration comprises at least one frequency hopping parameter of the at least one PRS.
A second apparatus comprising:

means for transmitting, to a first device, a first configuration of at least one positioning reference signal (PRS) ;

means for receiving, from the first device, at least one indication of at least one requested configuration for the at least one PRS, wherein the at least one indication of the at least requested configuration comprises at least one requested frequency hopping parameter of the at least one PRS; and

means for transmitting, to the first device, based on the at least one indication of the at least one requested configuration, a second configuration of the at least one PRS, wherein the second configuration comprises at least one frequency hopping parameter of the at least one PRS.
A computer readable medium comprising instructions stored thereon for causing an apparatus at least to perform the method of any of claim 1-15 or the method of any of claim 16-25.