WO2025176531A1

WO2025176531A1 - Integrated sensing and communication

Info

Publication number: WO2025176531A1
Application number: PCT/EP2025/053724
Authority: WO
Inventors: Martin Warwick Beale; Basuki PRIYANTO
Original assignee: Sony Europe Bv; Sony Group Corp
Current assignee: Sony Europe Bv; Sony Group Corp
Priority date: 2024-02-23
Filing date: 2025-02-12
Publication date: 2025-08-28
Anticipated expiration: 2026-08-23

Abstract

A method of operating an infrastructure equipment forming part of a wireless communications network is provided. The method comprises transmitting, to a plurality of communications devices, a sensing request message, the sensing request message requesting that each of the plurality of communications devices indicates information relating to its ability to perform sensing operations, wherein at least some of the plurality of communications devices are in a Radio Resource Control, RRC, IDLE mode or an RRC INACTIVE mode, and receiving, from a subset of the plurality of communications devices, a response to the sensing request message, wherein the response received from each of the subset of the plurality of communications devices comprises the information relating to its ability to perform the sensing operations.

Description

INTEGRATED SENSING AND COMMUNICATION

BACKGROUND

Field of Disclosure

The present disclosure relates to communications devices, infrastructure equipment and methods for the more effective operation of sensing functions in wireless communications networks.

The present application claims the Paris Convention priority from European patent application number EP24159382.1, filed on 23 February 2024, the contents of which are hereby incorporated by reference.

Description of Related Art

The “background” description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent it is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description which may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly or impliedly admitted as prior art against the present invention.

Previous generation mobile telecommunication systems, such as those based on the 3GPP defined UMTS and Long Term Evolution (LTE) architecture, are able to support a wider range of services than simple voice and messaging services offered by previous generations of mobile telecommunication systems. For example, with the improved radio interface and enhanced data rates provided by LTE systems, a user is able to enjoy high data rate applications such as mobile video streaming and mobile video conferencing that would previously only have been available via a fixed line data connection. The demand to deploy such networks is therefore strong and the coverage area of these networks, i.e. geographic locations where access to the networks is possible, is expected to continue to increase rapidly.

Current and future wireless communications networks are expected to routinely and efficiently support communications with an ever-increasing range of devices associated with a wider range of data traffic profiles and types than existing systems are optimised to support. For example, it is expected future wireless communications networks will be expected to efficiently support communications with devices including reduced complexity devices, machine type communication (MTC) devices, high resolution video displays, virtual reality headsets, extended Reality (XR) and so on. Some of these different types of devices may be deployed in very large numbers, for example low complexity devices for supporting the “The Internet of Things”, and may typically be associated with the transmissions of relatively small amounts of data with relatively high latency tolerance. Other types of device, for example supporting high-definition video streaming, may be associated with transmissions of relatively large amounts of data with relatively low latency tolerance. Other types of device, for example used for autonomous vehicle communications and for other critical applications, may be characterised by data that should be transmitted through the network with low latency and high reliability. A single device type might also be associated with different traffic profiles / characteristics depending on the application(s) it is running. For example, different consideration may apply for efficiently supporting data exchange with a smartphone when it is running a video streaming application (high downlink data) as compared to when it is running an Internet browsing application (sporadic uplink and downlink data) or being used for voice communications by an emergency responder in an emergency scenario (data subject to stringent reliability and latency requirements).

In view of this there is expected to be a desire for current wireless communications networks, for example those which may be referred to as 5G or new radio (NR) systems / new radio access technology (RAT) systems, or indeed future 6G wireless communications, as well as future iterations / releases of existing systems, to efficiently support connectivity for a wide range of devices associated with different applications and different characteristic data traffic profiles and requirements.

One example of a new service is referred to as Ultra Reliable Low Latency Communications (URLLC) services which, as its name suggests, requires that a data unit or packet be communicated with a high reliability and with a low communications delay. Another example of a new service is enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB) services, which are characterised by a high capacity with a requirement to support up to 20 Gb/s. URLLC and eMBB type services therefore represent challenging examples for both LTE type communications systems and 5 G/NR communications systems.

5G NR has continuously evolved and the current work plan includes 5 G-NR- Advanced in which some further enhancements are expected, especially to support new use-cases/scenarios with higher requirements. The desire to support these new use-cases and scenarios gives rise to new challenges for efficiently handling communications in wireless communications systems that need to be addressed.

As well as their use in supporting wireless communications in systems such as 5G NR and beyond, radio signals are also used in sensing applications, to detect objects and devices within range and perform measurements to estimate their characteristics. Such objects may be active (i.e. connected to the network) or passive (i.e. not connected to the network), and building up a picture of such objects within a particular wireless environment may allow for more efficient and effective facilitation of wireless communications within such an environment and may allow a wireless network operator to offer new services based on the sensed results. The desire for improved sensing services has led to the development of systems such as Integrated Sensing and Communications (ISAC), which combines sensing and communication functionalities. Challenges remain in respect of how to most effectively deploy systems such as ISAC within 5G and 6G wireless telecommunications networks.

SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE

The present disclosure can help address or mitigate at least some of the issues discussed above.

Embodiments of the present technique can provide a method of operating an infrastructure equipment forming part of a wireless communications network. The method comprises transmitting, to a plurality of communications devices, a sensing request message, the sensing request message requesting that each of the plurality of communications devices indicates information relating to its ability to perform sensing operations, wherein at least some of the plurality of communications devices are in a Radio Resource Control (RRC) IDLE mode or an RRC INACTIVE mode, and receiving, from a subset of the plurality of communications devices, a response to the sensing request message, wherein the response received from each of the subset of the plurality of communications devices comprises the information relating to its ability to perform the sensing operations.

Embodiments of the present technique, which, in addition to methods of operating infrastructure equipment, relate to methods of operating communications devices, to infrastructure equipment and communications devices, to circuitry for infrastructure equipment and communications devices, computer programs, and computer-readable storage mediums, can allow for the more effective operation of sensing functions in wireless communications networks through enabling the more appropriate and effective discovery of communications devices to take part in sensing operations.

Respective aspects and features of the present disclosure are defined in the appended claims. It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary, but are not restrictive, of the present technology. The described embodiments, together with further advantages, will be best understood by reference to the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

A more complete appreciation of the disclosure and many of the attendant advantages thereof will be readily obtained as the same becomes better understood by reference to the following detailed description when considered in connection with the accompanying drawings wherein like reference numerals designate identical or corresponding parts throughout the several views, and wherein:

Figure 1 schematically represents some aspects of an LTE-type wireless telecommunication system which may be configured to operate in accordance with certain embodiments of the present disclosure;

Figure 2 schematically represents some aspects of a new radio access technology (NR) wireless telecommunications system which may be configured to operate in accordance with certain embodiments of the present disclosure;

Figure 3 is a schematic block diagram of an example infrastructure equipment and communications device which may be configured to operate in accordance with certain embodiments of the present disclosure;

Figure 4 is reproduced from [4], and illustrates how sensing may be performed at a crossroads, with or without obstacles present;

Figures 5A-D illustrate examples of monostatic and bistatic radar arrangements;

Figures 6A-F show examples of different monostatic and bistatic sensing modes;

Figure 7 shows a part schematic, part message flow diagram representation of a wireless communications system comprising a communications device and an infrastructure equipment in accordance with embodiments of the present technique;

Figure 8 illustrates how an environment may have a plurality of different levels of sensing areas in accordance with embodiments of the present technique;

Figure 9 shows an example signalling diagram which illustrates various arrangements of embodiments of the present technique; and

Figure 10 shows a flow diagram illustrating a process of communications in a communications system in accordance with embodiments of the present technique.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE EMBODIMENTS

Long Term Evolution Advanced Radio Access Technology (4G)

Figure 1 provides a schematic diagram illustrating some basic functionality of a mobile telecommunications network / system 6 operating generally in accordance with LTE principles, but which may also support other radio access technologies, and which may be adapted to implement embodiments of the disclosure as described herein. Various elements of Figure 1 and certain aspects of their respective modes of operation are well-known and defined in the relevant standards administered by the 3GPP (RTM) body, and also described in many books on the subject, for example, Holma H. and Toskala A [1], It will be appreciated that operational aspects of the telecommunications networks discussed herein which are not specifically described (for example in relation to specific communication protocols and physical channels for communicating between different elements) may be implemented in accordance with any known techniques, for example according to the relevant standards and known proposed modifications and additions to the relevant standards.

The network 6 includes a plurality of base stations 1 connected to a core network 2. Each base station provides a coverage area 3 (i.e. a cell) within which data can be communicated to and from communications devices 4. Although each base station 1 is shown in Figure 1 as a single entity, the skilled person will appreciate that some of the functions of the base station may be carried out by disparate, inter-connected elements, such as antennas (or antennae), remote radio heads, amplifiers, etc. Collectively, one or more base stations may form a radio access network.

Data is transmitted from base stations 1 to communications devices 4 within their respective coverage areas 3 via a radio downlink (DL). Data is transmitted from communications devices 4 to the base stations 1 via a radio uplink (UL). The core network 2 routes data to and from the communications devices 4 via the respective base stations 1 and provides functions such as authentication, mobility management, charging and so on. Communications devices may also be referred to as mobile stations, user equipment (UEs), user terminals, mobile radios, mobile terminals, terminal devices, wireless transmit and receive units (WTRUs), and so forth. Services provided by the core network 2 may include connectivity to the internet or to external telephony services. The core network 2 may further track the location of the communications devices 4 so that it can efficiently contact (i.e. page) the communications devices 4 for transmitting downlink data towards the communications devices 4.

Base stations, which are an example of network infrastructure equipment, may also be referred to as transceiver stations, nodeBs, e-nodeBs, eNB, g-nodeBs, gNB and so forth. In this regard different terminology is often associated with different generations of wireless telecommunications systems for elements providing broadly comparable functionality. However, certain embodiments of the disclosure may be equally implemented in different generations of wireless telecommunications systems, and for simplicity certain terminology may be used regardless of the underlying network architecture. That is to say, the use of a specific term in relation to certain example implementations is not intended to indicate these implementations are limited to a certain generation of network that may be most associated with that particular terminology.

New Radio Access Technology (5G)

Systems incorporating NR technology are expected to support different services (or types of services), which may be characterised by different requirements for latency, data rate and/or reliability. For example, Enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB) services are characterised by high capacity with a requirement to support up to 20 Gb/s. The requirements for Ultra Reliable and Low Latency Communications (URLLC) services are for one transmission of a 32 byte packet to be transmitted from the radio protocol layer 2/3 SDU ingress point to the radio protocol layer 2/3 SDU egress point of the radio interface within 1 ms with a reliability of 1 - 10'⁵ (99.999 %) or higher (99.9999%) [2],

Massive Machine Type Communications (mMTC) is another example of a service which may be supported by NR-based communications networks. In addition, systems may be expected to support further enhancements related to Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) in order to support services with new requirements of high availability, high reliability, low latency, and in some cases, high-accuracy positioning.

An example configuration of a wireless communications network which uses some of the terminology proposed for and used in NR and 5G is shown in Figure 2. In Figure 2 a plurality of transmission and reception points (TRPs) 10 are connected to distributed control units (DUs) 41, 42 by a connection interface represented as a line 16. Each of the TRPs 10 is arranged to transmit and receive signals via a wireless access interface within a radio frequency bandwidth available to the wireless communications network. Thus, within a range for performing radio communications via the wireless access interface, each of the TRPs 10, forms a cell of the wireless communications network as represented by a circle 12. As such, wireless communications devices 14 which are within a radio communications range provided by the cells 12 can transmit and receive signals to and from the TRPs 10 via the wireless access interface. Each of the distributed units 41, 42 are connected to a central unit (CU) 40 (which may be referred to as a controlling node) via an interface 46. The central unit 40 is then connected to the core network 20 which may contain all other functions required to transmit data for communicating to and from the wireless communications devices and the core network 20 may be connected to other networks 25.

The elements of the wireless access network shown in Figure 2 may operate in a similar way to corresponding elements of an LTE network as described with regard to the example of Figure 1. It will be appreciated that operational aspects of the telecommunications network represented in Figure 2, and of other networks discussed herein in accordance with embodiments of the disclosure, which are not specifically described (for example in relation to specific communication protocols and physical channels for communicating between different elements) may be implemented in accordance with any known techniques, for example according to currently used approaches for implementing such operational aspects of wireless telecommunications systems, e.g. in accordance with the relevant standards.

The TRPs 10 of Figure 2 may in part have a corresponding functionality to a base station or eNodeB of an LTE network. Similarly, the communications devices 14 may have a functionality corresponding to the UE devices 4 known for operation with an LTE network. It will be appreciated therefore that operational aspects of a new RAT network (for example in relation to specific communication protocols and physical channels for communicating between different elements) may be different to those known from LTE or other known mobile telecommunications standards. However, it will also be appreciated that each of the core network component, base stations and communications devices of a new RAT network will be functionally similar to, respectively, the core network component, base stations and communications devices of an LTE wireless communications network.

In terms of broad top-level functionality, the core network 20 connected to the new RAT telecommunications system represented in Figure 2 may be broadly considered to correspond with the core network 2 represented in Figure 1, and the respective central units 40 and their associated distributed units / TRPs 10 may be broadly considered to provide functionality corresponding to the base stations 1 of Figure 1. The term network infrastructure equipment / access node may be used to encompass these elements and more conventional base station type elements of wireless telecommunications systems. Depending on the application at hand the responsibility for scheduling transmissions which are scheduled on the radio interface between the respective distributed units and the communications devices may lie with the controlling node / central unit and / or the distributed units / TRPs. A communications device 14 is represented in Figure 2 within the coverage area of the first communication cell 12. This communications device 14 may thus exchange signalling with the first central unit 40 in the first communication cell 12 via one of the distributed units / TRPs 10 associated with the first communication cell 12.

It will further be appreciated that Figure 2 represents merely one example of a proposed architecture for a new RAT based telecommunications system in which approaches in accordance with the principles described herein may be adopted, and the functionality disclosed herein may also be applied in respect of wireless telecommunications systems having different architectures.

Thus, certain embodiments of the disclosure as discussed herein may be implemented in wireless telecommunication systems / networks according to various different architectures, such as the example architectures shown in Figures 1 and 2. It will thus be appreciated the specific wireless telecommunications architecture in any given implementation is not of primary significance to the principles described herein. In this regard, certain embodiments of the disclosure may be described generally in the context of communications between network infrastructure equipment / access nodes and a communications device, wherein the specific nature of the network infrastructure equipment I access node and the communications device will depend on the network infrastructure for the implementation at hand. For example, in some scenarios the network infrastructure equipment / access node may comprise a base station, such as an LTE-type base station 1 as shown in Figure 1 which is adapted to provide functionality in accordance with the principles described herein, and in other examples the network infrastructure equipment may comprise a control unit / controlling node 40 and / or a TRP 10 of the kind shown in Figure 2 which is adapted to provide functionality in accordance with the principles described herein.

A more detailed diagram of some of the components of the network shown in Figure 2 is provided by Figure 3. In Figure 3, a TRP 10 as shown in Figure 2 comprises, as a simplified representation, a wireless transmitter 30, a wireless receiver 32 and a controller or controlling processor 34 which may operate to control the transmitter 30 and the wireless receiver 32 to transmit and receive radio signals to one or more UEs 14 within a cell 12 formed by the TRP 10. As shown in Figure 3, an example UE 14 is shown to include a corresponding transmitter 49, a receiver 48 and a controller 44 which is configured to control the transmitter 49 and the receiver 48 to transmit signals representing uplink data to the wireless communications network via the wireless access interface formed by the TRP 10 and to receive downlink data as signals transmitted by the transmitter 30 and received by the receiver 48 in accordance with the conventional operation.

The transmitters 30, 49 and the receivers 32, 48 (as well as other transmitters, receivers and transceivers described in relation to examples and embodiments of the present disclosure) may include radio frequency filters and amplifiers as well as signal processing components and devices in order to transmit and receive radio signals in accordance for example with the 5G/NR standard. The controllers 34, 44 (as well as other controllers described in relation to examples and embodiments of the present disclosure) may be, for example, a microprocessor, a CPU, or a dedicated chipset, etc., configured to carry out instructions which are stored on a computer readable medium, such as a non-volatile memory. The processing steps described herein may be carried out by, for example, a microprocessor in conjunction with a random access memory, operating according to instructions stored on a computer readable medium. The transmitters, the receivers and the controllers are schematically shown in Figure 3 as separate elements for ease of representation. However, it will be appreciated that the functionality of these elements can be provided in various different ways, for example using one or more suitably programmed programmable computer(s), or one or more suitably configured application-specific integrated circuit(s) / circuitry / chip(s) / chipset(s). As will be appreciated the infrastructure equipment / TRP / base station as well as the UE / communications device will in general comprise various other elements associated with its operating functionality.

As shown in Figure 3, the TRP 10 also includes a network interface 50 which connects to the DU 42 via a physical interface 16. The network interface 50 therefore provides a communication link for data and signalling traffic from the TRP 10 via the DU 42 and the CU 40 to the core network 20.

The interface 46 between the DU 42 and the CU 40 is known as the F 1 interface which can be a physical or a logical interface. The Fl interface 46 between CU and DU may operate in accordance with specifications 3GPP TS 38.470 and 3GPP TS 38.473, and may be formed from a fibre optic or other wired or wireless high bandwidth connection. In one example the connection 16 from the TRP 10 to the DU 42 is via fibre optic. The connection between a TRP 10 and the core network 20 can be generally referred to as a backhaul, which comprises the interface 16 from the network interface 50 of the TRP 10 to the DU 42 and the Fl interface 46 from the DU 42 to the CU 40. In order for a UE such as UE 4 or 14 to transmit uplink data to the network (e.g. on a Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) or a Physical Uplink Shared Channel (PUSCH)) to, for example, base station 1 or TRP 10, the UE must first ensure it is synchronised with the network on the uplink. Since a particular eNB or gNB expects to be receiving communications from many UEs, it needs to ensure that it shares a common timing understanding with each of these UEs (i.e. they are synchronised in terms of the starting times of frames and Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) symbols). This is so that the eNB is able to schedule communication with each of them in a manner that avoids collisions and to ensure orthogonality of the uplink signals, such that inter-subcarrier interference is avoided or mitigated.

Integrated Sensing and Communication (ISAC)

As 5G NR evolves towards 5G-Advanced (5G-NR-Advanced), there is the possibility of new features being included in future releases. One possible new feature for 5G-Advanced and beyond is Integrated Sensing and Communication (ISAC). ISAC uses radio wave transmissions from nodes of a 5G (or future) wireless network and/or UEs deployed within such a network to acquire information from the environment. Although positioning features in 5G, utilising techniques including Observed Time Difference of Arrival (OTDOA) and Uplink Time Difference of Arrival (UTDOA), are already available, these features are only able to determine the location of UE devices. That is, the 5G network requires information from the device that it is trying to locate, i.e., an active object (an object having a direct radio connection to the wireless communications (e g. 5G) network), and therefore the existing positioning features cannot locate passive objects that do not have direct communications with the 5G network. In contrast, ISAC employs echolocation using radio frequency (RF) waves, similar to that used by radar and LIDAR, to detect passive objects, which does not require a direct communication between the object of interest and the 5G network. Since a cellular network, such as a 5G wireless network, may have wide coverage, covering urban, highway, rural and even indoor environments, ISAC can provide sensing services for many different applications.

ISAC is considered to be a system which combines sensing and communication functionalities by reusing the same hardware on the network side (and potentially on the UE side) in order to save resources and reduce power consumption. Here, the new development introduced by ISAC is that sensing signals and communication signals can be practically implemented into a single system, with either the same or different transmit waveforms. 3GPP has agreed to study ISAC [3] with the justification that the current 5G- Advanced network design focuses primarily on data transmission, and the radio channel model defined to cover frequencies up to 100 GHz was developed with this in mind. Although RAT-based positioning is supported, the specifications do not offer the in-built capability to detect objects not connected to the network. If sensing capability is integrated into the design of the system, sensing may be offered as a service alongside communications.

In the new RAN study item [3], the focus is to define channel modelling aspects to support object detection and/or tracking (as per the SAI meaning in [4]). The study aims at a common modelling framework capable of detecting and/or tracking the following example objects, and to enable them to be distinguished from unintended objects:

• UAVs;

• Humans (indoors and outdoors);

• Automotive vehicles (at least outdoors);

• Automated guided vehicles (e g., in indoor factories); and Objects creating hazards on roads/railways, with a minimum size dependent on frequency.

Example applications of ISAC include environment monitoring, such as intruder detection inside or in the vicinity of a building/house or rainfall monitoring that detects the intensity of rain in a wide area such as a farm (utilising the characteristics of particular frequency radio waves that experience higher attenuation due to water absorption), as well object detection and tracking and motion monitoring, including unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) flight trajectory tracking and pedestrian or animal detection at a crossroads, or on a motorway or railway [4], ISAC may also utilise existing sensing technology such as radar or LIDAR that may be installed in a device or area. For example, ISAC may use the sensing information from LIDAR and radar units that are installed in numerous automobiles and, together with the 5G wireless sensing, provide an accurate picture of the motorway or the traffic situation in a city.

An example of an application of ISAC is shown in Figure 4, which is reproduced from [4] and illustrates how sensing may be performed at a crossroads, with or without obstacles present. As can be seen in the example of Figure 4, a base station 401 may wish for sensing to be performed at the crossroads. While the base station 401 can itself transmit sensing signals and receive reflected sensing signals (or echoes) in return to build up a map or understanding of the environment around the crossroads, it is not able to do this effectively alone. For example, where plenty of vehicles such as car 402 are travelling across the crossroads, it is useful for the base station 401 to be able to have knowledge of any obstacles or other vehicles, so as to signal to vehicles to avoid collisions with such obstacles. An example of such an obstacle is motorcycle 403, which is at present blocked from view (i.e. no clear line of sight (LOS)) of the base station 401 by tall building 404. This prevents the base station 401 from being able to transmit and receiving sensing signals from the motorcycle 403, which is a passive object not connected to the network, and so without the use of sensing signals the base station 401 has no real way to have knowledge of its existence. The base station 401 therefore may not be aware of the motorcycle’s 403 presence so as to signal this to the car 402 until it is too late, and the car 402 can no longer avoid a collision with the motorcycle 403. In this case, it is beneficial for the base station 401 to be helped by other devices such as 5G sensing system entity 405, which may be a fixed device such as a city owned UE. Here, the sensing entity 405 is itself able to transmit sensing signals and receive reflected sensing signals, and to exchange these with the base station 401. Because the sensing entity 405 has a good LOS to the motorcycle 403 which is not obstructed by the tall building 404, it is able to sense its presence and report this to the base station 401, so that the base station 401 is able to warn the car 402 about the motorcycle 403. The sensing entity 405 might not be able to sense the motorcycle 403 itself but may send and / or receive sensing signals (and make measurements on those received sensing signals) that allow for detection of the motorcycle 403 by some other node / entity. The detection may be carried out by some other entity, where that entity can aggregate sensing results from multiple sensing entities.

The expected requirements for ISAC are described in [5], which also defines the key performance indicators (KPIs) for all ISAC scenarios. Some of the KPIs include:

• Accuracy of positioning estimate: This describes the closeness of the measured sensing result (i.e., position) of the target object to its true position value. It can be further derived into a horizontal sensing accuracy - referring to the sensing result error in a 2D reference or horizontal plane, and into a vertical sensing accuracy - referring to the sensing result error on the vertical axis or altitude;

• Accuracy of velocity estimate: This describes the closeness of the measured sensing result (i.e., velocity) of the target object to its true velocity; and

• Missed detection probability: This describes the conditional probability of not detecting the presence of a target object/environment when the target object/environment is present. This probability is denoted by the ratio of the number of events falsely identified as negative, over the total number of events with a positive state. It applies only to binary sensing results.

The above KPIs require the system to provide an estimation of sensing metrics. The KPIs are quite diverse, and hence, may also require estimations of diverse sensing metrics and/or sensing measurement.

The receiver unit typically performs sensing measurements, while other entities in the network are expected to perform sensing estimation based on the sensing measurements received from multiple sensors (e.g. UEs). The sensing receiver may be requested to perform a specific sensing measurement at a given time, so that the network node can produce a specific sensing estimation (for example, a positioning estimate or a velocity estimate, etc.).

As mentioned above, ISAC employs echolocation using radio frequency (RF) waves, similar to mechanisms that are used by radar and LIDAR, to detect passive objects. These radar techniques include at least one transmitter sending a sensing (i.e. initial) RF wave and at least one receiver receiving the reflected RF wave, where the locations and orientations of the transmitter and receiver are known. Arrangements where the transmitter and receiver are co-located (i.e. are included in the same device) are known as monostatic radar, and arrangements where the transmitter and receiver are separated in distance (i.e. not co-located) are known as bistatic radar.

Figure 5A shows an example of a monostatic radar. Here, a transceiver 520 (comprising a transmitter and receiver) emits a sensing RF wave 552 (which may simply be referred to as an RF wave or RF signal) at time to which is reflected by an object 510. The reflected RF wave (or reflected RF signal) 554 is then received at the transceiver 520 at time ti . The distance D_o from the transceiver 520 to the object 510 may be determined based on the Round-Trip Time (RTT) of the wave when it is transmitted at time to and when the reflected wave is received at time fi, i.e., D_o = ^c('^tl ₂ ^to where c is the speed of light. That is, the detected object is located on a circle (or, in three dimensions, a sphere) with radius D_o from the radar transceiver 520, and the location of the object can be further determined by the angle 0RX at which the reflected RF wave 554 is received at the transceiver 520, and/or the angle of departure of the transmitted wave 552 (if the radar uses a narrow beam focused at a known angle).

Figure 5B shows an example of a bistatic radar. Here, a transmitter 522 emits an RF wave 556 at time to which is reflected by an object 510 at an angle of f>. The reflected RF wave 558 is then received at a receiver 524 at time ti. The sum of the distances D_Tx (the distance from the transmitter 522 to the object 510) and DR_X (the distance from the object 510 to the receiver 524) can be calculated using the RTT, i.e., D_TX + /f& = c ( - to). The distance between the transmitter and receiver DTX-RX can be known a-priori. The bistatic range is defined as D_Tx + D_Rx - DT^-RX. The detected object can therefore be determined to be located on an ellipse with the foci at the locations of the transmitter 522 and receiver 524, and with a constant bistatic range. The location of the object 510 on the ellipse can be further determined by the angle of arrival of the reflected wave 558 at the receiver 524, or the angle of departure of the transmitted RF wave 556 at the transmitter 522 (if the wave is transmitted in a beam focused at a known angle).

The bistatic angle, labelled as / Figure 5B, is the angle subtended between the transmitter 522, the object 510 and the receiver 524. If the bistatic angle P is close to zero, the sensor resembles a monostatic radar, which may be referred to as a pseudo-monostatic radar. A pseudo-monostatic radar, where P~ 0° is shown in Figure 5C, where the numbered components correspond to those shown in Figure 5B. Conversely, if the bistatic angle p s, close to 180°, then the radar may behave as a forward scatter radar. A forward scatter radar with p « 180° is shown in Figure 5D, where the numbered components correspond to those shown in Figures 5B and 5C. Here, the object 510 can be detected at the receiver 524 by detecting a diffracted wave 559 using Babinet’s principle, where the silhouette 515 of the object is projected at the receiver 524 by the diffracted wave 559. Certain objects, such as an airplane with stealth capability, may absorb RF waves emitted by a radar instead of reflecting them, thereby avoiding detection using conventional radar. However, forward scatter radar is advantageous in detecting objects with such stealth capabilities, as forward scatter radar techniques rely on the target object blocking the emitted wave, thereby forming a silhouette 515 at the receiver. The drawback of forward scatter radar arrangements is that it is difficult to detect the speed of an object via the Doppler Effect if the object is moving along the path between the transmitter 522 and receiver 524 of the radar.

In [3], six sensing modes are considered, and these are shown in Figures 6A to 6F. Figure 6A shows an example of a TRP-TRP bistatic mode scenario, in which a first TRP 611 transmits a sensing signal 614 towards an (active or passive) object or device (such as bus 612) which then reflects 615 the sensing signal to a second TRP 613. Figure 6B shows an example of a TRP monostatic mode scenario, in which a TRP 621 transmits a sensing signal 623 towards an (active or passive) object or device (such as bus 622) which then reflects 624 the sensing signal back to the TRP 621. Figure 6C shows an example of a TRP-UE bistatic mode scenario, in which a TRP 631 transmits a sensing signal 634 towards an (active or passive) object or device (such as bus 632) which then reflects 635 the sensing signal to a UE 633. Figure 6D shows an example of a UE-TRP bistatic mode scenario, in which a UE 643 transmits a sensing signal 644 towards an (active or passive) object or device (such as bus 642) which then reflects 645 the sensing signal to a TRP 641. Figure 6E shows an example of a UE-UE bistatic mode scenario, in which a first UE 651 transmits a sensing signal 654 towards an (active or passive) object or device (such as bus 652) which then reflects 655 the sensing signal to a second UE 653. Figure 6F shows an example of a UE monostatic scenario, in which a UE 661 transmits a sensing signal 663 towards an (active or passive) object or device (such as bus 662) which then reflects 664 the sensing signal back to the UE 661.

As noted above, in monostatic scenarios such as those shown in Figures 6B and 6F, the transmitter and receiver of the sensing signals are both within the same equipment/location/site, whereas in bistatic scenarios such as those shown in Figures 6A, 6C, 6D, and 6E, the transmitter and receiver of the sensing signals are geographically separated (i.e., non-co-located).

The network needs to determine a set of UEs to use in the ISAC process, because - as can be understood with respect to Figure 4 and the discussion thereof above for example - having just a relatively small number of fixed base stations performing sensing may not be sufficient to build up an acceptable map of a particular environment or area of interest. However, there could be many UEs in such an area of interest, which could be a certain environment or geographical area or the area around a particular target object. Here, some of these UEs may be suitable for participation in the ISAC operation, but others may not. The preferable UEs for ISAC operation are those that are close to the sensing region of interest, since these UEs will provide results with better accuracy (as the signal to noise ratio (SNR) of the sensing measurements will be higher). It is also advantageous to have a diversity of the locations of UEs that take part in the ISAC process, to provide sensing measurements from multiple directions but also to ensure that any obstacles are not obstructing LOS of all UEs involved in the ISAC process.

While some UEs will be in CONNECTED mode (i.e. have an active connection with the network) and their location will be known, most of the UEs that could advantageously take part in ISAC operations are likely to be in either INACTIVE mode (i.e. have a suspended connection with the network) or IDLE mode (i.e. are not connected to the network) - and so are likely to be unknown to and/or not easily discoverable by the network. Some of the UEs in the area may not want to share their location for privacy and/or power consumption reasons. A technical issue to solve therefore is how the network is able to choose an appropriate set of UEs to use in I SAC operation, particularly when such UEs are in IDLE or INACTIVE mode and thus their capabilities and other information is unknown to the network. Embodiments of the present disclosure seek to provide solutions to such a technical issue.

Choosing IDLE / INACTIVE UEs to Take Part in ISAC Operations

Figure 7 shows a part schematic, part message flow diagram representation of a wireless communications system comprising an infrastructure equipment 710 (e.g. a gNB/TRP 10 such as that shown in Figures 2 and 3) and a communications device 720 (e g. a UE 14 such as that shown in Figures 2 and 3) in accordance with at least some embodiments of the present technique. The communications device 720 is configured to transmit signals to and/or receive signals from a wireless communications network, for example, to and from the infrastructure equipment 710 which forms part of the wireless communications network. Specifically, the communications device 720 may be configured to transmit data to and/or receive data from the wireless communications network (e.g. to/from the infrastructure equipment 710) via a wireless radio interface provided by the wireless communications network (e.g. a Uu interface between the communications device 720 and the Radio Access Network (RAN), which includes the infrastructure equipment 710). The infrastructure equipment 710 and the communications device 720 each comprise a transceiver (or transceiver circuitry) 711, 721, and a controller (or controller circuitry) 712, 722. Each of the controllers 712, 722 may be, for example, a microprocessor, a CPU, or a dedicated chipset, etc. The controllers 712, 722 may also each be equipped with a memory unit (which is not shown in Figure 7).

As shown in the example of Figure 7, the controller 712 of the infrastructure equipment 710 is configured to control the transceiver 711 of the infrastructure equipment 710 to transmit 740, to a plurality of communications devices (including, in the example of Figure 7, communications device 720), a sensing request message, the sensing request message 740 requesting that each of the plurality of communications devices (e.g. communications device 720) indicates information relating to its ability to perform sensing operations, wherein at least some of the plurality of communications devices (e.g. communications device 720) are in a Radio Resource Control (RRC) IDLE mode or an RRC INACTIVE mode, and to receive 760, from a subset of the plurality of communications devices (e.g. communications device 720), a response to the sensing request message 740, wherein the response received 760 from each of the subset of the plurality of communications devices (e.g. communications device 720) comprises the requested information relating to its ability to perform the sensing operations.

Here, in the example of Figure 7. the sensing operations may comprise the communications device 720 performing one or more of: transmitting sensing signals to one or more sensing targets, receiving reflected sensing signals from the one or more sensing targets in response to the transmitted sensing signals, performing one or more measurements on the received reflected sensing signals, and reporting the one or more performed measurements to the network (e.g. to the infrastructure equipment 710 (which may be a gNB or TRP) or to a Sensing Management Function (SeMF)). The sensing signals may however be transmitted by another communications device or other device in the network, such as a gNB or TRP, and the communications device 720 may then be configured only to receive the reflected sensing signals from the one or more sensing targets in response to the sensing signals transmitted by the other device, to perform one or more measurements on the received reflected sensing signals, and to report the one or more performed measurements to the network (e.g. to the infrastructure equipment 710). Alternatively, the communications device 720 may perform only the transmission of the sensing signals, with the reflected signals being received (and the measurement report being generated and reported) from the sensing target by another communications device or other device in the network, such as a gNB or TRP. Essentially, embodiments of the present technique therefore propose that, in order to find a suitable set of UEs (which may include IDLE / INACTIVE mode UEs) to take part in sensing operations, the network sends a sensing request message to such UEs. UEs that can take part in the sensing operations respond to the sensing request message, preferably indicating information that allows the network to choose a set of UEs to take part in the sensing operation. It will be appreciated that, while embodiments of the present disclosure find particular application in respect of discovery of UEs for sensing operations where such UEs are in IDLE or INACTIVE mode, embodiments of the present disclosure may equally also relate to the discovery of UEs for sensing operations where at least some of those UEs are in CONNECTED mode. It will furthermore be appreciated that, where reference is made in the following description of arrangements of embodiments of the present technique to UEs in IDLE mode, such arrangements also apply in a similar or corresponding manner to UEs in INACTIVE mode.

In order to get IDLE (or INACTIVE) UEs to take part in sensing, the gNB first needs to discover which IDLE (or INACTIVE) mode UEs are available. The gNB hence transmits a signal/channel to the UEs, which can be understood as a sensing request message - with the purpose of discovering which UEs may possibly be involved in the sensing. Such a sensing request message may be in a form of a sensing wake-up signal (WUS), a paging signal (which may be a paging downlink control information (DCI), a paging message, or both, and where such a paging message may for example be a paging message performed prior to (e.g. and which initiates) a random access (RACH) procedure), an indication included in system information (such as in a system information block (SIB)), or any other appropriate signal or channel. That is, in other words, the sensing request message may be one of a paging message, a SIB broadcast by the infrastructure equipment, or a WUS (which indicates to the UE(s) to which it is addressed that such a UE or UEs should leave a sleep state and monitor for downlink signals). For simplicity, a paging approach is described in many of the following arrangements of embodiments of the present disclosure, but those skilled in the art would appreciate that such arrangements are also applicable in the case that the sensing request message is a WUS, carried by a SIB, or otherwise broadcast or transmitted by the gNB in any appropriate manner.

In some arrangements of embodiments of the present technique, the sensing request message indicates that the UE responds to the sensing request message with its sensing capability. In other words, the information relating to the ability of a communications device to perform sensing operations may comprise a sensing capability of that communications device. Example sensing capabilities that the sensing request message may indicate the UEs are to respond with include (but are not limited to):

• The beamforming capabilities of the UE;

• The bandwidth over which the UE is able to measure the channel; and

• The types of ISAC report that the UE can deliver. Here, as those skilled in the art would appreciate, there may be different possible types of ISAC report, such as spectrograms, channel state information (CSI) reports, angle of arrival information, etc.

In other words, the sensing capability may comprise one or more of a capability of the communications device to perform one or more beamforming techniques, a bandwidth over which the communications device is able to perform channel measurement, and one or more types of sensing reports the communications device is able to transmit to the wireless communications network. In accordance with such arrangements, the UEs that receive the sensing request message and are able to take part in the sensing operations will then report their ISAC capability in the response signal to the sensing request message. For UEs in INACTIVE mode, the gNB will have stored capability information for such UEs already. For such UEs, the response to the sensing request message will therefore not contain the capability information requested in the sensing request message, for efficiency reasons (although such UEs may still do so if the capability information stored at the gNB is out of date or incorrect). The response from such UEs may therefore comprise less information than responses from UEs in IDLE mode, and may include only information such as an indication of those UEs being able to participate in the sensing operation, and/or sensing conditions of those UEs. While the network may know the physical capability of the device (for example, an INACTIVE UE), the status of the device in terms of whether it is available (or is able) to take part in a sensing service or not may change. Hence an INACTIVE UE might therefore need to send an indication of whether it wants to take part in the sensing service even if its physical capability is known to the network and is unchanged. Here, therefore, the information relating to the ability of a communications device to perform sensing operations may comprise an availability of that communications device to be involved in the sensing operations.

Following receipt of responses to the transmitted request for the sensing capability information of the UEs, the network (e.g. the gNB/TRP or a sensing management function (SeMF) in the core network) may then choose appropriate UEs with the desired sensing capability to take part in ISAC operations.

In some arrangements of embodiments of the present technique, the sensing request message requests that the UEs respond with their sensing conditions, such as the UE’s location and or the UE’s orientation (which could be expressed as its 6 degrees of freedom (6DOF). It would be appreciated by those skilled in the art that fewer than 6 degrees of freedom may be appropriate in some cases. In other words, the information relating to the ability of a communications device to perform sensing operations may comprise sensing conditions currently being experienced by that communications device. On receipt of such information in the responses to the sensing request message, the network (e g. the gNB or SeMF) may then decide whether the UE is suitable or not.

The sensing request message may ask the UE to send its 6DOF (or any other appropriate orientation information) information back. In other words, the sensing conditions may comprise an orientation of the communications device. The gNB may then choose those UEs that are appropriately orientated in the direction of the sensing target.

The sensing request message may ask the UE to send its location information back to the network. In other words, the sensing conditions may comprise a geographical location of the communications device. The geographical location can be the location in terms of the global coordinate system (GCS), or a local coordinate system (LCS). The LCS can be in the form of a relative position of the UE to the gNB. The gNB may then choose the UEs that have an appropriate location for sensing the target (e.g. that are located close to the target or inside a target sensing area).

The sensing request message may ask UEs to send some simple sensing measurements to start with (e.g. some CSI-based report). The gNB can then determine which UEs have the most promising CSI report and, after that, the gNB chooses the most promising UEs to send back more involved data (like a spectrogram) in order to make a more appropriate decision in respect of which UEs should be involved in the sensing operations. In other words, the sensing conditions may comprise an indication of one or more measurements performed by the communications device.

In some arrangements of embodiments of the present technique, the sensing request message may request that only those UEs with certain sensing capabilities respond. In other words, the sensing request message may indicate that only communications devices with a specified sensing capability are to transmit a response to the sensing request message to the infrastructure equipment. A set of sensing capabilities may be defined, signalled to UEs, and/or preconfigured (e.g., in the specifications). Then, the UEs which support and are able to be involved in the sensing functions select one or more of the supported capabilities. Since only the UEs with suitable capabilities would respond, the number of response messages is limited, and so the overall procedure is made more efficient and interference is reduced. For example, such arrangements ensure that the initial access/physical random access (PRACH) channel is not overloaded in response to a sensing request.

In some arrangements of embodiments of the present technique, the network may assign different sets of PRACH resources to UEs with different sensing capabilities. The PRACH resources can be in the form of resources in terms of radio resources in the time/frequency domain. It can also be in the form of resources in terms of PRACH preambles. In legacy NR, there are up to 64 preambles that are available. The UEs may then send a response (e.g. a PRACH) in resources according to their sensing capabilities. In other words, the received response may be received by the infrastructure equipment within one of a plurality of sets of radio resources, wherein each of the plurality of sets of radio resources are respectively configured for communications devices with different sensing capabilities to transmit a response to the sensing request message. Here, each of the plurality of sets of radio resources may comprise different resources in one or more of time, frequency, and code (i.e. the different possible PRACH preambles) associated with the response received from the communication device. For example, the network can assign two sets of PRACH resources:

• A first set for UEs that can report sensing results with over 100 MHz of bandwidth; and

• A second set for UEs that can report sensing results with between 20 MHz and 100 MHz of bandwidth.

In accordance with arrangements of embodiments of the present technique, UEs would respond in the appropriate set of PRACH resources. The gNB can then count the number of UEs that are able to provide sensing results with over 100 MHz of bandwidth (for example, by determining the size of the first set as defined above). If this number is sufficient for achieving the desired sensing result, just UEs from this set are requested to continue with the PRACH process (e.g. via transmission by the gNB of a random access response (RAR)/Msg 2). Otherwise, UEs from the second set as defined above for example may additionally be chosen to achieve a sufficient number of sensing UEs. As those skilled in the art would appreciate, where reference is made to the transmission of a RAR by the gNB, this may in some cases be a second message (i.e. msg2) of a RACH procedure, as may be the case in the example given above. However, in other examples and discussion of embodiments of the present disclosure herein, the transmission of a RAR by a gNB may refer more generally to a response transmitted by the gNB to a UE to a sensing request message (i.e. within a paging procedure, where that sensing request message is a paging message), particularly where the UE is operating in IDLE or INACTIVE mode.

In some arrangements of embodiments of the present technique, the sensing request message asks UEs in certain radio conditions to respond. In other words, the sensing request message may indicate that only communications devices which are currently experiencing specified sensing conditions are to transmit a response to the sensing request message to the infrastructure equipment (where here, like in the arrangements described above, such specified sensing conditions may comprise one or more of a specified orientation of the communications device, a specified geographical location of the communications device, and specified radio conditions currently being experienced by the communications device). For example, there may be a gNB interested in sensing 100m in a north westerly (NW) direction. The gNB only sends the sensing request message on its NW beam and instmcts UEs to respond if their reference signal received power (RSRP) is between -70 and -90 dBm. UEs with an RSRP of -50 dBm would be closer to the gNB (than 100m) and hence not in the sensing area of interest. Similarly, UEs with an RSRP of -110 dBm would be too far away and hence also not in the sensing area of interest.

Operation of such arrangements is illustrated in Figure 8. In Figure 8, a gNB 801 is interested in performing sensing in a certain target area 825. Here, there are regions with varied levels of coverage from the gNB 801, where the borders between such levels of coverage may correspond to the RSRP thresholds as described in the paragraph above. For example, there may be a first coverage area 821 closest to the gNB 801 with a first RSRP threshold (e.g. -70 dBm) defining the border between the first coverage area 821 and a second coverage area 822. There may also be a third coverage area 823, with a second RSRP threshold (e.g. -90 dBm) defining the border between the second coverage area 822 and the third coverage area 823, and a third RSRP threshold (e.g. -120 dBm) defining the outside border of the third coverage area 823. There are three UEs illustrated in the example of Figure 8; a first UE 811 located in the first coverage area 821, a second UE 812 located in the second coverage area 822, and a third UE 813 located in the third coverage area 823. Here, the gNB 801 transmits a sensing request message 824 (e.g. a paging message) in a specified direction (i.e. that of the desired target sensing area 825), which is receivable by each of the first UE 811, the second UE 812, and the third UE 813 (i.e. the UEs located in that specified direction from the gNB 801), indicating that only UEs with an RSRP between - 70 dBm and - 90 dBm (i.e. corresponding to that of the second coverage area 822) respond. Accordingly, the second UE 812 is the only UE which sends a response to the gNB 801, while the other UEs (i.e. the first UE 811 and the third UE 813) which also receive the paging message 824 do not respond, because their RSRPs are outside the indicated range, implying that such UEs are not located in the target sensing area 825.

In some arrangements of embodiments of the present technique, such as in the example illustrated by Figure 8 and described above, the sensing request message could additionally or alternatively request that only UEs with the correct orientation (in the direction of the target) should respond. This may be useful if the gNB does not transmit the sensing request message (or other type of sensing request message) only in the direction of the target or target sensing area.

In some arrangements of embodiments of the present technique, the sensing request message could additionally or alternatively request that only UEs in a certain location (e g. close to the target) should respond. These UEs are able to determine their location by several different means. For example, the UEs could determine their location by:

• Using GPS or some other satellite-based positioning system;

• Performing radio measurements (e.g. on signals received from the gNB); or

• The UE is stationary and in a known location (which may have been previously determined by the UE according to any appropriate technique or signalled to the UE by the network, e.g. by the gNB).

As those skilled in the art would appreciate, a UE in IDLE mode may not be continually updating its GPS. Such a UE might need some time to determine a GPS location (via cold-starting or warm-starting its GPS). Hence, in some arrangements of embodiments of the present technique when IDLE mode UEs are requested to respond if their location is appropriate, an additional time is allowed for the UE to respond to the sensing request message. In other words, the sensing response timeline may be increased for UEs responding based on GPS measurements. The network may hence allow two timings for sensing response:

• A short time after reception of the sensing request message for UEs with a known location; and

• A longer time (several seconds) for UEs that determine their location via GPS.

In other words, the sensing request may indicate both of a first time period and a second time period, the second time period being longer than the first time period, where communications devices with a geographical location corresponding to the specified geographical location are to transmit a response to the sensing request message to the infrastructure equipment during one of the first time period and the second timer period, and where the first time period may be configured for communications devices which know their geographical locations and the second time period may be configured for communications devices which are required to determine their geographical locations after receipt of the sensing request message and before transmission of the response (e.g. using satellite-based radio navigation or a 3GPP -defined positioning method). In such arrangements, the network can signal to the UE the timeframe within which it must send the sensing response.

In some arrangements of embodiments of the present technique, dedicated PRACH resources are assigned to the sensing response message. In other words, the received response may be received by the infrastructure equipment within a preconfigured set of radio resources, wherein the preconfigured set of radio resources is configured only for the transmission of responses to sensing request messages. This avoids PRACH overload in the system. If common PRACH resources had been assigned to both sensing UEs and normal UEs (e.g. smartphones and other UEs that are not going to take part in the sensing operation, for example because they do not have sensing capability and/or they only have a capability for communications purpose), normal UEs would be unable to access PRACH resource if a lot of sensing UEs were to send PRACH.

In other words, in such arrangements, there are two sets of PRACH resource assigned: PRACH set 1 and PRACH set 2. Legacy UEs (e.g. UEs not requested to be involved in sensing operations who may wish to initiate a connection to the network for the purposes of transmitting uplink data) are assigned to PRACH set 1 and sensing UEs (e.g. UEs which are to respond to a received sensing request message are assigned to PRACH set 2. Even if there is overload on the PRACH set 2 resources (due to the sensing UEs), the normal UEs can continue to use the PRACH set 1 resources without interruption.

Such arrangements can also be described in terms of PRACH partitioning. In this case, in a set of PRACH resources, some parts are allocated for sensing purposes and the other resources are for the legacy random access operation. The resources here can be referred to resource in terms of time and frequency resources and/or distinct sets of RACH preambles. For example, there are 64 possible preambles. The first 10 may be allocated for sensing purposes and the rest may be allocated for the legacy random access process.

In some arrangements of embodiments of the present technique, only those UEs that are chosen to take part in the sensing service are sent a RAR (also known as Msg2) in response to the RACH preamble sent by the UEs. Those UEs that are not sent a RAR can go back to sleep. In other words, the received responses may be received from the subset of communications devices as a first message of a random access (RACH) procedure, and the infrastructure equipment may be configured to transmit, to a selected one or more of the subset of communications devices, a random access response, RAR, as a second message of the random access procedure. Here, this RAR may indicate that the selected communications devices (i.e. those which receive the RAR) are to perform the sensing operations, or may indicate that the selected communications devices (i.e. those which receive the RAR) are to continue the RACH procedure by transmitting a Msg3.

This operation is in contrast to the normal/legacy paging process, in which the UE continues the PRACEI process until a response is received from the network, where here, the UE is thus able to simply go back to sleep upon not receiving a RAR. This can be signalling in the sensing request (e.g. paging) message, where such signalling indicates that if a new PRACH (e.g. a sensing PRACH) is used, then there is a time window during which a RAR can be received - and if no RAR is received by a UE during this time window, the UE knows that it has not been selected, does not need to continue with the sensing request procedure, and so can safely go back to sleep. The mode of operation according to such arrangements saves on RAR resources when there are many inactive UEs that could take part in the sensing service. The network (e.g. the gNB or SeMF) only chooses a subset of UEs, where the size of the subset is sufficient to provide the desired sensing result. RAR messages are then only sent to that subset of UEs.

A RAR is transmitted on the DL-SCH transport channel (i.e. PDSCH). When the gNB provides a message in a RAR or similar, the CRC of the PDCCH that allocates the PDSCH containing the RAR(s) for sensing may be scrambled with a Sensing-Radio Network Temporary Identifier (Se-RNTI). The UE uses that Se-RNTI to decode the gNB’s response to the transmitted RACH preamble for sensing. The sensing -RNTI is also to be used to decode the PDCCH of the sensing -response message (in PDSCH). Hence, only a UE that has provided a RACH preamble for sensing can decode the RAR message.

UEs which are expecting to receive a RAR message for sensing are expected to monitor for the RAR message with a predefined minimum distance (e.g., time gap) from the last RACH resource for sensing to the start of monitoring the RAR message for sensing. The time offset is significantly larger than the legacy time gap, to provide the gNB with sufficient time to evaluate and select UEs to be involved in the sensing operations. The time gap can be in the order of multiple subframes / slots. The UE is also expected to monitor for the RAR message within a time window. Within the time window, the UE monitors for a control resource set (CORESET) configured for receiving a PDCCH allocating the PDSCH carrying a RAR message. The starting time of the time window for monitoring for a RAR message for sensing can be the first symbol of the aforementioned CORESET. Here, this time offset and time window may be indicated within the sensing request message, which thus informs the UE that the monitoring period for the RAR is not the same is in a legacy RACH procedure. In other words, the sensing request message may comprise an indication of a time window during which the RAR is to be transmitted to the selected communications devices.

In some arrangements of embodiments of the present technique, the RAR indicates whether a UE is chosen to be part of the ISAC procedure or not; i.e., it is not sent only to those UEs which are chosen to take part in the sensing service in accordance with the arrangements described previously. If a UE is not part of the ISAC procedure, it can go to sleep upon receipt of this RAR. The gNB could tell the UE how long it can go to sleep for (e.g. if sensing is likely to be ongoing, the gNB could tell the UE that it can go to sleep, but that it should listen to paging more often in case it needs to be woken up). That is, the received responses may be received from the subset of communications devices as a first message of a random access procedure, and the infrastructure equipment may be configured to transmit, to each of the subset of communications devices, a random access response, RAR, as a second message of the random access procedure, wherein the RAR may indicate that the communications device is to transmit a third message of the random access procedure to the infrastructure equipment, the communications device is to enter a sleep state during which the communications device is to monitor for paging messages in accordance with a normal periodicity, or the communications device is to enter a sleep state during which the communications device is to monitor for paging messages in accordance with a periodicity that is shorter than the normal periodicity.

In other words, the RAR can send multiple types of indication to the UEs that took part in the PRACH process:

• Success: The UE should continue the PRACH process by sending Msg3;

• Failure: The UE should go to sleep and monitor the paging channel according to the normal / legacy schedule in the future; or

• Standby: The UE can go to sleep, but should monitor the paging channel more frequently as the UE might be requested again to take part in the sensing procedure in the near future.

In some arrangements of embodiments of the present technique, in the opposite manner to the standby indication that may be indicated in the RAR as described above, UEs are told that they need to be prepared to be asked again to take part in the sensing procedure. Here, the sensing request message may indicate that UEs that had previously responded within a time window T_respom:e do not need to respond to the current sensing request message. In other words, the sensing request message is a first sensing request message, and the infrastructure equipment is configured to transmit a second sensing request message subsequently to transmitting the first sensing request message (where the second sensing request message may be sent to a different plurality of communications devices to the first sensing request message, or another previous sensing request message, and/or where there may be some communications devices that receive the sensing request message again), wherein the second sensing request message indicates that communications devices which transmitted a response to either the first sensing request message or a previous sensing request message during a time period indicated by the second sensing request message are not to transmit a response to the second sensing request message. Such arrangements are advantageous in the case that the network is sending multiple sensing request messages in order to determine a suitable set of UEs to take part in the sensing service.

For example, the network could send a sensing request message at a first time i and receive responses from multiple UEs, where some of those UEs are inappropriate for the sensing service (for example, they do not have the appropriate sensing capability or their location is not suitable). The network would choose those UEs that are suitable for the sensing service at around T i (and not respond to the unsuitable UEs). The number of UEs chosen may be insufficient at Ti. The network therefore then sends a further sensing request at a second time T₂ to find further suitable UEs. In sending this further sensing request, the network does not want UEs that were considered unsuitable at Ti to respond. Hence, the network sets T_reSponse > T₂ - TI and UEs that responded at Ti do not send a sensing response at T₂. In this manner, the network only receives “fresh” responses at T₂.

In accordance with arrangements of embodiments of the present disclosure, the response from the UE to the sensing request message may be transmitted:

• To the gNB, where the gNB then processes the information (such as performing selection of the UEs that are to participate in the sensing operations), and then sends the reply to the selected UEs;

• To the gNB, where the gNB may perform no processing of the information, or may process some of the information (but without actually selecting UEs to participate in the sensing). The gNB then forwards the unprocessed or pre-processed information to the SeMF. The SeMF performs the selection of the participating UEs and informs the gNB. Later, the gNB sends the reply to the selected UEs; or

• To the SeMF via the gNB (i.e., the information is transparent to the gNB), where the SeMF then processes the information (such as selection of the participating UEs), and then sends the reply to the selected UEs (e.g. which may again be via the gNB).

In other words, the infrastructure equipment may be configured to select, based on the received responses, one or more of the subset of communications devices to perform the sensing operations, and to transmit, to the selected communications devices, an indication that the selected communications devices are to perform the sensing operations. Alternatively, the infrastructure equipment may be configured to transmit, to a sensing management function in a core network, an indication of the subset of communications devices (e g. following pre-processing of some of the information received from these communications devices). Alternatively, the infrastructure equipment may be configured to receive, from the sensing management function, an indication of one or more of the subset of communications devices selected by the sensing management function to perform the sensing operations, and to transmit, to the selected communications devices, an indication that the selected communications devices are to perform the sensing operations.

Sending of sensing data can be a regulatory requirement, in the manner of Enhanced 911 (E911) in North America. Accordingly, in some arrangements of embodiments of the present technique, the sensing request message may indicate that the sensing request requires a mandatory response (since the sensing request is a “regulatory request”) - where this may be signalled through indicating that the sensing request is associated with a highest priority level of a plurality of possible priority levels. In other words, the sensing request message may indicate one of a plurality of priority levels associated with the sensing request message, wherein one of the priority levels indicates that all of the plurality of communications devices that receive the sensing request message are to transmit a response to the sensing request message. Even though the UE might not otherwise wish to be part of the sensing service, the UE would have to respond to such sensing requests. For example, a UE with low battery may not respond to a standard sensing request message (in order to save battery life), but would respond to a mandatory / regulatory sensing request (for example, associated with monitoring a public safety incident).

There may be different latencies of sensing requests, where higher latencies are more tolerable for requests for some sensing operations than for others. For example, time critical sensing requests may be sent in paging messages, as described in arrangements above. Less time critical sensing requests may be sent in system information or other broadcast signalling. The change in system information (related to a sensing request) may be indicated by a paging message or the UE may read the SIB according to a SIB modification period that is assigned to that SIB - where the SIB modification period is made shorter if UEs are required to read the SIB more often. It may take the UE some time to read the SIB before sending the sensing data. Different UEs may read the SIB at different times. This can be advantageous, since the different UEs would send sensing responses at different times, spreading the load on the sensing response channel. WUSs can wake up UEs to take part in sensing operations, as described above. UEs are able to monitor for a WUS with a lower power consumption than for monitoring other channels. Use of a WUS to indicate sensing operations would hence reduce UE power consumption (in comparison to other signalling methods). The WUS may in some implementations comprise a single bit that indicates whether that WUS is for sensing purposes or not.

In some arrangements of embodiments of the present technique, the choice of which UE to page (or send another type of sensing request message) is based on UE type. In other words, the infrastructure equipment may be configured to determine that the sensing request is to be transmitted to the plurality of communications devices based on a type of each of the plurality of communications devices. For example, the following types of UE may be identified:

1 City owned UEs: These UEs may need to take part in sensing;

2. Emergency worker UEs: These UEs may need to take part in sensing if there is an emergency;

3. Part of sensing service: Some UEs may be subscribed to a sensing service (e.g. a service for vehicles that allows them to see around comers in intersections). Such UEs may need to provide sensing measurements in order to be able to be part of the sensing service (i.e. a condition of them receiving the sensing results is that they provide some of the raw data that allows the sensing results to be obtained); and

4. Incentivised UEs: These UEs will take part in sensing operations for some incentive. Example incentives could include additional data allowance, reduced billing etc.

The gNB may decide to send sensing request messages to UEs according to a priority list, which may for example be ordered based on UE type in the manner indicated by the list above. In other words, the type of each of the plurality of communications devices may be one of a plurality of types of communications device, and wherein each of the plurality of types of communications device may be associated with one of a plurality of preconfigured priority levels. For example, the gNB may prefer to send sensing request messages to city-owned UEs in preference to incentivised UEs since the city-owned UEs would be in a known location and there would be no charge for using such UEs. If there were an insufficient number of such UEs available, the gNB would consider sending sensing request messages to emergency worker UEs, then those that are part of the sensing service, and then incentivised UEs as a last resort, for example.

The UE is expected to receive configuration from a base station in order to be able to perform the sensing operations. The sensing configuration can be cell specific and some UEs may have another set of specific sensing configuration instead or in addition. The sensing configuration may contain one or more of the following items:

• Sensing reference signal configuration;

• RSRP threshold(s) used for determining the sensing areas; and

• Resources to use for sensing request/sensing response messages, e.g. a configuration of sensing request messages that are used for sensing.

In other words, the infrastructure equipment may be configured to transmit, to one or more of the plurality of communications devices, an indication of a sensing configuration with which the sensing operations are to be performed, where the sensing configuration may comprise one or more of a configuration of sensing reference signals to be used for performance of the sensing operations, an indication of at least one reference signal received power, RSRP, threshold (i.e. where this RSRP threshold(s) indicates the sensing area(s) or coverage regions), and an allocation of a first set of radio resources within which the infrastructure equipment is to transmit the sensing request message and/or an allocation of a second set of radio resources within which the subset of the plurality of communications devices are to transmit the response to the sensing request message.

Such an indication of a sensing configuration may be transmitted via broadcast signalling, as part of the sensing request message (e.g. paging message), or in a message sent to the selected UEs (e.g. via DCI or RRC signalling) which may also be the message that assigns them their sensing functions or indicates that they are to be involved in the sensing. In other words, the infrastructure equipment may be configured to transmit the indication of the sensing configuration by broadcasting the indication of the sensing configuration, by transmitting the indication of the sensing configuration within the sensing request message, and/or by transmitting the indication of the sensing configuration within a message to a selected one or more of the subset of communications devices indicating that the selected communications devices are to perform the sensing operations.

The sensing configuration may be indicated in advance of any sensing request messages being transmitted, or may be at least partly transmitted after (or within) such a sensing request message. Some portions of the configuration - e.g. the resources on which the sensing request message will be received - may need to be indicated to UEs before any sensing request message is transmitted by the network.

UEs operating in IDLE mode should be able to obtain the sensing configuration, which cannot be provided to them using unicast downlink signalling if such UEs remain in IDLE mode. The sensing configuration can therefore also be conveyed by the gNB via system information. In other words, the infrastructure equipment may be configured to transmit the indication of the sensing configuration by transmitting the indication of the sensing configuration via system information. Alternatively, the UE may receive the configuration in the RRC release message (i.e. when going from CONNECTED/INACTIVE to IDLE) or the RRC suspend message (i.e. when going from CONNECTED to INACTIVE). In other words, the infrastructure equipment may be configured to transmit the indication of the sensing configuration by transmitting the indication of the sensing configuration within a message indicating that the one or more communications devices are to transition into either the RRC IDLE mode or the RRC INACTIVE mode.

Figure 9 illustrates an example of the overall operation as described herein in accordance with at least some arrangements of embodiments of the present technique. Figure 9 is a signalling diagram which illustrates the signalling exchanged between a UE 901 , a gNB 902, and the SeMF 903 in the core network.

In the example of Figure 9, the gNB 902 transmits 910 (cell or UE specific) sensing configuration (e g., via system information (SI) or RRC release message as described above). This sensing configuration 910 may be transmitted by the gNB 902 in advance of any sensing request message, at the same time as (e.g. in) the sensing request message, or after transmission of a sensing request message. From that point, or if otherwise instructed, the UE 901 starts to monitor 911 for a sensing request message.

The gNB 902 receives a sensing request 912 that could for example come from the SeMF 903, which is a node in the core network. In the sensing request 912, the SeMF 903 could indicate the geographic areas of interest for sensing. On receipt of the sensing request 912 from the SeMF 903, the gNB 902 transmits a sensing request message 913 (e.g. a sensing paging message) itself to the UE 901. In other words, the infrastructure equipment (e.g. gNB 902) may be configured to transmit the sensing request message based on receiving a request from a sensing management function (e.g. SeMF 903) in a core network to transmit the sensing request message, where here, this request received from the sensing management function may comprise an indication of one or more geographical areas in which the sensing operations are to be performed.

After decoding the paging message 913 received from the gNB 902, the UE 901 checks 914 the information indicated in the paging message 913 (for example an RSRP threshold or sensing conditions) and performs measurements 914, if required. Then, if the UE 901 is within the threshold for example, it provides a response message 915 to the gNB 902, where the response message may indicate the UE’s 901 sensing capability for example). The response message 915 may be sent via PRACH transmission, e.g. Msgl (possibly including Msg3) or MsgA in 2-step RACH. The gNB 902 may receive responses 915 from multiple UEs including UE 901, and so may need to perform evaluation 916 of the UEs from which the responses were received 915 in order to select appropriate UEs to assign sensing functions to. Alternatively, this evaluation 916 and selection of UEs may be performed by the SeMF 903 as described above. The gNB 902 may then provide its response 917 to the selected UEs, where the response may include the requested sensing function (e.g., sensing measurement), and/or the sensing configuration if not provided previously in message 910, or if the configuration has since been updated. The response message 17 may be sent via PRACH transmission or similar, e.g. Msg2 (RAR) (possibly including Msg4) or MsgB in 2-step RACH. Such a configuration in the example of Figure 9 may require the transmission of updated sensing reference signals (Se-RS) 918 by the gNB 902 to the UE 901. After the reception of the Se-RS 918, the UE 901 performs sensing measurements 919 and reports them back to the SeMF 903.

Figure 10 shows a flow diagram illustrating an example process of communications in a communications system in accordance with embodiments of the present technique. The process shown by Figure 10 is a method of operating an infrastructure equipment (such as a gNB or TRP) forming part of a wireless communications network.

The method begins in step SI. The method comprises, in step S2, transmitting, to a plurality of communications devices, a sensing request message, the sensing request message requesting that each of the plurality of communications devices indicates information relating to its ability to perform sensing operations, wherein at least some of the plurality of communications devices are in a Radio Resource Control (RRC) IDLE mode or an RRC INACTIVE mode. In step S3, the method comprises receiving, from a subset of the plurality of communications devices, a response to the sensing request message, wherein the response received from each of the subset of the plurality of communications devices comprises the requested information relating to its ability to perform the sensing operations. The process ends in step S4.

Those skilled in the art would appreciate that the method shown by Figure 10 may be adapted in accordance with embodiments of the present technique. For example, other intermediate steps may be included in this method, or the steps may be performed in any logical order. Though embodiments of the present technique have been described largely by way of the example communications system shown in Figure 7 and with further reference to Figures 8 and 9, it would be clear to those skilled in the art that they could be equally applied to other systems to those described herein.

Those skilled in the art would further appreciate that such infrastructure equipment and/or communications devices as herein defined may be further defined in accordance with the various arrangements and embodiments discussed in the preceding paragraphs. It would be further appreciated by those skilled in the art that such infrastructure equipment and communications devices as herein defined and described may form part of communications systems other than those defined by the present disclosure. The following numbered paragraphs provide further example aspects and features of the present technique:

Paragraph 1. A method of operating an infrastructure equipment forming part of a wireless communications network, the method comprising transmitting, to a plurality of communications devices, a sensing request message, the sensing request message requesting that each of the plurality of communications devices indicates information relating to its ability to perform sensing operations, wherein at least some of the plurality of communications devices are in a Radio Resource Control, RRC, IDLE mode or an RRC INACTIVE mode, and receiving, from a subset of the plurality of communications devices, a response to the sensing request message, wherein the response received from each of the subset of the plurality of communications devices comprises the information relating to its ability to perform the sensing operations.

Paragraph 2. A method according to Paragraph 1, wherein the sensing request message is a paging message.

Paragraph 3. A method according to Paragraph 1 or Paragraph 2, wherein the sensing request message is comprised within a system information block, SIB, broadcast by the infrastructure equipment.

Paragraph 4. A method according to any of Paragraphs 1 to 3, wherein the sensing request message is a wake-up signal, WUS.

Paragraph 5. A method according to any of Paragraphs 1 to 4, wherein the information relating to the ability of a communications device to perform sensing operations comprises a sensing capability of that communications device.

Paragraph 6. A method according to Paragraph 5, wherein the sensing capability comprises one or more of: a capability of the communications device to perform one or more beamforming techniques, a bandwidth over which the communications device is able to perform channel measurement, and one or more types of sensing reports the communications device is able to transmit to the wireless communications network.

Paragraph 7. A method according to any of Paragraphs 1 to 6, wherein the information relating to the ability of a communications device to perform sensing operations comprises sensing conditions currently being experienced by that communications device.

Paragraph 8. A method according to Paragraph 7, wherein the sensing conditions comprise one or more of: an orientation of the communications device, a geographical location of the communications device, and one or more measurements performed by the communications device.

Paragraph 9. A method according to any of Paragraphs 1 to 8, wherein the information relating to the ability of a communications device to perform sensing operations comprises an availability of that communications device to be involved in the sensing operations.

Paragraph 10. A method according to any of Paragraphs 1 to 9, wherein the sensing request message indicates that only communications devices with a specified sensing capability are to transmit a response to the sensing request message to the infrastructure equipment.

Paragraph 11. A method according to any of Paragraphs 1 to 10, wherein the received response is received by the infrastructure equipment within one of a plurality of sets of radio resources, wherein each of the plurality of sets of radio resources are respectively configured for communications devices with different sensing capabilities to transmit a response to the sensing request message. Paragraph 12. A method according to Paragraph 11, wherein each of the plurality of sets of radio resources comprises different resources in one or more of time, frequency, and code associated with the response received from the communication device.

Paragraph 13. A method according to any of Paragraphs 1 to 12, wherein the sensing request message indicates that only communications devices which are currently experiencing specified sensing conditions are to transmit a response to the sensing request message to the infrastructure equipment.

Paragraph 14. A method according to Paragraph 13, wherein the specified sensing conditions comprise one or more of: a specified orientation of the communications device, a specified geographical location of the communications device, and specified radio conditions currently being experienced by the communications device.

Paragraph 15. A method according to Paragraph 14, wherein: the sensing request indicates both of a first time period and a second time period, the second time period being longer than the first time period, communications devices with a geographical location corresponding to the specified geographical location are to transmit a response to the sensing request message to the infrastructure equipment during one of the first time period and the second time period, the first time period is configured for communications devices which know their geographical locations, and the second time period is configured for communications devices which are required to determine their geographical locations after receipt of the sensing request message..

Paragraph 16. A method according to any of Paragraphs 1 to 15, wherein the received response is received by the infrastructure equipment within a preconfigured set of radio resources, wherein the preconfigured set of radio resources is configured only for the transmission of responses to sensing request messages.

Paragraph 17. A method according to any of Paragraphs 1 to 16, wherein the received responses are received from the subset of communications devices as a first message of a random access procedure, and wherein the method comprises transmitting, to a selected one or more of the subset of communications devices, a random access response, RAR, as a second message of the random access procedure.

Paragraph 18. A method according to Paragraph 17, wherein the random access response, RAR, is scrambled with a sensing radio network temporary identifier, Se-RNTI.

Paragraph 19. A method according to Paragraph 17 or Paragraph 18, wherein the sensing request message comprises an indication of a time window during which the RAR is to be transmitted to the selected communications devices.

Paragraph 20. A method according to any of Paragraphs 1 to 19, wherein the received responses are received from the subset of communications devices as a first message of a random access procedure, and wherein the method comprises transmitting, to each of the subset of communications devices, a random access response, RAR, as a second message of the random access procedure, wherein the RAR indicates that: the communications device is to transmit a third message of the random access procedure to the infrastructure equipment, the communications device is to enter a sleep state during which the communications device is to monitor for paging messages in accordance with a normal periodicity, or the communications device is to enter a sleep state during which the communications device is to monitor for paging messages in accordance with a periodicity that is shorter than the normal periodicity.

Paragraph 21. A method according to any of Paragraphs 1 to 20, wherein the sensing request message is a first sensing request message, and the method comprises transmiting a second sensing request message subsequently to transmiting the first sensing request message, wherein the second sensing request message indicates that communications devices which transmited a response to either the first sensing request message or a previous sensing request message during a time period indicated by the second sensing request message are not to transmit a response to the second sensing request message.

Paragraph 22. A method according to any of Paragraphs 1 to 21, comprising selecting, based on the received responses, one or more of the subset of communications devices to perform the sensing operations, and transmiting, to the selected communications devices, an indication that the selected communications devices are to perform the sensing operations.

Paragraph 23. A method according to any of Paragraphs 1 to 22, comprising transmiting, to a sensing management function in a core network, an indication of the subset of communications devices.

Paragraph 24. A method according to Paragraph 23, comprising receiving, from the sensing management function, an indication of one or more of the subset of communications devices selected by the sensing management function to perform the sensing operations, and transmiting, to the selected communications devices, an indication that the selected communications devices are to perform the sensing operations.

Paragraph 25. A method according to any of Paragraphs 1 to 24, wherein the sensing request message indicates one of a plurality of priority levels associated with the sensing request message, wherein one of the priority levels indicates that all of the plurality of communications devices that receive the sensing request message are to transmit a response to the sensing request message.

Paragraph 26. A method according to any of Paragraphs 1 to 25, comprising determining that the sensing request is to be transmited to the plurality of communications devices based on a type of each of the plurality of communications devices.

Paragraph 27. A method according to Paragraph 26, wherein the type of each of the plurality of communications devices is one of a plurality of types of communications device, and wherein each of the plurality of types of communications device is associated with one of a plurality of preconfigured priority levels.

Paragraph 28. A method according to any of Paragraphs 1 to 27, comprising transmiting, to one or more of the plurality of communications devices, an indication of a sensing configuration with which the sensing operations are to be performed.

Paragraph 29. A method according to Paragraph 28, wherein the sensing configuration comprises a configuration of sensing reference signals to be used for performance of the sensing operations.

Paragraph 30. A method according to Paragraph 28 or Paragraph 29, wherein the sensing configuration comprises an indication of at least one reference signal received power, RSRP, threshold.

Paragraph 31. A method according to any of Paragraphs 28 to 30, wherein the sensing configuration comprises an allocation of a first set of radio resources within which the infrastructure equipment is to transmit the sensing request message and/or an allocation of a second set of radio resources within which the subset of the plurality of communications devices are to transmit the response to the sensing request message.

Paragraph 32. A method according to any of Paragraphs 28 to 31, wherein the step of transmiting the indication of the sensing configuration comprises broadcasting the indication of the sensing configuration. Paragraph 33. A method according to any of Paragraphs 28 to 32, wherein the step of transmiting the indication of the sensing configuration comprises transmiting the indication of the sensing configuration via system information. Paragraph 34. A method according to any of Paragraphs 28 to 33, wherein the step of transmitting the indication of the sensing configuration comprises transmitting the indication of the sensing configuration within the sensing request message.

Paragraph 35. A method according to any of Paragraphs 28 to 34, wherein the step of transmitting the indication of the sensing configuration comprises transmitting the indication of the sensing configuration within a message to a selected one or more of the subset of communications devices indicating that the selected communications devices are to perform the sensing operations.

Paragraph 36. A method according to any of Paragraphs 28 to 35, wherein the step of transmitting the indication of the sensing configuration comprises transmitting the indication of the sensing configuration within a message indicating that the one or more communications devices are to transition into either the RRC IDLE mode or the RRC INACTIVE mode.

Paragraph 37. A method according to any of Paragraphs 1 to 36, comprising transmitting the sensing request message based on receiving a request from a sensing management function in a core network to transmit the sensing request message.

Paragraph 38. A method according to Paragraph 37, wherein the request received from the sensing management function comprises an indication of one or more geographical areas in which the sensing operations are to be performed.

Paragraph 39. An infrastructure equipment forming part of a wireless communications network, the infrastructure equipment comprising transceiver circuitry, and controller circuitry configured in combination with the transceiver circuitry to transmit, to a plurality of communications devices, a sensing request message, the sensing request message requesting that each of the plurality of communications devices indicates information relating to its ability to perform sensing operations, wherein at least some of the plurality of communications devices are in a Radio Resource Control, RRC, IDLE mode or an RRC INACTIVE mode, and to receive, from a subset of the plurality of communications devices, a response to the sensing request message, wherein the response received from each of the subset of the plurality of communications devices comprises the information relating to its ability to perform the sensing operations.

Paragraph 40. Circuitry for an infrastructure equipment forming part of a wireless communications network, the infrastructure equipment comprising transceiver circuitry, and controller circuitry configured in combination with the transceiver circuitry to transmit, to a plurality of communications devices, a sensing request message, the sensing request message requesting that each of the plurality of communications devices indicates information relating to its ability to perform sensing operations, wherein at least some of the plurality of communications devices are in a Radio Resource Control, RRC, IDLE mode or an RRC INACTIVE mode, and to receive, from a subset of the plurality of communications devices, a response to the sensing request message, wherein the response received from each of the subset of the plurality of communications devices comprises the information relating to its ability to perform the sensing operations.

Paragraph 41. A method of operating a communications device, the method comprising receiving, from a wireless communications network while the communications device is in a Radio Resource Control, RRC, IDLE mode or an RRC INACTIVE mode, a sensing request message, the sensing request message requesting that the communications device indicates information relating to its ability to perform sensing operations, and transmiting, to the wireless communications network, a response to the sensing request message, wherein the response comprises the information relating to the ability of the communications device to perform the sensing operations.

Paragraph 42. A method according to Paragraph 41, wherein the sensing request message is a paging message.

Paragraph 43. A method according to Paragraph 41 or Paragraph 42, wherein the sensing request message is comprised within a system information block, SIB, broadcast by the infrastructure equipment. Paragraph 44. A method according to any of Paragraphs 41 to 43, wherein the sensing request message is a wake-up signal, WUS.

Paragraph 45. A method according to any of Paragraphs 41 to 44, wherein the information relating to the ability of the communications device to perform sensing operations comprises a sensing capability of the communications device.

Paragraph 46. A method according to Paragraph 45, wherein the sensing capability comprises one or more of: a capability of the communications device to perform one or more beamforming techniques, a bandwidth over which the communications device is able to perform channel measurement, and one or more types of sensing reports the communications device is able to transmit to the wireless communications network.

Paragraph 47. A method according to any of Paragraphs 41 to 46, wherein the information relating to the ability of the communications device to perform sensing operations comprises sensing conditions currently being experienced by the communications device.

Paragraph 48. A method according to Paragraph 47, wherein the sensing conditions comprise one or more of: an orientation of the communications device, a geographical location of the communications device, and one or more measurements performed by the communications device.

Paragraph 49. A method according to any of Paragraphs 41 to 48, wherein the information relating to the ability of the communications device to perform sensing operations comprises an availability of the communications device to be involved in the sensing operations.

Paragraph 50. A method according to any of Paragraphs 41 to 49, wherein the sensing request message indicates that the communications device is to transmit the response to the sensing request message to the infrastructure equipment only if the communications device has a specified sensing capability.

Paragraph 51. A method according to any of Paragraphs 41 to 50, comprising determining, based on one or more sensing capabilities of the communications device, one of a plurality of sets of radio resources in which to transmit the response to the infrastructure equipment, wherein each of the plurality of sets of radio resources are respectively configured for communications devices with different sensing capabilities to transmit a response to the sensing request message.

Paragraph 52. A method according to Paragraph 51, wherein each of the plurality of sets of radio resources comprises different resources in one or more of time, frequency, and code associated with the response transmited to the infrastructure equipment.

Paragraph 53. A method according to any of Paragraphs 41 to 52, wherein the sensing request message indicates that the communications device is to transmit the response to the sensing request message to the infrastructure equipment only if the communications device is currently experiencing specified sensing conditions.

Paragraph 54. A method according to Paragraph 53, wherein the specified sensing conditions comprise one or more of: a specified orientation of the communications device, a specified geographical location of the communications device, and specified radio conditions currently being experienced by the communications device. Paragraph 55. A method according to Paragraph 54, wherein the sensing request indicates both of a first time period and a second time period, the second time period being longer than the first time period, and the step of transmitting the response to the sensing request message to the infrastructure equipment comprises transmitting the response during the first time period if a geographical location of the communications device corresponds to the specified geographical location, wherein the geographical location is known to the communications device, or transmitting the response during the second time period if the geographical location of the communications device corresponds to the specified geographical location, wherein the communications device is required to determine the geographical location of the communications device after receipt of the sensing request message.

Paragraph 56. A method according to any of Paragraphs 41 to 55, wherein the communications device transmits the response to the infrastructure equipment within a preconfigured set of radio resources, wherein the preconfigured set of radio resources is configured only for the transmission of responses to sensing request messages.

Paragraph 57. A method according to any of Paragraphs 41 to 56, wherein the communications device transmits the response to the infrastructure equipment as a first message of a random access procedure, and wherein the method comprises receiving, from the infrastructure equipment, a random access response, RAR, as a second message of the random access procedure.

Paragraph 58. A method according to Paragraph 57, wherein the random access response, RAR, is scrambled with a sensing radio network temporary identifier, Se-RNTI.

Paragraph 59. A method according to Paragraph 57 or Paragraph 58, wherein the sensing request message comprises an indication of a time window during which the RAR is to be received from the infrastructure equipment.

Paragraph 60. A method according to any of Paragraphs 57 to 59, wherein the RAR indicates that: the communications device is to transmit a third message of the random access procedure to the infrastructure equipment, the communications device is to enter a sleep state during which the communications device is to monitor for paging messages in accordance with a normal periodicity, or the communications device is to enter a sleep state during which the communications device is to monitor for paging messages in accordance with a periodicity that is shorter than the normal periodicity. Paragraph 61. A method according to any of Paragraphs 41 to 60, wherein the sensing request message is a first sensing request message, and the method comprises receiving a second sensing request message from the infrastructure equipment subsequently to receiving the first sensing request message, wherein the second sensing request message indicates that the communications device is not to transmit a response to the second sensing request message if the communications device transmitted a response to either the first sensing request message or a previous sensing request message during a time period indicated by the second sensing request message. Paragraph 62. A method according to any of Paragraphs 41 to 61, comprising receiving, from either the infrastructure equipment or a sensing management function in a core network, an indication that the communications device is to perform the sensing operations.

Paragraph 63. A method according to any of Paragraphs 41 to 62, wherein the sensing request message indicates one of a plurality of priority levels associated with the sensing request message, wherein one of the priority levels indicates that the communications device is required to transmit the response to the sensing request message.

Paragraph 64. A method according to any of Paragraphs 41 to 63, comprising receiving, from the infrastructure equipment, an indication of a sensing configuration with which the sensing operations are to be performed.

Paragraph 65. A method according to Paragraph 64, wherein the sensing configuration comprises a configuration of sensing reference signals to be used by the communications device for performance of the sensing operations.

Paragraph 66. A method according to Paragraph 64 or Paragraph 65, wherein the sensing configuration comprises an indication of at least one reference signal received power, RSRP, threshold.

Paragraph 67. A method according to any of Paragraphs 64 to 66, wherein the sensing configuration comprises an allocation of a first set of radio resources within which the infrastructure equipment is to transmit the sensing request message and/or an allocation of a second set of radio resources within which the communications device is to transmit the response to the sensing request message.

Paragraph 68. A method according to any of Paragraphs 64 to 67, wherein the step of receiving the indication of the sensing configuration comprises receiving the indication of the sensing configuration as a broadcast performed by the infrastructure equipment.

Paragraph 69. A method according to any of Paragraphs 64 to 68, wherein the step of receiving the indication of the sensing configuration comprises receiving the indication of the sensing configuration within system information.

Paragraph 70. A method according to any of Paragraphs 64 to 69, wherein the step of receiving the indication of the sensing configuration comprises receiving the indication of the sensing configuration within the sensing request message.

Paragraph 71. A method according to any of Paragraphs 64 to 70, wherein the step of receiving the indication of the sensing configuration comprises receiving the indication of the sensing configuration within a message from the infrastructure equipment indicating that the communications device is to perform the sensing operations.

Paragraph 72. A method according to any of Paragraphs 64 to 71, wherein the step of receiving the indication of the sensing configuration comprises receiving the indication of the sensing configuration within a message from the infrastructure equipment indicating that the communications device is to transition into either the RRC IDLE mode or the RRC INACTIVE mode.

Paragraph 73. A communications device comprising transceiver circuitry, and controller circuitry configured in combination with the transceiver circuitry to receive, from a wireless communications network while the communications device is in a Radio Resource Control, RRC, IDLE mode or an RRC INACTIVE mode, a sensing request message, the sensing request message requesting that the communications device indicates information relating to its ability to perform sensing operations, and to transmit, to the wireless communications network, a response to the sensing request message, wherein the response comprises the information relating to the ability of the communications device to perform the sensing operations.

Paragraph 74. Circuitry for a communications device comprising transceiver circuitry, and controller circuitry configured in combination with the transceiver circuitry to receive, from a wireless communications network while the communications device is in a Radio Resource Control, RRC, IDLE mode or an RRC INACTIVE mode, a sensing request message, the sensing request message requesting that the communications device indicates information relating to its ability to perform sensing operations, and to transmit, to the wireless communications network, a response to the sensing request message, wherein the response comprises the information relating to the ability of the communications device to perform the sensing operations. Paragraph 75. A wireless communications system comprising an infrastructure equipment according to Paragraph 39 and a communications device according to Paragraph 73.

Paragraph 76. A computer program comprising instructions which, when loaded onto a computer, cause the computer to perform a method according to any of Paragraphs 1 to 38 or Paragraphs 41 to 72.

Paragraph 77. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a computer program according to Paragraph 76.

It will be appreciated that the above description for clarity has described embodiments with reference to different functional units, circuitry and/or processors. However, it will be apparent that any suitable distribution of functionality between different functional units, circuitry and/or processors may be used without detracting from the embodiments.

Described embodiments may be implemented in any suitable form including hardware, software, firmware or any combination of these. Described embodiments may optionally be implemented at least partly as computer software running on one or more data processors and/or digital signal processors. The elements and components of any embodiment may be physically, functionally and logically implemented in any suitable way. Indeed, the functionality may be implemented in a single unit, in a plurality of units or as part of other functional units. As such, the disclosed embodiments may be implemented in a single unit or may be physically and functionally distributed between different units, circuitry and/or processors.

Although the present disclosure has been described in connection with some embodiments, it is not intended to be limited to the specific form set forth herein. Additionally, although a feature may appear to be described in connection with particular embodiments, one skilled in the art would recognise that various features of the described embodiments may be combined in any manner suitable to implement the technique.

References

[1] Holma H. and Toskala A, “LTE for UMTS OFDMA and SC-FDMA based radio access”, John Wiley and Sons, 2009.

[2] TR 38.913, “3^rd Generation Partnership Project; Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; Study on Scenarios and Requirements for Next Generation Access Technologies

(Release 17)”, 3GPP, vl7.0.0, March 2022.

[3] RP -234069, “New SID: Study on channel modelling for Integrated Sensing And Communication (ISAC) for NR”, Nokia, Nokia Shanghai Bell, 3GPP TSG RAN Meeting #102, December 2023.

[4] TR 22.837, “Study on Integrated Sensing and Communication (Release 19)”, 3GPP, V19.0.0, June 2023.

[5] TS 22.137, “Integrated Sensing and Communication (Release 19)”, 3GPP, vl9.0.0, December 2023.

Claims

CLAIMS What is claimed is:

1. A method of operating an infrastructure equipment forming part of a wireless communications network, the method comprising transmitting, to a plurality of communications devices, a sensing request message, the sensing request message requesting that each of the plurality of communications devices indicates information relating to its ability to perform sensing operations, wherein at least some of the plurality of communications devices are in a Radio Resource Control, RRC, IDLE mode or an RRC INACTIVE mode, and receiving, from a subset of the plurality of communications devices, a response to the sensing request message, wherein the response received from each of the subset of the plurality of communications devices comprises the information relating to its ability to perform the sensing operations.

2. A method according to Claim 1, wherein the sensing request message is a paging message.

3. A method according to Claim 1, wherein the sensing request message is comprised within a system information block, SIB, broadcast by the infrastructure equipment.

4. A method according to Claim 1, wherein the sensing request message is a wake-up signal, WUS.

5. A method according to Claim 1, wherein the information relating to the ability of a communications device to perform sensing operations comprises a sensing capability of that communications device.

6. A method according to Claim 5, wherein the sensing capability comprises one or more of: a capability of the communications device to perform one or more beamforming techniques, a bandwidth over which the communications device is able to perform channel measurement, and one or more types of sensing reports the communications device is able to transmit to the wireless communications network.

7. A method according to Claim 1, wherein the information relating to the ability of a communications device to perform sensing operations comprises sensing conditions currently being experienced by that communications device.

8. A method according to Claim 7, wherein the sensing conditions comprise one or more of: an orientation of the communications device, a geographical location of the communications device, and one or more measurements performed by the communications device.

9. A method according to Claim 1, wherein the information relating to the ability of a communications device to perform sensing operations comprises an availability of that communications device to be involved in the sensing operations.

10. A method according to Claim 1, wherein the sensing request message indicates that only communications devices with a specified sensing capability are to transmit a response to the sensing request message to the infrastructure equipment.

11. A method according to Claim 1, wherein the received response is received by the infrastructure equipment within one of a plurality of sets of radio resources, wherein each of the plurality of sets of radio resources are respectively configured for communications devices with different sensing capabilities to transmit a response to the sensing request message.

12. A method according to Claim 11, wherein each of the plurality of sets of radio resources comprises different resources in one or more of time, frequency, and code associated with the response received from the communication device.

13. A method according to Claim 1, wherein the sensing request message indicates that only communications devices which are currently experiencing specified sensing conditions are to transmit a response to the sensing request message to the infrastructure equipment.

14. A method according to Claim 13, wherein the specified sensing conditions comprise one or more of: a specified orientation of the communications device, a specified geographical location of the communications device, and specified radio conditions currently being experienced by the communications device.

15. A method according to Claim 14, wherein: the sensing request indicates both of a first time period and a second time period, the second time period being longer than the first time period, communications devices with a geographical location corresponding to the specified geographical location are to transmit a response to the sensing request message to the infrastructure equipment during one of the first time period and the second time period, the first time period is configured for communications devices which know their geographical locations, and the second time period is configured for communications devices which are required to determine their geographical locations after receipt of the sensing request message..

16. A method according to Claim 1, wherein the received response is received by the infrastructure equipment within a preconfigured set of radio resources, wherein the preconfigured set of radio resources is configured only for the transmission of responses to sensing request messages.

17. A method according to Claim 1, wherein the received responses are received from the subset of communications devices as a first message of a random access procedure, and wherein the method comprises transmitting, to a selected one or more of the subset of communications devices, a random access response, RAR, as a second message of the random access procedure.

18. A method according to Claim 17, wherein the random access response, RAR, is scrambled with a sensing radio network temporary identifier, Se-RNTI.

19. A method according to Claim 17, wherein the sensing request message comprises an indication of a time window during which the RAR is to be transmitted to the selected communications devices.

20. A method according to Claim 1, wherein the received responses are received from the subset of communications devices as a first message of a random access procedure, and wherein the method comprises transmitting, to each of the subset of communications devices, a random access response, RAR, as a second message of the random access procedure, wherein the RAR indicates that: the communications device is to transmit a third message of the random access procedure to the infrastructure equipment, the communications device is to enter a sleep state during which the communications device is to monitor for paging messages in accordance with a normal periodicity, or the communications device is to enter a sleep state during which the communications device is to monitor for paging messages in accordance with a periodicity that is shorter than the normal periodicity.

21. A method according to Claim 1, wherein the sensing request message is a first sensing request message, and the method comprises transmitting a second sensing request message subsequently to transmitting the first sensing request message, wherein the second sensing request message indicates that communications devices which transmitted a response to either the first sensing request message or a previous sensing request message during a time period indicated by the second sensing request message are not to transmit a response to the second sensing request message.

22. A method according to Claim 1, comprising selecting, based on the received responses, one or more of the subset of communications devices to perform the sensing operations, and transmitting, to the selected communications devices, an indication that the selected communications devices are to perform the sensing operations.

23. A method according to Claim 1, comprising transmitting, to a sensing management function in a core network, an indication of the subset of communications devices.

24. A method according to Claim 23, comprising receiving, from the sensing management function, an indication of one or more of the subset of communications devices selected by the sensing management function to perform the sensing operations, and transmitting, to the selected communications devices, an indication that the selected communications devices are to perform the sensing operations.

25. A method according to Claim 1, wherein the sensing request message indicates one of a plurality of priority levels associated with the sensing request message, wherein one of the priority levels indicates that all of the plurality of communications devices that receive the sensing request message are to transmit a response to the sensing request message.

26. A method according to Claim 1, comprising determining that the sensing request is to be transmitted to the plurality of communications devices based on a type of each of the plurality of communications devices.

27. A method according to Claim 26, wherein the type of each of the plurality of communications devices is one of a plurality of types of communications device, and wherein each of the plurality of types of communications device is associated with one of a plurality of preconfigured priority levels.

28. A method according to Claim 1, comprising transmiting, to one or more of the plurality of communications devices, an indication of a sensing configuration with which the sensing operations are to be performed.

29. A method according to Claim 28, wherein the sensing configuration comprises a configuration of sensing reference signals to be used for performance of the sensing operations.

30. A method according to Claim 28, wherein the sensing configuration comprises an indication of at least one reference signal received power, RSRP, threshold.

31. A method according to Claim 28, wherein the sensing configuration comprises an allocation of a first set of radio resources within which the infrastructure equipment is to transmit the sensing request message and/or an allocation of a second set of radio resources within which the subset of the plurality of communications devices are to transmit the response to the sensing request message.

32. A method according to Claim 28, wherein the step of transmiting the indication of the sensing configuration comprises broadcasting the indication of the sensing configuration.

33. A method according to Claim 28, wherein the step of transmiting the indication of the sensing configuration comprises transmiting the indication of the sensing configuration via system information.

34. A method according to Claim 28, wherein the step of transmiting the indication of the sensing configuration comprises transmiting the indication of the sensing configuration within the sensing request message.

35. A method according to Claim 28, wherein the step of transmiting the indication of the sensing configuration comprises transmiting the indication of the sensing configuration within a message to a selected one or more of the subset of communications devices indicating that the selected communications devices are to perform the sensing operations.

36. A method according to Claim 28, wherein the step of transmiting the indication of the sensing configuration comprises transmiting the indication of the sensing configuration within a message indicating that the one or more communications devices are to transition into either the RRC IDLE mode or the RRC INACTIVE mode.

37. A method according to Claim 1, comprising transmiting the sensing request message based on receiving a request from a sensing management function in a core network to transmit the sensing request message.

38. A method according to Claim 37, wherein the request received from the sensing management function comprises an indication of one or more geographical areas in which the sensing operations are to be performed.

39. An infrastructure equipment forming part of a wireless communications network, the infrastructure equipment comprising transceiver circuitry, and controller circuitry configured in combination with the transceiver circuitry to transmit, to a plurality of communications devices, a sensing request message, the sensing request message requesting that each of the plurality of communications devices indicates information relating to its ability to perform sensing operations, wherein at least some of the plurality of communications devices are in a Radio Resource Control, RRC, IDLE mode or an RRC INACTIVE mode, and to receive, from a subset of the plurality of communications devices, a response to the sensing request message, wherein the response received from each of the subset of the plurality of communications devices comprises the information relating to its ability to perform the sensing operations.

40. Circuitry for an infrastructure equipment forming part of a wireless communications network, the infrastructure equipment comprising transceiver circuitry, and controller circuitry configured in combination with the transceiver circuitry to transmit, to a plurality of communications devices, a sensing request message, the sensing request message requesting that each of the plurality of communications devices indicates information relating to its ability to perform sensing operations, wherein at least some of the plurality of communications devices are in a Radio Resource Control, RRC, IDLE mode or an RRC INACTIVE mode, and to receive, from a subset of the plurality of communications devices, a response to the sensing request message, wherein the response received from each of the subset of the plurality of communications devices comprises the information relating to its ability to perform the sensing operations.

41. A method of operating a communications device, the method comprising receiving, from a wireless communications network while the communications device is in a Radio Resource Control, RRC, IDLE mode or an RRC INACTIVE mode, a sensing request message, the sensing request message requesting that the communications device indicates information relating to its ability to perform sensing operations, and transmitting, to the wireless communications network, a response to the sensing request message, wherein the response comprises the information relating to the ability of the communications device to perform the sensing operations.

42. A method according to Claim 41, wherein the sensing request message is a paging message.

43. A method according to Claim 41, wherein the sensing request message is comprised within a system information block, SIB, broadcast by the infrastructure equipment.

44. A method according to Claim 41, wherein the sensing request message is a wake-up signal, WUS.

45. A method according to Claim 41 , wherein the information relating to the ability of the communications device to perform sensing operations comprises a sensing capability of the communications device.

46. A method according to Claim 45, wherein the sensing capability comprises one or more of: a capability of the communications device to perform one or more beamforming techniques, a bandwidth over which the communications device is able to perform channel measurement, and one or more types of sensing reports the communications device is able to transmit to the wireless communications network.

47. A method according to Claim 41 , wherein the information relating to the ability of the communications device to perform sensing operations comprises sensing conditions currently being experienced by the communications device.

48. A method according to Claim 47, wherein the sensing conditions comprise one or more of: an orientation of the communications device, a geographical location of the communications device, and one or more measurements performed by the communications device.

49. A method according to Claim 41, wherein the information relating to the ability of the communications device to perform sensing operations comprises an availability of the communications device to be involved in the sensing operations.

50. A method according to Claim 41, wherein the sensing request message indicates that the communications device is to transmit the response to the sensing request message to the infrastructure equipment only if the communications device has a specified sensing capability.

51. A method according to Claim 41 , comprising determining, based on one or more sensing capabilities of the communications device, one of a plurality of sets of radio resources in which to transmit the response to the infrastructure equipment, wherein each of the plurality of sets of radio resources are respectively configured for communications devices with different sensing capabilities to transmit a response to the sensing request message.

52. A method according to Claim 51, wherein each of the plurality of sets of radio resources comprises different resources in one or more of time, frequency, and code associated with the response transmitted to the infrastructure equipment.

53. A method according to Claim 41, wherein the sensing request message indicates that the communications device is to transmit the response to the sensing request message to the infrastructure equipment only if the communications device is currently experiencing specified sensing conditions.

54. A method according to Claim 53, wherein the specified sensing conditions comprise one or more of: a specified orientation of the communications device, a specified geographical location of the communications device, and specified radio conditions currently being experienced by the communications device.

55. A method according to Claim 54, wherein the sensing request indicates both of a first time period and a second time period, the second time period being longer than the first time period, and the step of transmitting the response to the sensing request message to the infrastructure equipment comprises transmitting the response during the first time period if a geographical location of the communications device corresponds to the specified geographical location, wherein the geographical location is known to the communications device, or transmitting the response during the second time period if the geographical location of the communications device corresponds to the specified geographical location, wherein the communications device is required to determine the geographical location of the communications device after receipt of the sensing request message.

56. A method according to Claim 41, wherein the communications device transmits the response to the infrastructure equipment within a preconfigured set of radio resources, wherein the preconfigured set of radio resources is configured only for the transmission of responses to sensing request messages.

57. A method according to Claim 41, wherein the communications device transmits the response to the infrastructure equipment as a first message of a random access procedure, and wherein the method comprises receiving, from the infrastructure equipment, a random access response, RAR, as a second message of the random access procedure.

58. A method according to Claim 57, wherein the random access response, RAR, is scrambled with a sensing radio network temporary identifier, Se-RNTI.

59. A method according to Claim 57, wherein the sensing request message comprises an indication of a time window during which the RAR is to be received from the infrastructure equipment.

60. A method according to Claim 57, wherein the RAR indicates that: the communications device is to transmit a third message of the random access procedure to the infrastructure equipment, the communications device is to enter a sleep state during which the communications device is to monitor for paging messages in accordance with a normal periodicity, or the communications device is to enter a sleep state during which the communications device is to monitor for paging messages in accordance with a periodicity that is shorter than the normal periodicity.

61. A method according to Claim 41, wherein the sensing request message is a first sensing request message, and the method comprises receiving a second sensing request message from the infrastructure equipment subsequently to receiving the first sensing request message, wherein the second sensing request message indicates that the communications device is not to transmit a response to the second sensing request message if the communications device transmitted a response to either the first sensing request message or a previous sensing request message during a time period indicated by the second sensing request message.

62. A method according to Claim 41 , comprising receiving, from either the infrastructure equipment or a sensing management function in a core network, an indication that the communications device is to perform the sensing operations.

63. A method according to Claim 41, wherein the sensing request message indicates one of a plurality of priority levels associated with the sensing request message, wherein one of the priority levels indicates that the communications device is required to transmit the response to the sensing request message.

64. A method according to Claim 41 , comprising receiving, from the infrastructure equipment, an indication of a sensing configuration with which the sensing operations are to be performed.

65. A method according to Claim 64, wherein the sensing configuration comprises a configuration of sensing reference signals to be used by the communications device for performance of the sensing operations.

66. A method according to Claim 64, wherein the sensing configuration comprises an indication of at least one reference signal received power, RSRP, threshold.

67. A method according to Claim 64, wherein the sensing configuration comprises an allocation of a first set of radio resources within which the infrastructure equipment is to transmit the sensing request message and/or an allocation of a second set of radio resources within which the communications device is to transmit the response to the sensing request message.

68. A method according to Claim 64, wherein the step of receiving the indication of the sensing configuration comprises receiving the indication of the sensing configuration as a broadcast performed by the infrastructure equipment.

69. A method according to Claim 64, wherein the step of receiving the indication of the sensing configuration comprises receiving the indication of the sensing configuration within system information.

70. A method according to Claim 64, wherein the step of receiving the indication of the sensing configuration comprises receiving the indication of the sensing configuration within the sensing request message.

71. A method according to Claim 64, wherein the step of receiving the indication of the sensing configuration comprises receiving the indication of the sensing configuration within a message from the infrastructure equipment indicating that the communications device is to perform the sensing operations.

72. A method according to Claim 64, wherein the step of receiving the indication of the sensing configuration comprises receiving the indication of the sensing configuration within a message from the infrastructure equipment indicating that the communications device is to transition into either the RRC IDLE mode or the RRC INACTIVE mode.

73. A communications device comprising transceiver circuitry, and controller circuitry configured in combination with the transceiver circuitry to receive, from a wireless communications network while the communications device is in a Radio Resource Control, RRC, IDLE mode or an RRC INACTIVE mode, a sensing request message, the sensing request message requesting that the communications device indicates information relating to its ability to perform sensing operations, and to transmit, to the wireless communications network, a response to the sensing request message, wherein the response comprises the information relating to the ability of the communications device to perform the sensing operations.

74. Circuitry for a communications device comprising transceiver circuitry, and controller circuitry configured in combination with the transceiver circuitry to receive, from a wireless communications network while the communications device is in a Radio Resource Control, RRC, IDLE mode or an RRC INACTIVE mode, a sensing request message, the sensing request message requesting that the communications device indicates information relating to its ability to perform sensing operations, and to transmit, to the wireless communications network, a response to the sensing request message, wherein the response comprises the information relating to the ability of the communications device to perform the sensing operations.

75. A wireless communications system comprising an infrastructure equipment according to Claim 39 and a communications device according to Claim 73.

76. A computer program comprising instructions which, when loaded onto a computer, cause the computer to perform a method according to Claim 1 or Claim 41.

77. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a computer program according to Claim 76.