MODIFYING CONSISTENCY GROUPS ASSOCIATED WITH POSITIONING OF A USER EQUIPMENT

Disclosed are various techniques for wireless communication. In an aspect, a UE identifies a plurality of consistency groups, each of the plurality of consistency groups comprising a plurality of positioning sources associated with measurements within one or more shared error characteristics for the respective consistency group, reports, to a position estimation entity, information associated with the plurality of consistency groups, and receives, from the position estimation entity, an instruction to modify one or more parameters associated with the plurality of consistency groups.

BACKGROUND OF THE DISCLOSURE

1. Field of the Disclosure

Aspects of the disclosure relate generally to wireless communications, and more particularly to modifying consistency groups associated with positioning of a user equipment (UE).

2. Description of the Related Art

SUMMARY

In an aspect, a method of operating a user equipment (UE) includes identifying, by the UE, a plurality of consistency groups, each of the plurality of consistency groups comprising a plurality of positioning sources associated with measurements within one or more shared error characteristics for the respective consistency group; reporting, to a position estimation entity, information associated with the plurality of consistency groups; and receiving, from the position estimation entity, an instruction to modify one or more parameters associated with the plurality of consistency groups.

In an aspect, a method of operating a network component includes receiving, from a user equipment (UE), information associated with a plurality of consistency groups, each of the plurality of consistency groups comprising a plurality of positioning sources associated with measurements within one or more shared error characteristics for the respective consistency group; and transmitting, to the UE, an instruction to modify one or more parameters associated with the plurality of consistency groups.

In an aspect, a user equipment (UE) includes a memory; at least one transceiver; and at least one processor communicatively coupled to the memory and the at least one transceiver, the at least one processor configured to: identify a plurality of consistency groups, each of the plurality of consistency groups comprising a plurality of positioning sources associated with measurements within one or more shared error characteristics for the respective consistency group; report, to a position estimation entity, information  associated with the plurality of consistency groups; and receive, via the at least one transceiver, from the position estimation entity, an instruction to modify one or more parameters associated with the plurality of consistency groups.

In an aspect, a network component includes a memory; at least one transceiver; and at least one processor communicatively coupled to the memory and the at least one transceiver, the at least one processor configured to: receive, via the at least one transceiver, from a user equipment (UE), information associated with a plurality of consistency groups, each of the plurality of consistency groups comprising a plurality of positioning sources associated with measurements within one or more shared error characteristics for the respective consistency group; and transmit, via the at least one transceiver, to the UE, an instruction to modify one or more parameters associated with the plurality of consistency groups.

In an aspect, a user equipment (UE) includes means for identifying a plurality of consistency groups, each of the plurality of consistency groups comprising a plurality of positioning sources associated with measurements within one or more shared error characteristics for the respective consistency group; means for reporting, to a position estimation entity, information associated with the plurality of consistency groups; and means for receiving, from the position estimation entity, an instruction to modify one or more parameters associated with the plurality of consistency groups.

In an aspect, a network component includes means for receiving, from a user equipment (UE), information associated with a plurality of consistency groups, each of the plurality of consistency groups comprising a plurality of positioning sources associated with measurements within one or more shared error characteristics for the respective consistency group; and means for transmitting, to the UE, an instruction to modify one or more parameters associated with the plurality of consistency groups.

In an aspect, a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a user equipment (UE), cause the UE to: identify a plurality of consistency groups, each of the plurality of consistency groups comprising a plurality of positioning sources associated with measurements within one or more shared error characteristics for the respective consistency group; report, to a position estimation entity, information associated with the plurality of consistency groups; and receive, from the position estimation entity, an instruction to modify one or more parameters associated with the plurality of consistency groups.

In an aspect, a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a network component, cause the network component to: receive, from a user equipment (UE), information associated with a plurality of consistency groups, each of the plurality of consistency groups comprising a plurality of positioning sources associated with measurements within one or more shared error characteristics for the respective consistency group; and transmit, to the UE, an instruction to modify one or more parameters associated with the plurality of consistency groups.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

To overcome the technical disadvantages of conventional systems and methods described above, mechanisms by which the bandwidth used by a user equipment (UE) for positioning reference signal (PRS) can be dynamically adjusted, e.g., response to environmental conditions, are presented. For example, a UE receiver may indicate to a transmitting entity a condition of the environment in which the UE is operating, and in response the transmitting entity may adjust the PRS bandwidth.

The words “exemplary” and “example” are used herein to mean “serving as an example, instance, or illustration.” Any aspect described herein as “exemplary” or “example” is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other aspects. Likewise, the term “aspects of the disclosure” does not require that all aspects of the disclosure include the discussed feature, advantage or mode of operation.

In some implementations that support positioning of UEs, a base station may not support wireless access by UEs (e.g., may not support data, voice, signaling connections, or various combinations thereof for UEs), but may instead transmit reference signals to UEs to be measured by the UEs, may receive and measure signals transmitted by the UEs, or both. Such a base station may be referred to as a positioning beacon (e.g., when transmitting signals to UEs), as a location measurement unit (e.g., when receiving and measuring signals from UEs), or both.

FIG. 1illustrates an exemplary wireless communications system100according to various aspects. The wireless communications system100(which may also be referred to as a wireless wide area network (WWAN)) may include various base stations102and various UEs104. The base stations102may include macro cell base stations (high power cellular base stations), small cell base stations (low power cellular base stations), or both. In an aspect, the macro cell base station may include eNBs, ng-eNBs, or both, where the wireless communications system100corresponds to an LTE network, or gNBs where the wireless communications system100corresponds to a NR network, or a combination of both, and the small cell base stations may include femtocells, picocells, microcells, etc.

The base stations102may collectively form a radio access network (RAN)106and interface with a core network108(e.g., an evolved packet core (EPC) or a 5G core (5GC)) through backhaul links110, and through the core network108to one or more location servers112(which may be part of core network108or may be external to core network108). In addition to other functions, the base stations102may perform functions that relate to one or more of transferring user data, radio channel ciphering and deciphering,  integrity protection, header compression, mobility control functions (e.g., handover, dual connectivity), inter-cell interference coordination, connection setup and release, load balancing, distribution for non-access stratum (NAS) messages, NAS node selection, synchronization, RAN sharing, multimedia broadcast multicast service (MBMS), subscriber and equipment trace, RAN information management (RIM), paging, positioning, and delivery of warning messages. The base stations102may communicate with each other directly or indirectly (e.g., through the EPC/5GC) over backhaul links114, which may be wired or wireless.

The wireless communications system100may further include a wireless local area network (WLAN) access point (AP)120in communication with WLAN stations (STAs)122via communication links124in an unlicensed frequency spectrum (e.g., 5 GHz). When communicating in an unlicensed frequency spectrum, the WLAN STAs122, the WLAN AP120, or various combinations thereof may perform a clear channel assessment (CCA) or listen before talk (LBT) procedure prior to communicating in order to determine whether the channel is available.

The small cell base station102′ may operate in a licensed, an unlicensed frequency spectrum, or both. When operating in an unlicensed frequency spectrum, the small cell base station102′ may employ LTE or NR technology and use the same 5 GHz unlicensed frequency spectrum as used by the WLAN AP120. The small cell base station102′, employing LTE/5G in an unlicensed frequency spectrum, may boost coverage to the access network, increase capacity of the access network, or both. NR in unlicensed spectrum may be referred to as NR-U. LTE in an unlicensed spectrum may be referred to as LTE-U, licensed assisted access (LAA), or MulteFire.

Receive beams may be spatially related. A spatial relation means that parameters for a transmit beam for a second reference signal can be derived from information about a receive beam for a first reference signal. For example, a UE may use a particular receive beam to receive one or more reference downlink reference signals (e.g., positioning reference signals (PRS), narrowband reference signals (NRS) tracking reference signals (TRS), phase tracking reference signal (PTRS), cell-specific reference signals (CRS), channel state information reference signals (CSI-RS), primary synchronization signals (PSS), secondary synchronization signals (SSS), synchronization signal blocks (SSBs), etc.) from a base station. The UE can then form a transmit beam for sending one or more uplink reference signals (e.g., uplink positioning reference signals (UL-PRS), sounding reference signal (SRS), demodulation reference signals (DMRS), PTRS, etc.) to that base station based on the parameters of the receive beam.

For example, still referring toFIG. 1, one of the frequencies utilized by the macro cell base stations102may be an anchor carrier (or “PCell”) and other frequencies utilized by the macro cell base stations102, the mmW base station126, or combinations thereof may be secondary carriers (“SCells”). The simultaneous transmission, reception, or both of  multiple carriers enables the UE104/128to significantly increase its data transmission rates, reception rates, or both. For example, two 20 MHz aggregated carriers in a multi-carrier system would theoretically lead to a two-fold increase in data rate (i.e., 40 MHz), compared to that attained by a single 20 MHz carrier.

The wireless communications system100may further include one or more UEs, such as UE132, that connects indirectly to one or more communication networks via one or more device-to-device (D2D) peer-to-peer (P2P) links (referred to as “sidelinks”). In the example ofFIG. 1, UE132has a D2D P2P link134with one of the UEs104connected to one of the base stations102(e.g., through which UE132may indirectly obtain cellular connectivity) and a D2D P2P link194with WLAN STA122connected to the WLAN AP120(through which UE132may indirectly obtain WLAN-based Internet connectivity). In an example, the D2D P2P link134and P2P link136may be supported with any well-known D2D RAT, such as LTE Direct (LTE-D), WiFi Direct (WiFi-D), Bluetooth®, and so on.

The wireless communications system100may further include a UE138that may communicate with a macro cell base station102over a communication link118, with the mmW base station126over a mmW communication link130, or combinations thereof. For example, the macro cell base station102may support a PCell and one or more SCells for the UE138and the mmW base station126may support one or more SCells for the UE138.

FIG. 2Aillustrates an example wireless network structure200according to various aspects. For example, a 5GC210(also referred to as a Next Generation Core (NGC)) can be viewed functionally as control plane functions214(e.g., UE registration, authentication, network access, gateway selection, etc.) and user plane functions212, (e.g., UE gateway function, access to data networks, IP routing, etc.) which operate cooperatively to form the core network. User plane interface (NG-U)213and control plane interface (NG-C)215connect the gNB222to the 5GC210and specifically to the control plane functions214and user plane functions212. In an additional configuration, an ng-eNB224may also be connected to the 5GC210via NG-C215to the control plane functions214and NG-U213to user plane functions212. Further, ng-eNB224may directly communicate with gNB222via a backhaul connection223. In some configurations, the New RAN220may only have one or more gNBs222, while other configurations include one or more of both ng-eNBs224and gNBs222. Either gNB222or ng-eNB224may communicate with UEs204(e.g., any of the UEs depicted inFIG. 1). Another optional aspect may include a location server112, which may be in communication with the 5GC210to provide location assistance for UEs204. The location server112can be implemented as a plurality of separate servers (e.g., physically separate servers, different software modules on a single server, different software modules spread across multiple physical servers, etc.), or alternately may each correspond to a single server. The location server112can be configured to support one or more location services for UEs204that can connect to the location server112via the core network, 5GC210, via the Internet (not illustrated), or via both. Further, the location server112may be integrated into a component of the core network, or alternatively may be external to the core network.

FIG. 2Billustrates another example wireless network structure250according to various aspects. For example, a 5GC260can be viewed functionally as control plane functions, provided by an access and mobility management function (AMF)264, and user plane functions, provided by a user plane function (UPF)262, which operate cooperatively to form the core network (i.e., 5GC260). User plane interface263and control plane interface265connect the ng-eNB224to the 5GC260and specifically to UPF262and AMF264, respectively. In an additional configuration, a gNB222may also be connected to the 5GC260via control plane interface265to AMF264and user plane interface263to UPF262. Further, ng-eNB224may directly communicate with gNB222via the backhaul connection223, with or without gNB direct connectivity to the 5GC260. In some configurations, the New RAN220may only have one or more gNBs222, while other configurations include one or more of both ng-eNBs224and gNBs222. Either gNB222or ng-eNB224may communicate with UEs204(e.g., any of the UEs depicted inFIG. 1). The base stations of the New RAN220communicate with the AMF264over the N2 interface and with the UPF262over the N3 interface.

The functions of the AMF264include registration management, connection management, reachability management, mobility management, lawful interception, transport for session management (SM) messages between the UE204and a session management function (SMF)266, transparent proxy services for routing SM messages, access authentication and access authorization, transport for short message service (SMS) messages between the UE204and the short message service function (SMSF) (not shown), and security anchor functionality (SEAF). The AMF264also interacts with an  authentication server function (AUSF) (not shown) and the UE204, and receives the intermediate key that was established as a result of the UE204authentication process. In the case of authentication based on a UMTS (universal mobile telecommunications system) subscriber identity module (USIM), the AMF264retrieves the security material from the AUSF. The functions of the AMF264also include security context management (SCM). The SCM receives a key from the SEAF that it uses to derive access-network specific keys. The functionality of the AMF264also includes location services management for regulatory services, transport for location services messages between the UE204and a location management function (LMF)270(which acts as a location server112), transport for location services messages between the New RAN220and the LMF270, evolved packet system (EPS) bearer identifier allocation for interworking with the EPS, and UE204mobility event notification. In addition, the AMF264also supports functionalities for non-3GPP access networks.

Functions of the UPF262include acting as an anchor point for intra-/inter-RAT mobility (when applicable), acting as an external protocol data unit (PDU) session point of interconnect to a data network (not shown), providing packet routing and forwarding, packet inspection, user plane policy rule enforcement (e.g., gating, redirection, traffic steering), lawful interception (user plane collection), traffic usage reporting, quality of service (QoS) handling for the user plane (e.g., uplink/downlink rate enforcement, reflective QoS marking in the downlink), uplink traffic verification (service data flow (SDF) to QoS flow mapping), transport level packet marking in the uplink and downlink, downlink packet buffering and downlink data notification triggering, and sending and forwarding of one or more “end markers” to the source RAN node. The UPF262may also support transfer of location services messages over a user plane between the UE204and a location server, such as a secure user plane location (SUPL) location platform (SLP)272.

Another optional aspect may include an LMF270, which may be in communication with the 5GC260to provide location assistance for UEs204. The LMF270can be implemented as a plurality of separate servers (e.g., physically separate servers, different software modules on a single server, different software modules spread across multiple physical servers, etc.), or alternately may each correspond to a single server. The LMF270can be configured to support one or more location services for UEs204that can connect to the LMF270via the core network, 5GC260, via the Internet (not illustrated), or via both. The SLP272may support similar functions to the LMF270, but whereas the LMF270may communicate with the AMF264, New RAN220, and UEs204over a control plane (e.g., using interfaces and protocols intended to convey signaling messages and not voice or data), the SLP272may communicate with UEs204and external clients (not shown inFIG. 2B) over a user plane (e.g., using protocols intended to carry voice or data like the transmission control protocol (TCP) and/or IP).

In an aspect, the LMF270, the SLP272, or both may be integrated into a base station, such as the gNB222or the ng-eNB224. When integrated into the gNB222or the ng-eNB224, the LMF270or the SLP272may be referred to as a location management component (LMC). However, as used herein, references to the LMF270and the SLP272include both the case in which the LMF270and the SLP272are components of the core network (e.g., 5GC260) and the case in which the LMF270and the SLP272are components of a base station.

FIGS. 3A, 3B, and 3Cillustrate several exemplary components (represented by corresponding blocks) that may be incorporated into a UE302(which may correspond to any of the UEs described herein), a base station304(which may correspond to any of the base stations described herein), and a network entity306(which may correspond to or embody any of the network functions described herein, including the location server112and the LMF270) to support the file transmission operations as taught herein. It will be appreciated that these components may be implemented in different types of apparatuses in different implementations (e.g., in an ASIC, in a system-on-chip (SoC), etc.). The illustrated components may also be incorporated into other apparatuses in a communication system. For example, other apparatuses in a system may include components similar to those described to provide similar functionality. Also, a given apparatus may contain one or more of the components. For example, an apparatus may  include multiple transceiver components that enable the apparatus to operate on multiple carriers, communicate via different technologies, or both.

The UE302and the base station304each include wireless wide area network (WWAN) transceiver, such as WWAN transceiver310and WWAN transceiver350, respectively, configured to communicate via one or more wireless communication networks (not shown), such as an NR network, an LTE network, a GSM network, or the like. The WWAN transceivers310and350may be connected to one or more antennas, such as antenna316and antenna356, respectively, for communicating with other network nodes, such as other UEs, access points, base stations (e.g., eNBs, gNBs), etc., via at least one designated RAT (e.g., NR, LTE, GSM, etc.) over a wireless communication medium of interest (e.g., some set of time/frequency resources in a particular frequency spectrum). The WWAN transceivers310and350may be variously configured for transmitting and encoding signal318and signal358(e.g., messages, indications, information, and so on), respectively, and, conversely, for receiving and decoding signals (e.g., messages, indications, information, pilots, and so on), such as signal318and signal358, respectively, in accordance with the designated RAT. Specifically, the WWAN transceivers310and350include one or more transmitters, such as transmitter314and transmitter354, respectively, for transmitting and encoding signals318and358, respectively, and one or more receivers, such as receiver312and receiver352, respectively, for receiving and decoding signals318and358, respectively.

The UE302and the base station304also include, at least in some cases, wireless local area network (WLAN) transceiver320and WLAN transceiver360, respectively. The WLAN transceivers320and360may be connected to one or more antennas, such as antenna326and antenna366, respectively, for communicating with other network nodes, such as other UEs, access points, base stations, etc., via at least one designated RAT (e.g., WiFi, LTE-D, Bluetooth®, etc.) over a wireless communication medium of interest. The WLAN transceivers320and360may be variously configured for transmitting and encoding signals (e.g., messages, indications, information, and so on), such as signal328and signal368, respectively, and, conversely, for receiving and decoding signals, such as signal328and signal368, respectively, in accordance with the designated RAT. Specifically, the WLAN transceivers320and360include one or more transmitters, such as transmitter324and transmitter364, respectively, for transmitting and encoding signals, such as signals328and368, respectively, and one or more receivers, such as  receiver322and receiver362, respectively, for receiving and decoding signals328and368, respectively.

Transceiver circuitry including at least one transmitter and at least one receiver may comprise an integrated device (e.g., embodied as a transmitter circuit and a receiver circuit of a single communication device) in some implementations, may comprise a separate transmitter device and a separate receiver device in some implementations, or may be embodied in other ways in other implementations. In an aspect, a transmitter may include or be coupled to a plurality of antennas (e.g., antennas316,326,356,366), such as an antenna array, that permits the respective apparatus to perform transmit “beamforming,” as described herein. Similarly, a receiver may include or be coupled to a plurality of antennas (e.g., antennas316,326,356,366), such as an antenna array, that permits the respective apparatus to perform receive beamforming, as described herein. In an aspect, the transmitter and receiver may share the same plurality of antennas (e.g., antennas316,326,356,366), such that the respective apparatus can only receive or transmit at a given time, not both at the same time. A wireless communication device (e.g., one or both of the transceivers310and320, transceiver350and360, or both) of the UE302, the base station304, or both may also comprise a network listen module (NLM) or the like for performing various measurements.

The UE302and the base station304also include, at least in some cases, satellite positioning systems (SPS) receivers, such as SPS receiver330and SPS receiver370. The SPS receivers330and370may be connected to one or more antennas, such as antenna336and antenna376, respectively, for receiving SPS signals, such as SPS signal338and SPS signal378, respectively, such as global positioning system (GPS) signals, global navigation satellite system (GLONASS) signals, Galileo signals, Beidou signals, Indian Regional Navigation Satellite System (NAVIC), Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS), etc. The SPS receivers330and370may comprise any suitable hardware, software, or both for receiving and processing the SPS signals338and378, respectively. The SPS receivers330and370request information and operations as appropriate from the other systems, and perform calculations necessary to determine positions of the UE302and the base station304using measurements obtained by any suitable SPS algorithm.

The base station304and the network entity306each include at least one network interfaces, such as network interface380and network interface390, for communicating with other network entities. For example, the network interfaces380and390(e.g., one  or more network access ports) may be configured to communicate with one or more network entities via a wire-based or wireless backhaul connection. In some aspects, the network interfaces380and390may be implemented as transceivers configured to support wire-based or wireless signal communication. This communication may involve, for example, sending and receiving messages, parameters, other types of information, or various combinations thereof.

The UE302, the base station304, and the network entity306also include other components that may be used in conjunction with the operations as disclosed herein. The UE302includes processor circuitry implementing a processing system332for providing functionality relating to, for example, wireless positioning, and for providing other processing functionality. The base station304includes a processing system384for providing functionality relating to, for example, wireless positioning as disclosed herein, and for providing other processing functionality. The network entity306includes a processing system394for providing functionality relating to, for example, wireless positioning as disclosed herein, and for providing other processing functionality. In an aspect, the processing systems332,384, and394may include, for example, one or more general purpose processors, multi-core processors, ASICs, digital signal processors (DSPs), field programmable gate arrays (FPGA), or other programmable logic devices or processing circuitry.

The UE302, the base station304, and the network entity306include memory circuitry implementing the memory components340,386, and396(e.g., each including a memory device), respectively, for maintaining information (e.g., information indicative of reserved resources, thresholds, parameters, and so on). In some cases, the UE302, the base station304, and the network entity306may include positioning components342,388, and398, respectively. The positioning components342,388, and398may be hardware circuits that are part of or coupled to the processing systems332,384, and394, respectively, that, when executed, cause the UE302, the base station304, and the network entity306to perform the functionality described herein. In other aspects, the positioning components342,388, and398may be external to the processing systems332,384, and394(e.g., part of a modem processing system, integrated with another processing system, etc.). Alternatively, the positioning components342,388, and398may be memory modules stored in the memory components340,386, and396, respectively, that, when executed by the processing systems332,384, and394(or a modem processing system,  another processing system, etc.), cause the UE302, the base station304, and the network entity306to perform the functionality described herein.FIG. 3Aillustrates possible locations of the positioning component342, which may be part of the WWAN transceiver310, the memory component340, the processing system332, or any combination thereof, or may be a standalone component.FIG. 3Billustrates possible locations of the positioning component388, which may be part of the WWAN transceiver350, the memory component386, the processing system384, or any combination thereof, or may be a standalone component.FIG. 3Cillustrates possible locations of the positioning component398, which may be part of the network interface(s)390, the memory component396, the processing system394, or any combination thereof, or may be a standalone component.

The UE302may include one or more sensors344coupled to the processing system332to provide movement information, orientation information, or both that is independent of motion data derived from signals received by the WWAN transceiver310, the WLAN transceiver320, or the SPS receiver330. By way of example, the sensor(s)344may include an accelerometer (e.g., a micro-electrical mechanical systems (MEMS) device), a gyroscope, a geomagnetic sensor (e.g., a compass), an altimeter (e.g., a barometric pressure altimeter), any other type of movement detection sensor, or combinations thereof. Moreover, the sensor(s)344may include a plurality of different types of devices and combine their outputs in order to provide motion information. For example, the sensor(s)344may use a combination of a multi-axis accelerometer and orientation sensors to provide the ability to compute positions in 2D or 3D coordinate systems.

In addition, the UE302includes a user interface346for providing indications (e.g., audible indications, visual indications, or both) to a user, for receiving user input (e.g., upon user actuation of a sensing device such a keypad, a touch screen, a microphone, and so on), or for both. Although not shown, the base station304and the network entity306may also include user interfaces.

At the UE302, the receiver312receives a signal through its respective antenna(s)316. The receiver312recovers information modulated onto an RF carrier and provides the  information to the processing system332. The transmitter314and the receiver312implement Layer-1 functionality associated with various signal processing functions. The receiver312may perform spatial processing on the information to recover any spatial streams destined for the UE302. If multiple spatial streams are destined for the UE302, they may be combined by the receiver312into a single OFDM symbol stream. The receiver312then converts the OFDM symbol stream from the time-domain to the frequency domain using a fast Fourier transform (FFT). The frequency domain signal comprises a separate OFDM symbol stream for each subcarrier of the OFDM signal. The symbols on each subcarrier, and the reference signal, are recovered and demodulated by determining the most likely signal constellation points transmitted by the base station304. These soft decisions may be based on channel estimates computed by a channel estimator. The soft decisions are then decoded and de-interleaved to recover the data and control signals that were originally transmitted by the base station304on the physical channel. The data and control signals are then provided to the processing system332, which implements Layer-3 and Layer-2 functionality.

In the uplink, the processing system332provides demultiplexing between transport and logical channels, packet reassembly, deciphering, header decompression, and control signal processing to recover IP packets from the core network. The processing system332is also responsible for error detection.

Channel estimates derived by the channel estimator from a reference signal or feedback transmitted by the base station304may be used by the transmitter314to select the  appropriate coding and modulation schemes, and to facilitate spatial processing. The spatial streams generated by the transmitter314may be provided to different antenna(s)316. The transmitter314may modulate an RF carrier with a respective spatial stream for transmission.

The uplink transmission is processed at the base station304in a manner similar to that described in connection with the receiver function at the UE302. The receiver352receives a signal through its respective antenna(s)356. The receiver352recovers information modulated onto an RF carrier and provides the information to the processing system384.

In the uplink, the processing system384provides demultiplexing between transport and logical channels, packet reassembly, deciphering, header decompression, control signal processing to recover IP packets from the UE302. IP packets from the processing system384may be provided to the core network. The processing system384is also responsible for error detection.

For convenience, the UE302, the base station304and the network entity306are shown inFIGS. 3A-Cas including various components that may be configured according to the various examples described herein. It will be appreciated, however, that the illustrated blocks may have different functionality in different designs.

The various components of the UE302, the base station304, and the network entity306may communicate with each other over data buses334,382, and392, respectively. The components ofFIGS. 3A-Cmay be implemented in various ways. In some implementations, the components ofFIGS. 3A-Cmay be implemented in one or more circuits such as, for example, one or more processors, one or more ASICs (which may include one or more processors), or both. Here, each circuit may use or incorporate at least one memory component for storing information or executable code used by the circuit to provide this functionality. For example, some or all of the functionality represented by blocks310to346may be implemented by processor and memory component(s) of the UE302(e.g., by execution of appropriate code, by appropriate configuration of processor components, or by both). Similarly, some or all of the functionality represented by blocks350to388may be implemented by processor and memory component(s) of the base station304(e.g., by execution of appropriate code, by appropriate configuration of processor components, or by both). Also, some or all of the functionality represented by blocks390to398may be implemented by processor and  memory component(s) of the network entity306(e.g., by execution of appropriate code, by appropriate configuration of processor components, or by both). For simplicity, various operations, acts, or functions are described herein as being performed “by a UE,” “by a base station,” “by a positioning entity,” etc. However, as will be appreciated, such operations, acts, or functions may actually be performed by specific components or combinations of components of the UE, base station, positioning entity, etc., such as the processing systems332,384,394, the transceivers310,320,350, and360, the memory components340,386, and396, the positioning components342,388, and398, etc.

NR supports a number of cellular network-based positioning technologies, including downlink-based, uplink-based, and downlink-and-uplink-based positioning methods. Downlink-based positioning methods include observed time difference of arrival (OTDOA) in LTE, downlink time difference of arrival (DL-TDOA) in NR, and downlink angle-of-departure (DL-AoD) in NR. In an OTDOA or DL-TDOA positioning procedure, a UE measures the differences between the times of arrival (TOAs) of reference signals (e.g., PRS, TRS, narrowband reference signal (NRS), CSI-RS, SSB, etc.) received from pairs of base stations, referred to as reference signal time difference (RSTD) or time difference of arrival (TDOA) measurements, and reports them to a positioning entity. More specifically, the UE receives the identifiers of a reference base station (e.g., a serving base station) and multiple non-reference base stations in assistance data. The UE then measures the RSTD between the reference base station and each of the non-reference base stations. Based on the known locations of the involved base stations and the RSTD measurements, the positioning entity can estimate the UE's location. For DL-AoD positioning, a base station measures the angle and other channel properties (e.g., signal strength) of the downlink transmit beam used to communicate with a UE to estimate the location of the UE.

Uplink-based positioning methods include uplink time difference of arrival (UL-TDOA) and uplink angle-of-arrival (UL-AoA). UL-TDOA is similar to DL-TDOA, but is based on uplink reference signals (e.g., SRS) transmitted by the UE. For UL-AoA positioning, a base station measures the angle and other channel properties (e.g., gain level) of the uplink receive beam used to communicate with a UE to estimate the location of the UE.

Downlink-and-uplink-based positioning methods include enhanced cell-ID (E-CID) positioning and multi-round-trip-time (RTT) positioning (also referred to as “multi-cell RTT”). In an RTT procedure, an initiator (a base station or a UE) transmits an RTT  measurement signal (e.g., a PRS or SRS) to a responder (a UE or base station), which transmits an RTT response signal (e.g., an SRS or PRS) back to the initiator. The RTT response signal includes the difference between the TOA of the RTT measurement signal and the transmission time of the RTT response signal, referred to as the reception-to-transmission (Rx-Tx) measurement. The initiator calculates the difference between the transmission time of the RTT measurement signal and the TOA of the RTT response signal, referred to as the “Tx-Rx” measurement. The propagation time (also referred to as the “time of flight”) between the initiator and the responder can be calculated from the Tx-Rx and Rx-Tx measurements. Based on the propagation time and the known speed of light, the distance between the initiator and the responder can be determined. For multi-RTT positioning, a UE performs an RTT procedure with multiple base stations to enable its location to be triangulated based on the known locations of the base stations. RTT and multi-RTT methods can be combined with other positioning techniques, such as UL-AoA and DL-AoD, to improve location accuracy.

The E-CID positioning method is based on radio resource management (RRM) measurements. In E-CID, the UE reports the serving cell ID, the timing advance (TA), and the identifiers, estimated timing, and signal strength of detected neighbor base stations. The location of the UE is then estimated based on this information and the known locations of the base stations.

To assist positioning operations, a location server (e.g., location server112, LMF270, SLP272) may provide assistance data to the UE. For example, the assistance data may include identifiers of the base stations (or the cells/TRPs of the base stations) from which to measure reference signals, the reference signal configuration parameters (e.g., the number of consecutive positioning slots, periodicity of positioning slots, muting sequence, frequency hopping sequence, reference signal identifier (ID), reference signal bandwidth, slot offset, etc.), other parameters applicable to the particular positioning method, or combinations thereof. Alternatively, the assistance data may originate directly from the base stations themselves (e.g., in periodically broadcasted overhead messages, etc.). In some cases, the UE may be able to detect neighbor network nodes itself without the use of assistance data.

A location estimate may be referred to by other names, such as a position estimate, location, position, position fix, fix, or the like. A location estimate may be geodetic and comprise coordinates (e.g., latitude, longitude, and possibly altitude) or may be civic and  comprise a street address, postal address, or some other verbal description of a location. A location estimate may further be defined relative to some other known location or defined in absolute terms (e.g., using latitude, longitude, and possibly altitude). A location estimate may include an expected error or uncertainty (e.g., by including an area or volume within which the location is expected to be included with some specified or default level of confidence).

Various frame structures may be used to support downlink and uplink transmissions between network nodes (e.g., base stations and UEs).

FIG. 4Ais a diagram400illustrating an example of a downlink frame structure, according to aspects.

FIG. 4Bis a diagram430illustrating an example of channels within the downlink frame structure, according to aspects. Other wireless communications technologies may have different frame structures, different channels, or both.

LTE supports a single numerology (subcarrier spacing, symbol length, etc.). In contrast, NR may support multiple numerologies (μ), for example, subcarrier spacing of 15 kHz, 30 kHz, 60 kHz, 120 kHz, and 240 kHz or greater may be available. Table 1 provided below lists some various parameters for different NR numerologies.

In the example ofFIGS. 4A and 4B, a numerology of 15 kHz is used. Thus, in the time domain, a 10 millisecond (ms) frame is divided into 10 equally sized subframes of 1 ms each, and each subframe includes one time slot. InFIGS. 4A and 4B, time is represented horizontally (e.g., on the X axis) with time increasing from left to right, while frequency is represented vertically (e.g., on the Y axis) with frequency increasing (or decreasing) from bottom to top.

A resource grid may be used to represent time slots, each time slot including one or more time-concurrent resource blocks (RBs) (also referred to as physical RBs (PRBs)) in the frequency domain. The resource grid is further divided into multiple resource elements (REs). An RE may correspond to one symbol length in the time domain and one subcarrier in the frequency domain. In NR, a subframe is 1 ms in duration, a slot is fourteen symbols in the time domain, and an RB contains twelve consecutive subcarriers in the frequency domain and fourteen consecutive symbols in the time domain. Thus, in NR there is one RB per slot. Depending on the SCS, an NR subframe may have fourteen symbols, twenty-eight symbols, or more, and thus may have 1 slot, 2 slots, or more. The number of bits carried by each RE depends on the modulation scheme.

A “PRS instance” or “PRS occasion” is one instance of a periodically repeated time window (e.g., a group of one or more consecutive slots) where PRS are expected to be transmitted. A PRS occasion may also be referred to as a “PRS positioning occasion,” a  “PRS positioning instance, a “positioning occasion,” “a positioning instance,” a “positioning repetition,” or simply an “occasion,” an “instance,” or a “repetition.”

A collection of resource elements (REs) that are used for transmission of PRS is referred to as a “PRS resource.” The collection of resource elements can span multiple PRBs in the frequency domain and ‘N’ (e.g., 1 or more) consecutive symbol(s) within a slot in the time domain. In a given OFDM symbol in the time domain, a PRS resource occupies consecutive PRBs in the frequency domain.

The transmission of a PRS resource within a given PRB has a particular comb size (also referred to as the “comb density”). A comb size ‘N’ represents the subcarrier spacing (or frequency/tone spacing) within each symbol of a PRS resource configuration. Specifically, for a comb size ‘N,’ PRS are transmitted in every Nth subcarrier of a symbol of a PRB. For example, for comb-4, for each of the fourth symbols of the PRS resource configuration, REs corresponding to every fourth subcarrier (e.g., subcarriers 0, 4, 8) are used to transmit PRS of the PRS resource. Currently, comb sizes of comb-2, comb-4, comb-6, and comb-12 are supported for DL PRS.FIG. 4Aillustrates an exemplary PRS resource configuration for comb-6 (which spans six symbols). That is, the locations of the shaded REs (labeled “R”) indicate a comb-6 PRS resource configuration.

A “PRS resource set” is a set of PRS resources used for the transmission of PRS signals, where each PRS resource has a PRS resource ID. In addition, the PRS resources in a PRS resource set are associated with the same TRP. A PRS resource set is identified by a PRS resource set ID and is associated with a particular TRP (identified by a TRP ID). In addition, the PRS resources in a PRS resource set have the same periodicity, a common muting pattern configuration, and the same repetition factor (e.g., PRS-ResourceRepetitionFactor) across slots. The periodicity is the time from the first repetition of the first PRS resource of a first PRS instance to the same first repetition of the same first PRS resource of the next PRS instance. The periodicity may have a length selected from 2μ·{4, 5, 8, 10, 16, 20, 32, 40, 64, 80, 160, 320, 640, 1280, 2560, 5040, 10240} slots, with μ=0, 1, 2, 3. The repetition factor may have a length selected from {1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 16, 32} slots.

A PRS resource ID in a PRS resource set is associated with a single beam (or beam ID) transmitted from a single TRP (where a TRP may transmit one or more beams). That is, each PRS resource of a PRS resource set may be transmitted on a different beam, and as such, a “PRS resource,” or simply “resource,” can also be referred to as a “beam.” Note  that this does not have any implications on whether the TRPs and the beams on which PRS are transmitted are known to the UE.

A “positioning frequency layer” (also referred to simply as a “frequency layer”) is a collection of one or more PRS resource sets across one or more TRPs that have the same values for certain parameters. Specifically, the collection of PRS resource sets has the same subcarrier spacing (SCS) and cyclic prefix (CP) type (meaning all numerologies supported for the PDSCH are also supported for PRS), the same Point A, the same value of the downlink PRS bandwidth, the same start PRB (and center frequency), and the same comb-size. The Point A parameter takes the value of the parameter ARFCN-ValueNR (where “ARFCN” stands for “absolute radio-frequency channel number”) and is an identifier/code that specifies a pair of physical radio channel used for transmission and reception. The downlink PRS bandwidth may have a granularity of four PRBs, with a minimum of 24 PRBs and a maximum of 272 PRBs. Currently, up to four frequency layers have been defined, and up to two PRS resource sets may be configured per TRP per frequency layer.

The concept of a frequency layer is somewhat like the concept of component carriers and bandwidth parts (BWPs), but different in that component carriers and BWPs are used by one base station (or a macro cell base station and a small cell base station) to transmit data channels, while frequency layers are used by several (usually three or more) base stations to transmit PRS. A UE may indicate the number of frequency layers it can support when it sends the network its positioning capabilities, such as during an LTE positioning protocol (LPP) session. For example, a UE may indicate whether it can support one or four positioning frequency layers.

FIG. 4Billustrates an example of various channels within a downlink slot of a radio frame. In NR, the channel bandwidth, or system bandwidth, is divided into multiple BWPs. A BWP is a contiguous set of PRBs selected from a contiguous subset of the common RBs for a given numerology on a given carrier. Generally, a maximum of four BWPs can be specified in the downlink and uplink. That is, a UE can be configured with up to four BWPs on the downlink, and up to four BWPs on the uplink. Only one BWP (uplink or downlink) may be active at a given time, meaning the UE may only receive or transmit over one BWP at a time. On the downlink, the bandwidth of each BWP should be equal to or greater than the bandwidth of the SSB, but it may or may not contain the SSB.

Referring toFIG. 4B, a primary synchronization signal (PSS) is used by a UE to determine subframe/symbol timing and a physical layer identity. A secondary synchronization signal (SSS) is used by a UE to determine a physical layer cell identity group number and radio frame timing. Based on the physical layer identity and the physical layer cell identity group number, the UE can determine a PCI. Based on the PCI, the UE can determine the locations of the aforementioned DL-RS. The physical broadcast channel (PBCH), which carries an MIB, may be logically grouped with the PSS and SSS to form an SSB (also referred to as an SS/PBCH). The MIB provides a number of RBs in the downlink system bandwidth and a system frame number (SFN). The physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) carries user data, broadcast system information not transmitted through the PBCH, such as system information blocks (SIBs), and paging messages.

The physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) carries downlink control information (DCI) within one or more control channel elements (CCEs), each CCE including one or more RE group (REG) bundles (which may span multiple symbols in the time domain), each REG bundle including one or more REGs, each REG corresponding to 12 resource elements (one resource block) in the frequency domain and one OFDM symbol in the time domain. The set of physical resources used to carry the PDCCH/DCI is referred to in NR as the control resource set (CORESET). In NR, a PDCCH is confined to a single CORESET and is transmitted with its own DMRS. This enables UE-specific beamforming for the PDCCH.

In the example ofFIG. 4B, there is one CORESET per BWP, and the CORESET spans three symbols (although it could be only one or two symbols) in the time domain. Unlike LTE control channels, which occupy the entire system bandwidth, in NR, PDCCH channels are localized to a specific region in the frequency domain (i.e., a CORESET). Thus, the frequency component of the PDCCH shown inFIG. 4Bis illustrated as less than a single BWP in the frequency domain. Note that although the illustrated CORESET is contiguous in the frequency domain, it need not be. In addition, the CORESET may span less than three symbols in the time domain.

The DCI within the PDCCH carries information about uplink resource allocation (persistent and non-persistent) and descriptions about downlink data transmitted to the UE. Multiple (e.g., up to eight) DCIs can be configured in the PDCCH, and these DCIs can have one of multiple formats. For example, there are different DCI formats for uplink  scheduling, for non-MIMO downlink scheduling, for MIMO downlink scheduling, and for uplink power control. A PDCCH may be transported by 1, 2, 4, 8, or 16 CCEs in order to accommodate different DCI payload sizes or coding rates.

FIG. 5is a diagram illustrating how a non-line-of-sight (NLOS) positioning signal can cause a UE104to miscalculate its position. InFIG. 5, the UE104operating within an area populated by multiple base stations102calculates its position based on time of arrival (TOA) of signals from those base stations102. The UE104knows the geographic locations of the base stations102, e.g., via receipt of assistance data provided by a location server. The assistance data may also identify PRS resources, PRS resource sets, transmission reception points (TRPs), or combinations thereof, for the UE to use for positioning. For brevity of description, PRS resources, PRS resource sets, TRPs, or combinations thereof, will be collectively referred to herein as “positioning sources.” The UE104determines its geographic position based on its distance from each of one or more of the base stations102, which the UE104calculates based on the TOA of signals from the particular base station102and the speed of a radio signal in air, presuming that the TOA corresponds to the time of flight of a LOS path.

However, if a signal from a base station102is an NLOS signal, the signal will have traveled farther than the direct distance to the UE, and so the TOA of the NLOS signal will be later than the TOA of that signal had it been a LOS signal instead of a NLOS signal. This means that if the UE104happens to base its positioning estimation on the TOA of a NLOS signal, the artificially long TOA value of the NLOS signal will skew the position calculation such that the UE104is in an apparent location that is different from its actual location. Thus, one challenge is to distinguish NLOS signals from LOS signals, so that NLOS signals are excluded from consideration during positioning estimations.

One method to distinguish NLOS signals from LOS signal is outlier detection. Outlier detection analyzes positioning signals from a set of cells to each other to determine which of those cells seem to produce TOA values that are “outliers” compared to TOA values produced by other cells in the cohort. Outlier detection produces what is referred to as a “consistency group”, which is a collection of N number of positioning sources that resulted in positioning measurements (e.g., RSTD, RSRP, Rx-Tx) such that using a subset X of those N positioning sources for positioning would result in a position estimate which, if used to estimate the TOA to the remaining N-X positioning sources, would result in a value having a error within a threshold T. The size of the consistency group produced by  outlier detection on a set of cells can be any value from zero to the size of the entire set of cells being analyzed, but is usually a value somewhere in between.

One way to define one consistency group is a set of measurement suffers from the same/similar errors, such as internal timing errors (e.g., hardware group delay, etc.). The following definitions are used for the purpose of describing internal timing errors:

Transmit (Tx) timing error: From a signal transmission perspective, there is a time delay from the time when the digital signal is generated at the baseband to the time when the RF signal is transmitted from the transmit antenna. For supporting positioning, the UE/TRP may implement an internal calibration/compensation of the transmit time delay for the transmission of the DL-PRS/UL-SRS, which may also include the calibration/compensation of the relative time delay between different RF chains in the same UE/TRP. The compensation may also consider the offset of the transmit antenna phase center to the physical antenna center. However, the calibration may not be perfect. The remaining transmit time delay after the calibration, or the uncalibrated transmit time delay is defined as the “transmit timing error” or “Tx timing error.”

Receive (Rx) timing error: From a signal reception perspective, there is a time delay from the time when the RF signal arrives at the Rx antenna to the time when the signal is digitized and time-stamped at the baseband. For supporting positioning, the UE/TRP may implement an internal calibration/compensation of the Rx time delay before it reports the measurements that are obtained from the DL-PRS/SRS, which may also include the calibration/compensation of the relative time delay between different RF chains in the same UE/TRP. The compensation may also consider the offset of the Rx antenna phase center to the physical antenna center. However, the calibration may not be perfect. The remaining Rx time delay after the calibration, or the uncalibrated Rx time delay, is defined as the “Rx timing error.”

UE Tx timing error group (TEG): A UE Tx TEG (or TxTEG) is associated with the transmissions of one or more SRS resources for the positioning purpose, which have the Tx timing errors within a certain margin (e.g., within a threshold of each other).

TRP Tx TEG: A TRP Tx TEG (or TxTEG) is associated with the transmissions of one or more DL-PRS resources, which have the Tx timing errors within a certain margin.

UE Rx TEG: A UE Rx TEG (or RxTEG) is associated with one or more downlink measurements, which have the Rx timing errors within a certain margin.

TRP Rx TEG: A TRP Rx TEG (or RxTEG) is associated with one or more uplink measurements, which have the Rx timing errors within a margin.

UE Rx-Tx TEG: A UE Rx-Tx TEG (or RxTxTEG) is associated with one or more UE Rx-Tx time difference measurements, and one or more SRS resources for the positioning purpose, which have the Rx timing errors plus Tx timing errors within a certain margin.

TRP Rx-Tx TEG: A TRP Rx-Tx TEG (or RxTxTEG) is associated with one or more TRP Rx-Tx time difference measurements and one or more DL-PRS resources, which have the Rx timing errors plus Tx timing errors within a certain margin.

Consistency groups are not limited to groupings of positioning sources with similar timing errors, but can also be configured with positioning sources with other shared error characteristic(s), such as a shared angle error characteristic or a combination of shared timing angle error characteristic(s) and shared angle error characteristic(s).

Another way (e.g., a computationally complete analysis) of the cells in the set to each other would require the comparison of every possible combination of subsets of cells to the remainder of the cells in the cohort, but this is computationally burdensome and impractical for UEs, so a technique called random sampling and consensus (RANSAC) is used instead. This technique analyzes a group of candidate positioning sources to each other in various combinations by randomly selecting a subset of the positioning sources in the group, generating an estimated UE position based on that subset, using that position estimate so generated to predict the TOA timings to the rest of the positioning sources not in that subset, and checking to see how well the predicted TOA matched the actual TOA for each of the positioning sources not in the subset, e.g., by determining whether the difference between the actual and predicted TOA is within a timing error threshold value T. Positioning sources within the error threshold value are referred to as inliers. Positioning sources that are not within the threshold value are referred to as outliers. The number of inliers L is determined for each randomly selected sample.

Since it is possible that one of the positioning sources in the randomly selected subset might be NLOS, which would skew the estimated UE position and thus skew the estimated TOAs to the cells not in that subset, the RANSAC algorithm performs the operations described above multiple times, each time using a different randomly selected subset of positioning sources from the group. After a number of iterations, the subset of positioning sources that produced the largest number of inliers, and those inliers, are reported as the members of the consistency group. The outliers are excluded from the  consistency group. The identified consistency group is then used as the pool of positioning sources from which the UE calculates its final estimated position. An example implementation of RANSAC is shown inFIG. 6.

FIG. 6is a flow chart showing a conventional method600for outlier detection, RANSAC, in UE based positioning. InFIG. 6, at602, the UE identifies a set of positioning sources of candidate positioning sources (in this example, a set of cells), e.g., based on link quality. At604, the UE randomly chooses a subset C of cells, the subset being of size K, e.g., having K number of cells in the subset. At606, the UE estimates its position using TOA values of the positioning signals from cells in the subset C. At608, the UE computes the expected TOA from cells in the set of positioning sources not in the subset C. At610, the UE finds L, the number of inliers (cells where the difference between the actual TOA and the expected TOA is within the timing error tolerance T). At612, the UE determines whether or not processing of more subsets is needed, e.g., by determining if the number of random subsets is less than the target number of random subsets M. If not, the process repeats starting from604, with another randomly selected subset of cells, and continues until M subsets have been tested. From there, at614, the subset C that produced the largest value for L is identified, and at616, cells in that subset, as well as the inliers found based on that subset, are used to compute the position of the UE. At618, the non-inlier cells are declared to be outlier cells, and at620, the UE reports the consistency group membership as the set of positioning sources excluding the outlier cells to the network. The same outlier detection procedure can be done at network side (e.g., which may prompt the network to split apart consistency groups or merge consistency groups or define new consistency groups and so on).

There are disadvantages to the conventional method for identifying outliers described above. One disadvantage is that varying any of the parameters K (size of the random set C), M (number of iterations), and T (tolerance used to distinguish inliers from outliers) can lead to different results.

Another disadvantage is that, because not every possible combination of subsets and remainders was calculated, there is a possibility that not every outlier was identified and excluded from the consistency group, meaning that it is possible that some subset C selected from the consistency group could include a NLOS positioning source, which may lead to a positioning error. For example, the random selection process could select a subset of positioning sources having multiple NLOS errors that happen to cancel each  other and produce what seems to be reasonable result, such that the algorithm does not identify the NLOS positioning sources and exclude them from the consistency group that it reports to the network. Likewise, the random selection process could select random groups that, while not exactly the same, are similar enough to each other that coverage of the full set of positioning sources is less than intended, or the number M was effectively not big enough.

Yet another disadvantage is that the conventional method for outlier identification reports the membership of the consistency group, which by definition includes positioning sources whose TOA values are within a threshold margin of error, but does not give an indication of whether the cells in the consistency group easily met the threshold or just barely met the threshold, and does not give any information about whether some groups of positioning sources had better consistency (e.g., the difference between expected and actual TOA was smaller) compared to other groups.

Yet another disadvantage is that not only can an NLOS signal skew the apparent values of TOA, but an NLOS signal can also skew the values of other time-angle metrics, such as RTT, RSTD, time difference of arrival (TDOA), angle of arrival (AoA) and zenith of arrival (ZoA) at the UE104, as well as angle of departure (AoD) and zenith of departure (ZoD) from the base station102for a signal received by the UE104. Conventional methods, however, do not consider angle measurements, such as AoA, AoD, ZoA, or ZoD, when defining consistency groups.

To address these technical disadvantages, an improved method for identifying outliers is herein presented, wherein in addition to reporting a consistency group that satisfies an error threshold, information about subsets within the consistency group is also provided to the network. Also, the definition of consistency group is expanded to optionally include consistency based on angle, i.e., the error threshold may be a timing error threshold (ET), and angle error threshold (EA), or combinations thereof. Thus, as used herein, the error threshold may refer to a timing error threshold, an angle error threshold, or combinations of both. Where multiple time-angle metrics are considered, in some aspects, each time-angle metric may have its own separate error threshold, there may be an error threshold applied to some combination of time-angle metrics, or combinations thereof.

FIG. 7illustrates a method700of wireless communication according to some aspects of the disclosure. InFIG. 7, at702, a location server112or other network entity sends a  definition of a set of positioning sources to a base station102that is serving a UE104. At704, the base station102forwards set of positioning sources to the UE104. In some aspects, at706, the location server112or other network entity may provide a predefined list of subsets of positioning sources within the set of positioning sources, and at708, the base station102forwards the predefined list of subsets of positioning sources to the UE104. Both two steps may be done via LPP protocol and the forwarding operations at BS may be transparent to BS (meaning BS only forward the packet without packing/unpacking the LPP protocol) At710, the UE performs outlier detection according to aspects of the present disclosure (e.g., for UE-based position estimation with RANSAC, etc.), described in more detail below, and at712, the UE reports the results of the outlier detection, the results including one or more identified consistency groups and a list of at least one subset of the positioning sources within the consistency group, shown inFIG. 7as {Si . . . Sn}. Optionally, the UE104may also provide additional information about each subset, such as their errors {Ei . . . En}, other information, or combinations thereof. At714, the base station102forwards the information to the location server112or other network entity. WhileFIG. 7is described with respect to RANSAC with respect to UE-based position estimation, outlier detection can also be implemented for UE-assisted position estimation (e.g., UE may report measurements of defined in multiple consistency groups, where each groups suffer similar or same errors (e.g., same hardware group delay or internal timing delay) less than a threshold T)

FIG. 8is a flow chart illustrating a portion of method700, outlier detection710, in more detail according to some aspects of the disclosure. In some aspects, the outlier detection may be performed by a UE. In some aspects, the outlier detection includes, at800, identifying a set of positioning sources, each positioning source comprising a positioning reference signal (PRS) resource, a PRS resource set, a PRS frequency layer, a transmission/reception point (TRP), or combinations thereof.

In some aspects, the outlier detection includes, at802, identifying, from the set of positioning sources, positioning sources that form a consistency group, the consistency group comprising a collection of positioning sources characterized that a UE position estimate based on a subset of positioning sources in the consistency group and used to estimate a time-angle metric of a reference signal from a positioning source not in the subset will result in an estimated time-angle metric that differs from the measured time-angle metric for the positioning source not in the subset by a value less than an error  threshold. For example, the identification of the set of positioning sources that form the consistency group at802may be based upon outlier detection for UE-based position estimation as described above with respect toFIG. 7(or alternatively, via outlier detection for UE-assisted position estimation). Alternatively, the identification of the set of positioning sources that form the consistency group at802may be based upon UE hardware configuration. For example, a particular UE/gNB hardware information may be associated with a particular consistency group (at least by default, with potential to change).

In some aspects, the outlier detection includes, at804, identifying one or more subsets of positioning sources within the consistency group, each subset having an error value, which may be a timing error, an angle error, or some combination thereof.

In some aspects, the outlier detection includes, at806, reporting, to a network entity, information about the consistency group and information about at least one of the one or more subsets of positioning sources within the consistency group. In some aspects, the error values may also be reported with each subset.

In some aspects, the time-angle metric may include a time of arrival (TOA), an angle of arrival (AoA), a zenith of arrival (ZoA), a time difference of arrival (TDOA), a time of departure (ToD), an angle of departure (AoD), a zenith of departure (ZoD), a reference signal time difference (RSTD), a reference signal received power (RSRP), a round-trip time (RTT), or combinations thereof. In some aspects, the error threshold may include a time-angle threshold. In some aspects, the time-angle threshold may include a timing threshold, an angle threshold, a received power threshold, or combinations thereof In some aspects, the error threshold may include multiple time-angle thresholds. In some aspects, each member of the consistency group must satisfy at least one of the multiple time-angle thresholds. In some aspects, each member of the consistency group must satisfy all of the multiple time-angle thresholds.

In some aspects, identifying the set of positioning sources may include receiving the set of positioning sources from a base station. In some aspects, identifying, from the set of positioning sources, positioning sources that form a consistency group, may include: performing a sampling and consensus operation a number of times m>1, each sampling and consensus operation using a different sampling subset of positioning sources in the set of positioning sources to identify, as inliers, positioning sources not in the sampling subset that have an error less than the error threshold; selecting a sampling subset that  produced a largest number of inliers; identifying, as outliers, positioning sources not in the sampling subset that produced the largest number of inliers not having an error less than the error threshold; identifying, as the consistency group, set of positioning sources excluding the outliers; and computing a UE position based on values of one or more time-angle metrics from positioning sources selected from a combination of the sampling subset that produced the largest number of inliers and the inliers identified using the sampling subset that produced the largest number of inliers.

In some aspects, performing the sampling and consensus operation may include: selecting, from the set of positioning sources, a sampling subset; estimating, using time-angle metric values from the positioning sources in the sampling subset, a position of the UE; computing an expected time-angle metric value from the estimated position of the UE to the positioning sources in set of positioning sources not in the sampling subset; determining Li, the number of inliers associated with the sampling subset, the inliers including positioning sources in set of positioning sources not in the sampling subset that have an error less than the error threshold; and determining an error of the inliers, which may be an average error, a maximum error, a minimum error, or other error metric.

In some aspects, selecting, from the set of positioning sources, a sampling subset may include randomly selecting positioning sources within set of positioning sources to create the sampling subset. In some aspects, selecting, from the set of positioning sources, a sampling subset may include selecting positioning sources within set of positioning sources to create the sampling subset according to a pseudorandom sequence.

In some aspects, selecting, from the set of positioning sources, a sampling subset may include selecting a subset from a predefined list of subsets of positioning sources within set of positioning sources. In some aspects, every sampling subset is a same size. In some aspects, at least one sampling subset is a different size from another sampling subset. In some aspects, the method may include storing the sampling subset, Li, and the error of the inliers.

In some aspects, reporting information about at least one of the subsets may include identifying the positioning sources included in each subset. In some aspects, the positioning sources included in each subset are identified completely or differentially, explicitly or implicitly, by index or reference, or combinations thereof. In some aspects, reporting information about at least one of the subsets may include reporting an error associated with each subset. In some aspects, reporting information about at least one of  the subsets may include reporting an error for each positioning source included in the subset. In some aspects, reporting an error for each positioning source included in the subset may include reporting the error for each positioning source with respect to the error threshold, with respect to a consensus value produced by the subset, or combinations thereof. In some aspects, reporting information about at least one of the subsets may include reporting subsets having an error that satisfies a threshold reporting value Tr.

FIGS. 9A and 9Bare flow charts illustrating portions of the outlier detection shown inFIG. 8in more detail, according to some aspects of the disclosure.

InFIG. 9A, identifying802positioning sources that form a consistency group and identifying804one or more subsets of positioning sources within the consistency group comprise the following steps.

At900, from set of positioning sources, choose a sampling subset of size K. (For brevity, a sampling subset may also be referred to herein simply as a subset.) In some aspects, the subset may be randomly selected from the set of positioning sources. In some aspects, the subset may be selected from a predefined list of subsets provided to the UE by the network.

At902, estimate the UE position using values of one or more time-angle metrics from the positioning sources in sampling subset. In one example, the UE position is estimated using TOA values from the positioning sources in the sampling subset. In another example, the UE position is estimated using the combination of TOA and AoA values from the positioning sources in the sampling subset.

At904, use the UE position to compute expected values of the one or more time-angle metrics values from cells in set of positioning sources but not in subset. In one example, the estimated UE position is used to compute expected values of TOA for the cells in set of positioning sources but not in subset. In another example, the estimated UE position is used to compute expected values of TOA and AoA for the cells in set of positioning sources but not in subset.

At906, determine Li, the number of inliers in the set of positioning sources associated with the sampling subset, and the error of the inliers. For example, the error of the inliers may be a timing error, an angle error, or combinations thereof. In some aspects, the error of the inliers is the average error of the inliers, but may alternatively be the maximum time-angel metric error of the inliers, or may be calculated in some other manner.

At908, the subset, number of inliers Li based on subset, and the error of those inliers is stored (e.g., in a random access memory (RAM) or flash memory within the UE) for later access. In some aspects, the list of inliers Ii determined using the sampling subset may also be stored.

The operations900through908comprises a sampling and consensus operation910using one subset of the positioning sources in set of positioning sources, and, at912, it is determined whether additional sampling and consensus operations910should be performed. InFIG. 9A, a parameter M specifies how many sampling and consensus operations910, and thus, how many subsets, must be processed. If the number of subsets that have been processed is less than M, the sampling and consensus operation910is repeated until M subsets have been processed. In some aspects, during each sampling and consensus operation910, the values of the sampling subset, Li, and the error of the inliers are stored, e.g., {S1, L1, E1} through {SM, LM, EM} will have been stored by the time the process goes to914.

At914, a sampling subset that produced the largest number of inliers (i.e., Lx) is selected. At916, non-inlier positioning sources are declared as outlier positioning sources. At918, the consistency group is defined as the set of positioning sources excluding the outlier positioning sources. At920, the UE position is computed using TOA values of positioning sources within the consistency group.

InFIG. 9B, reporting806information about the consistency group and information about at least one of the one or more subsets of positioning sources within the consistency group to the network comprises, at922, reporting the membership of the consistency group, and at924, reporting the membership of at least one of the sampling subsets (and, optionally, Ii), and the error of the inliers associated with the sampling subset. In some aspects, the UE only reports those subsets having an error less than a reporting threshold TR.

FIG. 10illustrates an example result of outlier detection710, in which a set of positioning sources U is analyzed, resulting in a consistency group G and a set of outliers O. Within the consistency group, several subsets S1-S7are identified.

In some aspects, the subsets may be the same size or may be different sizes. InFIG. 10, for example, S4is a small subset and S7is a big subset. In some aspects, a minimum number of subsets P may be configured as a reporting requirement. In some aspects, the value for P may depend upon the size of the set of positioning sources. In some aspects, the subsets may have to satisfy the same error threshold or different error thresholds. For  example, in some aspects, all subsets may have to satisfy the error threshold but the maximum deviation from the error threshold is reported. In some aspects, the detailed consistency errors of each link in the consistency group or subset may be reported. In some aspects, for each link in the consistency group or subset, its error with respect to the consensus, rather than to the threshold, may be reported; this may provide some benefits to model the error distribution more accurately. In some aspects, multiple thresholds may be configured, with the requirement that at least Pi subsets must meet a particular threshold.

Random. In some aspects, the membership of the subsets is chosen randomly from the members of set of positioning sources. In these aspects, the subset report identifies the membership of each subset. In some aspects, the network may instruct or configure the UE with the number of random subsets to be tried.

Pseudorandom. In some aspects, the membership of the subsets is chosen pseudo-randomly, e.g., according to a pseudorandom sequence (PRS) known to both the UE and the network. In these aspects, the UE may report the subsets as initial values for the pseudorandom number generator (PNG), i.e., the PNG “seed”, and offsets into the PRS generated, and various other parameters, e.g., to indicate the sizes of each subset, etc., with which the network can reconstruct the list of members of each subset. In some aspects, the network may provide the PNG seed value to the UE.

Predefined. In some aspects, the membership of the subsets is provided to the UE, e.g., by a location server. In some aspects, the UE can report which of these sets can be used to derive consistent measurements. In these aspects, the subset report may identify which of the predefined subsets are being reported by index, offset, key, field, or other identifier. In some aspects, the predefined subsets may be defined by an earlier UE report, by an RRC configuration from the base station or location server, or combinations thereof. In some aspects, the predefined subsets may be defined based on UE's hardware/RF configuration, as noted above.

In some aspects, a subset of the consistency group may be reported using the same report format used to report the consistency group.

In some aspects, where the subsets are randomly generated, each subset may be explicitly (e.g., fully or completely) described in the report. In some aspects, a subset may be described as a list of the positioning sources Pi that are within the subset, e.g., the sampling subset Si={P1, P3, P9, P10}, which themselves may be explicitly or implicitly  identified or described (e.g., by index or reference). In some aspects, a subset may be described using a list of the positioning sources that are not within the subset, e.g., the sampling subset Si=U−{P4, P8}. In some aspects, where the subsets are selected from a predefined list of subsets of positioning sources within set of positioning sources, the subsets may be identified by name, position or index in the list, etc., which the location server can use to determine the positioning sources within that subset.

In some aspects, a list of subsets may be reported differentially. In some aspects, nested subsets may be reported in order of increasing size, where the membership of the smallest subset is fully specified, and for each of the larger subsets, only the additional members of the larger subset is reported.

Referring again toFIG. 10, in one example S5={A,B,C}, S6={A,B,C,D,E}, and S7={A,B,C,D,E,F}. In this example, the report format could be:

In another example, where S2={G,H,I,J,K,L} and S3={I,J,K,L,M,N}, the report format could identify the intersection of the two sets (indicated by operator “∩”) and the membership of one set X that isn't in the other set Y (indicated by operator “XY”):

or a dummy subset Sx may be used, e.g.:

for example. These examples are not limiting, and illustrate the point that the size of a subset report may be reduced by differential reporting, other data compression methods, or combinations thereof.

In some aspects, the report format may depend on whether the report is carried on L1 (e.g., in an uplink control information (UCI) message), on L2 (e.g., in a MAC-CE), or on L3 (e.g., via RRC, LPP, etc.). In some aspects, the report format may depend on subset constraints described above. For example, where the subsets are grouped by different thresholds, subsets within each threshold may be reported differentially as a group.

In some aspects, a subset may be reported only if it satisfies a reporting threshold. For example, in some embodiments, the subset may be reported if a timing error for that threshold satisfies a threshold reporting value Tr.

In some aspects, subsets to be reported may be subject to constraints that limit how much one subset may overlap with another subset, e.g., how many positioning sources can be common to both subsets. For example, reporting two subsets that differ by only one  positioning source may be less useful than reporting two subsets that differ more substantially. In some aspects, two subsets differ substantially if the number of elements common to both subsets is less than a threshold number or threshold percentage of the number of elements in the subset. In some aspects, two subsets differ substantially if the number of elements not common to both subsets is greater than a threshold number of threshold percentage of the number of elements in the subset. In some aspects, the threshold number or threshold percentage may be the same for all subsets. In some aspects, the threshold number or threshold percentage may be different for different subsets, e.g., it may depend on the size of the subset. In some aspects, two subsets differ substantially if at least one of the subsets satisfies the criteria for non-overlap. In some aspects, two differ substantially only if both of the subsets satisfy the criteria for non-overlap. InFIG. 10, for example, the memberships of subsets S2and S3may not differ by a sufficient amount that both should be reported. In some aspects, one of the two sets (e.g., either S2or S3) is reported. In some aspects, neither set is reported. In some aspects, such as where the relative timing errors of S2and S3are the same or sufficiently similar, a new set comprising the union of S2and S3may be reported.

FIG. 11illustrates an exemplary method1100of wireless communication, according to aspects of the disclosure. In an aspect, method1100may be performed by a serving base station (e.g., any of the base stations102described herein). At1102, the base station receives, from a network entity, a set of positioning sources. In some aspects, the base station may comprise a gNodeB (gNB). In some aspects, the network entity may comprise a location server. In some aspects, the location server may comprise an LMF270or SLP272. In some aspects, the location server may be a component of, or co-located with, the base station. At1104, the base station transmits the set of positioning sources to a UE (e.g., any of the UEs104described herein). In some aspects, the set of positioning sources may be transmitted to the UE via RRC or LLP.

At1106, the base station may optionally receive, from the network entity, a predefined list of subsets of positioning sources within the set of positioning sources. The positioning sources within a particular subset may be identified explicitly (e.g., by cell identifier, TRP identifier, etc.) or implicitly (e.g., by an index into a predefined list already known to the base station and UE, and at1108, the base station may optionally transmit the predefined list of subsets of positioning sources to the UE.

At1110, the base station receives, from the UE, information about a consistency group comprising one or more positioning sources within the set of positioning sources, as well as information about at least one subset of the positioning sources within the consistency group. In some aspects, the information includes an average timing error for the subset. At1112, the base station sends, to the network entity, the information received from the UE, i.e., the consistency group and the one or more subsets.

In some aspects, the time-angle metric may include a TOA, an AoA, a ZoA, a TDOA, a ToD, an AoD, a ZoD, a RSTD, a RSRP, a RTT, or a combination thereof In some aspects, the error threshold may include a time-angle threshold. In some aspects, the time-angle threshold may include a timing threshold, an angle threshold, a received power threshold, or a combination thereof. In some aspects, the error threshold may include multiple time-angle thresholds. In some aspects, each member of the consistency group must satisfy at least one of the multiple time-angle thresholds. In some aspects, each member of the consistency group must satisfy all of the multiple time-angle thresholds. In some aspects, the method may include, prior to receiving information about a consistency group and information about at least one of the subsets of positioning sources within the consistency group from the UE, receiving, from the network entity, a predefined list of subsets of positioning sources within the set of positioning sources, and sending, to the UE, the predefined list of subsets.

In some aspects, the network entity may include a location server. In some aspects, the location server may include a location management function (LMF) or a secure user plane location (SUPL) location platform (SLP). In some aspects, the base station may include a gNodeB (gNB).

In some aspects, the information about at least one of the subsets of positioning sources within the consistency group may include an average error for the at least one subset. In some aspects, receiving, from the UE, information about at least one of the subsets of positioning sources within the consistency group may include receiving information identifying the positioning sources included in each subset. In some aspects, the positioning sources included in each subset are identified completely or differentially, explicitly or implicitly, by index or reference, or combinations thereof. In some aspects, receiving, from the UE, information about at least one of the subsets of positioning sources within the consistency group may include receiving an error associated with each sub set.

In some aspects, receiving, from the UE, information about at least one of the subsets may include receiving information identifying an error for each positioning source included in the subset. In some aspects, receiving information identifying an error for each positioning source included in the subset may include receiving information identifying the error for each positioning source with respect to the error threshold, with respect to a consensus value produced by the subset, or combinations thereof. In some aspects, receiving, from the UE, information about at least one of the subsets of positioning sources within the consistency group may include receiving information on subsets having an error that satisfies a threshold reporting value Tr.

FIG. 12illustrates an exemplary method1200of wireless communication, according to aspects of the disclosure. In an aspect, method1200may be performed by a network entity, which may comprise a location server. At1202, the network entity transmits, to a base station, a set of positioning sources. At1204, the network entity optionally transmits, to the BS, a predefined list of subsets of positioning sources. At1206, the network entity receives, from the BS, information defining a consistency group and information about at least one subset of positioning sources within consistency group. In some aspects, the information includes an average timing error for the subset.

In some aspects, the time-angle metric may include a TOA, an AoA, a ZoA, a TDOA, a ToD, an AoD, a ZoD, a RSTD, a RSRP, a RTT, or a combination thereof. In some aspects, the error threshold may include a time-angle threshold. In some aspects, the time-angle threshold may include a timing threshold, an angle threshold, a received power threshold, or combinations thereof. In some aspects, the error threshold may include multiple time-angle thresholds. In some aspects, each member of the consistency group must satisfy at least one of the multiple time-angle thresholds. In some aspects, each member of the consistency group must satisfy all of the multiple time-angle thresholds. In some aspects, the method may include, prior to receiving the information about the consistency group and information about at least one of the subsets of positioning sources within the consistency group, sending, to the base station, a predefined list of subsets of subsets of positioning sources within the consistency group. In some aspects, the network entity may include a location server. In some aspects, the location server may include an LMF or an SLP.

RAN1 NR may define UE measurements on DL reference signals (e.g., for serving, reference, and/or neighboring cells) applicable for NR positioning, including DL  reference signal time difference (RSTD) measurements for NR positioning, DL RSRP measurements for NR positioning, and UE Rx-Tx (e.g., a hardware group delay from signal reception at UE receiver to response signal transmission at UE transmitter, e.g., for time difference measurements for NR positioning, such as RTT).

RAN1 NR may define gNB measurements based on UL reference signals applicable for NR positioning, such as relative UL time of arrival (RTOA) for NR positioning, UL AoA measurements (e.g., including Azimuth and Zenith Angles) for NR positioning, UL RSRP measurements for NR positioning, and gNB Rx-Tx (e.g., a hardware group delay from signal reception at gNB receiver to response signal transmission at gNB transmitter, e.g., for time difference measurements for NR positioning, such as RTT).

FIG. 13is a diagram1300showing exemplary timings of RTT measurement signals exchanged between a base station1302(e.g., any of the base stations described herein) and a UE1304(e.g., any of the UEs described herein), according to aspects of the disclosure. In the example ofFIG. 13, the base station1302sends an RTT measurement signal1310(e.g., PRS, NRS, CRS, CSI-RS, etc.) to the UE1304at time t1. The RTT measurement signal1310has some propagation delay TPropas it travels from the base station1302to the UE1304. At time t2(the TOA of the RTT measurement signal1310at the UE1304), the UE1304receives/measures the RTT measurement signal1310. After some UE processing time, the UE1304transmits an RTT response signal1320at time t3. After the propagation delay TProp, the base station1302receives/measures the RTT response signal1320from the UE1304at time t4(the TOA of the RTT response signal1320at the base station1302).

In order to identify the TOA (e.g., t2) of a reference signal (e.g., an RTT measurement signal1310) transmitted by a given network node (e.g., base station1302), the receiver (e.g., UE1304) first jointly processes all the resource elements (REs) on the channel on which the transmitter is transmitting the reference signal, and performs an inverse Fourier transform to convert the received reference signals to the time domain. The conversion of the received reference signals to the time domain is referred to as estimation of the channel energy response (CER). The CER shows the peaks on the channel over time, and the earliest “significant” peak should therefore correspond to the TOA of the reference signal. Generally, the receiver will use a noise-related quality threshold to filter out spurious local peaks, thereby presumably correctly identifying significant peaks on the channel. For example, the receiver may choose a TOA estimate that is the earliest local  maximum of the CER that is at least X dB higher than the median of the CER and a maximum Y dB lower than the main peak on the channel. The receiver determines the CER for each reference signal from each transmitter in order to determine the TOA of each reference signal from the different transmitters.

In some designs, the RTT response signal1320may explicitly include the difference between time t3and time t2(i.e., TRx→Tx1312). Using this measurement and the difference between time t4and time t1(i.e., TTx→Rx1322), the base station1302(or other positioning entity, such as location server230, LMF270) can calculate the distance to the UE1304as:

d=12⁢c⁢(TTx→Rx-TRx→Tx)=12⁢c⁢(t2-t1)-12⁢c⁢(t4-t3)where c is the speed of light. While not illustrated expressly inFIG. 13, an additional source of delay or error may be due to UE and gNB hardware group delay for position location.

An additional source of delay or error is due to UE and gNB group delay (e.g., timing group delay, which may include a hardware group delay, a group delay attributable to software/firmware, or both) for position location.FIG. 14illustrates a diagram1400showing exemplary timings of RTT measurement signals exchanged between a base station (gNB) (e.g., any of the base stations described herein) and a UE (e.g., any of the UEs described herein), according to aspects of the disclosure.1410-1422ofFIG. 14is similar in some respects to1310-1322, respectively, ofFIG. 13. However, inFIG. 14, the UE and gNB group delay (which is primarily due to internal hardware delays between a baseband (BB) component and antenna (ANT) at the UE and gNB) is shown with respect1430and1440. As will be appreciated, both Tx-side and Rx-side path-specific or beam-specific delays impact the RTT measurement. Group delays such as1430and1440can contribute to timing errors and/or calibration errors that can impact RTT as well as other measurements such as TDOA, RSTD, and so on, which in turn can impact positioning performance. For example, in some designs, 10 nsec of error will introduce the 3 meter of error in the final fix.

As noted above, various types of NR positioning may be implemented, including DL-TDOA, UL-TDOA, RTT and differential RTT. Each NR positioning technique has particular advantages and disadvantages, as shown in Table 2:

With reference to Table 2, DL-TDOA and UL-TDOA are TDOA-based techniques (e.g., RSTD) that provide multi-lateral positioning-based RSTD of multiple cells with respect to a reference cell. Multi-RTT measurement that is TOA-based and provides true range multi-lateration positioning. Differential RTT is a type of multi-RTT positioning, whereby RSTD is calculated from RTT Rx-Tx measurements. In some designs, differential RTT may be used to eliminate calibration errors at the UE (e.g., if all RTT measurements are associated with the same Rx/Tx calibration error at UE). However, different panels, beams, RF chains, etc. may be associated with different Tx or Rx timing group delays. In this case, differential RTT may not be capable of eliminating the UE timing group delays.

As noted above, in some designs, consistency groups may be defined by the UE for Tx and/or Rx timing group delays for UE-assisted position estimation, with a network entity (e.g., LMF integrated at BS or at core network) selecting a subset of measurements that belong to particular consistency group(s) for deriving a positioning estimate of a UE. In other designs as noted above, consistency groups may be defined by UE/gNB hardware configuration and/or outlier detection for UE-based position estimation, etc. Consistency groups may also be defined at least in part based on other error metrics, such as angle bias, as noted above.

However, one disadvantage may occur where the UE may prefer to measure and report the PRS within one consistency group as much as possible to reduce the impact of group delay (e.g., in some designs, within a consistency group, the group delay at UE can be eliminated). For example, assume that a UE has two panels (panels 1 and 2), and thus potentially two group delays. The UE may take the strategy to measure all the PRSs with panel 1, yet some PRS might have better SINR or more accurate TOA measurement with  panel 2. This may reduce the overall positioning accuracy. Another problem is that the UE may report PRSs with different consistency groups, but different consistency groups may have similar group delays within a reasonable tolerance. The UE itself may not be able to calibrate the groups delays via OTA calibration, and thus may not be aware of this.

Aspects of the disclosure are thereby directed to a network entity (e.g., LMF) that instructs a UE to modify one or more parameters associated with a plurality of consistency groups. Such aspects may provide various technical advantages, such as more accurate position estimation of a UE, particularly in a scenario where the LMF is in a better position to assess group delay (e.g., because LMF may receive measurement reports from both the UE as well as a number of gNBs involved with the position estimation).

FIG. 15illustrates an exemplary process1500of wireless communication, according to aspects of the disclosure. In an aspect, the process1500may be performed by a UE, which may correspond to a UE such as UE302.

At1510, UE302(e.g., positioning component342, processing system332, etc.) identifies, by the UE, a plurality of consistency groups. As noted above, each of the plurality of consistency groups may include a plurality of positioning sources (e.g., PRS resource, PRS resource set, PRS frequency layer, TRP, RF chains, panels, TRPs, etc., e.g., in some designs, the consistency group may consist only of positioning sources that correspond to one or more of PRS resource, PRS resource set, PRS frequency layer, TRP, RF chains, panels, and/or TRPs) associated with measurements within one or more shared error characteristics (e.g., within a particular threshold value from each other, and/or within a particular range, etc.) for the respective consistency group. For example, the one or more shared error characteristics comprise a shared timing error characteristic, a shared angle error characteristic, or a combination thereof, as described above (e.g., a shared time-angle metric or error range/threshold related to one or more of a TOA, an AoA, a ZoA, a TDOA, a ToD, an AoD, a ZoD, a RSTD, a RSRP, a RTT, etc.). In an example, a position estimate of the UE based on first positioning measurements from a first subset of the plurality of positioning sources may be capable of estimating second positioning measurements from a second subset of the plurality of positioning sources within an error threshold. In an example, the plurality of consistency groups may be configured by UE302based on information known to UE302(e.g., PRS resource, PRS resource set, PRS frequency layer, TRP, RF chains, panels, TRPs, etc.). For example, the plurality of  consistency groups may include PRSs 1-3 in association with a first consistency group with consistency group ID#1, PRS 4 in association with a second consistency group with consistency group ID#2, and PRSs 5-6 in association with a third consistency group with consistency group ID#3.

At1520, UE302(e.g., transmitter314or324, etc.) reports, to a position estimation entity, information associated with the plurality of consistency groups. For example, the information may include error values and/or error value ranges associated with the consistency groups and/or particular positioning resources, the shared error metric(s) of particular consistency groups, and so on. In an example where the position estimation entity corresponds to UE302itself (e.g., UE-based positioning), then the report may be transferred logically from one UE component to another UE component over a data bus.

At1530, UE302(e.g., receiver312or322, etc.) receives, from the position estimation entity, an instruction to modify one or more parameters associated with the plurality of consistency groups. In an aspect, UE302may then modify the parameter(s) in accordance with the instruction (e.g., separate group(s), merge group(s), define new group(s), delete group(s), etc.). In an example where the position estimation entity corresponds to UE302itself (e.g., UE-based positioning), then the instruction may be transferred logically from one UE component to another UE component over a data bus.

FIG. 16illustrates an exemplary process1600of wireless communication, according to aspects of the disclosure. In an aspect, the process1600may be performed by a position estimation entity, which may correspond to a UE such as UE302(e.g., for UE-based positioning), a BS or gNB such as BS304(e.g., for LMF integrated in RAN for UE-assisted approach), or a network entity306(e.g., core network component such as an LMF, position determination entity, location server or other network entity for UE-assisted approach). In some designs, the process1500ofFIG. 15may be performed in conjunction with the process1600ofFIG. 16(e.g., the position estimation entity referenced in the process1500ofFIG. 15may correspond to the position estimation entity performing the process1600ofFIG. 16, and the UE referenced in the process1600ofFIG. 16may correspond to the UE performing the process1500ofFIG. 15).

At1610, the position estimation entity (e.g., receiver312or322or352or362, data bus382, network interface(s)380or390, etc.) receives, from a UE, information associated with a plurality of consistency groups. For example, the information may include error values and/or error value ranges associated with the consistency groups and/or particular  positioning resources, the shared error metric(s) of particular consistency groups, and so on. As noted above, each of the plurality of consistency groups may include a plurality of positioning sources (e.g., PRS resource, PRS resource set, PRS frequency layer, TRP, RF chains, panels, beams, TRPs, etc.) associated with measurements within one or more shared error characteristics for the respective consistency group. For example, the one or more shared error characteristics comprise a shared timing error characteristic, a shared angle error characteristic, or a combination thereof, as described above (e.g., a shared time-angle metric or error range/threshold related to one or more of a TOA, an AoA, a ZoA, a TDOA, a ToD, an AoD, a ZoD, a RSTD, a RSRP, a RTT, etc.). In an example, a position estimate of the UE based on first positioning measurements from a first subset of the plurality of positioning sources may be capable of estimating second positioning measurements from a second subset of the plurality of positioning sources within an error threshold. In an example, the plurality of consistency groups may be configured by the UE based on information known to the UE (e.g., PRS resource, PRS resource set, PRS frequency layer, TRP, RF chains, panels, TRPs, etc.). For example, the plurality of consistency groups may include PRSs 1-3 in association with a first consistency group with consistency group ID#1, PRS 4 in association with a second consistency group with consistency group ID#2, and PRSs 5-6 in association with a third consistency group with consistency group ID#3. In an example where the position estimation entity corresponds to UE302itself (e.g., UE-based positioning), then the information may be received logically at one UE component from another UE component over a data bus.

At1620, the position estimation entity (e.g., transmitter314or324, data bus382, network interface(s)380or390, etc.) transmits, to the UE, an instruction to modify one or more parameters associated with the plurality of consistency groups. In an example where the position estimation entity corresponds to UE302itself (e.g., UE-based positioning), then the transmission of the instruction may be transferred logically from one UE component to another UE component over a data bus.

Referring toFIGS. 15-16, in some designs, the instruction at1530or1620may be transported within location assistance data via Long Term Evolution Positioning Protocol (LPP) signaling.

Referring toFIGS. 15-16, in some designs, the instruction may instruct the UE to merge two or more of the plurality of consistency groups into a merged consistency group. The UE may then perform various actions with respect to the merged consistency group. For  example, the UE may prefer to measure and report RTT based on SINR condition with the merged consistency group instead of the previous consistency groups. For example, the UE may compensate for calibration error of one or more PRS measurements associated with the merged consistency group based on a compensation parameter for the merged consistency group (e.g., the compensation parameter may be received at UE from network component), or may report the one or more calibration error-compensated PRS measurements to the position estimation entity, or may add a PRS compensation indicator and/or PRS measurement calibration value into one or more measurement reports, or a combination thereof.

Referring toFIGS. 15-16, in some designs, the UE may transmit a first measurement report based on first PRS measurements associated with the merged consistency group in association with two or more consistency group identifiers of two or more consistency groups, respectively. For example, assume that three consistency groups are associated with consistency group identifiers #1, #2 and #3, and then merged into a merged consistency group. In this case, the three consistency groups may be individually identified in the first measurement report via consistency group identifiers #1, #2 and #3. In other designs, the UE may transmit a second measurement report based on second PRS measurements associated with the merged consistency group in association with a single consistency group identifier of the merged consistency group. For example, assume that three consistency groups are associated with consistency group identifiers #1, #2 and #3, and then merged into a merged consistency group associated with a consistency group identifier #4. In this case, the three consistency groups may be identified in the first measurement report via consistency group identifier #4.

Referring toFIGS. 15-16, in some designs, the position estimation entity may receive receiving measurement reports associated with a positioning session of the UE from the UE and one or more base stations, and may perform OTA calibration of UE group delay and base station group delay based on the measurement reports, or outlier detection (e.g., as inFIG. 7, etc.), or a combination thereof. The position estimation entity may further identify a new grouping of the plurality of consistency groups based on the OTA calibration. In this case, the instruction at1530or1620may instruct the UE to transition to the new grouping. As an example, the position estimation entity may conduct calibration to derive the UE's group delays and/or difference across different consistency groups. The position estimation entity may further conduct outlier rejection (e.g.,  RANSAC) to estimate the group delay difference or results between consistency groups. Such aspects may provide the position estimation entity with more detailed knowledge regarding the group delays of consistency groups, differences between consistency groups, consistency results (e.g., such as a binary classification, with results either being considered consistent or inconsistent) based on an outlier rejection threshold, or (as noted above) determination of a new consistency group (e.g., merger of a subset of consistency groups into a merged consistency group).

Referring toFIGS. 15-16, in some designs, the instruction at1530or1620may instruct the UE to modify one or more PRS resource set identifiers (IDs) associated with one or more of the plurality of consistency groups or a new merged consistency group.

Referring toFIGS. 15-16, in some designs, the instruction at1530or1620may instruct the UE to modify the error threshold associated with one or more of the plurality of consistency groups or a new merged consistency group.

Referring toFIGS. 15-16, in some designs, the instruction at1530or1620may instruct the UE to modify one or more uncertainty or calibration error parameters associated with one or more of the plurality of consistency groups or a new merged consistency group.

Referring toFIGS. 15-16, in some designs, the instruction at1530or1620may instruct the UE to merge a first subset of two or more of the plurality of consistency groups into a first merged consistency group and to merge a second subset of two or more other of the plurality of consistency groups into a second merged consistency group.

Referring toFIGS. 15-16, in some designs, the instruction at1530or1620may instruct the UE to separate one of the plurality of consistency groups into two or more new consistency groups.

Referring toFIGS. 15-16, in some designs, the error threshold for each of the plurality of consistency groups comprises a timing threshold (e.g., TOA or TDOA), an angle threshold (e.g., AoD or AoA), a received power threshold (e.g., RSTD), or a combination thereof.

Referring toFIGS. 15-16, in some designs, the plurality of positioning sources for each of the plurality of consistency groups comprises a PRS resource, a PRS resource set, a PRS frequency layer, a TRP, or a combination thereof.

Clause 1. A method of operating a user equipment (UE), comprising: identifying, by the UE, a plurality of consistency groups, each of the plurality of consistency groups comprising a plurality of positioning sources, with a position estimate of the UE based on first positioning measurements from a first subset of the plurality of positioning sources being capable of estimating second positioning measurements from a second subset of the plurality of positioning sources within an error threshold; reporting, to a position estimation entity, information associated with the plurality of consistency groups; and receiving, from the position estimation entity, an instruction to modify one or more parameters associated with the plurality of consistency groups.

Clause 2. The method of clause 1, wherein the instruction is received within location assistance data via Long Term Evolution Positioning Protocol (LPP) signaling.

Clause 3. The method of any of clauses 1 to 2, wherein the instruction instructs the UE to: merge two or more of the plurality of consistency groups into a merged consistency group.

Clause 4. The method of clause 3, further comprising: compensating one or more positioning reference signal (PRS) measurements for calibration error, wherein the one or more PRS measurements are associated with the merged consistency group based on a compensation parameter for the merged consistency group, or reporting the one or more  calibration error-compensated PRS measurements to the position estimation entity, or adding a PRS compensation indicator and/or PRS measurement calibration value into one or more measurement reports, or a combination thereof.

Clause 5. The method of any of clauses 3 to 4, further comprising: transmitting a first measurement report based on first PRS measurements associated with the merged consistency group in association with two or more consistency group identifiers of two or more consistency groups, respectively, or transmitting a second measurement report based on second PRS measurement associated with the merged consistency group in association with a single consistency group identifier of the merged consistency group.

Clause 6. The method of any of clauses 1 to 5, wherein the instruction instructs the UE to modify one or more PRS resource set identifiers (IDs) associated with one or more of the plurality of consistency groups or a new merged consistency group.

Clause 7. The method of any of clauses 1 to 6, wherein the instruction instructs the UE to modify the error threshold associated with one or more of the plurality of consistency groups or a new merged consistency group.

Clause 8. The method of any of clauses 1 to 7, wherein the instruction instructs the UE to modify one or more uncertainty or calibration error parameters associated with one or more of the plurality of consistency groups or a new merged consistency group.

Clause 9. The method of any of clauses 1 to 8, wherein the instruction instructs the UE to merge a first subset of two or more of the plurality of consistency groups into a first merged consistency group and to merge a second subset of two or more other of the plurality of consistency groups into a second merged consistency group.

Clause 10. The method of any of clauses 1 to 9, wherein the instruction instructs the UE to: separate one of the plurality of consistency groups into two or more new consistency groups.

Clause 11. The method of any of clauses 1 to 10, wherein the error threshold for each of the plurality of consistency groups comprises a timing threshold, an angle threshold, a received power threshold, or a combination thereof.

Clause 12. The method of any of clauses 1 to 11, wherein the plurality of positioning sources for each of the plurality of consistency groups comprises a positioning reference signal (PRS) resource, a PRS resource set, a PRS frequency layer, a transmission/reception point (TRP), or a combination thereof.

Clause 13. A method of operating a network component, comprising: receiving, from a user equipment (UE), information associated with a plurality of consistency groups, each of the plurality of consistency groups comprising a plurality of positioning sources, with a position estimate of the UE based on first positioning measurements from a first subset of the plurality of positioning sources being capable of estimating second positioning measurements from a second subset of the plurality of positioning sources within an error threshold; and transmitting, to the UE, an instruction to modify one or more parameters associated with the plurality of consistency groups.

Clause 14. The method of clause 13, further comprising: receiving measurement reports associated with a positioning session of the UE from the UE and one or more base stations; performing over-the-air (OTA) calibration of UE group delay and base station group delay based on the measurement reports; identifying a new grouping of the plurality of consistency groups based on the OTA calibration, wherein the instruction instructs the UE to transition to the new grouping.

Clause 15. The method of any of clauses 13 to 14, wherein the instruction is transmitted within location assistance data via Long Term Evolution Positioning Protocol (LPP) signaling.

Clause 16. The method of any of clauses 13 to 15, wherein the instruction instructs the UE to: merge two or more of the plurality of consistency groups into a merged consistency group.

Clause 17. The method of clause 16, wherein the instruction further instructs the UE to compensate one or more positioning reference signal (PRS) measurements for calibration error, wherein the one or more PRS measurements are associated with the merged consistency group based on a compensation parameter for the merged consistency group, or report the one or more compensated PRS measurements to a position estimation entity, or add a PRS compensation indicator and/or PRS measurement calibration value into one or more measurement reports, or a combination thereof.

Clause 18. The method of any of clauses 16 to 17, further comprising: receiving a first measurement report based on first PRS measurements associated with the merged consistency group in association with two or more consistency group identifiers of two or more consistency groups, respectively, or receiving a second measurement report based on second PRS measurement associated with the merged consistency group in association with a single consistency group identifier of the merged consistency group.

Clause 19. The method of any of clauses 13 to 18, wherein the instruction instructs the UE to: separate one of the plurality of consistency groups into two or more new consistency groups.

Clause 20. The method of any of clauses 13 to 19, wherein the instruction instructs the UE to modify one or more PRS resource set identifiers (IDs) associated with one or more of the plurality of consistency groups or a new merged consistency group.

Clause 21. The method of any of clauses 13 to 20, wherein the instruction instructs the UE to modify the error threshold associated with one or more of the plurality of consistency groups or a new merged consistency group.

Clause 22. The method of any of clauses 13 to 21, wherein the instruction instructs the UE to modify one or more uncertainty or calibration error parameters associated with one or more of the plurality of consistency groups or a new merged consistency group.

Clause 23. The method of any of clauses 13 to 22, wherein the instruction instructs the UE to merge a first subset of two or more of the plurality of consistency groups into a first merged consistency group and to merge a second subset of two or more other of the plurality of consistency groups into a second merged consistency group.

Clause 24. An apparatus comprising a memory and at least one processor communicatively coupled to the memory, the memory and the at least one processor configured to perform a method according to any of clauses 1 to 23.

Clause 25. An apparatus comprising means for performing a method according to any of clauses 1 to 23.

Clause 26. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions, the computer-executable comprising at least one instruction for causing a computer or processor to perform a method according to any of clauses 1 to 23.

Additional implementation examples are described in the following numbered clauses:

Clause 1. A method of operating a user equipment (UE), comprising: identifying, by the UE, a plurality of consistency groups, each of the plurality of consistency groups comprising a plurality of positioning sources associated with measurements within one or more shared error characteristics for the respective consistency group; reporting, to a position estimation entity, information associated with the plurality of consistency groups; and receiving, from the position estimation entity, an instruction to modify one or more parameters associated with the plurality of consistency groups.

Clause 2. The method of clause 1, wherein the one or more shared error characteristics comprise a shared timing error characteristic, a shared angle error characteristic, or a combination thereof.

Clause 3. The method of any of clauses 1 to 2, wherein the instruction is received within location assistance data via Long Term Evolution Positioning Protocol (LPP) signaling.

Clause 4. The method of any of clauses 1 to 3, wherein the instruction instructs the UE to: merge two or more of the plurality of consistency groups into a merged consistency group.

Clause 5. The method of clause 4, further comprising: compensating one or more positioning reference signal (PRS) measurements for calibration error, wherein the one or more PRS measurements are associated with the merged consistency group based on a compensation parameter for the merged consistency group, or reporting the one or more calibration error-compensated PRS measurements to the position estimation entity, or adding a PRS compensation indicator, a PRS measurement calibration value, or both, into one or more measurement reports, or a combination thereof.

Clause 6. The method of any of clauses 4 to 5, further comprising: transmitting a first measurement report based on first PRS measurements associated with the merged consistency group in association with two or more consistency group identifiers of two or more consistency groups, respectively, or transmitting a second measurement report based on second PRS measurements associated with the merged consistency group in association with a single consistency group identifier of the merged consistency group.

Clause 7. The method of any of clauses 1 to 6, wherein the instruction instructs the UE to modify one or more PRS resource set identifiers (IDs) associated with one or more of the plurality of consistency groups or a new merged consistency group.

Clause 8. The method of any of clauses 1 to 7, wherein the instruction instructs the UE to modify an error threshold associated with one or more of the plurality of consistency groups or a new merged consistency group.

Clause 9. The method of any of clauses 1 to 8, wherein the instruction instructs the UE to modify one or more uncertainty or calibration error parameters associated with one or more of the plurality of consistency groups or a new merged consistency group.

Clause 10. The method of any of clauses 1 to 9, wherein the instruction instructs the UE to merge a first subset of two or more of the plurality of consistency groups into a first  merged consistency group and to merge a second subset of two or more other of the plurality of consistency groups into a second merged consistency group.

Clause 11. The method of any of clauses 1 to 10, wherein the instruction instructs the UE to: separate one of the plurality of consistency groups into two or more new consistency groups.

Clause 12. The method of any of clauses 1 to 11, wherein a position estimate of the UE based on first positioning measurements from a first subset of the plurality of positioning sources is capable of estimating second positioning measurements from a second subset of the plurality of positioning sources within an error threshold.

Clause 13. The method of clause 12, wherein the error threshold for each of the plurality of consistency groups comprises a timing threshold, an angle threshold, a received power threshold, or a combination thereof.

Clause 14. The method of any of clauses 1 to 13, wherein the plurality of positioning sources for each of the plurality of consistency groups comprises a positioning reference signal (PRS) resource, a PRS resource set, a PRS frequency layer, a transmission/reception point (TRP), or a combination thereof.

Clause 15. A method of operating a network component, comprising: receiving, from a user equipment (UE), information associated with a plurality of consistency groups, each of the plurality of consistency groups comprising a plurality of positioning sources associated with measurements within one or more shared error characteristics for the respective consistency group; and transmitting, to the UE, an instruction to modify one or more parameters associated with the plurality of consistency groups.

Clause 16. The method of clause 15, wherein the one or more shared error characteristics comprise a shared timing error characteristic, a shared angle error characteristic, or a combination thereof.

Clause 17. The method of any of clauses 15 to 16, further comprising: receiving measurement reports associated with a positioning session of the UE from the UE and one or more base stations; performing over-the-air (OTA) calibration of UE group delay and base station group delay based on the measurement reports, or outlier detection, or a combination thereof; and identifying a new grouping of the plurality of consistency groups based on the OTA calibration, wherein the instruction instructs the UE to transition to the new grouping.

Clause 18. The method of any of clauses 15 to 17, wherein the instruction is transmitted within location assistance data via Long Term Evolution Positioning Protocol (LPP) signaling.

Clause 19. The method of any of clauses 15 to 18, wherein the instruction instructs the UE to: merge two or more of the plurality of consistency groups into a merged consistency group.

Clause 20. The method of clause 19, wherein the instruction further instructs the UE to compensate one or more positioning reference signal (PRS) measurements for calibration error, wherein the one or more PRS measurements are associated with the merged consistency group based on a compensation parameter for the merged consistency group, or report the one or more compensated PRS measurements to a position estimation entity, or add a PRS compensation indicator, a PRS measurement calibration value, or both, into one or more measurement reports, or a combination thereof.

Clause 21. The method of any of clauses 19 to 20, further comprising: receiving a first measurement report based on first PRS measurements associated with the merged consistency group in association with two or more consistency group identifiers of two or more consistency groups, respectively, or receiving a second measurement report based on second PRS measurements associated with the merged consistency group in association with a single consistency group identifier of the merged consistency group.

Clause 22. The method of any of clauses 15 to 21, wherein the instruction instructs the UE to: separate one of the plurality of consistency groups into two or more new consistency groups.

Clause 23. The method of any of clauses 15 to 22, wherein the instruction instructs the UE to modify one or more PRS resource set identifiers (IDs) associated with one or more of the plurality of consistency groups or a new merged consistency group.

Clause 24. The method of any of clauses 15 to 23, wherein a position estimate of the UE based on first positioning measurements from a first subset of the plurality of positioning sources is capable of estimating second positioning measurements from a second subset of the plurality of positioning sources within an error threshold, and wherein the instruction instructs the UE to modify the error threshold associated with one or more of the plurality of consistency groups or a new merged consistency group.

Clause 25. The method of any of clauses 15 to 24, wherein the instruction instructs the UE to modify one or more uncertainty or calibration error parameters associated with one or more of the plurality of consistency groups or a new merged consistency group.

Clause 26. The method of any of clauses 15 to 25, wherein the instruction instructs the UE to merge a first subset of two or more of the plurality of consistency groups into a first merged consistency group and to merge a second subset of two or more other of the plurality of consistency groups into a second merged consistency group.

Clause 27. A user equipment (UE), comprising: a memory; at least one transceiver; and at least one processor communicatively coupled to the memory and the at least one transceiver, the at least one processor configured to: identify a plurality of consistency groups, each of the plurality of consistency groups comprising a plurality of positioning sources associated with measurements within one or more shared error characteristics for the respective consistency group; report, to a position estimation entity, information associated with the plurality of consistency groups; and receive, via the at least one transceiver, from the position estimation entity, an instruction to modify one or more parameters associated with the plurality of consistency groups.

Clause 28. The UE of clause 27, wherein the one or more shared error characteristics comprise a shared timing error characteristic, a shared angle error characteristic, or a combination thereof.

Clause 29. The UE of any of clauses 27 to 28, wherein the instruction is received within location assistance data via Long Term Evolution Positioning Protocol (LPP) signaling.

Clause 30. The UE of any of clauses 27 to 29, wherein the instruction instructs the UE to: merge two or more of the plurality of consistency groups into a merged consistency group.

Clause 31. The UE of clause 30, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: compensate one or more positioning reference signal (PRS) measurements for calibration error, wherein the one or more PRS measurements are associated with the merged consistency group based on a compensation parameter for the merged consistency group, or report the one or more compensated PRS measurements to a position estimation entity, or add a PRS compensation indicator, a PRS measurement calibration value, or both, into one or more measurement reports, or a combination thereof

Clause 32. The UE of any of clauses 30 to 31, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: transmit, via the at least one transceiver, a first measurement report based on first PRS measurements associated with the merged consistency group in association  with two or more consistency group identifiers of two or more consistency groups, respectively, or transmit, via the at least one transceiver, a second measurement report based on second PRS measurements associated with the merged consistency group in association with a single consistency group identifier of the merged consistency group.

Clause 33. The UE of any of clauses 27 to 32, wherein the instruction instructs the UE to modify one or more PRS resource set identifiers (IDs) associated with one or more of the plurality of consistency groups or a new merged consistency group.

Clause 34. The UE of any of clauses 27 to 33, wherein the instruction instructs the UE to modify an error threshold associated with one or more of the plurality of consistency groups or a new merged consistency group.

Clause 35. The UE of any of clauses 27 to 34, wherein the instruction instructs the UE to modify one or more uncertainty or calibration error parameters associated with one or more of the plurality of consistency groups or a new merged consistency group.

Clause 36. The UE of any of clauses 27 to 35, wherein the instruction instructs the UE to merge a first subset of two or more of the plurality of consistency groups into a first merged consistency group and to merge a second subset of two or more other of the plurality of consistency groups into a second merged consistency group.

Clause 37. The UE of any of clauses 27 to 36, wherein the instruction instructs the UE to: separate one of the plurality of consistency groups into two or more new consistency groups.

Clause 38. The UE of any of clauses 27 to 37, wherein a position estimate of the UE based on first positioning measurements from a first subset of the plurality of positioning sources is capable of estimating second positioning measurements from a second subset of the plurality of positioning sources within an error threshold.

Clause 39. The UE of clause 38, wherein the error threshold for each of the plurality of consistency groups comprises a timing threshold, an angle threshold, a received power threshold, or a combination thereof.

Clause 40. The UE of any of clauses 27 to 39, wherein the plurality of positioning sources for each of the plurality of consistency groups comprises a positioning reference signal (PRS) resource, a PRS resource set, a PRS frequency layer, a transmission/reception point (TRP), or a combination thereof.

Clause 41. A network component, comprising: a memory; at least one transceiver; and at least one processor communicatively coupled to the memory and the at least one  transceiver, the at least one processor configured to: receive, via the at least one transceiver, from a user equipment (UE), information associated with a plurality of consistency groups, each of the plurality of consistency groups comprising a plurality of positioning sources associated with measurements within one or more shared error characteristics for the respective consistency group; and transmit, via the at least one transceiver, to the UE, an instruction to modify one or more parameters associated with the plurality of consistency groups.

Clause 42. The network component of clause 41, wherein the one or more shared error characteristics comprise a shared timing error characteristic, a shared angle error characteristic, or a combination thereof.

Clause 43. The network component of any of clauses 41 to 42, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: receive, via the at least one transceiver, measurement reports associated with a positioning session of the UE from the UE and one or more base stations; perform over-the-air (OTA) calibration of UE group delay and base station group delay based on the measurement reports, or outlier detection, or a combination thereof and identify a new grouping of the plurality of consistency groups based on the OTA calibration, wherein the instruction instructs the UE to transition to the new grouping.

Clause 44. The network component of any of clauses 41 to 43, wherein the instruction is transmitted within location assistance data via Long Term Evolution Positioning Protocol (LPP) signaling.

Clause 45. The network component of any of clauses 41 to 44, wherein the instruction instructs the UE to: merge two or more of the plurality of consistency groups into a merged consistency group.

Clause 46. The network component of clause 45, wherein the instruction further instructs the UE to compensate one or more positioning reference signal (PRS) measurements for calibration error, wherein the one or more PRS measurements are associated with the merged consistency group based on a compensation parameter for the merged consistency group, or report the one or more compensated PRS measurements to a position estimation entity, or add a PRS compensation indicator, a PRS measurement calibration value, or both, into one or more measurement reports, or a combination thereof.

Clause 47. The network component of any of clauses 45 to 46, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: receive, via the at least one transceiver, a first measurement report based on first PRS measurements associated with the merged  consistency group in association with two or more consistency group identifiers of two or more consistency groups, respectively, or receive, via the at least one transceiver, a second measurement report based on second PRS measurements associated with the merged consistency group in association with a single consistency group identifier of the merged consistency group.

Clause 48. The network component of any of clauses 41 to 47, wherein the instruction instructs the UE to: separate one of the plurality of consistency groups into two or more new consistency groups.

Clause 49. The network component of any of clauses 41 to 48, wherein the instruction instructs the UE to modify one or more PRS resource set identifiers (IDs) associated with one or more of the plurality of consistency groups or a new merged consistency group.

Clause 50. The network component of any of clauses 41 to 49, wherein a position estimate of the UE based on first positioning measurements from a first subset of the plurality of positioning sources is capable of estimating second positioning measurements from a second subset of the plurality of positioning sources within an error threshold, and wherein the instruction instructs the UE to modify the error threshold associated with one or more of the plurality of consistency groups or a new merged consistency group.

Clause 51. The network component of any of clauses 41 to 50, wherein the instruction instructs the UE to modify one or more uncertainty or calibration error parameters associated with one or more of the plurality of consistency groups or a new merged consistency group.

Clause 52. The network component of any of clauses 41 to 51, wherein the instruction instructs the UE to merge a first subset of two or more of the plurality of consistency groups into a first merged consistency group and to merge a second subset of two or more other of the plurality of consistency groups into a second merged consistency group.

Clause 53. A user equipment (UE), comprising: means for identifying a plurality of consistency groups, each of the plurality of consistency groups comprising a plurality of positioning sources associated with measurements within one or more shared error characteristics for the respective consistency group; means for reporting, to a position estimation entity, information associated with the plurality of consistency groups; and means for receiving, from the position estimation entity, an instruction to modify one or more parameters associated with the plurality of consistency groups.

Clause 54. The UE of clause 53, wherein the one or more shared error characteristics comprise a shared timing error characteristic, a shared angle error characteristic, or a combination thereof.

Clause 55. The UE of any of clauses 53 to 54, wherein the instruction is received within location assistance data via Long Term Evolution Positioning Protocol (LPP) signaling.

Clause 56. The UE of any of clauses 53 to 55, wherein the instruction instructs the UE to: means for merging two or more of the plurality of consistency groups into a merged consistency group.

Clause 57. The UE of clause 56, further comprising: means for compensating one or more positioning reference signal (PRS) measurements for calibration error, wherein the one or more PRS measurements are associated with the merged consistency group based on a compensation parameter for the merged consistency group, or means for reporting the one or more calibration error-compensated PRS measurements to the position estimation entity, or means for adding a PRS compensation indicator, a PRS measurement calibration value, or both, into one or more measurement reports, or a combination thereof.

Clause 58. The UE of any of clauses 56 to 57, further comprising: means for transmitting a first measurement report based on first PRS measurements associated with the merged consistency group in association with two or more consistency group identifiers of two or more consistency groups, respectively, or means for transmitting a second measurement report based on second PRS measurements associated with the merged consistency group in association with a single consistency group identifier of the merged consistency group.

Clause 59. The UE of any of clauses 53 to 58, wherein the instruction instructs the UE to modify one or more PRS resource set identifiers (IDs) associated with one or more of the plurality of consistency groups or a new merged consistency group.

Clause 60. The UE of any of clauses 53 to 59, wherein the instruction instructs the UE to modify an error threshold associated with one or more of the plurality of consistency groups or a new merged consistency group.

Clause 61. The UE of any of clauses 53 to 60, wherein the instruction instructs the UE to modify one or more uncertainty or calibration error parameters associated with one or more of the plurality of consistency groups or a new merged consistency group.

Clause 62. The UE of any of clauses 53 to 61, wherein the instruction instructs the UE to merge a first subset of two or more of the plurality of consistency groups into a first merged consistency group and to merge a second subset of two or more other of the plurality of consistency groups into a second merged consistency group.

Clause 63. The UE of any of clauses 53 to 62, wherein the instruction instructs the UE to: means for separating one of the plurality of consistency groups into two or more new consistency groups.

Clause 64. The UE of any of clauses 53 to 63, wherein a position estimate of the UE based on first positioning measurements from a first subset of the plurality of positioning sources is capable of estimating second positioning measurements from a second subset of the plurality of positioning sources within an error threshold.

Clause 65. The UE of clause 64, wherein the error threshold for each of the plurality of consistency groups comprises a timing threshold, an angle threshold, a received power threshold, or a combination thereof.

Clause 66. The UE of any of clauses 53 to 65, wherein the plurality of positioning sources for each of the plurality of consistency groups comprises a positioning reference signal (PRS) resource, a PRS resource set, a PRS frequency layer, a transmission/reception point (TRP), or a combination thereof.

Clause 67. A network component, comprising: means for receiving, from a user equipment (UE), information associated with a plurality of consistency groups, each of the plurality of consistency groups comprising a plurality of positioning sources associated with measurements within one or more shared error characteristics for the respective consistency group; and means for transmitting, to the UE, an instruction to modify one or more parameters associated with the plurality of consistency groups.

Clause 68. The network component of clause 67, wherein the one or more shared error characteristics comprise a shared timing error characteristic, a shared angle error characteristic, or a combination thereof.

Clause 69. The network component of any of clauses 67 to 68, further comprising: means for receiving measurement reports associated with a positioning session of the UE from the UE and one or more base stations; means for performing over-the-air (OTA) calibration of UE group delay and base station group delay based on the measurement reports, or outlier detection, or a combination thereof; and means for identifying a new  grouping of the plurality of consistency groups based on the OTA calibration, wherein the instruction instructs the UE to transition to the new grouping.

Clause 70. The network component of any of clauses 67 to 69, wherein the instruction is transmitted within location assistance data via Long Term Evolution Positioning Protocol (LPP) signaling.

Clause 71. The network component of any of clauses 67 to 70, wherein the instruction instructs the UE to: means for merging two or more of the plurality of consistency groups into a merged consistency group.

Clause 72. The network component of clause 71, wherein the instruction further instructs the UE to compensate one or more positioning reference signal (PRS) measurements for calibration error, wherein the one or more PRS measurements are associated with the merged consistency group based on a compensation parameter for the merged consistency group, or report the one or more compensated PRS measurements to a position estimation entity, or add a PRS compensation indicator, a PRS measurement calibration value, or both, into one or more measurement reports, or a combination thereof

Clause 73. The network component of any of clauses 71 to 72, further comprising: means for receiving a first measurement report based on first PRS measurements associated with the merged consistency group in association with two or more consistency group identifiers of two or more consistency groups, respectively, or means for receiving a second measurement report based on second PRS measurements associated with the merged consistency group in association with a single consistency group identifier of the merged consistency group.

Clause 74. The network component of any of clauses 67 to 73, wherein the instruction instructs the UE to: means for separating one of the plurality of consistency groups into two or more new consistency groups.

Clause 75. The network component of any of clauses 67 to 74, wherein the instruction instructs the UE to modify one or more PRS resource set identifiers (IDs) associated with one or more of the plurality of consistency groups or a new merged consistency group.

Clause 76. The network component of any of clauses 67 to 75, wherein a position estimate of the UE based on first positioning measurements from a first subset of the plurality of positioning sources is capable of estimating second positioning measurements from a second subset of the plurality of positioning sources within an error threshold, and  wherein the instruction instructs the UE to modify the error threshold associated with one or more of the plurality of consistency groups or a new merged consistency group.

Clause 77. The network component of any of clauses 67 to 76, wherein the instruction instructs the UE to modify one or more uncertainty or calibration error parameters associated with one or more of the plurality of consistency groups or a new merged consistency group.

Clause 78. The network component of any of clauses 67 to 77, wherein the instruction instructs the UE to merge a first subset of two or more of the plurality of consistency groups into a first merged consistency group and to merge a second subset of two or more other of the plurality of consistency groups into a second merged consistency group.

Clause 79. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a user equipment (UE), cause the UE to: identify a plurality of consistency groups, each of the plurality of consistency groups comprising a plurality of positioning sources associated with measurements within one or more shared error characteristics for the respective consistency group; report, to a position estimation entity, information associated with the plurality of consistency groups; and receive, from the position estimation entity, an instruction to modify one or more parameters associated with the plurality of consistency groups.

Clause 80. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of clause 79, wherein the one or more shared error characteristics comprise a shared timing error characteristic, a shared angle error characteristic, or a combination thereof.

Clause 81. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of clauses 79 to 80, wherein the instruction is received within location assistance data via Long Term Evolution Positioning Protocol (LPP) signaling.

Clause 82. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of clauses 79 to 81, wherein the instruction instructs the UE to: merge two or more of the plurality of consistency groups into a merged consistency group.

Clause 83. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of clause 82, further comprising computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the UE, cause the UE to: compensate one or more positioning reference signal (PRS) measurements for calibration error, wherein the one or more PRS measurements are associated with the merged consistency group based on a compensation parameter for the merged consistency group, or report the one or more compensated PRS measurements to a position estimation  entity, or add a PRS compensation indicator, a PRS measurement calibration value, or both, into one or more measurement reports, or a combination thereof

Clause 84. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of clauses 82 to 83, further comprising computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the UE, cause the UE to: transmit a first measurement report based on first PRS measurements associated with the merged consistency group in association with two or more consistency group identifiers of two or more consistency groups, respectively, or transmit a second measurement report based on second PRS measurements associated with the merged consistency group in association with a single consistency group identifier of the merged consistency group.

Clause 85. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of clauses 79 to 84, wherein the instruction instructs the UE to modify one or more PRS resource set identifiers (IDs) associated with one or more of the plurality of consistency groups or a new merged consistency group.

Clause 86. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of clauses 79 to 85, wherein the instruction instructs the UE to modify an error threshold associated with one or more of the plurality of consistency groups or a new merged consistency group.

Clause 87. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of clauses 79 to 86, wherein the instruction instructs the UE to modify one or more uncertainty or calibration error parameters associated with one or more of the plurality of consistency groups or a new merged consistency group.

Clause 88. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of clauses 79 to 87, wherein the instruction instructs the UE to merge a first subset of two or more of the plurality of consistency groups into a first merged consistency group and to merge a second subset of two or more other of the plurality of consistency groups into a second merged consistency group.

Clause 89. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of clauses 79 to 88, wherein the instruction instructs the UE to: separate one of the plurality of consistency groups into two or more new consistency groups.

Clause 90. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of clauses 79 to 89, wherein a position estimate of the UE based on first positioning measurements from a first subset of the plurality of positioning sources is capable of estimating second  positioning measurements from a second subset of the plurality of positioning sources within an error threshold.

Clause 91. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of clause 90, wherein the error threshold for each of the plurality of consistency groups comprises a timing threshold, an angle threshold, a received power threshold, or a combination thereof.

Clause 92. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of clauses 79 to 91, wherein the plurality of positioning sources for each of the plurality of consistency groups comprises a positioning reference signal (PRS) resource, a PRS resource set, a PRS frequency layer, a transmission/reception point (TRP), or a combination thereof.

Clause 93. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by a network component, cause the network component to: receive, from a user equipment (UE), information associated with a plurality of consistency groups, each of the plurality of consistency groups comprising a plurality of positioning sources associated with measurements within one or more shared error characteristics for the respective consistency group; and transmit, to the UE, an instruction to modify one or more parameters associated with the plurality of consistency groups.

Clause 94. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of clause 93, wherein the one or more shared error characteristics comprise a shared timing error characteristic, a shared angle error characteristic, or a combination thereof.

Clause 95. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of clauses 93 to 94, further comprising computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the network component, cause the network component to: receive measurement reports associated with a positioning session of the UE from the UE and one or more base stations; perform over-the-air (OTA) calibration of UE group delay and base station group delay based on the measurement reports, or outlier detection, or a combination thereof; and identify a new grouping of the plurality of consistency groups based on the OTA calibration, wherein the instruction instructs the UE to transition to the new grouping.

Clause 96. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of clauses 93 to 95, wherein the instruction is transmitted within location assistance data via Long Term Evolution Positioning Protocol (LPP) signaling.

Clause 97. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of clauses 93 to 96, wherein the instruction instructs the UE to: merge two or more of the plurality of consistency groups into a merged consistency group.

Clause 98. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of clause 97, wherein the instruction further instructs the UE to compensate one or more positioning reference signal (PRS) measurements for calibration error, wherein the one or more PRS measurements are associated with the merged consistency group based on a compensation parameter for the merged consistency group, or report the one or more compensated PRS measurements to a position estimation entity, or add a PRS compensation indicator, a PRS measurement calibration value, or both, into one or more measurement reports, or a combination thereof.

Clause 99. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of clauses 97 to 98, further comprising computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the network component, cause the network component to: receive a first measurement report based on first PRS measurements associated with the merged consistency group in association with two or more consistency group identifiers of two or more consistency groups, respectively, or receive a second measurement report based on second PRS measurements associated with the merged consistency group in association with a single consistency group identifier of the merged consistency group.

Clause 100. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of clauses 93 to 99, wherein the instruction instructs the UE to: separate one of the plurality of consistency groups into two or more new consistency groups.

Clause 101. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of clauses 93 to 100, wherein the instruction instructs the UE to modify one or more PRS resource set identifiers (IDs) associated with one or more of the plurality of consistency groups or a new merged consistency group.

Clause 102. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of clauses 93 to 101, wherein a position estimate of the UE based on first positioning measurements from a first subset of the plurality of positioning sources is capable of estimating second positioning measurements from a second subset of the plurality of positioning sources within an error threshold, and wherein the instruction instructs the UE to modify the error threshold associated with one or more of the plurality of consistency groups or a new merged consistency group.

Clause 103. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of clauses 93 to 102, wherein the instruction instructs the UE to modify one or more uncertainty or calibration error parameters associated with one or more of the plurality of consistency groups or a new merged consistency group.

Clause 104. The non-transitory computer-readable medium of any of clauses 93 to 103, wherein the instruction instructs the UE to merge a first subset of two or more of the plurality of consistency groups into a first merged consistency group and to merge a second subset of two or more other of the plurality of consistency groups into a second merged consistency group.