Patent Description:
A mobile communications system supports two types of location requests (Location Request): an immediate location request (Immediate Location Request) and a deferred location request (Deferred Location Request). The immediate location request requires a location service (Location Services, LCS) server to return a positioning result to an LCS client (client) immediately after receiving a location request. The deferred location request requires the LCS server to feed back a report (response) at a specified time after receiving the location request. The deferred location request triggers a deferred positioning event, and deferred positioning events are classified into a periodic event (Periodic location event), an area event (Area event), a motion event (Motion event), and a terminal available (available) event.

The periodic event is: periodically initiating or canceling a location report, that is, triggering a location report at a specific time interval based on a request period.

The area event: When the terminal detects that the terminal enters, leaves, or is within a specified target area range, the terminal completes a complete positioning process with a network, and the LCS server reports a location of a target terminal once. In the case of the area event, a target area may be defined by a geographical area, a public land mobile network (Public Land Mobile Network, PLMN) identifier, a country code, or a geopolitical name.

The motion event: When the terminal detects that the terminal moves from a previous location beyond a predefined linear distance, the terminal completes a complete positioning process with the network, and the LCS server reports a location of a target terminal once. The process supports terminal mobility between different serving mobile management entities (Mobile Management Entity, MME) and different serving PLMNs without interrupting event reporting.

Terminal available event: When the terminal is temporarily unavailable due to inactivity of a user, temporary loss of a radio connection or separation of an international mobile subscriber identity (International Mobile Subscriber Identity, IMSI), or the like, the terminal may delay reporting a location of the terminal. For the terminal available event, the terminal does not need to participate in event detection, and a positioning behavior is not triggered by the event.

For the periodic event, the area event, and the motion event, the terminal needs to participate in event detection. Therefore, the terminal needs to store event information and related auxiliary information that trigger positioning, for example, area information in area event triggering, and time information of the periodic event.

To reduce power consumption of the terminal, the terminal may enter idle (idle) state. The terminal in idle state is in sleep state in most of the time, and periodically wakes up in a downlink to receive a paging message. Alternatively, the terminal may enter inactive (inactive) state. The terminal in inactive state allows UE to sleep in a manner similar to idle state, and keeps a connection between a radio access network (Radio Access Network, RAN) and a core network side, to quickly switch to connected state. However, regardless whether the terminal is in idle state or inactive state, after a periodic event, an area event, or a motion event is detected, a connection between the terminal and an MME needs to be established, that is, the terminal is restored to connected (connected) state, and positioning related information is reported and a positioning procedure is completed. If information needs to be reported many times, and the terminal needs to enter connected state each time, especially for periodic positioning (such as a periodic event), the terminal needs to enter connected state to complete a complete positioning process each time the terminal detects that a period arrives, and for event trigger (such as an area event or a motion event) positioning, the terminal needs to enter connected state to complete a complete positioning process each time a maximum reporting interval arrives, resulting in a large amount of power consumption of the terminal.

<CIT> discloses a method for a user equipment (UE), including: receiving configuration information from a network, the configuration information to configure the UE to perform logging of measurements in an idle mode, wherein the configuration information includes a duration, and storing the configuration information at the UE.

<CIT> discloses a method for use in a network node of providing a radio resource control (RRC) state of a user equipment (UE) to a core network node, including: receiving, from the core network node, a request to receive a notification of a transition of the UE between a first and second RRC state; determining the UE transitioned between the first and second RRC state; and sending the notification of the transition to the core network node.

"3rd Generation Partnership Project; Technical Specification Group Services and System Aspects; Functional stage <NUM> description of Location Service (LCS) (Release <NUM>)" discloses general network positioning procedures including location preparation procedure, positioning measurement establishment procedure and location calculation and release procedure.

<CIT> discloses a method including: receiving location measurements for a user equipment (UE) that is using Narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) radio access or Cellular Internet of Things (CIoT) features to access a wireless network; storing the location measurements and a timestamp; receiving a location request for the UE when the UE is not connected to the wireless network; transmitting the location measurements to a location server with an indication that the UE is not connected to the wireless network; and receiving a response from the location server comprising a last known location for the UE.

Embodiments of the present disclosure provide a positioning method and a terminal, to resolve a power consumption problem of a terminal in idle state or inactive state in a positioning procedure.

According to a first aspect, some embodiments of the present disclosure provide a positioning method which is defined in claim <NUM>.

According to a second aspect, some embodiments of the present disclosure provide a terminal which is defined in claim <NUM>.

According to a third aspect, some embodiments of the present disclosure provide a terminal which is defined in claim <NUM>.

It is to be understood that both the forgoing general description and the following detailed description are exemplary only, and are not restrictive of the present disclosure.

To describe the technical solutions in the embodiments of the present disclosure more clearly, the following briefly describes the accompanying drawings required for describing the embodiments of the present disclosures. Apparently, the accompanying drawings in the following description show merely some embodiments of the present disclosure.

Exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure will be described below in further detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. Although the accompanying drawings show exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure, it should be understood that the present disclosure can be implemented in various forms and shall not be limited by embodiments described herein. Instead, these embodiments are provided in order to provide a more thorough understanding of the present disclosure and to be able to convey the scope of the present disclosure to a person skilled in the art.

In the specification and claims of this application, the terms "first", "second", and the like are intended to distinguish between similar objects but do not necessarily describe a specific order or sequence. It should be understood that the data termed in such a way is interchangeable in proper circumstances so that the embodiments of this application described herein can be implemented in an order other than the order illustrated or described herein. Moreover, the terms "include", "contain" and any variants thereof mean to cover the non-exclusive inclusion, for example, a process, method, system, product, or device that includes a list of steps or units is not necessarily limited to those expressly listed steps or units, but may include other steps or units not expressly listed or inherent to such a process, method, product, or device. "And/or" used in the specification and claims means at least one of the connected objects.

The technology described in this specification is not limited to a Long Term Evolution (Long Term Evolution, LTE)/LTE-Advanced (LTE-Advanced, LTE-A) system, and can also be used in various wireless communications systems such as Code Division Multiple Access (Code Division Multiple Access, CDMA), Time Division Multiple Access (Time Division Multiple Access, TDMA), Frequency Division Multiple Access (Frequency Division Multiple Access, FDMA), Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access, OFDMA), Single-carrier Frequency-Division Multiple Access (Single-carrier Frequency-Division Multiple Access, SC-FDMA), and another system. The terms "system" and "network" are often used interchangeably. The technology described herein can be used in the above-mentioned systems and radio technologies as well as other systems and radio technologies. However, the following descriptions describe a new radio NR system for example purposes, and NR terms are used in most of the following descriptions, although these techniques can also be applied to an application other than an NR system application.

The following description provides examples and does not limit the scope, applicability, or configuration set forth in the claims.

Referring to <FIG> is a block diagram of a wireless communications system to which some embodiments of the present disclosure can be applied. The wireless communications system includes a terminal <NUM> and a network device <NUM>. The terminal <NUM> may also be referred to as a terminal device to user equipment (User Equipment, UE). The terminal <NUM> may be a terminal side device such as a mobile phone, a tablet personal computer (Tablet Personal Computer), a laptop computer (Laptop Computer), a personal digital assistant (Personal Digital Assistant, PDA), a mobile Internet device (Mobile Internet Device, MID), a wearable device (Wearable Device), or an in-vehicle device. It should be noted that a specific type of the terminal <NUM> is not limited in some embodiments of the present disclosure. The network device <NUM> may be a base station or a core network. The base station may be a base station of <NUM> or a later version (for example, a gNB or a <NUM> NR NB), or a base station in another communications system (for example, an eNB, a wireless local area network WLAN access point, or another access point). The base station may be referred to as a NodeB, an evolved NodeB, an access point, a base transceiver station (Base Transceiver Station, BTS), a radio base station, a radio transceiver, a basic service set (Basic Service Set, BSS), an extended service set (Extended Service Set, ESS), a NodeB, an evolved NodeB (eNB), a home NodeB, a home evolved NodeB, a WLAN access point, a Wi-Fi node, or another appropriate term in the art. As long as a same technical effect is achieved, the base station is not limited to a specified technical term. It should be noted that, in some embodiments of the present disclosure, only a base station in the NR system is used as an example, but a specific type of the base station is not limited.

The base station may communicate with the terminal <NUM> under control of a base station controller. In various examples, the base station controller may be a core network or a part of some base stations. Some base stations may communicate control information or user data with the core network through a backhaul. In some examples, some of these base stations may communicate directly or indirectly with each other through a backhaul link, and the backhaul link may be a wired or wireless communication link. The wireless communications system can support operations on a plurality of carriers (waveform signals of different frequencies). A multi-carrier transmitter can simultaneously transmit a modulated signal on the multiple carriers. For example, each communication link may be a multi-carrier signal modulated based on various radio technologies. Each modulated signal can be sent over different carriers and can carry control information (for example, a reference signal or a control channel), overhead information, data, and the like.

The base station can communicate wirelessly with the terminal <NUM> via one or more access point antennas. Each base station may provide communication coverage for a corresponding coverage area. A coverage area of an access point may be divided into sectors that form merely a part of the coverage area. The wireless communications system may include different types of base stations (for example, a macro base station, a micro base station, or a pico base station). The base station may also utilize different radio technologies, such as a cellular or WLAN radio access technology. The base station can be associated with the same or different access networks or operator deployment. Coverage areas of different base stations (including coverage areas of the same type of base station or different types of base stations, coverage areas using the same radio technology or different radio technologies, or coverage areas belonging to the same access network or different access networks) may overlap.

A communication link in the wireless communications system may include an uplink used to carry uplink (Uplink, UL) transmission (for example, from the terminal <NUM> to the network device <NUM>), or a downlink used to carry a downlink (Downlink, DL) transmission (for example, from the network device <NUM> to the terminal <NUM>). The UL transmission may also be referred to as reverse link transmission, and the DL transmission may also be referred to as forward link transmission.

In a mobile communications system, such as a <NUM> system, a terminal supports three states: idle state, inactive state, and connected state. In idle state, the terminal does not have a Radio Resource Control (Radio Resource Control, RRC) context on a network device side, that is, a parameter required for communication between the network device side and the terminal does not belong to a specific cell, and the network device side does not know whether the terminal exists. A group of tracking area identifier (Tracking area identifier, TAI) lists (list) are allocated to the terminal. From the perspective of the core network, connection between a RAN side and the core network is served. To reduce power consumption, the terminal is in sleep state most of the time, and therefore data transmission cannot be performed. In a downlink link, the terminal in idle state may periodically wake up to receive a paging message (if any) from the network device side. Mobility (Mobility) may be processed by the terminal by performing cell reselection. In idle state, the terminal does not keep uplink synchronization with the network device side. To switch from idle state to connected state, an RRC context can be established between the terminal and the network device side only through random access (Random Access).

In connected state, the terminal and the network device may establish an RRC context, and all parameters required for communication are known to both parties. From the perspective of the core network, the terminal is in connected state in the core network. A cell to which the terminal belongs is known, and a signaling destination device identifier used for transmission between the terminal and the network device, that is, a cell radio network temporary identifier (Cell Radio Network Temporary Identity, C-RNTI), has been configured. Data may be transmitted in connected state. However, because a data stream of a packet is often burst, when no data stream is transmitted, power consumption can be reduced by disabling a receiving circuit of the terminal, and a discontinuous reception (Discontinuous Reception, DRX) technology is used. Because the RRC context has been established in connected state in the network device, a speed of exiting the DRX and starting to receive/send data is relatively fast. In connected state, mobility (Mobility) may be controlled by the network device side, that is, the terminal provides neighboring cell measurement for the network, and the network device instructs the terminal to perform handover (handover). Uplink time synchronization may or may not exist. When data is to be transmitted, uplink synchronization may be established through random access.

In inactive state, an RRC context between the network device side and the terminal side is maintained. From the perspective of the core network, a RAN side is connected to the core network. Therefore, switching from inactive state to connected state is very fast, and core network signaling is not required. In addition, the terminal is allowed to sleep in a manner similar to idle state, and mobility is processed through cell reselection. Therefore, inactive state may be considered as a mixture of idle state and connected state.

The positioning method in some embodiments of the present disclosure is applied to a terminal side.

Step <NUM>: Receive configuration information.

The configuration information is used to indicate a detection condition of the terminal at a preset moment. The preset moment is related to a positioning event, especially to a deferred positioning event. The deferred positioning event is triggered based on a deferred location request.

Step <NUM>: Determine, in idle state or inactive state based on the configuration information, whether to enter connected state at a preset moment to complete a positioning procedure.

The preset moment is related to a deferred positioning event, for example, a positioning reporting moment corresponding to the deferred positioning event. If the terminal in some embodiments of the present disclosure determines, in idle state or inactive state based on the configuration information, that the terminal does not need to enter connected state at the preset moment, performing of an unnecessary positioning procedure can be reduced, thereby saving power of the terminal. If the terminal determines, based on the configuration information, that the terminal needs to enter connected state at the preset moment and perform a positioning procedure, a necessary positioning procedure is not missed, thereby facilitating mobility management of the terminal.

Specifically, the preset moment includes a period corresponding to a periodic event or time of arrival of a maximum reporting interval corresponding to a trigger event. In other words, the preset moment is one of the following moments:.

For the periodic event, a network device side instructs, by using the configuration information, the terminal to perform detection when a next period arrives, to determine whether the terminal enters connected state, that is, to initiate a connection to the network device.

For the trigger event, the network device side instructs, by using the configuration information, the terminal to perform detection at the time of arrival of the maximum reporting interval, to determine whether the terminal enters connected state. It should be noted that for the trigger event, the network device configures a minimum reporting interval and a maximum reporting interval for the terminal. When the terminal does not detect a corresponding trigger event within a time period between a minimum reporting interval and a maximum reporting interval after a previous report, the terminal detects whether to enter connected state at time of arrival of the maximum reporting interval.

The trigger event is triggered based on the time of arrival of the maximum reporting interval. Further, the trigger event includes an area event or a motion event, and the area event and the motion event correspond to respective maximum reporting intervals. For the area event or the motion event, the network device side instructs, by using the configuration information, the terminal to perform detection at the time of arrival of the maximum reporting interval, to determine whether the terminal enters connected state. Specifically, if the terminal detects the area event or the motion event within a time period between a minimum reporting interval and a maximum reporting interval, the terminal enters connected state and performs a subsequent positioning procedure. However, if the terminal does not detect the area event or the motion event within this period of time, it needs to further detect, at the time of arrival of the maximum reporting interval, whether the terminal enters connected state.

In some embodiments of the present disclosure, step <NUM> includes: detecting, at the preset moment, whether a detection condition in the configuration information is met; and
if the detection condition is met, skipping entering connected state.

If the detection condition is not met, connected state is entered to complete the positioning procedure.

In other words, the terminal detects the corresponding condition at the preset moment based on the received configuration information, and determines whether to enter connected state at the preset moment and performs the positioning procedure.

The detection condition includes one of the following:.

A moving distance of the terminal from the previous positioning being no more than a first preset threshold. That is, the terminal detects that no movement or small movement occurs at a current moment compared with a previous positioning report, and the moving distance being no more than the first preset threshold on the network device side. The detection condition is determined by the terminal only through movement of the terminal. The terminal does not know a location of the terminal, but the terminal knows a moving distance from a previous location.

A change amount between a current location estimate of the terminal and a location estimate during the previous positioning (for example, obtained through GPS or Bluetooth) being no more than a second preset threshold. That is, the terminal detects that location estimation of the terminal does not change or slightly changes compared with the previous positioning report, and a change range being no more than the second preset threshold of the network device side.

A change amount between a current location measurement amount of the terminal and a location measurement amount during the previous positioning being no more than a third preset threshold. The terminal measures a downlink reference signal in inactive state or idle state. The terminal detects that the location measurement amount of the terminal does not change or slightly changes compared with the previous positioning report, and a change range being no more than the third preset threshold. The location measurement amount may be obtained in the following manner: the location measurement is obtained after the terminal measures a downlink positioning reference signal in inactive state or idle state based on downlink positioning auxiliary information broadcast by the network device side or downlink positioning auxiliary information sent in advance in connected state. The location measurement amount includes: a reference signal time difference (Reference Signal Time Difference, RSTD), reference signal received power (Reference Signal Received Power, RSRP), or other measurement information in observed time difference of arrival (Observed Time Difference of Arrival, OTDOA) positioning. For example, the terminal determines, based on a change of the RSTD in the OTDOA positioning, whether the third preset threshold is exceeded. A downlink reference signal may include at least one of a positioning reference signal (Positioning Reference Signal, PRS), a synchronization signal block (Synchronization Signal and PBCH Block, SSB), and a channel state information-reference signal (Channel State Information Reference Signal, CSI-RS) resource set.

Further, after step <NUM>, the method further includes: reporting indication information when it is determined not to enter connected state, where the indication information includes one of the following:.

First indication information indicating that no movement of the terminal occurs: Optionally, the first indication information includes one indication bit. If the terminal detects that a location, location estimation, or a location measurement amount of the terminal does not change compared with the previous positioning report, the terminal reports l-bit information to indicate that the terminal does not move.

Second indication information indicating location difference information of the terminal: Optionally, the second indication information includes N indication bits, and N is an integer greater than <NUM>. The terminal detects that a location, location estimation, or location measurement information of the terminal changes but being no more than a threshold. If the terminal has the location of the terminal, the terminal may report N-bit location difference information to indicate a change range of the location. If the terminal reports the N-bit location difference information, for example, a location estimation difference value, the N-bit information may be obtained in the following manner: Assuming that a difference between coordinates of all dimensions (three-dimensional or two-dimensional) of the location estimate of the terminal and coordinates of all dimensions of location estimation during the previous positioning is less than a threshold predefined by the network, the terminal reports the N-bit information to notify the network device of a change status of location estimation of the terminal. The N-bit information includes: positive and negative information of each dimension coordinate value and a bit quantized value corresponding to an absolute difference of each dimension coordinate value.

Third indication information indicating a difference value of positioning measurement information of the terminal: The terminal detects that a location, location estimation, or location measurement information of the terminal changes but being no more than a threshold, and the terminal measures a downlink positioning reference signal in inactive state or idle state based on downlink positioning auxiliary information broadcast by the network device side or downlink positioning auxiliary information sent in advance in connected state. Then, the terminal reports a difference value of N-bit positioning measurement information (for example, an RSTD quantization value), indicating a change range of the measurement information. If the terminal reports N-bit RSTD quantization value difference information, the N-bit information may be obtained in the following manner: Assuming that differences between all RSTD quantization values and all RSTD quantization values measured during the previous positioning are less than or equal to a threshold Y, the terminal reports the N-bit information to notify the network device of a change status of the location of the terminal. The N-bit information includes positive and negative information of an RSTD difference, quantity information of the RSTD difference (for example, a quantity of RSTD values required for one measurement), and a corresponding bit quantization value of an absolute value of each RSTD difference.

Optionally, the step of reporting indication information includes: reporting the indication information by using a message in a random access process. The random access process may be a contention-based random access process initiated based on a contention preamble (preamble), or may be a contention free random access process initiated based on a non-contention preamble.

Specifically, the step of reporting the indication information by using a message in a random access process includes: reporting the indication information by using message <NUM> (Message <NUM>, Msg1) in a contention free random access process. That is, the terminal initiates an RACH by using the non-contention preamble, and implicitly reports <NUM>-bit or N-bit information by using a preamble packet in the Msg <NUM>.

Alternatively, the step of reporting the indication information by using a message in a random access process includes: reporting the indication information by using message <NUM> (Message <NUM>, Msg3) in a contention-based random access process. That is, the terminal initiates an RACH by using the contention preamble, and reports l-bit or N-bit information in the Msg3 of the RACH.

Further, after the step of reporting the indication information by using a random access process, the method further includes: returning to idle state or inactive state after a random access response is received. Specifically, the terminal successfully receives message <NUM> (Message <NUM>, Msg2), and returns to original state, that is, idle state or inactive state. Alternatively, the terminal receives a message <NUM> (Message <NUM>, Msg4), and acknowledges that the network device successfully receives Msg3. The terminal returns to original state, that is, idle state or inactive state.

In addition, the step of reporting indication information includes: sending the indication information by using a data packet in inactive state. For example, if the terminal is in inactive state, l-bit or N-bit information may be carried by using an inactive small data packet.

Optionally, step <NUM> in some embodiments of the present disclosure includes: receiving the configuration information by using non-access stratum (Non-Access Stratum, NAS) signaling. The network device may send the configuration information to the terminal by using signaling that is in NAS and that is related to a deferred positioning event, such as LCS periodic-triggered invoke (Periodic-Triggered Event Invoke) signaling or other dedicated signaling.

The following further describes the positioning methods in some embodiments of the present disclosure with reference to the accompanying drawings.

As shown in <FIG>, the method includes the following steps:.

In the positioning method in some embodiments of the present disclosure, the terminal determines, by using the configuration information, whether to enter connected state at the preset moment, instead of entering connected state to complete a complete positioning process when a period arrives or a maximum reporting interval arrives, thereby reducing power consumption of the terminal.

The foregoing embodiments describe the positioning method in different scenarios. The following further describes a terminal corresponding to the positioning method with reference to the accompanying drawings.

As shown in <FIG>, a terminal <NUM> in some embodiments of the present disclosure can implement details of the method in the foregoing embodiment in which configuration information is received; and it is determined, in idle state or inactive state based on the configuration information, whether to enter connected state at a preset moment to complete a positioning procedure, to achieve a same effect. The terminal <NUM> specifically includes the following function modules:.

The preset moment includes a period corresponding to a periodic event or time of arrival of a maximum reporting interval corresponding to a trigger event.

The trigger event is triggered based on the time of arrival of the maximum reporting interval.

The trigger event includes an area event or a motion event, and the area event and the motion event correspond to respective maximum reporting intervals.

The processing module <NUM> further includes:
a second processing submodule, configured to: if the detection condition is not met, enter connected state and perform the positioning procedure.

The terminal <NUM> further includes:
a reporting module, configured to report indication information when it is determined not to enter connected state, where the indication information includes one of the following:.

The first indication information includes one indication bit. The second indication information or the third indication information includes N indication bits, and N is an integer greater than <NUM>.

The terminal <NUM> further includes:
a returning module, configured to return to idle state or inactive state after a random access response is received.

The receiving module <NUM> includes:
a receiving submodule, configured to receive the configuration information by using non-access stratum NAS signaling.

It should be noted that, the terminal in some embodiments of the present disclosure determines, by using the configuration information, whether to enter connected state at the preset moment, instead of entering connected state to complete a complete positioning process when a period arrives or a maximum reporting interval arrives, thereby reducing power consumption of the terminal.

It should be noted that, division of the modules of the terminal is merely logical function division, and in actual implementation, the modules may be all or partially integrated into one physical entity, or may be physically separated. In addition, these modules may all be implemented in the form of software being invoked by processing elements; or may all be implemented in the form of hardware; or some of the modules may be implemented in the form of software being invoked by processing elements, and some of the modules may be implemented in the form of hardware. For example, the determining module may be a separately disposed processing element, or may be integrated into a chip of the foregoing apparatus for implementation. In addition, the determining module may also be stored in the memory of the foregoing apparatus in the form of program code, and a processing element of the foregoing apparatus invokes the program code and performs the functions of the foregoing determining module. The implementations of other modules are similar thereto. In addition, all or some of these modules may be integrated together or implemented independently. The processing element herein may be an integrated circuit having a signal processing capability. In an implementation process, the steps in the foregoing method or the foregoing modules can be implemented by using a hardware integrated logical circuit in the processing element, or by using instructions in a form of software.

For example, the modules may be configured as one or more integrated circuits for implementing the foregoing method, for example, one or more application-specific integrated circuits (Application-Specific Integrated Circuit, ASIC), one or more microprocessors (digital signal processor, DSP), or one or more field programmable gate arrays (Field Programmable Gate Array, FPGA). For another example, when a module above is implemented by invoking program code by using a processing element, the processing element may be a general-purpose processor, for example, a central processing unit (Central Processing Unit, CPU) or another processor that can invoke program code. For another example, these modules may be integrated together, and implemented in a form of a system-on-a-chip (system-on-a-chip, SOC).

To better implement the foregoing objective, further, <FIG> is a schematic structural diagram of hardware of a terminal according to the embodiments of the present disclosure. A terminal <NUM> includes but is not limited to components such as a radio frequency unit <NUM>, a network module <NUM>, an audio output unit <NUM>, an input unit <NUM>, a sensor <NUM>, a display unit <NUM>, a user input unit <NUM>, an interface unit <NUM>, a memory <NUM>, a processor <NUM>, and a power supply <NUM>. Those skilled in the art may understand that the terminal structure shown in <FIG> does not constitute a limitation on the terminal. The terminal may include more or fewer components than those shown in the figure, or some components may be combined, or there may be a different component arrangement. In some embodiments of the present disclosure, the terminal includes but is not limited to a mobile phone, a tablet computer, a notebook computer, a palmtop computer, an in-vehicle terminal, a wearable device, a pedometer, and the like.

The radio frequency unit <NUM> is configured to receive configuration information; and
the processor <NUM> is configured to determine, in idle state or inactive state based on the configuration information, whether to enter connected state at a preset moment to complete a positioning procedure.

The terminal in some embodiments of the present disclosure determines, by using the configuration information, whether to enter connected state at the preset moment, instead of entering connected state to complete a complete positioning process when a period arrives or a maximum reporting interval arrives, thereby reducing power consumption of the terminal.

It should be understood that, in some embodiments of the present disclosure, the radio frequency unit <NUM> may be configured to receive and send information or a signal in a call process. Specifically, after receiving downlink data from a base station, the radio frequency unit <NUM> sends the downlink data to the processor <NUM> for processing. In addition, the radio frequency unit <NUM> sends uplink data to the base station. Usually, the radio frequency unit <NUM> includes but is not limited to an antenna, at least one amplifier, a transceiver, a coupler, a low noise amplifier, a duplexer, and the like. In addition, the radio frequency unit <NUM> may communicate with a network and another device through a wireless communication system.

The terminal provides wireless broadband Internet access for the user by using the network module <NUM>, for example, helping the user to send and receive an e-mail, browse a web page, and access streaming media.

The audio output unit <NUM> may convert audio data received by the radio frequency unit <NUM> or the network module <NUM> or stored in the memory <NUM> into an audio signal and output the audio signal as a sound. In addition, the audio output unit <NUM> may further provide an audio output (for example, a call signal received voice, or a message received voice) related to a specific function implemented by the terminal <NUM>. The audio output unit <NUM> includes a speaker, a buzzer, a receiver, and the like.

The input unit <NUM> is configured to receive an audio signal or a video signal. The input unit <NUM> can include a graphics processing unit (Graphics Processing Unit, GPU) <NUM> and a microphone <NUM>. The graphics processing unit <NUM> processes image data of static pictures or videos obtained by an image capturing apparatus (for example, a camera) in a video capturing mode or an image capturing mode. A processed image frame can be displayed on the display unit <NUM>. The image frame processed by the graphics processor <NUM> may be stored in the memory <NUM> (or another storage medium) or sent by using the radio frequency unit <NUM> or the network module <NUM>. The microphone <NUM> can receive sound and can process such sound into audio data. The processed audio data may be converted, in a call mode, into a format that can be sent to a mobile communication base station by using the radio frequency unit <NUM> for output.

The terminal <NUM> further includes at least one type of sensor <NUM>, such as a light sensor, a motion sensor, and another sensor. Specifically, the light sensor includes an ambient light sensor and a proximity sensor, where the ambient light sensor can adjust brightness of a display panel <NUM> based on brightness of ambient light, and the proximity sensor can turn off the display panel <NUM> and/or backlight when the terminal <NUM> is moved towards the ear. As a type of the motion sensor, an accelerometer sensor may detect an acceleration value in each direction (generally, three axes), and detect a value and a direction of gravity when the accelerometer sensor is static, and may be used in an application for recognizing a mobile terminal posture (such as screen switching between landscape and portrait modes, a related game, or magnetometer posture calibration), a function related to vibration recognition (such as a pedometer or a knock), and the like. The sensor <NUM> may further include a fingerprint sensor, a pressure sensor, an iris sensor, a molecular sensor, a gyroscope, a barometer, a hygrometer, a thermometer, an infrared sensor, and the like.

The display unit <NUM> is configured to display information entered by a user or information provided for a user. The display unit <NUM> may include a display panel <NUM>.

The user input unit <NUM> may be configured to receive input numeral or character information, and generate key signal input related to user setting and functional control of the terminal. Specifically, the user input unit <NUM> includes a touch panel <NUM> and another input device <NUM>. The touch panel <NUM> is also referred to as a touchscreen, and may collect a touch operation performed by a user on or near the touch panel <NUM> (such as an operation performed by a user on the touch panel <NUM> or near the touch panel <NUM> by using any proper object or accessory, such as a finger or a stylus). The touch panel <NUM> may include two parts: a touch detection apparatus and a touch controller. The touch detection apparatus detects a touch location of the user, detects a signal brought by the touch operation, and sends the signal to the touch controller. The touch controller receives touch information from the touch detection apparatus, converts the touch information into touch point coordinates, and sends the touch point coordinates to the processor <NUM>, and can receive and execute a command sent by the processor <NUM>. In addition, the touch panel <NUM> can be implemented by various types such as a resistive type, a capacitive type, an infrared ray type or a surface acoustic wave type. The user input unit <NUM> may include another input device <NUM> in addition to the touch panel <NUM>. Specifically, the another input device <NUM> may include, but is not limited to, a physical keyboard, a functional button (such as a volume control button or a power on/off button), a trackball, a mouse, and a joystick.

Further, the touch panel <NUM> can cover the display panel <NUM>. When detecting a touch operation on or near the touch panel <NUM>, the touch panel <NUM> transmits the touch operation to the processor <NUM> to determine a type of a touch event. Then, the processor <NUM> provides corresponding visual output on the display panel <NUM> based on the type of the touch event. In <FIG>, the touch panel <NUM> and the display panel <NUM> are used as two independent components to implement input and output functions of the terminal. However, in some embodiments, the touch panel <NUM> and the display panel <NUM> may be integrated to implement the input and output functions of the terminal. This is not specifically limited herein.

The interface unit <NUM> is an interface connecting an external apparatus to the terminal <NUM>. For example, the external apparatus may include a wired or wireless headphone port, an external power supply (or a battery charger) port, a wired or wireless data port, a storage card port, a port used to connect to an apparatus having an identity module, an audio input/output (I/O) port, a video I/O port, a headset port, and the like. The interface unit <NUM> may be configured to receive input (for example, data information and power) from the external apparatus and transmit the received input to one or more elements in the terminal <NUM>, or may be configured to transmit data between the terminal <NUM> and the external apparatus.

The memory <NUM> may be configured to store a software program as well as every kind of data. The memory <NUM> may primarily include a program storage area and a data storage area, where the program storage area may store an operating system, an application (such as a sound playing function, an image playing function) required for at least one function, and the like; and the data storage area may store data (such as audio data, a phone book) created based on the use of a mobile phone. In addition, the memory <NUM> may include a high-speed random access memory, and may further include a non-volatile memory such as at least one magnetic disk storage component, a flash memory component, or another volatile solid-state storage component.

The processor <NUM> is a control center of the terminal, and connects all parts of the entire terminal by using various interfaces and lines. By running or executing a software program and/or a module stored in the memory <NUM> and invoking data stored in the memory <NUM>, the processor <NUM> performs various functions of the terminal and data processing, to perform overall monitoring on the terminal. The processor <NUM> may include one or more processing units. Optionally, an application processor and a modem processor may be integrated into the processor <NUM>. The application processor mainly processes an operating system, a user interface, an application, and the like. The modem processor mainly processes wireless communications. It may be understood that, alternatively, the modem processor may not be integrated into the processor <NUM>.

The terminal <NUM> may further include the power supply <NUM> (such as a battery) that supplies power to each component. Optionally, the power supply <NUM> may be logically connected to the processor <NUM> by using a power management system, so as to implement functions such as charging, discharging, and power consumption management by using the power management system.

In addition, the terminal <NUM> includes some functional modules not shown.

Optionally, some embodiments of the present disclosure further provide a terminal, including a processor <NUM>, a memory <NUM>, and a computer program that is stored in the memory <NUM> and that can run on the processor <NUM>. When the processor <NUM> executes the computer program, the processes of the foregoing positioning method embodiment are implemented and a same technical effect can be achieved. To avoid repetition, details are not described herein again. The terminal may be a wireless terminal or a wired terminal. The wireless terminal may be a device providing voice and/or other service data connectivity to a user, a handheld device with a wireless connection function, or another processing device connected to a wireless modem. The wireless terminal may communicate with one or more core networks through a radio access network (Radio Access Network, RAN). The wireless terminal may be a mobile terminal, such as a mobile phone (also referred to as a "cellular" phone) and a computer with a mobile terminal, for example, may be a portable, pocket-sized, handheld, computer built-in, or in-vehicle mobile apparatus, which exchanges voice and/or data with the radio access network. For example, it may be a device such as a personal communication service (Personal Communication Service, PCS) phone, a cordless telephone set, a session initiation protocol (Session Initiation Protocol, SIP) phone, a wireless local loop (Wireless Local Loop, WLL) station, or a personal digital assistant (Personal Digital Assistant, PDA). The wireless terminal may also be referred to as a system, a subscriber unit (Subscriber Unit), a subscriber station (Subscriber Station), a mobile station (Mobile Station), a mobile (Mobile) console, a remote station (Remote Station), a remote terminal (Remote Terminal), an access terminal (Access Terminal), a user terminal (User Terminal), a user agent (User Agent), or a user device (User Device or User Equipment). This is not limited herein.

Some embodiments of the present disclosure further provide a computer-readable storage medium. The computer-readable storage medium stores a computer program, and when a processor executes the computer program, the processes of the foregoing positioning method embodiment are implemented and a same technical effect can be achieved. To avoid repetition, details are not described herein again. The computer-readable storage medium includes a read-only memory (Read-only Memory, ROM), a random access memory (Random Access Memory, RAM), a magnetic disk, or an optical disc.

A person of ordinary skill in the art may be aware that, in combination with the examples in the embodiments disclosed in this specification, units and algorithm steps may be implemented by using electronic hardware or a combination of computer software and electronic hardware. A person skilled in the art may use different methods to implement the described functions for each particular application, but it should not be considered that the implementation goes beyond the scope of the present disclosure.

It may be clearly understood by a person skilled in the art that, for the purpose of convenient and brief description, for a detailed operating process of the foregoing system, apparatus, and unit, refer to a corresponding process in the foregoing method embodiments.

In the embodiments provided in this application, it should be understood that the disclosed apparatus and method may be implemented in other manners. In addition, the displayed or discussed mutual couplings or direct couplings or communication connections may be implemented by using some interfaces, apparatuses, or units.

In addition, function units in the embodiments of the present disclosure may be integrated into one processing unit, or each of the units may exist alone physically, or two or more units are integrated into one unit.

When the functions are implemented in a form of a software functional unit and sold or used as an independent product, the functions may be stored in a computer readable storage medium. Based on this understanding, the essence of the technical solutions of this disclosure, or the part contributing to the prior art, or some of the technical solutions may be represented in the form of software products. The computer software products are stored in a storage medium, and include a number of instructions to enable a computer device (which may be a personal computer, a server, a network device, or the like) to perform all or some of the steps of the methods described in various embodiments of this disclosure. The storage medium includes various mediums, such as a USB flash disk, a removable hard disk, a ROM, a RAM, a magnetic disk, or an optical disc, that can store program code.

In addition, it should be noted that in the apparatus and method of the present disclosure, it is obvious that the components or steps may be decomposed and/or recombined. These decomposition and/or recombination shall be considered an equivalent solution of the present disclosure. Moreover, the steps for performing the foregoing series of processing may be performed naturally in chronological order according to a described sequence, but do not necessarily need to be performed in chronological order, and some steps may be performed in parallel or independently. Those of ordinary skill in the art can understand that all or any of the steps or the components of the methods and the apparatuses of the present disclosure may be implemented in any computing apparatus (including a processor, a storage medium, and the like) or a computing apparatus network in the form of hardware, firmware, software, or a combination thereof. Those of ordinary skill in the art can implement this by using their basic programming skills after reading the description of the present disclosure.

It may be understood that the embodiments described in the embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented by hardware, software, firmware, middleware, microcode, or a combination thereof. For hardware implementation, a processing unit may be implemented in one or more Application Specific Integrated Circuits (Application Specific Integrated Circuits, ASIC), digital signal processors (Digital Signal Processing, DSP), digital signal processing devices (DSP Device, DSPD), programmable logic devices (Programmable Logic Device, PLD), field-programmable gate arrays (Field-Programmable Gate Array, FPGA), general purpose processors, controllers, microcontrollers, microprocessors, or other electronic units or a combination thereof used to perform the functions in the present disclosure.

For software implementation, the technology in the embodiments of the present disclosure may be implemented through modules (for example, procedures or functions) that perform the functions in the embodiments of the present disclosure. A software program may be stored in a memory and executed by a processor. The memory may be implemented in the processor or outside the processor.

Claim 1:
A positioning method, applied to a terminal (<NUM>) and comprising receiving (<NUM>) configuration information; and
determining (<NUM>), in idle state or inactive state based on the configuration information, whether to enter connected state at a preset moment to complete a positioning procedure, wherein
the determining (<NUM>), based on the configuration information, whether to enter connected state at the preset moment comprises:
detecting (<NUM>) whether a detection condition in the configuration information is met at the preset moment; and
if the detection condition is met, skipping entering (<NUM>) connected state; wherein
the detection condition comprises one of:
a change amount between a current location estimate of the terminal (<NUM>) and a location estimate during the previous positioning being no more than a second preset threshold; and
a change amount between a current location measurement amount of the terminal (<NUM>) and a location measurement amount during the previous positioning being no more than a third preset threshold.