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Title:
MEASUREMENT GAP CONFIGURATION FOR REFERENCE SIGNAL TIME DIFFERENCE (RSTD) MEASUREMENTS
Document Type and Number:
WIPO Patent Application WO/2020/092336
Kind Code:
A1
Abstract:
Methods, systems, and storage media are described for the configuration of measurement gaps for reference signal time difference (RSTD) measurements. A user equipment (UE) may retrieve, from a memory, information that includes an indication of a number of consecutive downlink subframes with positioning reference signals (PRSs); generate a message that includes the information; and encode the message for transmission. The indication of the number of consecutive downlink subframes with PRSs is an enumerated value.

Inventors:
LI QIMING (CN)
LI HUA (CN)
HUANG RUI (CN)
CUI JIE (US)
TANG YANG (US)
Application Number:
PCT/US2019/058518
Publication Date:
May 07, 2020
Filing Date:
October 29, 2019
Export Citation:
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Assignee:
INTEL CORP (US)
International Classes:
H04W64/00; H04L5/00; H04W56/00
Domestic Patent References:
WO2014184602A12014-11-20
Foreign References:
US9119036B22015-08-25
EP3240326A12017-11-01
US20130267246A12013-10-10
US9344248B22016-05-17
US20170374638A12017-12-28
US20180048444A12018-02-15
Other References:
See also references of EP 3874846A4
Attorney, Agent or Firm:
STARKOVICH, Alex D. et al. (US)
Download PDF:
Claims:
CLAIMS

What is claimed is:

1. An apparatus of a user equipment (UE) comprising:

memory to store information that includes an indication of a number of consecutive downlink subfames with positioning reference signals (PRSs); and

processing circuitry, coupled with the memory, to:

retrieve the information from the memory;

generate a message that includes the information; and

encode the message for transmission.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the indication of the number of consecutive downlink subfames with PRSs is an enumerated value.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, wherein the enumerated value is to indicate 1, 2, 4, or 6 consecutive downlink subframes.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the indication of the number of consecutive downlink subfames with PRSs is an integer value.

5. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the integer value is to indicate 1-160 consecutive downlink subframes.

6. The apparatus of any one of claims 1-5, wherein the message is further to request a measurement gap (MG) for a reference signal time different (RSTD) measurement, and wherein the information is further to indicate a requested measurement gap offset for performing the RSTD measurement.

7. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the requested measurement gap offset has a granularity of less than 1 ms.

8. The apparatus of claim 6, wherein the RSTD measurement is an intra-frequency RSTD measurement or an inter-frequency RSTD measurement.

9. One or more computer-readable media storing instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause a next-generation NodeB (gNB) to:

receive, from a user equipment (UE), a first message that includes an indication of a number of consecutive downlink subfames with positioning reference signals (PRSs);

generate, based on the indication of the number of consecutive downlink subfames with PRSs, a second message that includes a measurement gap (MG) pattern; and

encode the second message for transmission to the UE.

10. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 9, wherein the indication of the number of consecutive downlink subfames with PRSs is an enumerated value that is to indicate 1, 2, 4, or 6 consecutive downlink subframes.

11. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 9, wherein the indication of a number of consecutive downlink subfames with PRSs is an integer value that is to indicate 1- 160 consecutive downlink subframes.

12. The one or more computer-readable media of any one of claims 9-11, wherein the first message is further to request the MG for a reference signal time different (RSTD) measurement, and wherein the information is further to indicate a requested measurement gap offset for performing the RSTD measurement.

13. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 12, wherein the requested measurement gap offset has a granularity of less than 1 ms.

14. One or more computer-readable media storing instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause a user equipment (UE) to:

generate a message that includes an indication of a number of consecutive downlink subfames with positioning reference signals (PRSs); and

encode the message for transmission to a next-generation NodeB (gNB).

15. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 14, wherein the indication of a number of consecutive downlink subfames with PRSs is an enumerated value.

16. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 15, wherein the enumerated value is to indicate 1, 2, 4, or 6 consecutive downlink subframes.

17. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 14, wherein the indication of a number of consecutive downlink subfames with PRSs is an integer value. 18. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 17, wherein the integer value is to indicate 1-160 consecutive downlink subframes.

19. The one or more computer-readable media of any one of claims 14-18, wherein the message is further to request a measurement gap (MG) for a reference signal time different (RSTD) measurement, and wherein the information is further to indicate a requested measurement gap offset for performing the RSTD measurement.

20. The one or more computer-readable media of claim 14, wherein the requested measurement gap offset has a granularity of less than 1 ms.

Description:
MEASUREMENT GAP CONFIGURATION FOR REFERENCE SIGNAU TIME DIFFERENCE (RSTD) MEASUREMENTS

RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/753,781 filed October 31, 2018 and entitled “METHOD TO REQUEST GAPS FOR OTDOA MEASUREMENT,” the entire disclosure of which is incorporated by reference in its entirety.

FIELD

Embodiments of the present disclosure relate generally to the technical field of wireless communications.

BACKGROUND

Among other things, embodiments of the present disclosure are directed to the configuration of measurement gaps for reference signal time different (RSTD) measurements. Some embodiments may operate in conjunction with inter-frequency or intra-frequency RSTD measurements for observed time difference of arrival (OTDOA) positioning.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Embodiments will be readily understood by the following detailed description in conjunction with the accompanying drawings. To facilitate this description, like reference numerals designate like structural elements. Embodiments are illustrated by way of example and not by way of limitation in the figures of the accompanying drawings.

Figures 1 and 2, and 3 illustrate examples of operation flow/algorithmic structures in accordance with some embodiments.

Figure 4 illustrates an example of measurement gap (MG) configuration in accordance with some embodiments.

Figure 5 depicts an architecture of a system of a network in accordance with some embodiments.

Figure 6 depicts an example of components of a device in accordance with some embodiments.

Figure 7 depicts an example of interfaces of baseband circuitry in accordance with some embodiments.

Figure 8 depicts a block diagram illustrating components, according to some embodiments, able to read instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium) and perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Embodiments discussed herein may relate to the configuration of measurement gaps for reference signal time different (RSTD) measurements. Other embodiments may be described and/or claimed.

The following detailed description refers to the accompanying drawings. The same reference numbers may be used in different drawings to identify the same or similar elements. In the following description, for purposes of explanation and not limitation, specific details are set forth such as particular structures, architectures, interfaces, techniques, etc., in order to provide a thorough understanding of the various aspects of the claimed invention. However, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art having the benefit of the present disclosure that the various aspects of the invention claimed may be practiced in other examples that depart from these specific details. In certain instances, descriptions of well-known devices, circuits, and methods are omitted so as not to obscure the description of the present invention with unnecessary detail.

Various aspects of the illustrative embodiments will be described using terms commonly employed by those skilled in the art to convey the substance of their work to others skilled in the art. However, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that alternate embodiments may be practiced with only some of the described aspects. For purposes of explanation, specific numbers, materials, and configurations are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the illustrative embodiments. However, it will be apparent to one skilled in the art that alternate embodiments may be practiced without the specific details. In other instances, well-known features are omitted or simplified in order not to obscure the illustrative embodiments.

Further, various operations will be described as multiple discrete operations, in turn, in a manner that is most helpful in understanding the illustrative embodiments; however, the order of description should not be construed as to imply that these operations are necessarily order dependent. In particular, these operations need not be performed in the order of presentation.

The phrase“in various embodiments,”“in some embodiments,” and the like may refer to the same, or different, embodiments. The terms“comprising,”“having,” and“including” are synonymous, unless the context dictates otherwise. The phrase“A and/or B” means (A), (B), or (A and B). The phrases“A/B” and“A or B” mean (A), (B), or (A and B), similar to the phrase“A and/or B.” For the purposes of the present disclosure, the phrase“at least one of A and B” means (A), (B), or (A and B). The description may use the phrases “in an embodiment,”“in embodiments,”“in some embodiments,” and/or“in various embodiments,” which may each refer to one or more of the same or different embodiments. Furthermore, the terms“comprising,” “including,”“having,” and the like, as used with respect to embodiments of the present disclosure, are synonymous. Examples of embodiments may be described as a process depicted as a flowchart, a flow diagram, a data flow diagram, a structure diagram, or a block diagram. Although a flowchart may describe the operations as a sequential process, many of the operations may be performed in parallel, concurrently, or simultaneously. In addition, the order of the operations may be re arranged. A process may be terminated when its operations are completed, but may also have additional steps not included in the figure(s). A process may correspond to a method, a function, a procedure, a subroutine, a subprogram, and the like. When a process corresponds to a function, its termination may correspond to a return of the function to the calling function and/or the main function.

Examples of embodiments may be described in the general context of computer- executable instructions, such as program code, software modules, and/or functional processes, being executed by one or more of the aforementioned circuitry. The program code, software modules, and/or functional processes may include routines, programs, objects, components, data structures, etc., that perform particular tasks or implement particular data types. The program code, software modules, and/or functional processes discussed herein may be implemented using existing hardware in existing communication networks. For example, program code, software modules, and/or functional processes discussed herein may be implemented using existing hardware at existing network elements or control nodes.

When triggering downlink OTDOA positioning, a location server may provide assistance data to enable user equipment (UE)-assisted downlink OTDOA. Such assistance data may include a variety of information which to help the UE is perform OTDOA measurements. One such type of information is positioning reference signal (PRS) configuration information, which may include PRS duration, bandwidth, and other information.

In OTDOA positioning, both intra-frequency and inter-frequency RSTD measurement may be supported. In inter-frequency cases, a UE needs a measurement gap to do the RSTD measurement. However, since the positioning operation is triggered by a location server, the serving cell may not be aware that UE is about to perform OTDOA measurement. Therefore, the UE needs to inform its serving cell and request measurement gaps as well, if the target cell is on a different carrier frequency.

When requesting a measurement gap, the UE may provide the PRS location information to its serving cell as shown in the example below:

EUTRA-RSTD-Info ::= SEQUENCE {

carrierFreq ARFCN-ValueEUTRA,

measPRS-Offset INTEGER (0..39), In this example, measPRS-Offset indicates the requested gap offset for performing inter- frequency or intra-frequency RSTD measurements. It is the smallest subframe offset from the beginning of subframe 0 of SFN=0 of the serving cell of the requested gap for measuring PRS positioning occasions in the carrier frequency carrierFreq for which the UE needs to perform the inter-frequency or intra-frequency RSTD measurements. The PRS positioning occasion information is received from upper layers. The value of measPRS-Offset is obtained by mapping the starting subframe of the PRS positioning occasion in the measured cell onto the corresponding subframe in the serving cell and is calculated as the serving cell's number of subframes from SFN=0 mod 40.

The UE can take into account any additional time required by the UE to start PRS measurements on the other carrier when it does this mapping for determining the measPRS-Offset . Note that measPRS-Offset in prior systems has a granularity of lms, which may not be sufficiently accurate to allow a network to know which MG (measurement gap) pattern is the most suitable MG pattern for a given UE, particularly for future systems where more gap patterns are used for OTDOA measurements,

As depicted in the MG configuration example shown in Figure 4, when the PRS duration is 4ms and PRS starting subframe is #3 in serving cell (mapping from the measured cell), the UE would indicate measPRS-Offset = 3. Then its serving cell may assume the PRS starts from subframe #3. Considering the UE needs time for RF retuning, the serving cell may configure MG that start before subframe #3 such that the UE would not miss the first PRS subframe. Therefore, the serving cell would configure 6ms measurement gap start from subframe #2 to subframe #7. Accordingly, this MG pattern is not efficient, since subframe #2, #6 and #7 are completely wasted.

Among other things, embodiments of the present disclosure can aid in a network configuring a more suitable MG pattern to avoid the waste of MG and increased system throughput illustrated in the MG configuration example shown in Figure 4. As discussed in more detail below, embodiments of the present disclosure can help: a network to know the length of PRS; the network to use multiple MG patterns for RSTD measurement (e.g., MG with 3ms measurement gap length (MGL)); and a UE to indicate a more accurate PRS occasion offset to the network. Embodiment 1: UE indicates the number of consecutive downlink subframes NPRS with positioning reference signals to network.

In previous solutions, a PRS duration (in terms of number of consecutive downlink subframes NPRS) is not included in the signaling used for requesting measurement gap for an RSTD measurement. Since currently only an MG pattern with a 6ms MGL (measurement gap length) can be configured, the network could configure 6 MGL for the UE. However, in the future, more and more MG patterns can be configured for RSTD measurement, including the ones with MGL other than 6ms. In such cases, it is beneficial for the network to know the exact PRS duration. Referring again to Figure 4 as an example, since the PRS duration is 2ms, the UE only needs MG pattern with 3ms MGL to cover the whole PRS duration, where 3ms consist of 2ms for PRS and lms for RF tuning and re-tuning. So the UE needs to indicate to its serving cell that the PRS duration is 2ms and then the serving cell can configure 3ms MGL for the UE.

In some embodiments, the number of consecutive downlink subframes may be indicated via an enumerated variable (e.g., numDL-Frames) as shown in the examples below:

LocationMeasurementlnfo CHOICE {

eutra-RSTD EUTRA-RSTD-InfoList,

EUTRA-RSTD-InfoList ::= SEQUENCE (SIZE ( 1..maxInterRAT-RSTD-Freq) ) OF EUTRA- RSTD-Info

EUTRA-RSTD-Info : : SEQUENCE {

carrierFreq ARFCN-ValueEUTRA,

measPRS-Offset INTEGER (0..39) ,

numDL-Frames ENUMERATED {sf-1, sf-2, sf-4, sf-6, ..., s f-add-v!420 } ,

RSTD-InterFreqlnfo-rlO ::= SEQUENCE {

carrierFreq-rlO ARFCN-ValueEUTRA,

measPRS-Offset- rlO INTEGER (0..39),

numDL-Frames ENUMERATED {sf-1, sf-2, sf-4, sf-6, ..., s f-add-vl420 } ,

[ [ carrierFreq-vl090 ARFCN-ValueEUTRA-v9eO OPTIONAL

In the foregoing examples, numDL-Frames specifies the number of consecutive downlink subframes with positioning reference signals. Enumerated values define 1, 2, 4, or 6 consecutive downlink subframes. The value sf-add indicates that NPRS is provided in the field add-numDL- Frames. In alternate embodiments the number of consecutive downlink subframes could also be indicated using an integer variable as shown in the examples below:

LocationMeasurementlnfo ::= CHOICE {

eutra-RSTD EUTRA-RSTD-InfoList,

EUTRA-RSTD-InfoList ::= SEQUENCE (SIZE ( 1..maxInterRAT-RSTD-Freq) ) OF EUTRA- RSTD-Info

EUTRA-RSTD-Info : SEQUENCE {

carrierFreq ARFCN-ValueEUTRA,

measPRS-Offset INTEGER (0..39) ,

PRSduration INTEGER (0...160) RSTD-InterFreqlnfo-rlO ::= SEQUENCE {

carrierFreq-rlO ARFCN-ValueEUTRA,

measPRS-Offset-rlO INTEGER (0..39),

PRSduration INTEGER (0...160)

[ [ carrierFreq-vl090 ARFCN-ValueEUTRA-v9eO OPTIONAL ] ]

In these preceding examples, PRSduration specifies the number of consecutive downlink subframes NPRS with positioning reference signals. Integer values define 1, 2, ... or 160 consecutive downlink subframes.

Embodiment 2: when requesting measurement gap for performing RSTD measurements towards E-UTRA, UE indicates more accurate gap offset.

In prior solutions, measPRS-Offset is only provided when a UE is requesting MG from its serving cell for RSTD measurement. However, measPRS-Offset only has a granularity of lms (measPRS-Offset INTEGER (0..39)), which is not sufficiently accurate as described previously. Referring again to Figure 4, for example, if the network can configure a shorter MGL for the UE, the network may configure MGL = 4ms or 5ms for the UE, since when the UE indicate measPRS- Offset = 3, the network doesn’t know the exact position of PRS. From the base station (BS) point of view, the PRS could start at either the beginning or the end of subframe #3. In order to cover the whole PRS duration, a conservative BS may configure 5ms MGL for the UE, so that the measurement gap can cover subframe #2~#6 (subframe #2 and #6 for RF tuning and re-tuning, #3~#6 for PRS).

In embodiments of the present disclosure, if the UE can indicate that the PRS is 3.5ms away from subframe #0 in serving cell, then network can configure 3ms MGL for the UE to perfectly cover the whole PRS duration. In some embodiments, an information elements (IE) could include an enumerated variable, such as PRSTimingAdvance shown in the examples below:

LocationMeasurementlnfo ::= CHOICE {

eutra-RSTD EUTRA-RSTD-InfoList,

EUTRA-RSTD-InfoList ::= SEQUENCE (SIZE ( 1..maxInterRAT-RSTD-Freq) ) OF EUTRA- RSTD-Info

EUTRA-RSTD-Info ::= SEQUENCE {

carrierFreq ARFCN-ValueEUTRA,

measPRS-Offset INTEGER (0..39),

PRSTimingAdvance ENUMERATED { msO, ms0dot25, ms0dot5 }

RSTD-InterFreqlnfo-rlO ::= SEQUENCE { carrierFreq-rlO ARFCN-ValueEUTRA,

measPRS-Offset-rlO INTEGER (0..39),

PRSTimingAdvance ENUMERATED { msO, ms0dot25, ms0dot5 }

[ [ carrierFreq-vl090 ARFCN-ValueEUTRA-v9eO OPTIONAL ] ]

In these examples, PRSTimingAdvan.ee is the PRS timing advance in ms. The value msO corresponds to 0 ms, ms0dot25 corresponds to 0.25ms and ms0dot5 corresponds to 0.5ms. Instead of an enumerated variable as shown above, in alternate embodiments the PRS timing advance could be indicated using an integer variable or other variable which can indicate finer granularity (e.g., less than lms).

FIG. 5 illustrates an architecture of a system 500 of a network in accordance with some embodiments. The system 500 is shown to include a user equipment (UE) 501 and a UE 502. The UEs 501 and 502 are illustrated as smartphones (e.g., handheld touchscreen mobile computing devices connectable to one or more cellular networks), but may also comprise any mobile or non- mobile computing device, such as Personal Data Assistants (PDAs), pagers, laptop computers, desktop computers, wireless handsets, or any computing device including a wireless communications interface.

In some embodiments, any of the UEs 501 and 502 can comprise an Internet of Things (IoT) UE, which can comprise a network access layer designed for low-power IoT applications utilizing short-lived UE connections. An IoT UE can utilize technologies such as machine-to- machine (M2M) or machine-type communications (MTC) for exchanging data with an MTC server or device via a public land mobile network (PLMN), Proximity-Based Service (ProSe) or device-to-device (D2D) communication, sensor networks, or IoT networks. The M2M or MTC exchange of data may be a machine-initiated exchange of data. An IoT network describes interconnecting IoT UEs, which may include uniquely identifiable embedded computing devices (within the Internet infrastructure), with short-lived connections. The IoT UEs may execute background applications (e.g., keep-alive messages, status updates, etc.) to facilitate the connections of the IoT network.

The UEs 501 and 502 may be configured to connect, e.g., communicatively couple, with a radio access network (RAN) 510— the RAN 510 may be, for example, an Evolved Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) Terrestrial Radio Access Network (E-UTRAN), a NextGen RAN (NG RAN), or some other type of RAN. The UEs 501 and 502 utilize connections 503 and 504, respectively, each of which comprises a physical communications interface or layer (discussed in further detail below); in this example, the connections 503 and 504 are illustrated as an air interface to enable communicative coupling, and can be consistent with cellular communications protocols, such as a Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) protocol, a code-division multiple access (CDMA) network protocol, a Push-to-Talk (PTT) protocol, a PTT over Cellular (POC) protocol, a Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) protocol, a 3GPP Long Term Evolution (LTE) protocol, a fifth generation (5G) protocol, aNew Radio (NR) protocol, and the like.

In this embodiment, the UEs 501 and 502 may further directly exchange communication data via a ProSe interface 505. The ProSe interface 505 may alternatively be referred to as a sidelink interface comprising one or more logical channels, including but not limited to a Physical Sidelink Control Channel (PSCCH), a Physical Sidelink Shared Channel (PSSCH), a Physical Sidelink Discovery Channel (PSDCH), and a Physical Sidelink Broadcast Channel (PSBCH).

The UE 502 is shown to be configured to access an access point (AP) 506 via connection 507. The connection 507 can comprise a local wireless connection, such as a connection consistent with any IEEE 802.11 protocol, wherein the AP 506 would comprise a wireless fidelity (WiFi®) router. In this example, the AP 506 is shown to be connected to the Internet without connecting to the core network of the wireless system (described in further detail below).

The RAN 510 can include one or more access nodes that enable the connections 503 and 504. These access nodes (ANs) can be referred to as base stations (BSs), NodeBs, evolved NodeBs (eNBs), next Generation NodeBs (gNB), RAN nodes, and so forth, and can comprise ground stations (e.g., terrestrial access points) or satellite stations providing coverage within a geographic area (e.g., a cell). The RAN 510 may include one or more RAN nodes for providing macrocells, e.g., macro RAN node 511, and one or more RAN nodes for providing femtocells or picocells (e.g., cells having smaller coverage areas, smaller user capacity, or higher bandwidth compared to macrocells), e.g., low power (LP) RAN node 512.

Any of the RAN nodes 511 and 512 can terminate the air interface protocol and can be the first point of contact for the UEs 501 and 502. In some embodiments, any of the RAN nodes 511 and 512 can fulfill various logical functions for the RAN 510 including, but not limited to, radio network controller (RNC) functions such as radio bearer management, uplink and downlink dynamic radio resource management and data packet scheduling, and mobility management.

In accordance with some embodiments, the UEs 501 and 502 can be configured to communicate using Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing (OFDM) communication signals with each other or with any of the RAN nodes 511 and 512 over a multicarrier communication channel in accordance various communication techniques, such as, but not limited to, an Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) communication technique (e.g., for downlink communications) or a Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access (SC- FDMA) communication technique (e.g., for uplink and ProSe or sidelink communications), although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. The OFDM signals can comprise a plurality of orthogonal subcarriers.

In some embodiments, a downlink resource grid can be used for downlink transmissions from any of the RAN nodes 511 and 512 to the UEs 501 and 502, while uplink transmissions can utilize similar techniques. The grid can be a time-frequency grid, called a resource grid or time- frequency resource grid, which is the physical resource in the downlink in each slot. Such a time- frequency plane representation is a common practice for OFDM systems, which makes it intuitive for radio resource allocation. Each column and each row of the resource grid corresponds to one OFDM symbol and one OFDM subcarrier, respectively. The duration of the resource grid in the time domain corresponds to one slot in a radio frame. The smallest time-frequency unit in a resource grid is denoted as a resource element. Each resource grid comprises a number of resource blocks, which describe the mapping of certain physical channels to resource elements. Each resource block comprises a collection of resource elements; in the frequency domain, this may represent the smallest quantity of resources that currently can be allocated. There are several different physical downlink channels that are conveyed using such resource blocks.

The physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) may carry user data and higher-layer signaling to the UEs 501 and 502. The physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) may carry information about the transport format and resource allocations related to the PDSCH channel, among other things. It may also inform the UEs 501 and 502 about the transport format, resource allocation, and H-ARQ (Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request) information related to the uplink shared channel. Typically, downlink scheduling (assigning control and shared channel resource blocks to the UE 502 within a cell) may be performed at any of the RAN nodes 511 and 512 based on channel quality information fed back from any of the UEs 501 and 502. The downlink resource assignment information may be sent on the PDCCH used for (e.g., assigned to) each of the UEs 501 and 502.

The PDCCH may use control channel elements (CCEs) to convey the control information. Before being mapped to resource elements, the PDCCH complex-valued symbols may first be organized into quadruplets, which may then be permuted using a sub-block interleaver for rate matching. Each PDCCH may be transmitted using one or more of these CCEs, where each CCE may correspond to nine sets of four physical resource elements known as resource element groups (REGs). Four Quadrature Phase Shift Keying (QPSK) symbols may be mapped to each REG. The PDCCH can be transmitted using one or more CCEs, depending on the size of the downlink control information (DCI) and the channel condition. There can be four or more different PDCCH formats defined in LTE with different numbers of CCEs (e.g., aggregation level, L=l, 2, 4, or 8).

Some embodiments may use concepts for resource allocation for control channel information that are an extension of the above-described concepts. For example, some embodiments may utilize an enhanced physical downlink control channel (EPDCCH) that uses PDSCH resources for control information transmission. The EPDCCH may be transmitted using one or more enhanced control channel elements (ECCEs). Similar to above, each ECCE may correspond to nine sets of four physical resource elements known as enhanced resource element groups (EREGs). An ECCE may have other numbers of EREGs in some situations.

The RAN 510 is shown to be communicatively coupled to a core network (CN) 520— via an Sl interface 513. In embodiments, the CN 520 may be an evolved packet core (EPC) network, a NextGen Packet Core (NPC) network, or some other type of CN. In this embodiment, the Sl interface 513 is split into two parts: the Sl-U interface 514, which carries traffic data between the RAN nodes 511 and 512 and the serving gateway (S-GW) 522, and the Sl-mobility management entity (MME) interface 515, which is a signaling interface between the RAN nodes 511 and 512 and MMEs 521.

In this embodiment, the CN 520 comprises the MMEs 521, the S-GW 522, the Packet Data Network (PDN) Gateway (P-GW) 523, and a home subscriber server (HSS) 524. The MMEs 521 may be similar in function to the control plane of legacy Serving General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) Support Nodes (SGSN). The MMEs 521 may manage mobility aspects in access such as gateway selection and tracking area list management. The HSS 524 may comprise a database for network users, including subscription-related information to support the network entities’ handling of communication sessions. The CN 520 may comprise one or several HSSs 524, depending on the number of mobile subscribers, on the capacity of the equipment, on the organization of the network, etc. For example, the HSS 524 can provide support for routing/roaming, authentication, authorization, naming/addressing resolution, location dependencies, etc.

The S-GW 522 may terminate the Sl interface 513 towards the RAN 510, and routes data packets between the RAN 510 and the CN 520. In addition, the S-GW 522 may be a local mobility anchor point for inter-RAN node handovers and also may provide an anchor for inter-3 GPP mobility. Other responsibilities may include lawful intercept, charging, and some policy enforcement.

The P-GW 523 may terminate an SGi interface toward a PDN. The P-GW 523 may route data packets between the EPC network and external networks such as a network including the application server 530 (alternatively referred to as application function (AF)) via an Internet Protocol (IP) interface 525. Generally, the application server 530 may be an element offering applications that use IP bearer resources with the core network (e.g., UMTS Packet Services (PS) domain, LTE PS data services, etc.). In this embodiment, the P-GW 523 is shown to be communicatively coupled to an application server 530 via an IP communications interface 525. The application server 530 can also be configured to support one or more communication services (e.g., Voice-over-Intemet Protocol (VoIP) sessions, PTT sessions, group communication sessions, social networking services, etc.) for the UEs 501 and 502 via the CN 520.

The P-GW 523 may further be anode for policy enforcement and charging data collection. Policy and Charging Enforcement Function (PCRF) 526 is the policy and charging control element of the CN 520. In a non-roaming scenario, there may be a single PCRF in the Home Public Land Mobile Network (HPLMN) associated with a UE’s Internet Protocol Connectivity Access Network (IP-CAN) session. In a roaming scenario with local breakout of traffic, there may be two PCRFs associated with a UE’s IP-CAN session: a Home PCRF (H-PCRF) within a HPLMN and a Visited PCRF (V-PCRF) within a Visited Public Land Mobile Network (VPLMN). The PCRF 526 may be communicatively coupled to the application server 530 via the P-GW 523. The application server 530 may signal the PCRF 526 to indicate a new service flow and select the appropriate Quality of Service (QoS) and charging parameters. The PCRF 526 may provision this rule into a Policy and Charging Enforcement Function (PCEF) (not shown) with the appropriate traffic flow template (TFT) and QoS class of identifier (QCI), which commences the QoS and charging as specified by the application server 530.

FIG. 6 illustrates example components of a device 600 in accordance with some embodiments. In some embodiments, the device 600 may include application circuitry 602, baseband circuitry 604, Radio Frequency (RF) circuitry 606, front-end module (FEM) circuitry 608, one or more antennas 610, and power management circuitry (PMC) 612 coupled together at least as shown. The components of the illustrated device 600 may be included in a UE or a RAN node. In some embodiments, the device 600 may include fewer elements (e.g., a RAN node may not utilize application circuitry 602, and instead include a processor/controller to process IP data received from an EPC). In some embodiments, the device 600 may include additional elements such as, for example, memory /storage, display, camera, sensor, or input/output (I/O) interface. In other embodiments, the components described below may be included in more than one device (e.g., said circuitries may be separately included in more than one device for Cloud-RAN (C- RAN) implementations).

The application circuitry 602 may include one or more application processors. For example, the application circuitry 602 may include circuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more single-core or multi-core processors. The processor(s) may include any combination of general-purpose processors and dedicated processors (e.g., graphics processors, application processors, etc.). The processors may be coupled with or may include memory /storage and may be configured to execute instructions stored in the memory /storage to enable various applications or operating systems to run on the device 600. In some embodiments, processors of application circuitry 602 may process IP data packets received from an EPC.

The baseband circuitry 604 may include circuitry such as, but not limited to, one or more single-core or multi-core processors. The baseband circuitry 604 may include one or more baseband processors or control logic to process baseband signals received from a receive signal path of the RF circuitry 606 and to generate baseband signals for a transmit signal path of the RF circuitry 606. Baseband processing circuitry 604 may interface with the application circuitry 602 for generation and processing of the baseband signals and for controlling operations of the RF circuitry 606. For example, in some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 604 may include a third generation (3G) baseband processor 604A, a fourth generation (4G) baseband processor 604B, a fifth generation (5G) baseband processor 604C, or other baseband processor(s) 604D for other existing generations, generations in development or to be developed in the future (e.g., second generation (2G), sixth generation (6G), etc.). The baseband circuitry 604 (e.g., one or more of baseband processors 604A-D) may handle various radio control functions that enable communication with one or more radio networks via the RF circuitry 606. In other embodiments, some or all of the functionality of baseband processors 604A-D may be included in modules stored in the memory 604G and executed via a Central Processing Unit (CPU) 604E. The radio control functions may include, but are not limited to, signal modulation/demodulation, encoding/decoding, radio frequency shifting, etc. In some embodiments, modulation/demodulation circuitry of the baseband circuitry 604 may include Fast-Fourier Transform (FFT), precoding, or constellation mapping/demapping functionality. In some embodiments, encoding/decoding circuitry of the baseband circuitry 604 may include convolution, tail-biting convolution, turbo, Viterbi, or Low Density Parity Check (LDPC) encoder/decoder functionality. Embodiments of modulation/demodulation and encoder/decoder functionality are not limited to these examples and may include other suitable functionality in other embodiments.

In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 604 may include one or more audio digital signal processor(s) (DSP) 604F. The audio DSP(s) 604F may be include elements for compression/decompression and echo cancellation and may include other suitable processing elements in other embodiments. Components of the baseband circuitry may be suitably combined in a single chip, a single chipset, or disposed on a same circuit board in some embodiments. In some embodiments, some or all of the constituent components of the baseband circuitry 604 and the application circuitry 602 may be implemented together such as, for example, on a system on a chip (SOC).

In some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 604 may provide for communication compatible with one or more radio technologies. For example, in some embodiments, the baseband circuitry 604 may support communication with an evolved universal terrestrial radio access network (EUTRAN) or other wireless metropolitan area networks (WMAN), a wireless local area network (WLAN), a wireless personal area network (WPAN). Embodiments in which the baseband circuitry 604 is configured to support radio communications of more than one wireless protocol may be referred to as multi-mode baseband circuitry.

RF circuitry 606 may enable communication with wireless networks using modulated electromagnetic radiation through a non-solid medium. In various embodiments, the RF circuitry 606 may include switches, filters, amplifiers, etc. to facilitate the communication with the wireless network. RF circuitry 606 may include a receive signal path which may include circuitry to down- convert RF signals received from the FEM circuitry 608 and provide baseband signals to the baseband circuitry 604. RF circuitry 606 may also include a transmit signal path which may include circuitry to up-convert baseband signals provided by the baseband circuitry 604 and provide RF output signals to the FEM circuitry 608 for transmission.

In some embodiments, the receive signal path of the RF circuitry 606 may include mixer circuitry 606a, amplifier circuitry 606b and filter circuitry 606c. In some embodiments, the transmit signal path of the RF circuitry 606 may include filter circuitry 606c and mixer circuitry 606a. RF circuitry 606 may also include synthesizer circuitry 606d for synthesizing a frequency for use by the mixer circuitry 606a of the receive signal path and the transmit signal path. In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 606a of the receive signal path may be configured to down- convert RF signals received from the FEM circuitry 608 based on the synthesized frequency provided by synthesizer circuitry 606d. The amplifier circuitry 606b may be configured to amplify the down-converted signals and the filter circuitry 606c may be a low-pass filter (LPF) or band pass filter (BPF) configured to remove unwanted signals from the down-converted signals to generate output baseband signals. Output baseband signals may be provided to the baseband circuitry 604 for further processing. In some embodiments, the output baseband signals may be zero-frequency baseband signals, although this is not a requirement. In some embodiments, mixer circuitry 606a of the receive signal path may comprise passive mixers, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.

In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 606a of the transmit signal path may be configured to up-convert input baseband signals based on the synthesized frequency provided by the synthesizer circuitry 606d to generate RF output signals for the FEM circuitry 608. The baseband signals may be provided by the baseband circuitry 604 and may be filtered by filter circuitry 606c.

In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 606a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 606a of the transmit signal path may include two or more mixers and may be arranged for quadrature downconversion and upconversion, respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 606a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 606a of the transmit signal path may include two or more mixers and may be arranged for image rejection (e.g., Hartley image rejection). In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 606a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 606a of the transmit signal path may be arranged for direct downconversion and direct upconversion, respectively. In some embodiments, the mixer circuitry 606a of the receive signal path and the mixer circuitry 606a of the transmit signal path may be configured for super heterodyne operation.

In some embodiments, the output baseband signals and the input baseband signals may be analog baseband signals, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect. In some alternate embodiments, the output baseband signals and the input baseband signals may be digital baseband signals. In these alternate embodiments, the RF circuitry 606 may include analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and digital-to-analog converter (DAC) circuitry and the baseband circuitry 604 may include a digital baseband interface to communicate with the RF circuitry 606.

In some dual-mode embodiments, a separate radio IC circuitry may be provided for processing signals for each spectrum, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect.

In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuitry 606d may be a fractional-N synthesizer or a fractional N/N+l synthesizer, although the scope of the embodiments is not limited in this respect as other types of frequency synthesizers may be suitable. For example, synthesizer circuitry 606d may be a delta-sigma synthesizer, a frequency multiplier, or a synthesizer comprising a phase-locked loop with a frequency divider.

The synthesizer circuitry 606d may be configured to synthesize an output frequency for use by the mixer circuitry 606a of the RF circuitry 606 based on a frequency input and a divider control input. In some embodiments, the synthesizer circuitry 606d may be a fractional N/N+l synthesizer.

In some embodiments, frequency input may be provided by a voltage controlled oscillator (VCO), although that is not a requirement. Divider control input may be provided by either the baseband circuitry 604 or the applications processor 602 depending on the desired output frequency. In some embodiments, a divider control input (e.g., N) may be determined from a look-up table based on a channel indicated by the applications processor 602.

Synthesizer circuitry 606d of the RF circuitry 606 may include a divider, a delay-locked loop (DLL), a multiplexer and a phase accumulator. In some embodiments, the divider may be a dual modulus divider (DMD) and the phase accumulator may be a digital phase accumulator (DP A). In some embodiments, the DMD may be configured to divide the input signal by either N or N+l (e.g., based on a carry out) to provide a fractional division ratio. In some example embodiments, the DLL may include a set of cascaded, tunable, delay elements, a phase detector, a charge pump and a D-type flip-flop. In these embodiments, the delay elements may be configured to break a VCO period up into Nd equal packets of phase, where Nd is the number of delay elements in the delay line. In this way, the DLL provides negative feedback to help ensure that the total delay through the delay line is one VCO cycle.

In some embodiments, synthesizer circuitry 606d may be configured to generate a carrier frequency as the output frequency, while in other embodiments, the output frequency may be a multiple of the carrier frequency (e.g., twice the carrier frequency, four times the carrier frequency) and used in conjunction with quadrature generator and divider circuitry to generate multiple signals at the carrier frequency with multiple different phases with respect to each other. In some embodiments, the output frequency may be a LO frequency (fLO). In some embodiments, the RF circuitry 606 may include an IQ/polar converter.

FEM circuitry 608 may include a receive signal path, which may include circuitry configured to operate on RF signals received from one or more antennas 610, amplify the received signals and provide the amplified versions of the received signals to the RF circuitry 606 for further processing. FEM circuitry 608 may also include a transmit signal path, which may include circuitry configured to amplify signals for transmission provided by the RF circuitry 606 for transmission by one or more of the one or more antennas 610. In various embodiments, the amplification through the transmit or receive signal paths may be done solely in the RF circuitry 606, solely in the FEM 608, or in both the RF circuitry 606 and the FEM 608.

In some embodiments, the FEM circuitry 608 may include a TX/RX switch to switch between transmit mode and receive mode operation. The FEM circuitry 608 may include a receive signal path and a transmit signal path. The receive signal path of the FEM circuitry 608 may include a low noise amplifier (LNA) to amplify received RF signals and provide the amplified received RF signals as an output (e.g., to the RF circuitry 606). The transmit signal path of the FEM circuitry 608 may include a power amplifier (PA) to amplify input RF signals (e.g., provided by RF circuitry 606), and one or more filters to generate RF signals for subsequent transmission (e.g., by one or more of the one or more antennas 610).

In some embodiments, the PMC 612 may manage power provided to the baseband circuitry 604. In particular, the PMC 612 may control power-source selection, voltage scaling, battery charging, or DC-to-DC conversion. The PMC 612 may often be included when the device 600 is capable of being powered by a battery, for example, when the device is included in a UE. The PMC 612 may increase the power conversion efficiency while providing desirable implementation size and heat dissipation characteristics.

FIG. 6 shows the PMC 612 coupled only with the baseband circuitry 604. However, in other embodiments, the PMC 612 may be additionally or alternatively coupled with, and perform similar power management operations for, other components such as, but not limited to, application circuitry 602, RF circuitry 606, or FEM 608.

In some embodiments, the PMC 612 may control, or otherwise be part of, various power saving mechanisms of the device 600. For example, if the device 600 is in an RRC_Connected state, where it is still connected to the RAN node as it expects to receive traffic shortly, then it may enter a state known as Discontinuous Reception Mode (DRX) after a period of inactivity. During this state, the device 600 may power down for brief intervals of time and thus save power.

If there is no data traffic activity for an extended period of time, then the device 600 may transition off to an RRC Idle state, where it disconnects from the network and does not perform operations such as channel quality feedback, handover, etc. The device 600 goes into a very low power state and it performs paging where again it periodically wakes up to listen to the network and then powers down again. The device 600 may not receive data in this state, in order to receive data, it must transition back to RRC Connected state.

An additional power saving mode may allow a device to be unavailable to the network for periods longer than a paging interval (ranging from seconds to a few hours). During this time, the device is totally unreachable to the network and may power down completely. Any data sent during this time incurs a large delay and it is assumed the delay is acceptable.

Processors of the application circuitry 602 and processors of the baseband circuitry 604 may be used to execute elements of one or more instances of a protocol stack. For example, processors of the baseband circuitry 604, alone or in combination, may be used to execute Layer 3, Layer 2, or Layer 1 functionality, while processors of the application circuitry 602 may utilize data (e.g., packet data) received from these layers and further execute Layer 4 functionality (e.g., transmission communication protocol (TCP) and user datagram protocol (UDP) layers). As referred to herein, Layer 3 may comprise a radio resource control (RRC) layer, described in further detail below. As referred to herein, Layer 2 may comprise a medium access control (MAC) layer, a radio link control (RLC) layer, and a packet data convergence protocol (PDCP) layer, described in further detail below. As referred to herein, Layer 1 may comprise a physical (PHY) layer of a UE/RAN node, described in further detail below.

FIG. 7 illustrates example interfaces of baseband circuitry in accordance with some embodiments. As discussed above, the baseband circuitry 604 of FIG. 6 may comprise processors 604A-604E and a memory 604G utilized by said processors. Each of the processors 604A-604E may include a memory interface, 704A-704E, respectively, to send/receive data to/from the memory 604G.

The baseband circuitry 604 may further include one or more interfaces to communicatively couple to other circuitries/devices, such as a memory interface 712 (e.g., an interface to send/receive data to/from memory external to the baseband circuitry 604), an application circuitry interface 714 (e.g., an interface to send/receive data to/from the application circuitry 602 of FIG. 6), an RF circuitry interface 716 (e.g., an interface to send/receive data to/from RF circuitry 606 of FIG. 6), a wireless hardware connectivity interface 718 (e.g., an interface to send/receive data to/from Near Field Communication (NFC) components, Bluetooth® components (e.g., Bluetooth® Low Energy), Wi-Fi® components, and other communication components), and a power management interface 720 (e.g., an interface to send/receive power or control signals to/from the PMC 612.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram illustrating components, according to some example embodiments, able to read instructions from a machine-readable or computer-readable medium (e.g., a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium) and perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein. Specifically, FIG. 8 shows a diagrammatic representation of hardware resources 800 including one or more processors (or processor cores) 810, one or more memory /storage devices 820, and one or more communication resources 830, each of which may be communicatively coupled via a bus 840. For embodiments where node virtualization (e.g., NFV) is utilized, a hypervisor 802 may be executed to provide an execution environment for one or more network slices/sub-slices to utilize the hardware resources 800.

The processors 810 (e.g., a central processing unit (CPU), a reduced instruction set computing (RISC) processor, a complex instruction set computing (CISC) processor, a graphics processing unit (GPU), a digital signal processor (DSP) such as a baseband processor, an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a radio-frequency integrated circuit (RFIC), another processor, or any suitable combination thereof) may include, for example, a processor 812 and a processor 814.

The memory /storage devices 820 may include main memory, disk storage, or any suitable combination thereof. The memory /storage devices 820 may include, but are not limited to, any type of volatile or non-volatile memory such as dynamic random access memory (DRAM), static random-access memory (SRAM), erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM), Flash memory, solid-state storage, etc.

The communication resources 830 may include interconnection or network interface components or other suitable devices to communicate with one or more peripheral devices 804 or one or more databases 806 via a network 808. For example, the communication resources 830 may include wired communication components (e.g., for coupling via a Universal Serial Bus (USB)), cellular communication components, NFC components, Bluetooth® components (e.g., Bluetooth® Low Energy), Wi-Fi® components, and other communication components.

Instructions 850 may comprise software, a program, an application, an applet, an app, or other executable code for causing at least any of the processors 810 to perform any one or more of the methodologies discussed herein. The instructions 850 may reside, completely or partially, within at least one of the processors 810 (e.g., within the processor’s cache memory), the memory /storage devices 820, or any suitable combination thereof. Furthermore, any portion of the instructions 850 may be transferred to the hardware resources 800 from any combination of the peripheral devices 804 or the databases 806. Accordingly, the memory of processors 810, the memory /storage devices 820, the peripheral devices 804, and the databases 806 are examples of computer-readable and machine-readable media.

In various embodiments, the devices/components of Figures 5-8, and particularly the baseband circuitry of Figure 7, may be used to practice, in whole or in part, any of the operation flow/algorithmic structures depicted in Figures 1-3.

One example of an operation flow/algorithmic structure is depicted in FIG. 1, which may be performed by a user equipment (UE) in accordance with some embodiments. In this example, operation flow/algorithmic structure 100 may include, at 105, retrieving, from memory, information that includes an indication of a number of consecutive downlink subfames with positioning reference signals (PRSs). Operation flow/algorithmic structure 100 may further include, at 110, generating a message that includes the information. Operation flow/algorithmic structure 100 may further include, at 115, encoding the message for transmission.

Another example of an operation flow/algorithmic structure is depicted in FIG. 2, which may be performed by a next-generation NodeB (gNB) in accordance with some embodiments. In this example, operation flow/algorithmic structure 200 may include, at 205 receiving, from a user equipment (UE), a first message that includes an indication of a number of consecutive downlink subfames with positioning reference signals (PRSs). Operation flow/algorithmic structure 200 may further include, at 210, generating, based on the indication of the number of consecutive downlink subfames with PRSs, a second message that includes a measurement gap (MG) pattern. Operation flow/algorithmic structure 200 may further include, at 215, encoding the second message for transmission to the UE.

Another example of an operation flow/algorithmic structure is depicted in FIG. 3, which may be performed by a UE in accordance with some embodiments. In this example, operation flow/algorithmic structure 300 may include, at 305, generating a message that includes an indication of a number of consecutive downlink subfames with positioning reference signals (PRSs). Operation flow/algorithmic structure 300 may further include, at 310, encoding the message for transmission to a gNB.

Examples

Some non-limiting examples are provided below.

Example includes an apparatus of a user equipment (UE) comprising: memory to store information that includes an indication of a number of consecutive downlink subfames with positioning reference signals (PRSs); and processing circuitry, coupled with the memory, to: retrieve the information from the memory; generate a message that includes the information; and encode the message for transmission.

Example 2 includes the apparatus of example 1 or some other example herein, wherein the indication of the number of consecutive downlink subfames with PRSs is an enumerated value.

Example 3 includes the apparatus of example 2 or some other example herein, wherein the enumerated value is to indicate 1, 2, 4, or 6 consecutive downlink subframes.

Example 4 includes the apparatus of example 1 or some other example herein, wherein the indication of the number of consecutive downlink subfames with PRSs is an integer value.

Example 5 includes the apparatus of example 1 or some other example herein, wherein the integer value is to indicate 1-160 consecutive downlink subframes.

Example 6 includes the apparatus of any one of examples 1-5 or some other example herein, wherein the message is further to request a measurement gap (MG) for a reference signal time different (RSTD) measurement, and wherein the information is further to indicate a requested measurement gap offset for performing the RSTD measurement.

Example 7 includes the apparatus of example 6 or some other example herein, wherein the requested measurement gap offset has a granularity of less than 1 ms.

Example 8 includes the apparatus of example 6 or some other example herein, wherein the RSTD measurement is an intra-frequency RSTD measurement or an inter-frequency RSTD measurement.

Example 9 includes one or more computer-readable media storing instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause a next-generation NodeB (gNB) to: receive, from a user equipment (UE), a first message that includes an indication of a number of consecutive downlink subfames with positioning reference signals (PRSs); generate, based on the indication of the number of consecutive downlink subfames with PRSs, a second message that includes a measurement gap (MG) pattern; and encode the second message for transmission to the UE.

Example 10 includes the one or more computer-readable media of example 9 or some other example herein, wherein the indication of the number of consecutive downlink subfames with PRSs is an enumerated value that is to indicate 1, 2, 4, or 6 consecutive downlink subframes.

Example 11 includes the one or more computer-readable media of example 9 or some other example herein, wherein the indication of a number of consecutive downlink subfames with PRSs is an integer value that is to indicate 1-160 consecutive downlink subframes.

Example 12 includes the one or more computer-readable media of any one of examples 9- 11 or some other example herein, wherein the first message is further to request the MG for a reference signal time different (RSTD) measurement, and wherein the information is further to indicate a requested measurement gap offset for performing the RSTD measurement.

Example 13 includes the one or more computer-readable media of example 12 or some other example herein, wherein the requested measurement gap offset has a granularity of less than 1 ms.

Example 14 includes one or more computer-readable media storing instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, cause a user equipment (UE) to: generate a message that includes an indication of a number of consecutive downlink subfames with positioning reference signals (PRSs); and encode the message for transmission to a next-generation NodeB (gNB).

Example 15 includes the one or more computer-readable media of example 14 or some other example herein, wherein the indication of a number of consecutive downlink subfames with PRSs is an enumerated value.

Example 16 includes the one or more computer-readable media of example 15 or some other example herein, wherein the enumerated value is to indicate 1, 2, 4, or 6 consecutive downlink subframes.

Example 17 includes the one or more computer-readable media of example 14 or some other example herein, wherein the indication of a number of consecutive downlink subfames with PRSs is an integer value.

Example 18 includes the one or more computer-readable media of example 17 or some other example herein, wherein the integer value is to indicate 1-160 consecutive downlink subframes.

Example 19 includes the one or more computer-readable media of any one of examples 14-18 or some other example herein, wherein the message is further to request a measurement gap (MG) for a reference signal time different (RSTD) measurement, and wherein the information is further to indicate a requested measurement gap offset for performing the RSTD measurement.

Example 20 includes the one or more computer-readable media of example 14 or some other example herein, wherein the requested measurement gap offset has a granularity of less than 1 ms. Example 21 may include an apparatus comprising means to perform one or more elements of a method described in or related to any of examples 1-20, or any other method or process described herein.

Example 22 may include one or more non-transitory computer-readable media comprising instructions to cause an electronic device, upon execution of the instructions by one or more processors of the electronic device, to perform one or more elements of a method described in or related to any of examples 1-20, or any other method or process described herein.

Example 23 may include an apparatus comprising logic, modules, and/or circuitry to perform one or more elements of a method described in or related to any of examples 1-20, or any other method or process described herein.

Example 24 may include a method, technique, or process as described in or related to any of examples 1-20, or portions or parts thereof.

Example 25 may include an apparatus comprising: one or more processors and one or more computer-readable media comprising instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform the method, techniques, or process as described in or related to any of examples 1-20, or portions thereof.

Example 26 may include a method of communicating in a wireless network as shown and described herein.

Example 27 may include a system for providing wireless communication as shown and described herein.

Example 28 may include a device for providing wireless communication as shown and described herein.

The description herein of illustrated implementations, including what is described in the Abstract, is not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the present disclosure to the precise forms disclosed. While specific implementations and examples are described herein for illustrative purposes, a variety of alternate or equivalent embodiments or implementations calculated to achieve the same purposes may be made in light of the above detailed description, without departing from the scope of the present disclosure.