Calibrating beam orientation errors for improved positioning

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2022014949-A1
Application number	US-202117205202-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Mar 18, 2021
Priority date	Jul 8, 2020
Publication date	Jan 13, 2022
Grant date	—

Abstract

Systems, methods, apparatuses, and computer program products for calibrating beam orientation errors for improved positioning. For example, certain embodiments may utilize collection of various measurements to compute, and correct for, beam orientation errors. Additionally, or alternatively, certain embodiments may collect information about propagation conditions in a network and may establish virtual anchors for the network.

First claim

We claim:

1 . A method, comprising:
transmitting, by a user equipment to a serving network node, information that identifies a reference receiver capability of the user equipment; performing one or more measurements of one or more downlink beams from the serving network node or one or more other network nodes, wherein the one or more measurements comprise at least one of: one or more location-related measurements, one or more orientation-related measurements, one or more received signal strength measurements, one or more beam angle measurements, or one or more line-of-sight indications; and transmitting, to the serving network node, information that identifies the one or more measurements.

2 . The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:
transmitting, to the serving network node in association with the information that identifies the reference receiver capability, additional information that identifies at least one of:
whether the user equipment has acquired a position estimate of the user equipment within a threshold amount of time,
whether the user equipment is travelling at a speed that satisfies a threshold, or
whether the user equipment has been assigned to be a reference receiver within another threshold amount of time.

3 . The method according to claim 1 , wherein the information that identifies the reference receiver capability identifies at least one of:
an accuracy of the reference receiver capability, or a quality of the reference receiver capability.

4 . The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving an indication that the user equipment has been assigned to be a reference receiver.

5 . The method according to claim 4 , wherein the indication comprises information that identifies at least one of:
the one or more measurements to be performed by the user equipment, or a rate at which the user equipment is to perform the one or more measurements.

6 . A method, comprising:
receiving, by a network node, information that identifies a reference receiver capability of a user equipment; determining, based on the information that identifies the reference receiver capability, to assign the user equipment to be a reference receiver; and transmitting, to the user equipment or to another network node, an indication that the user equipment has been assigned to be the reference receiver.

7 . The method according to claim 6 , wherein the information that identifies the reference receiver capability identifies at least one of:
an accuracy of the reference receiver capability, or a quality of the reference receiver capability.

8 . The method according to claim 6 , further comprising:
receiving, in association with the information that identifies the reference receiver capability, additional information that identifies at least one of:
whether the user equipment has acquired a position estimate of the user equipment within a threshold amount of time,
whether the user equipment is travelling at a speed that satisfies a threshold, or
whether the user equipment has been assigned to be a reference receiver within another threshold amount of time; and
wherein determining to assign the user equipment further comprises: determining to assign the user equipment based on the additional information.

9 . The method according to claim 6 , wherein the indication comprises information that identifies at least one of:
one or more measurements to be performed by the user equipment, or a rate at which the user equipment is to perform the one or more measurements.

10 . The method according to claim 6 , further comprising:
determining to assign the user equipment based on determining at least one of:
that one or more other user equipment associated with the network node are associated with position estimates below a threshold quality and at a rate that satisfies a threshold, or ping-pong handovers at a rate that satisfies another threshold, wherein the one or more other user equipment are served by a same serving beam as the user equipment,
determining that an update to a reference signal configuration has occurred, or
that the network node needs to perform a virtual anchor determination for a serving beam of the user equipment.

11 . The method according to claim 6 , further comprising:
receiving, from the other network node, information that identifies one or more corrections for one or more other user equipment based on one or more orientation errors.

12 . The method according to claim 11 , further comprising:
correcting one or more beam orientations based on the one or more corrections.

13 . The method according to claim 11 , further comprising:
updating a configuration associated with one or more downlink beams based on the information that identifies the one or more corrections.

14 . A method, comprising:
receiving, by a network node, an indication that a user equipment has been assigned to be a reference receiver; receiving information that identifies one or more measurements of one or more downlink beams to the user equipment, wherein the one or more measurements comprise at least one of: one or more location-related measurements, one or more orientation-related measurements, one or more received signal strength measurements, one or more beam angle measurements, or one or more line-of-sight indications; determining one or more beam orientation errors at one or more other network nodes based on the information; and determining one or more corrections for one or more other user equipment based on the one or more beam orientation errors.

15 . The method according to claim 14 , further comprising:
transmitting, to a serving network node or the one or more other network nodes, information that identifies the one or more corrections.

16 . The method according to claim 15 , further comprising:
transmitting, to the serving network node or the one or more other network nodes, an update to a configuration of one or more downlink beams based on the information that identifies the one or more corrections.

17 . The method according to claim 14 , wherein the one or more corrections are associated with correcting location estimation by the one or more other user equipment.

18 . The method according to claim 14 , further comprising:
generating a propagation map based on the information that identifies the one or more measurements; and utilizing the propagation map for one or more radio resource management functions.

19 . The method according to claim 14 , further comprising:
receiving information that identifies a reference receiver capability of the user equipment.

20 . The method according to claim 17 , further comprising:
determining, based on the information that identifies the reference receiver capability, to assign the user equipment to be the reference receiver.

Assignees

• Nokia Technologies Oy

Inventors

• Barbu Oana-Elena
• Keating Ryan

Classifications

• G01S1/08

  Systems for determining direction or position line · CPC title

• G01S5/0009

  Transmission of position information to remote stations (involving assistance data G01S5/0236) · CPC title

• G01S5/021

  Calibration, monitoring or correction (G01S5/0252 takes precedence) · CPC title

• H04B17/27

  for locating or positioning the transmitter · CPC title

• G01S3/023

  Monitoring or calibrating · CPC title