Methods for enhancing positioning measurements with multi-antenna transmission schemes

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9894634-B2
Application number	US-201314378153-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 16, 2013
Priority date	Aug 21, 2013
Publication date	Feb 13, 2018
Grant date	Feb 13, 2018

Abstract

A method in a wireless device may support positioning with different antenna transmission schemes. An antenna transmission scheme used by at least one cell on whose radio signals the wireless device performs a positioning measurement may be determined. A measurement procedure may be adapted to compensate for potential measurement error associated with the antenna transmission scheme. Related methods in positioning servers and radio network nodes are also discussed.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method in a wireless device to support positioning with different antenna transmission schemes, the method comprising:
determining, by the wireless device, an antenna transmission scheme used by at least one cell, wherein the wireless device performs a positioning measurement on radio signals of the at least one cell, wherein determining the antenna transmission scheme comprises determining whether more than one transmit antenna is used by one cell of the at least one cell to transmit the radio signals; and
adapting, by the wireless device, a measurement procedure to compensate for potential measurement error associated with the antenna transmission scheme based on determining whether more than one transmit antenna is used by the one cell to transmit the radio signals;
wherein adapting the measurement procedure comprises reporting measurement results to a network node or a second wireless device and informing the network node or the second wireless device of a type of adaptation applied to a positioning measurement.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the radio signals comprise periodically transmitted positioning reference signals (PRS).

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein adapting the measurement procedure comprises at least one of: applying compensation to a positioning measurement, combining two or more samples or measurement components to be used for a positioning measurement, and signaling information associated with the determined antenna transmission scheme to a network node.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the antenna transmission scheme comprises determining the antenna transmission scheme based on signaling received from a network node or from a second wireless device.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
communicating to a network node or a second wireless device an indication of an ability of the wireless device to deal with one or more of: a capability of performing positioning measurements on cells with different antenna transmission schemes or specific antenna transmission schemes, a capability of performing positioning measurements on cells with different transmission time characteristics or specific transmission time characteristics due to a difference in transmission times between different transmit antennas, a capability of autonomously determining an antenna transmission scheme used in a cell, and a capability of applying a compensation or adaptation to compensate an error in a positioning measurement performed on a cell using a certain antenna transmission scheme.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
calculating potential measurement error associated with the antenna transmission scheme that was determined.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining whether to adapt the measurement procedure based on any one or more of radio conditions, wireless device speed, perceived measurement accuracy, transmission bandwidth, pre-defined rules, explicit indication received from a network node, and/or a degree of proximity and/or distance to a node or an antenna transmitting the radio signals used to perform the positioning measurement;
wherein adapting the measurement procedure comprises conditionally adapting the measurement procedure responsive to determining to adapt the measurement procedure.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein adapting the measurement procedure comprises adapting a positioning measurement to meet at least one pre-defined positioning measurement requirements associated with the antenna transmission schemes.

9. The method of claim 1 , comprising determining the antenna transmission scheme based on one or more of: signaling received from a network node indicating an antenna transmission scheme of one or more transmit nodes transmitting radio signals measured for positioning, signaling received from a network node indicating that antenna transmission schemes of two or more transmitting nodes are a same antenna transmission scheme or different antenna transmission schemes, an indication of a transmission time difference between different antennas of a multi-antenna system, an autonomous determination based on a delay spread of radio signals, an autonomous determination based on a number of strong correlation peaks indicating more than one signal arriving at different times, an association with an antenna transmission scheme used for radio signals, an implicit determination based on a pre-defined rule, and an implicit determination based on historical data.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the antenna transmission scheme comprises a transmission time characteristic.

11. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:
communicating to a network node or a second wireless device at least one of: whether any type of adaptation in measurement procedure is applied to a positioning measurement, whether compensation has been applied, whether a measurement has taken into account the antenna transmission scheme used in the cell on whose signal the positioning measurement is done by the wireless device, and an amount of compensation applied to a reported positioning measurement.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the antenna transmission scheme comprises a multiple antenna transmission scheme.

13. The method of claim 12 wherein the multiple antenna transmission scheme comprises at least one of a Multiple Input Multiple Output (MIMO) transmission scheme, a transmit diversity transmission scheme, and a transmit beamforming transmission scheme.

14. A method in a positioning server supporting positioning when different antenna transmission schemes can be used, the method comprising:
determining, by the position server, a multiple antenna transmission scheme of a radio network node, where the multiple antenna transmission scheme is applied by the radio network node to transmit radio signals to be used for positioning; and
using, by the position server, the determined multiple antenna transmission scheme to perform positioning computations and/or configure positioning measurements, wherein using the determined multiple antenna transmission scheme comprises receiving a wireless device capability related to support for multiple antenna transmission schemes for positioning and processing measurements received from a wireless device based on the wireless device capability;
wherein using the determined multiple antenna transmission scheme to perform positioning computations and/or to configure positioning measurements comprises receiving measurement results from the wireless device and receiving a type of adaptation applied to a positioning measurement by the wireless device.

15. The method of claim 14 wherein using the determined multiple antenna transmission scheme to perform positioning computations comprises signaling the determined multiple antenna transmission scheme to a wireless device and/or a network node.

16. The method of claim 14 further comprising:
receiving wireless device capability related to wireless device support of multiple antenna transmission schemes for positioning and/or receiving a multiple antenna transmission scheme configuration from a network node or a wireless device, and
adapting positioning assistance data based on the received wireless device capability.

17. The method of claim 14 , wherein using the determined multiple antenna transmission scheme to perform positioning computations comprises adapting positioning assistance data.

18. The method of claim 17 wherein the positioning assistance data comprises one or more of: a radio signal

Assignees

• Ericsson Telefon Ab L M

Inventors

• Siomina Iana
• Kazmi Muhammad

Classifications

• G01S5/26

  Position of receiver fixed by co-ordinating a plurality of position lines defined by path-difference measurements (G01S5/28 takes precedence) · CPC title

• H04W64/003 Primary

  locating network equipment · CPC title

• G01S5/0226 Primary

  Transmitters · CPC title