WO2025160982A1

WO2025160982A1 - Wireless sensing in wireless communication networks

Info

Publication number: WO2025160982A1
Application number: PCT/CN2024/075606
Authority: WO
Inventors: Mengzhen LI; Chuangxin JIANG; Zhiqiang Han; Cong Wang; Junchen Liu; Qi Yang; Junpeng LOU
Original assignee: ZTE Corp
Current assignee: ZTE Corp
Priority date: 2024-02-02
Filing date: 2024-02-02
Publication date: 2025-08-07
Anticipated expiration: 2026-08-02

Abstract

Presented are systems and methods for sensing enhancement. A first node may receive assistance data for a sensing reference signal for Integrated Sensing and Communication (ISAC) from a second node. The first node may receive a sensing Reference Signal (RS) based on the assistance data from a third node. The first node may report a sensing measurement based on the received sensing RS to the second node.

Description

WIRELESS SENSING IN WIRELESS COMMUNICATION NETWORKS

TECHNICAL FIELD

The disclosure relates generally to wireless sensing and, more particularly, to sensing measurements.

BACKGROUND

Mobile communication systems can provide increasingly powerful communication capabilities, including wireless sensing. Compared with two independent systems, the integrated design of communication and sensing can reduce costs, reduce power consumption, and optimize resource utilization. Integrated Sensing and Communication (ISAC) achieves unified design of communications and sensing control functions through signal joint design and/or hardware sharing. Sensing in ISAC can be understood as a wireless sensing technology based on mobile communication systems. A mobile communication system can send wireless signals and analyzes the reflected waves or scattered waves of the wireless signals to obtain corresponding sensing measurement data.

SUMMARY

The example arrangements disclosed herein are directed to solving the issues relating to one or more of the problems presented in the prior art, as well as providing additional features that will become readily apparent by reference to the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the accompany drawings. In accordance with various arrangements, example systems, methods, devices and computer program products are disclosed herein. It is understood, however, that these arrangements are presented by way of example and are not limiting, and it will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art who read the present disclosure that various modifications to the disclosed arrangements can be made while remaining within the scope of this disclosure.

At least one aspect is directed to a system, method, apparatus, or a computer-readable medium of the following. A first node (e.g., a reception (Rx) node) may receive assistance data for a sensing reference signal for Integrated Sensing and Communication (ISAC) from a second node. The first node may receive a sensing Reference Signal (RS) based on the assistance data from a third node. The first node may report a sensing measurement based on the received sensing RS to the second node. In some embodiments, the third node can be a transmission (Tx) node of sensing RS. The second node can be acting like a server to manage the procedure of sensing (e.g., choose sensing node, provide assistance data for reception (Rx) node, suggest sensing RS characteristics for Tx node, decide on the sensing mode, determine a sensing estimate for a sensing target or a sensing area) .

In some embodiments, the first node can be a base station, the second node can be a server node, and the third node can be the first node. In some embodiments, the first node can be a base station, the second node can be a server node, and the third node can be a base station different from the first node and the second node. In some embodiments, the first node can be a wireless communication device, the second node can be a server node, and the third node can be the first node. In some embodiments, the first node can be a first wireless communication device, the second node can be a server node, and the third node can be a second wireless communication device different from the first wireless communication device. In some embodiments, the first node can be a wireless communication device, the second node can be a server node, and the third node can be a base station. In some embodiments, the first node can be a base station, the second node can be a server node, and the third node can be a wireless communication device. In some embodiments, the server node may comprise a core network node, a base station, or a wireless communication device.

In some embodiments, a gap period can be between a first time-domain resource for sensing and a second time-domain resource for positioning or for communication. The first node or the second node may refrain from transmitting or receiving in the gap period (e.g., the gap period is muted) . In some embodiments, the gap period may have a length of a time-domain resource unit (e.g., a symbol) or a part of a plurality of parts (e.g., N) of a time-domain resource unit.

In some embodiments, the first node or the third node may receive assistance information for potential interference from the second node via a higher layer parameter. A base station of the third node may receive the assistance information for potential interference from the second node via the higher layer parameter. The third node, the second node, or the base station of the third node may determine sensing RS configuration based on the potential interference information. The assistance information for the potential interference may comprise at least one of: an expected length of a Cyclic Prefix (CP) ; a type of CP; an expected length of the gap period; a number a plurality of parts of a time-domain resource unit, the gap period comprises one of the plurality of parts; an indication of whether the CP is to be extended; an expected sensing distance information and an uncertainty thereof; an expected sensing propagation delay and an uncertainty thereof; or a maximum delay spread or a maximum delay difference between paths between the first node and the third node. In some embodiments, the potential interference information can be associated with at least one of: sensing Reference Signal (RS) resource information, a sensing RS resource set information, a Sensing Frequency Layer (SFL) , a sensing node Identifier (ID) , a spatial direction information, a sensing target, or a sensing area. For example, the sensing Reference Signal (RS) resource information can be a resource ID, or a specific parameter of resource (e.g., beam ID) .

In some embodiments, the third node may send potential interference information to the first node. The potential interference information may comprise at least one of: sensing RS resource information, sensing RS resource set information, a time location or a time span, a frequency location, or a frequency span.

In some embodiments, a Long Cyclic Prefix (LCP) can be applied to a time-domain resource. In some embodiments, the time-domain resource may comprise at least one sensing Reference Signal (RS) resource; and at least one of: the LCP can be applied to each of the at least one sensing RS resource; the LCP can be applied to each sensing RS resource set comprising two or more of the at least one sensing RS resource; the LCP can be applied to each Positioning Frequency Layer (PFL) or Sensing Frequency Layer (SFL) of the at least one sensing RS resource; the LCP can be applied to the first node or the third node; the length of LCP can be determined by a base station of the first node or the third node; the length of LCP can be determined by the second node; or the length of LCP is determined by the first node or the third node.

In some embodiments, the length of LCP or the type of CP can be requested by a sensing node or the second node. A third time-domain (e.g., slot, subframe, or frame) resource may comprise a first time-domain resource having a Cyclic Prefix (CP) and a second time-domain resource comprising the LCP, wherein the LCP has a length greater that of the CP. In some embodiments, a first time-domain resource unit for sensing may comprise a number of second time-domain resource units (e.g., N symbols) , and at least one of: a length of a Long Cyclic Prefix (LCP) equals to a number multiplied by a length of a Cyclic Prefix (CP) ; or a pattern of the sensing RS is repeated within the first time-domain unit.

In some embodiments, the first node may send a request to the second node or the third node for the assistance data. In some embodiments, the first node may receive the assistance data from the second node or the third node. In some embodiments, the third node may receive the assistance data from the second node. In some embodiments, the first node may send the assistance data to the second node or the third node or a base station. The assistance data may comprise one of: location information of the first node or the third node, wherein the location information may comprise at least one of a location coordinate, location quality, time information, or sensing node ID; velocity information of the first node or the third node, wherein the velocity information may comprise at least one of a velocity, velocity quality, time information, or sensing node ID; or for the first node, the third node, a sensing RS resource, a sensing RS resource set, a sensing area, or a sensing target, at least one of expected propagation delay, Doppler, angle, power, or velocity.

In some embodiments, the assistance data may comprise one of: a time-varying sensing RS configuration, the time-varying sensing RS configuration being valid within a time interval; assistance data being valid within an area; assistance data being valid within a time interval; assistance data being valid within a range or crossing a threshold of a Doppler shift or a velocity; assistance data being valid within a range or crossing a threshold of an angle; assistance data being valid within a range or crossing a threshold of a power; or assistance data being valid within a range or crossing a threshold of a propagation delay.

In some embodiments, the first node may receive a request for sensing measurement report comprising velocity information. In some embodiments, the sensing measurement request may request a periodical sensing measurement report or an one-shot report; the interval between receiving the request for the sensing measurement report and sending the sensing measurement report can be one of at least two interval, the at least two interval comprises a first interval and a second interval, the first interval being longer than the second interval, the first interval configured for the sensing report comprising velocity measurement or a Doppler measurement; or the request may comprise at least one of a request for velocity or Doppler, velocity or Doppler range, velocity or Doppler granularity, number of samples for the velocity or the Doppler, at least one Doppler measurements for each time measurement.

In some embodiments, the sensing measurement report may comprise at least one of: a time stamp for velocity measurement or Doppler measurement of a sensing object; a time window for velocity measurement or Doppler measurement of the sensing object; or a plurality of Doppler measurements per sensing node, per sensing RS resource, per sensing RS resource set, per time measurement, or per path. In some embodiments, the first node may report capabilities on the supporting features for sensing. The capabilities may comprise at least one of: whether Doppler measurement reporting is supported; whether velocity range or velocity resolution is supported for sensing measurement reporting; whether a plurality of Doppler measurements per timing measurement reporting is supported; whether velocity/doppler reporting granularity is supported; or whether N-sample reporting is supported.

In some embodiments, the first node may send indication to the second node indicating whether any sensing target is detected. The indication may comprise a 1-bit indicator indicating no sensing target is detected. The first node may send sensing measurements of each detected sensing target to the second node. The first node may refrain from providing any sensing measurement report or error cause report to the second node, and the second node determined that the first node detects no sensing target, that there is no abnormality around a sensing area, or that there is no change compared to a previous measurement report. The sensing measurement report may comprise at least one of: a Line-Of-Sight (LOS) indicator or a Non-Line-Of-Sight (NLOS) indicator for sensing; an LOS indicator or an NLOS indicator for positioning; an LOS or an NLOS category; an LOS or an NLOS granularity comprising at least one of: per sensing RS resource LOS or NLOS indicator, per sensing RS resource set LOS or NLOS indicator, per sensing node LOS or NLOS indicator, per path LOS or NLOS indicator; or an LOS or an NLOS type comprising at least one of a hard value or a soft value. In some embodiments, the sensing assistance data comprises at least one of: an expected Line-Of-Sight (LOS) or Non-Line-Of-Sight (NLOS) indicator; or a value range of an LOS or an NLOS indicator.

In some embodiments, the third node may report an association information between a Transmission (Tx) Error Group (TEG) information and the sensing RS configuration to the second node. The third node may report an association information between a Tx antenna information and the sensing RS configuration to the second node. The association information may comprise at least one or a list of a Tx TEG Identifier (ID) , a Tx Phase Error Group (PEG) ID, a Tx Angle Error Group (AEG) ID, a Tx Doppler Error Group (DEG) ID, a Reception (Rx) Antenna Reference Point (ARP) ID, a sensing RS resource ID, a sensing RS resource set ID, ID of the third node, or time information. In some embodiments, the sensing measurement report can be associated with an error group information or an antenna information. The information may comprise at least one of: a Reception (Rx) error group information; an Rx antenna information; an RxTx error group information; an RxTx antenna information; a Tx error group information; or a Tx antenna information.

In some embodiments, the first node may receive a request for reporting a Reception (Rx) error group information or an Rx antenna information with the sensing measurement from the second node. The request may comprise at least one of: an error group information or an antenna information associated with measurements of at least one path; or a plurality of sensing measurements associated with different error group information or antenna information for a sensing RS resource.

In some embodiments, the assistance data received by the first node from the second node may comprise at least one of indicator of whether round-trip method is required, sensing node ID, indicator of whether the sensing node is an initiator to initiate the round-trip procedure, ID of the initiator sensing node, bandwidth of sensing RS, a time delay budget, a time window, a Transmission (Tx) beam range, a Rx beam range. The first node may transmit a sensing RS to the third node wherein the Tx spatial direction is associated with the Reception (Rx) beam direction for receiving third node’s sensing RS.

In some embodiments, the first node the first node or the third node may receive at least one time window for sending the sensing signal from the second node or from a base station. The first node or the third node may receive at least one time window for receiving the sensing signal from the second node or from a base station. The parameters for the time window may comprise at least one of an indication of whether the time window is used for sensing RS transmission, indication of whether the time window is used for sensing RS measurement, start time of the time window, duration, periodicity, window Identifier (ID) , or priority. The time window can be associated with at least one of a sensing node ID, an Sensing Reference Unit (SRU) ID, a sensing RS resource ID, a sensing RS resource set ID, a sensing frequency layer, a sensing target, or a sensing area. The time window can be activated or be de-activated.

In some embodiments, the first node may receive an association information between sensing RS and a second RS. The association information may comprise at least one of sensing RS association configuration Identifier (ID) , sensing node ID, sensing target, sensing area, sensing RS resource ID, sensing RS resource set ID, sensing RS frequency layer ID, sensing RS carrier ID, sensing RS BWP ID, second RS resource type, second RS resource ID, second RS resource set ID, second RS frequency layer ID, second RS carrier ID, or second RS Bandwidth Part (BWP) ID. The sensing RS can be measured in combination with a second Reference Signal (RS) . The sensing measurement report may further comprise at least one of: whether the reported sensing measurement is generated via joint processing sensing RS and a second RS, a type of the second RS (e.g., PTRS, DMRS, CSI-RS, PRS, SRS) , a second RS resource Identifier (ID) , a second RS resource set ID, a second RS frequency layer ID, a second RS carrier ID, a second RS Bandwidth Part (BWP) ID, or a sensing RS association configuration ID.

In some embodiments, the sensing RS can be measured in combination with the second RS in response to determining at least one of: the sensing RS and a second RS is transmitted by a same sensing node; the sensing RS and the second RS is transmitted from a same antenna; the sensing RS and the second RS have a same spatial information; the sensing RS and the second RS have a same error group information; the sensing RS and the second RS have a same power; the sensing RS and the second RS have a same timing advance information; or the sensing RS and the second RS have a same periodicity. The parameters for the second RS configuration may comprise at least one of type indicator (e.g., whether the RS A can be used for sensing) , whether the second RS is transmitted without communication data, time density, number of ports or maximum number of ports, frequency density, frequency bandwidth (e.g., 1 PRB) , resource element offset, power or power ratio or Energy Per Resource Element (EPRE) ratio, resource ID of the second RS, resource set ID of the second RS, or sensing RS association configuration ID. In some embodiments, Downlink Control Information (DCI) can be used for scheduling the second RS. The DCI may comprise at least one of: at least one sensing RS association field; an indicator of whether the DCI is used for scheduling RS A only; an indicator of whether the DCI is used for scheduling communication data; or an indicator of whether DCI is used for scheduling both RS A and communication data.

In some embodiments, the first node may receive a request for preferred or expected sensing measurement time or non-preferred or non-expected sensing measurement time from the second node. The first node may send, to the second node, at least one of: one or more preferred or expected sensing measurement times or time windows; or one or more non-preferred or non-expected sensing measurement times or time windows. In some embodiments, the second node or the third node may receive, from the first network, at least one of: one or more preferred or expected sensing measurement times or time windows; or one or more non-preferred or non-expected sensing measurement times or time windows. The one or more preferred or expected sensing measurement times or time windows can be associated with a sensing RS resource configuration. The one or more non-preferred or non-expected sensing measurement times or time windows can be associated with the sensing RS resource configuration. The one or more preferred or expected sensing measurement times or time windows can be associated with a sensing RS resource set configuration. The one or more non-preferred or non-expected sensing measurement times or time windows can be associated with the sensing RS resource set configuration. The one or more preferred or expected sensing measurement times or time windows can be associated with a sensing RS frequency layer configuration. The one or more non-preferred or non-expected sensing measurement times or time windows can be associated with the sensing RS frequency layer configuration. The one or more preferred or expected sensing measurement times or time windows can be associated with the first node. The one or more non-preferred or non-expected sensing measurement times or time windows can be associated with the first node. In some embodiments, the second node may receive a request for preferred or expected sensing transmission time or non-preferred or non-expected sensing transmission time from the third node. The second node may send, to the third node, at least one of: one or more preferred or expected sensing transmission times or time windows; or one or more non-preferred or non-expected sensing transmission times or time windows.

In some embodiments, a first wireless communication device may report capabilities on supporting SL positioning to a network node or a second wireless communication device. The capabilities may comprise at least one of: support up to a number of parallel SL PRS transmissions; or support a maximum number of slots for SL PRS transmission. In some embodiments, there can be an association relationship between the maximum number of slots for SL PRS transmission and the maximum number of parallel SL PRS transmissions for either SL PRS resource allocation mode or SL PRS resource allocation mode 2.

The above and other aspects and their implementations are described in greater detail in the drawings, the descriptions, and the claims.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Various example arrangements of the present solution are described in detail below with reference to the following figures or drawings. The drawings are provided for purposes of illustration only and merely depict example arrangements of the present solution to facilitate the reader’s understanding of the present solution. Therefore, the drawings should not be considered limiting of the breadth, scope, or applicability of the present solution. It should be noted that for clarity and ease of illustration, these drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale.

FIG. 1 illustrates an example cellular communication network in which techniques disclosed herein may be implemented, in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 2 illustrates a block diagram of an example base station and a user equipment device, in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 3 illustrates an example cellular communication network in which techniques disclosed herein may be implemented, in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 4 illustrates an example gNB mono-static sensing and gNB bi-static sensing, in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 5 illustrates an example transmission pattern for sensing enhancement, in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 6 illustrates an example transmission pattern for sensing enhancement, in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 7 illustrates an example cellular communication network in which techniques disclosed herein may be implemented, in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 8 illustrates an example transmission pattern for sensing enhancement, in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 9 illustrates an example transmission pattern for sensing enhancement, in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 10 illustrates an example transmission pattern for sensing enhancement, in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 11 illustrates an example transmission pattern for sensing enhancement, in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 12 illustrates an example cellular communication network in which techniques disclosed herein may be implemented, in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 13 illustrates an example cellular communication network in which techniques disclosed herein may be implemented, in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure;

FIG. 14 illustrates an example transmission pattern for sensing enhancement, in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure; and

FIG. 15 illustrates a flow diagram of an example method for sensing enhancement, in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

A. Mobile Communication Technology and Environment

FIG. 1 illustrates an example wireless communication network, and/or system, 100 in which techniques disclosed herein may be implemented, in accordance with an embodiment of the present disclosure. In the following discussion, the wireless communication network 100 may be any wireless network, such as a cellular network or a narrowband Internet of things (NB-IoT) network, and is herein referred to as “network 100. ” Such an example network 100 includes a base station 102 (hereinafter “BS 102” ; also referred to as wireless communication node) and a user equipment device 104 (hereinafter “UE 104” ; also referred to as wireless communication device) that can communicate with each other via a communication link 110 (e.g., a wireless communication channel) , and a cluster of cells 126, 130, 132, 134, 136, 138 and 140 overlaying a geographical area 101. In FIG. 1, the BS 102 and UE 104 are contained within a respective geographic boundary of cell 126. Each of the other cells 130, 132, 134, 136, 138 and 140 may include at least one base station operating at its allocated bandwidth to provide adequate radio coverage to its intended users.

For example, the BS 102 may operate at an allocated channel transmission bandwidth to provide adequate coverage to the UE 104. The BS 102 and the UE 104 may communicate via a downlink radio frame 118, and an uplink radio frame 124 respectively. Each radio frame 118/124 may be further divided into sub-frames 120/127 which may include data symbols 122/128. In the present disclosure, the BS 102 and UE 104 are described herein as non-limiting examples of “communication nodes, ” generally, which can practice the methods disclosed herein. Such communication nodes may be capable of wireless and/or wired communications, in accordance with various embodiments of the present solution.

FIG. 2 illustrates a block diagram of an example wireless communication system 200 for transmitting and receiving wireless communication signals (e.g., OFDM/OFDMA signals) in accordance with some embodiments of the present solution. The system 200 may include components and elements configured to support known or conventional operating features that need not be described in detail herein. In one illustrative embodiment, system 200 can be used to communicate (e.g., transmit and receive) data symbols in a wireless communication environment such as the wireless communication environment 100 of FIG. 1, as described above.

System 200 generally includes a base station 202 (hereinafter “BS 202” ) and a user equipment device 204 (hereinafter “UE 204” ) . The BS 202 includes a BS (base station) transceiver module 210, a BS antenna 212, a BS processor module 214, a BS memory module 216, and a network communication module 218, each module being coupled and interconnected with one another as necessary via a data communication bus 220. The UE 204 includes a UE (user equipment) transceiver module 230, a UE antenna 232, a UE memory module 234, and a UE processor module 236, each module being coupled and interconnected with one another as necessary via a data communication bus 240. The BS 202 communicates with the UE 204 via a communication channel 250, which can be any wireless channel or other medium suitable for transmission of data as described herein.

As would be understood by persons of ordinary skill in the art, system 200 may further include any number of modules other than the modules shown in FIG. 2. Those skilled in the art will understand that the various illustrative blocks, modules, circuits, and processing logic described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be implemented in hardware, computer-readable software, firmware, or any practical combination thereof. To clearly illustrate this interchangeability and compatibility of hardware, firmware, and software, various illustrative components, blocks, modules, circuits, and steps are described generally in terms of their functionality. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware, firmware, or software can depend upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the overall system. Those familiar with the concepts described herein may implement such functionality in a suitable manner for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as limiting the scope of the present disclosure.

In accordance with some embodiments, the UE transceiver 230 may be referred to herein as an "uplink" transceiver 230 that includes a radio frequency (RF) transmitter and a RF receiver each comprising circuitry that is coupled to the antenna 232. A duplex switch (not shown) may alternatively couple the uplink transmitter or receiver to the uplink antenna in time duplex fashion. Similarly, in accordance with some embodiments, the BS transceiver 210 may be referred to herein as a "downlink" transceiver 210 that includes a RF transmitter and a RF receiver each comprising circuity that is coupled to the antenna 212. A downlink duplex switch may alternatively couple the downlink transmitter or receiver to the downlink antenna 212 in time duplex fashion. The operations of the two transceiver modules 210 and 230 may be coordinated in time such that the uplink receiver circuitry is coupled to the uplink antenna 232 for reception of transmissions over the wireless transmission link 250 at the same time that the downlink transmitter is coupled to the downlink antenna 212. Conversely, the operations of the two transceivers 210 and 230 may be coordinated in time such that the downlink receiver is coupled to the downlink antenna 212 for reception of transmissions over the wireless transmission link 250 at the same time that the uplink transmitter is coupled to the uplink antenna 232. In some embodiments, there is close time synchronization with a minimal guard time between changes in duplex direction.

The UE transceiver 230 and the base station transceiver 210 are configured to communicate via the wireless data communication link 250, and cooperate with a suitably configured RF antenna arrangement 212/232 that can support a particular wireless communication protocol and modulation scheme. In some illustrative embodiments, the UE transceiver 210 and the base station transceiver 210 are configured to support industry standards such as the Long Term Evolution (LTE) and emerging 5G standards, and the like. It is understood, however, that the present disclosure is not necessarily limited in application to a particular standard and associated protocols. Rather, the UE transceiver 230 and the base station transceiver 210 may be configured to support alternate, or additional, wireless data communication protocols, including future standards or variations thereof.

In accordance with various embodiments, the BS 202 may be an evolved node B (eNB) , a serving eNB, a target eNB, a femto station, or a pico station, for example. In some embodiments, the UE 204 may be embodied in various types of user devices such as a mobile phone, a smart phone, a personal digital assistant (PDA) , tablet, laptop computer, wearable computing device, etc. The processor modules 214 and 236 may be implemented, or realized, with a general purpose processor, a content addressable memory, a digital signal processor, an application specific integrated circuit, a field programmable gate array, any suitable programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof, designed to perform the functions described herein. In this manner, a processor may be realized as a microprocessor, a controller, a microcontroller, a state machine, or the like. A processor may also be implemented as a combination of computing devices, e.g., a combination of a digital signal processor and a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in conjunction with a digital signal processor core, or any other such configuration.

Furthermore, the steps of a method or algorithm described in connection with the embodiments disclosed herein may be embodied directly in hardware, in firmware, in a software module executed by processor modules 214 and 236, respectively, or in any practical combination thereof. The memory modules 216 and 234 may be realized as RAM memory, flash memory, ROM memory, EPROM memory, EEPROM memory, registers, a hard disk, a removable disk, a CD-ROM, or any other form of storage medium known in the art. In this regard, memory modules 216 and 234 may be coupled to the processor modules 210 and 230, respectively, such that the processors modules 210 and 230 can read information from, and write information to, memory modules 216 and 234, respectively. The memory modules 216 and 234 may also be integrated into their respective processor modules 210 and 230. In some embodiments, the memory modules 216 and 234 may each include a cache memory for storing temporary variables or other intermediate information during execution of instructions to be executed by processor modules 210 and 230, respectively. Memory modules 216 and 234 may also each include non-volatile memory for storing instructions to be executed by the processor modules 210 and 230, respectively.

The network communication module 218 generally represents the hardware, software, firmware, processing logic, and/or other components of the base station 202 that enable bi-directional communication between base station transceiver 210 and other network components and communication nodes configured to communication with the base station 202. For example, network communication module 218 may be configured to support internet or WiMAX traffic. In a typical deployment, without limitation, network communication module 218 provides an 802.3 Ethernet interface such that base station transceiver 210 can communicate with a conventional Ethernet based computer network. In this manner, the network communication module 218 may include a physical interface for connection to the computer network (e.g., Mobile Switching Center (MSC) ) . The terms “configured for, ” “configured to” and conjugations thereof, as used herein with respect to a specified operation or function, refer to a device, component, circuit, structure, machine, signal, etc., that is physically constructed, programmed, formatted and/or arranged to perform the specified operation or function.

The Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) Model (referred to herein as, “open system interconnection model” ) is a conceptual and logical layout that defines network communication used by systems (e.g., wireless communication device, wireless communication node) open to interconnection and communication with other systems. The model is broken into seven subcomponents, or layers, each of which represents a conceptual collection of services provided to the layers above and below it. The OSI Model also defines a logical network and effectively describes computer packet transfer by using different layer protocols. The OSI Model may also be referred to as the seven-layer OSI Model or the seven-layer model. In some embodiments, a first layer may be a physical layer. In some embodiments, a second layer may be a Medium Access Control (MAC) layer. In some embodiments, a third layer may be a Radio Link Control (RLC) layer. In some embodiments, a fourth layer may be a Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) layer. In some embodiments, a fifth layer may be a Radio Resource Control (RRC) layer. In some embodiments, a sixth layer may be a Non Access Stratum (NAS) layer or an Internet Protocol (IP) layer, and the seventh layer being the other layer.

Various example embodiments of the present solution are described below with reference to the accompanying figures to enable a person of ordinary skill in the art to make and use the present solution. As would be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art, after reading the present disclosure, various changes or modifications to the examples described herein can be made without departing from the scope of the present solution. Thus, the present solution is not limited to the example embodiments and applications described and illustrated herein. Additionally, the specific order or hierarchy of steps in the methods disclosed herein are merely example approaches. Based upon design preferences, the specific order or hierarchy of steps of the disclosed methods or processes can be re-arranged while remaining within the scope of the present solution. Thus, those of ordinary skill in the art will understand that the methods and techniques disclosed herein present various steps or acts in a sample order, and the present solution is not limited to the specific order or hierarchy presented unless expressly stated otherwise.

Various example arrangements of the present solution are described below with reference to the accompanying figures to enable a person of ordinary skill in the art to make and use the present solution. As would be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art, after reading the present disclosure, various changes or modifications to the examples described herein can be made without departing from the scope of the present solution. Thus, the present solution is not limited to the example arrangements and applications described and illustrated herein. Additionally, the specific order or hierarchy of steps in the methods disclosed herein are merely example approaches. Based upon design preferences, the specific order or hierarchy of steps of the disclosed methods or processes can be re-arranged while remaining within the scope of the present solution. Thus, those of ordinary skill in the art will understand that the methods and techniques disclosed herein present various steps or acts in a sample order, and the present solution is not limited to the specific order or hierarchy presented unless expressly stated otherwise.

A mobile communication system transmits wireless signals to target areas or objects, and analyzes the received reflected or diffracted wireless signals to obtain corresponding sensing measurement data. Sensing services can be provided to third-party applications. In addition, the mobile communication system can also aggregate the sensing measurement data of other sensing technologies (such as cameras, radars, etc. ) to jointly provide sensing services. In ISAC, communication and sensing utilize the same hardware and spectrum resources. For example, communication signal is used for sensing.

Wireless sensing relies on the analysis of the reflected or diffracted wave of the measured object to obtain the sensing measurement data. Target recognition, classification, and detection can be performed using information such as angle of arrival, signal delay, Doppler frequency shift, position, and velocity of those signals.

For sensing services, working modes can be divided into monostatic A to A and bistatic A to B. Each of the nodes A and B (e.g., sensing nodes) can be a Base Station (BS) , a User Equipment (UE) , TRP. In other words, in some implementations, sensing models can be divided into mono-static sensing and bi-static sensing. According to the different attributes of the nodes, the sensing models can be further classified into six sensing modes, BS mono-static sensing, BS bi-static sensing, BS as transmitter and UE as receiver, UE as transmitter and BS as receiver, UE bi-static sensing, UE mono-static sensing. Six sensing modes can be combined for single station sensing. Furthermore, sensing services can be extended to the multi-site collaboration, sensing structures, and so on. FIG. 4 illustrates an example BS mono-static sensing (Model A in FIG. 4) and BS bi-static sensing (Model B in FIG. 4) .

The arrangements disclosed herein relate to systems, apparatuses, methods, and non-transitory computer-readable media for providing auto-correlation characteristics, a low Peak-to Average Power Ratio (PAPR) , and a low Integrated Sidelobes Level (ISL) for sensing or communication waveform. For example, the arrangements disclosed herein can obtain a lower PAPR and a lower ISL for sensing and communication waveforms. The waveform of ISAC can be based on the communication sequence/waveform. For a communication waveform, to provide a low-PAPR waveform, low PAPR sequences are needed for communication. In addition, a sensing sequence requires a lower ISL.

FIG. 3 is a diagram illustrating an example method 300 for performing sensing in a monostatic sensing mode and a bistatic sensing mode, according to various arrangements. In a monostatic sensing mode, a sensing measurement node 305 sends a sensing reference signal 310 toward an environment 330 which is in a transmitting sensing region and the receiving sensing region of the sensing measurement node 305. The same sensing measurement node 305 receives the reflected, diffracted, or scattered waves or signals (referred to as received signals 320a) that corresponding to the sensing reference signal 310, where the sensing reference signal 310 is reflected, diffracted, or scattered by the environment 330 to form the received signals 320. In this case, the sensing measurement node 305 is both the sender and the receiver of the sensing signals.

In a bistatic sensing mode, a sensing measurement node 305 sends a sensing reference signal 310 toward the environment 330 which is in a transmitting sensing region. The environment 330 is in the receiving sensing region of a sensing measurement node 306. The sensing measurement node 306 receives the received signals 320b that corresponding to the transmitted sensing reference signal 310. The transmitted sensing reference signal 310 is reflected, diffracted, or scattered by the environment to form the received signals 320b. In this case, the sensing measurement node 305 is the sender and the sensing measurement node 306 is the receiver of the sensing signals.

Each of the sensing measurement node 305 and 306 (or a sensing node) can be a BS, a Generation Node B (gNB) , an E-UTRAN Node B (also known as Evolved Node B, eNodeB or eNB) , a pico station, a femto station, a Transmission/Reception Point (TRP) , an Access Point (AP) , a terminal, a UE, a mobile device, a smart phone, a cellular phone, a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) , a tablet, a laptop computer, a wearable device, a vehicle with a vehicular communication system, or so on. A sensing node refers to a wireless communication node involved in sensing or ISAC. gNB can be replaced by base station or RAN node or TRP.

In some arrangements, signaling (e.g., assistance data request/report, sensing measurement request/report, capability request/report) can be provided between a sensing node and a sensing function (e.g., Sensing Function (SF) , Location Management Function (LMF) , etc. ) . In some examples in which the LMF is reused for sensing function, a protocol between UE and LMF for sensing can include at least one of a new higher layer signaling (e.g., carried over Non-Access Stratum (NAS) such as Sensing Protocol (SP) ) used between UE and LMF, extending LTE positioning protocol (LPP) to support sensing between UE and LMF, extending SLPP for UE bi-static sensing and UE mono-static sensing (e.g., extending Sidelink Positioning Protocol (SLPP) to support sensing between UE and UE or between UE and LMF) , using sensing signaling protocol carried as a container in LPP (e.g., enhancing LPP whereby the sensing signaling can be transported within LPP transparently) , or using sensing signaling protocol carried as a container in SLPP (e.g., enhancing of SLPP whereby the sensing signaling can be transported within SLPP transparently) . Sensing protocol between BS/TRP and LMF can include at least one of a new higher layer signaling (carried over NAS) used between BS/TRP and LMF, extending New Radio Positioning Protocol A (NRPPa) to support sensing between BS/TRP and LMF, or using sensing signaling protocol carried as a container in NRPPa (e.g., enhancing NRPPa whereby the sensing signaling can be transported within NRPPa transparently) . In some examples, a new SF can be introduced for sensing function to introduce a sensing protocol between UE and SF, to introduce another sensing protocol between gNB/TRP and SF, to introduce a single spec/sensing protocol for both signaling between UE and SF, signaling between gNB/TRP and SF, and signaling between UEs.

In this disclosure, when referring to the signaling interaction (s) (e.g., assistance data request/report, sensing measurement request/report, capability request/report, configuration, recommendation) between sensing nodes, the signaling methods can be at least one or more of the following.

If sensing nodes are gNBs only, the signaling can be at least one of: Xn signaling between NG-RAN nodes, signaling via gNB -> SF/LMF -> gNB (i.e., SF or LMF can forward gNB’s information to another gNB) .

If sensing nodes are UEs only, the signaling can be at least one of: SCI, SLPP, or new higher layer signaling between UEs, SL MAC CE, PC5-RRC, signaling via UE -> SF/LMF -> UE (i.e., SF or LMF can forward UE’s information to another UE) .

If sensing nodes include both UE and gNB, the signaling can be at least one of: a RRC, a MAC CE, a DCI.

Moreover, sensing may make use of the measurements (e.g., timing delay related, angle related, doppler, velocity) of sensing reference signals (RS) received from one or more sensing nodes, measured by the sensing node. During the procedure, the sensing node may extract the path of “sensing node-sensing target-sensing node” and monitor or locate or tracking the sensing target. The sensing RS in this disclosure can be at least one of the following: a new RS designed for sensing purpose; a positioning RS (PRS) ; a sounding RS (SRS) ; a phase tracking reference signal (PT-RS) ; a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) ; or any combination of the above.

Implementation Example 1: Solving interference cause by “remote-sensing-target/area”

Implementation Example 1.1: Interference to communication or positioning

FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating example resources for sensing transmissions (Tx) , sensing receptions (Rx) , and communication Rx, according to various arrangements. As shown in FIG. 5, suppose the symbol for communication (referred as C symbol) is immediately after sensing symbols (referred as S symbol) , an Rx sensing node needs to consecutively receive a S symbol and a C symbol. However, if the sensing target or sensing area is far from the sensing node, the propagation delay of “sensing node-sensing target/area-sensing node” can be longer than the length of a Cyclic Prefix (CP) . In this case, sensing can impacts on the following communication symbol’s reception due to interference by the remote-sensing-target/area.

To address such issues, an Extended CP (ECP) can be provided. However, CP is configured per Bandwidth Part (BWP) or per Positioning Frequency Layer (PFL) for communication or positioning design, given that Extended Cyclic Prefix (ECP) may need a significant amount of radio resources. In some implementations, a gap period is introduced between consecutive S symbol and C symbol. The C symbol can be either UL symbol, a DL symbol, or flexible symbol (F symbol) . In some examples, the length of gap period can be either less than a symbol, one symbol, or even multiple symbols. In some examples, for gap period less than a symbol, one symbol can be divided into N parts, and a part of a symbol that corresponds to the gap period can be muted.

In some examples, within a gap period, a sensing node is not expected to transmit a sensing Reference Signal (RS) . In some examples, the sensing node can determine or allocate the manner in which the gap period is used. In some examples, the gap period is empty or has a length of zero. In some examples, the gap period can be an ECP for the communication.

In some examples, the gap period can occupy resources allocated/configured for sensing RS to alleviate the impact on communication. In some examples in which sensing has higher priority as compared to communication, the gap period can occupy resources allocated or configured for communication. In some examples, the gap period does not occupy resources allocated or configured either for communication or sensing, and the gap period can include a F symbol.

FIG. 6 is a diagram illustrating example resources for sensing Tx, sensing Rx, and communication RX, according to various arrangements. In some examples, a gap period is introduced in the S symbol before the CP in the C symbol. The gap period has a length that is less than an entire symbol. In some examples, a gap period is introduced in the C symbol, after the CP in the C symbol. The gap period has a length that is less than an entire symbol. In some examples, a gap period is introduced in a S or C (S/C) symbol, that is between the S symbol and the C symbol. The gap period has a length that is an entire symbol. As shown, the gap period is between the S symbol and the C symbol.

In some examples, the length of a gap period needed can be related to sensing distance requirement. For example, if a sensing RS resource is only aimed at close-in sensing targets, then the gap period may not needed or a length of the gap period can be relatively small given that there may not be any interference. In some examples, the SF or LMF (e.g., a core network) can inform a Tx sensing node via higher layer parameter potential interference information, and the Tx sensing node can determine how to resolve the interference issue.

In some examples, the potential inference information can include one or more of an expected CP length, CP type (e.g., normal CP, ECP or LCP) , an expected gap period length, a number N of parts by which a symbol is divided and a number N1 of part (s) which the gap period occupies, whether CP should be extended, an expected sensing distance (e.g., expected distance between two of a TX sensing node, a sensing target, a RX sensing node) and/or uncertainty thereof, an expected sensing propagation delay (e.g., expected delay between two of a TX sensing node, a sensing target, a RX sensing node) and/or uncertainty thereof, a maximum delay spread or a maximum delay difference between paths (including a first path and additional paths) , a distance or delay between Tx sensing node and Rx sensing node (e.g., a Line of Sight (LOS) path or direct path without reflected on any environment object or sensing target, where if the Tx sensing node and the Rx sensing node are the same, the distance or delay can be zero) , and so on.

In some examples, the potential interference information can be associated with a sensing RS resource or a list of sensing RS resources. In some examples, the potential interference information can be associated with one sensing RS resource set or a list of sensing RS resource sets. In some examples, the potential interference information is provided per Rx sensing node. In some examples, the potential inference information is provided per sensing object or per sensing area. In some examples, the Tx sensing node provides sensing RS Tx characteristics to SF/LMF, SF/LMF can further provide one or a list of inference sensing RS resource (s) /resource set (s) to the Tx sensing node. In some examples, a sensing node can deliver the sensing RS configuration to SF/LMF after resolving the interference.

In some implementations, if the Tx sensing node is UE, the SF or LMF (e.g., a core network) can inform the UE’s serving BS the interference information via higher layer signaling. The serving BS can determine how to resolve the interference issue. In some examples, the potential inference information can include one or more of an expected or configured CP length, an expected or configured gap period length, a number N of parts by which a symbol is divided and a number N1 of part (s) which the gap period occupies, whether CP should be extended, an expected sensing distance (e.g., expected distance between two of a TX sensing node, a sensing target, a RX sensing node) and/or uncertainty thereof, an expected sensing propagation delay (e.g., expected delay between two of a TX sensing node, a sensing target, a RX sensing node) and/or uncertainty thereof, a maximum delay spread or a maximum delay difference between paths (including a first path and additional paths) , a distance or delay between Tx sensing node and Rx sensing node (e.g., a LOS path or direct path without reflected on any environment object or sensing target, where if the Tx sensing node and the Rx sensing node are the same, the distance or delay can be zero) , and so on.

In some examples, the potential interference information can be associated with a sensing RS resource or a list of sensing RS resources. In some examples, the potential interference information can be associated with one sensing RS resource set or a list of sensing RS resource sets. In some examples, the potential interference information is provided per Rx sensing node. In some examples, the potential inference information is provided per sensing object or per sensing area. In some examples, the Tx sensing node provides sensing RS Tx characteristics to SF/LMF, SF/LMF can further provide one or a list of inference sensing RS resource (s) /resource set (s) to the Rx sensing node. In some examples, a sensing node can deliver the sensing RS configuration to SF/LMF after resolving the interference. At least one or more of the following can be applied. The potential interference information can be one or more of the following: expected CP length/type; expected gap period length; the number of N (how many parts a symbol is divided) , the number of N1 which the gap period can occupy; whether CP can be extended; expected sensing distance and/or uncertainty: this sensing distance is the expected distance for “sensing node -> sensing target -> sensing node” ; expected sensing propagation delay and/or uncertainty: this sensing propagation delay is the expected delay for “sensing node ->sensing target -> sensing node” ; a maximum delay spread, or the maximum delay difference between paths (including first path and additional paths) ; or distance or delay between Tx sensing node and Rx sensing node (LOS path or direct path without reflected on any environment object or sensing target) . If Tx sensing node and Rx sensing node is the same, the distance or delay can be zero.

The potential interference information can be associated with one or a list of sensing RS resource. In some embodiments, the potential interference information can be associated with one or a list of sensing RS resource set. In some embodiments, the potential interference information is provided per Rx sensing node. In some embodiments, the potential interference information is provided per sensing object or per sensing area. In some examples, sensing RS resource 1 does not need longer CP length, but sensing RS resource 2 is associated with a long-distance sensing target/area.

Tx sensing node provides sensing RS Tx characteristics to SF/LMF, SF/LMF can further provides one or a list of interference sensing RS resource (s) /resource set (s) . Sensing node can deliver the sensing RS configuration to SF/LMF after resolving the interference.

In another way, if the Tx sensing node is UE, the SF or LMF (e.g., a core network) can inform the UE’s serving gNB via a higher layer signaling about interference information. The serving gNB may decide how to resolve the interference issue. At least one or more of the following can be applied:

The interference information can be one or more of the following: expected or configured CP length; CP type (e.g., normal CP, ECP or LCP) , expected or configured gap period length; the number of N (how many parts a symbol is divided) , the number of N1 which the gap period can occupy; whether CP can be extended; expected sensing distance and/or uncertainty: this sensing distance is the expected distance for “sensing node ->sensing target -> sensing node” ; expected sensing propagation delay and/or uncertainty: this sensing propagation delay can be the expected delay for “sensing node -> sensing target -> sensing node” ; a maximum delay spread, or the maximum delay difference between paths (including first path and additional paths) ; distance or delay between Tx sensing node and Rx sensing node (LOS path or direct path without reflected on any environment object or sensing target) . If Tx sensing node and Rx sensing node is the same, the distance or delay can be zero.

The potential interference information can be associated with one or a list of sensing RS resource. In some embodiments, the potential interference information can be associated with one or a list of sensing RS resource set. In some embodiments, the potential interference information can be provided per Rx sensing node. In some embodiments, the potential interference information can be provided per sensing object or per sensing area.

The UE’s serving gNB may provide sensing RS Tx characteristics to the SF/LMF. The SF/LMF can further provides one or a list of interference sensing RS resource (s) /resource set (s) . In some embodiments, the UE’s serving gNB may deliver the sensing RS configuration to the UE. The signaling can be a RRC, MAC CE or DCI. In some embodiments, the UE’s serving gNB can deliver the sensing RS configuration to SF/LMF after resolving the interference.

In some embodiments, the SF/LMF may decide/determine how to address the interference issue. The SF/LMF may send the corresponding request or recommendation or configuration to Tx sensing node (s) . One or more of the following can be applied. FIG. 7 illustrates an example sensing enhancement when a SF/LMF handles an interference between sensing nodes.

The SF/LMF can request sensing node to apply an interference mitigation solution for sensing RS. The interference mitigation solution can be configured or requested for each sensing RS resource or sensing RS resource set or for each sensing target/area or for each Ex sensing node. For example, as shown in FIG. 7, sensing RS resource 1 and resource 2 are transmitted to different sensing areas. Specifically, RS resource 1 can be required for a near-by sensing area but sensing RS resource 2 can be targeted for a relatively remote sensing area. The interference mitigation solution can be applying a gap period, or mute some transmission instances.

In some embodiments, the interference information can be delivered between two sensing nodes. At least one or more of the following can be supported. The interference information can be transmitted from Tx sensing node (e.g., aggressor sensing node) to Rx sensing node (e.g., victim sensing node) . The interference information can include at least one of: configurations of sensing RS resource or resource sets which is expected to cover remote sensing target (include at least one of sensing RS resource ID, sensing RS resource set ID) , whether the sensing RS transmitted by Tx sensing node is disruptive. If sensing nodes are gNB, the signaling can be via Xn. If the Tx sensing node is gNB, Rx sensing node is UE: the signaling can be a RRC, a MAC CE or a DCI or a sensing RS. If the Tx sensing node is UE and the Rx sensing node is gNB: the signaling can be conveyed via a sensing RS, PUCCH. If sensing nodes are UEs, the interference information can be conveyed by sidelink control information (SCI) or a SL MAC CE or a sensing RS.

The interference information can be transmitted from Rx sensing node (e.g., victim sensing node) to Tx sensing node (e.g., aggressor sensing node) . The interference information (information about the experienced interference) can include at least one of: Tx sensing node’s sensing RS resource, or sensing RS resource set, a time location of interference RS, a frequency location of interference RS. If sensing nodes are gNB, the signaling can be via Xn. If the Tx sensing node is gNB, Rx sensing node is UE, the signaling can be RRC, UCI, UL MAC CE or sensing RS. If the Tx sensing node is UE and the Rx sensing node is gNB, the signaling can be RRC, DCI, MAC CE or sensing RS. If sensing nodes are UEs, the interference information can be conveyed by SCI or a SL MAC CE.

In some embodiments, instead of introducing a gap period, the interference can be mitigated in spatial domain. Given the fact that the Rx beam direction for communication and the Rx beam direction for sensing can be different, the interference sensing RS can be suppressed from spatial domain when receiving communication symbols. One or more of the following can be designed.

Sensing node provides the location of communication symbols and corresponding Rx beam index or spatial relation or QCL source for communication to the SF/LMF. SF/LMF provides suggested sensing Tx beam information (e.g., beam index or spatial relation or QCL) to Tx sensing node. SF/LMF provides sensing Rx beam information (e.g., beam index or spatial relation or QCL) to Rx sensing node. SF/LMF provides Rx beam info for communication or positioning to Rx sensing node. If both gNB and UE are involved in the sensing case, the gNB may provide sensing beam info and/or communication beam info and/or positioning beam info to UE. The suggested Tx beam information or Rx beam information can be associated with at least one of the following: a sensing RS resource, a sensing RS resource set, a sensing node, a sensing area, a sensing target, a PFL.

Implementation Example 1.2: Self-Interference

The implementation example 1.1 mainly focus on the remote-sensing-target interference for other system (e.g., communication, positioning, etc. ) except sensing. In this implementation example, solutions are provided to revolve sensing self-interference. As shown in FIG. 8, if the propagation delay difference between a close-in sensing target and a remote sensing target is larger than the length of CP, it may be hard to accurately distinguish two targets for sensing. The sliding window covering a symbol of close-in target may include two-symbol information of the remote target. Therefore, longer CP can be required.

The CP length of sensing symbols can be extended. The SF/LMF can either implicitly or explicitly inform Tx sensing node to enlarge the CP length for sensing. Implicitly: The SF/LMF may provide expected sensing distance or expected sensing delay to sensing nodes, or the SF/LMF may provide expected maximum delay spread to sensing nodes. Explicitly: The SF/LMF provide sensing node (s) the required CP length, or alternatively, the SF/LMF may provide sensing node (s) whether extended CP is needed.

With the knowledge that longer CP is required, it is up to either SF/LMF or each sensing node to decide how to enlarge the CP. If SF/LMF determine the solution, the SF/LMF can further provide the solution to corresponding sensing node. One or more of the following CP extension solutions can be applied.

1) Long CP (LCP) can be applied for sensing symbols. The long CP length can be applicable for each sensing RS resource or for each sensing RS resource set or for each sensing RS PFL or for a sensing node. In such case, the frame structure can be changed. In some examples, a slot or a subframe or a frame may include both communication symbols with normal CP and sensing symbols with long CP. One or more of the following can be applied.

a) The length of long CP can be configured by gNB, a server or a sensing node can request LCP from gNB, the request can be included in either assistance data request signaling or in on-demand sensing RS configuration request.

b) If a symbol or a slot or a subframe or a frame is shared by multiple sensing RS resources/resource sets or shared by sensing RS, positioning RS or communication, the maximum of CP length can be chosen.

2) The basic unit in time-domain for sensing can be N symbol. The corresponding CP length can be N times multiple the normal CP, instead of 1 symbol. For example, the unit can be two-symbol and the CP length can be also doubled. FIG. 9 illustrates an example enlarging basic time-domain unit for sensing.

In some examples, for a basic time unit, the pattern of sensing RS is repeated or shared. The pattern can include at least one of the following: comb size, comb offset, the starting frequency offset, the sequence ID, parameters related to sensing RS’s transmission power (e.g., amplitude scaling factor) , antenna port, the same number of resource blocks, sensing RS resource ID, sensing RS resource set ID, OFDM symbol number within the slot when generating the sequence. For example, suppose the sensing RS is an OFDM signal and the comb size is N, comb offset is n, for each basic time unit (2 symbols) , the comb pattern of sensing RS can be repeated, as shown in FIGS. 10 and 11. FIG. 10 illustrates an example transmission pattern with sensing RS comb size=2, comb offset=1, the basic time unit is 2 symbols. FIG. 11 illustrates an example transmission pattern with sensing RS comb size=4, the basic time unit is 2 symbols.

3) Considering the future integrated sensing and communication design, both normal CP and multiple levels of extended CP can be introduced. For example, a slot may include 14-symbol normal CP, or 12-symbol ECP, or 10-symbol large ECP, or 8-symbol larger ECP, or 7/6-symbol largest ECP.

Implementation example 2: Doppler/Velocity

One of the most important difference between NR positioning and sensing in positioning-like use case can be: the sensing target may move with a certain velocity. NR positioning mostly focuses on the requirement for distance and angle accuracy. Basically, there are two types of measurement reporting and/or request for Doppler/velocity, sensing node can provide velocity related information to another sensing node (e.g., server sensing node, reference sensing node) or to SF/LMF, a sensing node or SF or LMF may request velocity related information from sensing node. At least one or more of the following information can be requested or reported: Doppler measurements and/or uncertainty, mainly suitable for UE/gNB assisted SF/LMF based sensing. The range is from [Doppler -Doppler Uncertainty] to [Doppler + Doppler Uncertainty] . Velocity and/or uncertainty, mainly for sensing-node-based (e.g., UE-based or gNB-based sensing) , including at least one of the following: Coordinates information; Horizontal Velocity; Horizontal With Vertical Velocity; Horizontal Velocity With Uncertainty; or Horizontal With Vertical Velocity And Uncertainty. The requested or reported Doppler/velocity can be either a relative Doppler/velocity value (e.g., relative to a reference sensing node) or an absolute Doppler/velocity value.

Provide or Request assistance data

Sensing node can send request assistance data signaling to the SF/LMF or a sensing node. The SF/LMF can provide assistance data to sensing node (s) to assist sensing; sensing node may provide assistance data to the SF/LMF. The SF/LMF may also request assistance data from sensing node or request assistance data from sensing node’s serving gNB. The request may be a on-demand request.

The requested or the reported assistance data can include at least one or more of the following: sensing node (s) ’s location, it can be sensing node its own or the neighboring sensing nodes. One or a list of the following can be reported together: location quality, uncertainty, time information (e.g., time stamp, time duration) , sensing node ID (e.g., application layer ID, source ID, destination ID, TRP ID, UE ID, SRU ID, PRU ID) . If the sensing node is moving, sensing node’s velocity can be one of the information included in assistance data. One or a list of the following can be reported together: velocity quality, uncertainty, time information (e.g., time stamp, time duration) , sensing node ID (e.g., application layer ID, source ID, destination ID, TRP ID, UE ID, SRU ID, PRU ID) . The requested or the reported assistance data can include expected velocity and uncertainty for sensing area/target, one or more of the following can be requested/provided: per sensing node one or multiple expected propagation delay/Doppler/angle/power/velocity (s) ; per sensing RS resource one or more expected propagation delay/Doppler/angle/power /velocity (s) ; per sensing RS resource set one or more expected propagation delay/Doppler/angle/power/velocity (s) ; or per sensing RS frequency layer one or more expected propagation delay/Doppler/angle/power /velocity (s) .

Note: the expected propagation delay/doppler/angle/power/velocity can be either an absolute value or a differential value compared to a reference one. The expected angle can be at least one of: AOA, Z-AOA, A-AOD, Z-AOD; the expected power can be RSRP or RSRPP for all angles, or the expected power can be RSRP or RSRPP for each expected angle.

The requested or the reported assistance data can include one or a list of sensing RS configuration. In this disclosure, the sensing RS configuration can include at least one or more of the following: one or a list of sensing RS resource, one or a list of sensing RS resource set, sensing RS resource ID, sensing RS resource set ID, periodicity, repetition factor, basic time unit (e.g., symbol-level repetition) , number of symbols in a slot, muting, time gap (e.g., between two adjacent repeated sensing RS resources) , resource power, sequence ID, comb size, comb RE offset, slot offset (either resource level or resource set level) , symbol offset (either resource level or resource set level) , QCL source, spatial relation, beam index, sensing node ID, or bandwidth.

Time-varying sensing RS configurations can be requested or provided, in one example, multiple expected doppler/velocity/delay/angle/power (s) can be associated with a single sensing RS resource. Each expected doppler/velocity/delay/angle/power can be valid within a certain time. One or a list of (pre-) configured assistance data with area validity. Specify the area for which the (pre-) configured assistance data is valid.

The requested or the reported assistance data can include one or a list of (pre-) configured assistance data with timing validity, which may indicate that the timing or time window/range for which the (pre-) configured assistance data is valid. The requested or the reported assistance data can include one or a list of (pre-) configured assistance data with doppler/velocity validity, which may indicate that the range or threshold of doppler/velocity for which the (pre-) configured assistance data is valid. The requested or the reported assistance data can include one or a list of (pre-) configured assistance data with angle validity, which may indicate that the range or threshold of angle for which the (pre-) configured assistance data is valid. The requested or the reported assistance data can include one or a list of (pre-) configured assistance data with power validity, which may indicate that the range or threshold of power for which the (pre-) configured assistance data is valid. The requested or the reported assistance data can include one or a list of (pre-) configured assistance data with propagation delay validity, which may indicate that the range or threshold of propagation delay for which the (pre-) configured assistance data is valid. The requested or the reported assistance data can include one or a list of (pre-) configured assistance data with at least one or more of: area validity, timing validity, doppler/velocity validity, angle validity, power validity propagation delay validity. The assistance can be provided/request periodically or in a one-shot manner.

Request sensing measurement, the SF/LMF or a sensing node can request for certain sensing measurement and send the request signaling to sensing node (s) . Basically, longer sensing RS transmission time is required for velocity/doppler estimation compared to other sensing measurements (e.g., timing, angle, power) . For example, a sensing node can achieve a high-accuracy timing measurement with 4-sample, but to get a high-accuracy velocity estimation, may be 16-sample is needed.

At least one or more of the following can be requested. Quality of service (QoS) related information can be included in sensing measurement request. One or more of the following can be applied. For triggered-report request, at least two response time can be introduced. A long-response-time can be introduced for velocity/doppler measurement request in a measurement request indicating the maximum response time as measured between receipt of “request sensing information/measurement” and transmission of a “provide sensing information/measurement” . Other measurements like delay or angle or power can use a short-response-time, e.g., responseTime and responseTimeEarly. A sensing node can skip the velocity/doppler report by the time of short-response-time. For triggered-report request, a single “response time” is request wherein the value range of response time can consider the requirement of velocity estimation. In some examples, given the same “response time” IE, the applicable value range/maximum number of response time for velocity measurement is no less than that for other measurement (s) . For periodic-report request, at least one or more of the following can be introduced. Two periodic-report request configurations can be introduced, in other words, reporting amount (e.g., number of periodic sensing information reports requested) and reporting interval (e.g., the interval between sensing information reports and the response time requirement for the first sensing information report) can be requested for velocity/Doppler measurements and other measurements respectively. For example, velocity/Doppler measurements used a longer reporting interval than other measurements. Only one periodic-report request configuration is used, but sensing node is allowed to report velocity/doppler measurements every N periodic reporting interval (s) . One or more of the following are supported. The number of N can be requested by SF or LMF. The value of N can be at least one of: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15… Only one periodic-report request configuration is applied. In some examples, the sensing node can all the requested measurements as requested by the SF/LMF. Velocity/doppler range request. Request multiple velocity/doppler measurements per propagation delay, or one or more of the following alternatives. Request multiple velocity/doppler measurements per sensing RS resource per propagation delay. Request multiple velocity/doppler measurements per sensing RS resource set per propagation delay. Request multiple velocity/doppler measurements per sensing node per propagation delay. Velocity/doppler reporting granularity. Request N-sample measurement for velocity. The number of samples can be same or different from other sensing measurements. In some examples, the sensing node can be requested to perform the requested angle/time/power measurement with reduced/anumber of samples. The sensing node can be requested to perform the requested velocity or Doppler measurement with a larger number of samples.

Provide sensing measurement: sensing node (s) report sensing measurements to SF or LMF or other sensing nodes. The sensing node can also report sensing measurements of other sensing nodes to SF or LMF. One or more of the following information can be included in sensing information report.

Multiple doppler measurements which can be reported at least one of: per sensing node, per sensing RS resource, per sensing RS resource set or per propagation delay, or per path. A time stamp associated with the velocity/doppler report can be reported. The time stamp indicates sensing node’s velocity/doppler for a certain measurement duration, for example, the report represents velocity/doppler of a measurement instance, or represents velocity/doppler of a time duration between current time stamp and the latest previous time stamp.

A time window is reported associated with a velocity/doppler measurement, at least one or more of the following: a time window can be two time stamps reporting; or a time window can be a time stamp and a time duration reporting.

In some examples, a sensing node may report one or a list of sensing measurements. Since velocity or doppler estimation requires more measurement instances, one Doppler may be reported associated with one or a list of other sensing measurements. A brief example is shown as below.

In some examples, one or multiple Doppler measurement (s) may be reported by sensing node associated with the same timing measurement (e.g., propagation delay, TOA, RSTD or Rx-Tx time difference) . An example is shown below.

Provide/request capability, a sensing node can report or be requested to report at least one or more of the following capabilities: whether or not doppler measurement reporting is supported; velocity range or velocity resolution supported for reporting; whether or not support per timing measurement reporting multiple doppler measurements; velocity/doppler reporting granularity; whether N-sample (N may be greater than 4) reporting is supported; or velocity resolution association.

Implementation Example 3: Multi-path measurement

Sensing mainly use the channel response of NLOS path, measurements for “sensing node→ sensing target → sensing node” can be required and at the same time the interference of “sensing node→ environment → sensing node” can be considered. One main question raised for sensing is how to distinguish the sensing target and environment interference, one promising way is to define a few requisites in either assistance data or measurement request: power threshold/range, propagation time span/range, Rx beam span/range, velocity/doppler span/range. The sensing node can be required to provide sensing measurements satisfying the range request. If sensing node does not have measurement within the range/span, it may only because there is no sensing target.

A sensing node may not have sensing results or sensing measurements as requested, or in some embodiments, a sensing node may report sensing results regarding the sensing target or sensing area, one or more of the following behaviors can be specified.

Sensing node provides information to SF/LMF or other sensing nodes on whether there are sensing targets. If not, sensing node can simply report 1-bit indicator indicating there is no sensing targets. If yes, sensing node provides corresponding sensing measurements or results. The sensing measurements/results can be reported per sensing target if sensing nodes detects multiple sensing targets. The sensing measurement report may also the number of estimated sensing target (s) . Sensing node does not provide any sensing measurement report and there is no error cause report. The receiver side (i.e., SF/LMF or another sensing node) assume that one of: there is no sensing target occur or there is no abnormal around the sensing area or there is no change compared to the last report.

LOS/NLOS indicator can be reported in a measurement report to assist SF/LMF select suitable measurement and calculate corresponding sensing results. As shown in the FIG. 12, there can be two interpretations of LOS: (1) positioning like LOS, indicating the LOS measurement between two communication nodes (e.g., gNB, UE) ; (2) sensing LOS, indicating the path of “sensing node → sensing target → sensing node” . As shown in FIG. 12, positioning LOS path is related to the direct path between a TRP and a UE. When it comes to sensing, TRP and UE act as sensing nodes for a sensing target (aUAV as shown in the figure) , the sensing LOS path is the path of “TRP -sensing target -UE” . In other words, the sensing LOS path include two LOS paths: a LOS path between TRP and the UAV and a LOS path between UAV and UE. FIG. 12 illustrates an example interpretations of LOS.

For the purpose of sensing, one or more of the following can be specified for measurement report or measurement request. Sensing LOS/NLOS indicator can be introduced. For example, if the measurement is obtained from sensing LOS path, then the reported sensing LOS/NLOS indicator can be 1. If the measurement is obtained from positioning like LOS path, the reported sensing LOS/NLOS indicator should be less than 1. Positioning LOS/NLOS indicator can be used for sensing. For example, if the measurement is obtained from positioning LOS path, the reported LOS/NLOS indicator can be 1. If the measurement is obtained from a path reflected on a sensing target, the reported LOS/NLOS indicator should be less than 1. Both sensing LOS/NLOS indicator and positioning like LOS/NLOS indicator can be used.

As clarified in the above, multiple path measurement report is critical for sensing. Per path LOS/NLOS indicator can be requested or reported. The LOS/NLOS indicator can be either positioning like LOS/NLOS indicator or sensing LOS/NLOS indicator or both. To be specific, one or more of the following can be included in sensing measurement request or report between SF/LMF and sensing node. LOS/NLOS category, one or more of the following categories can be requested/reported: sensing LOS/NLOS indicator; positioning LOS/NLOS indicator; or both sensing and positioning LOS/NLOS indicators.

LOS/NLOS granularity, one or more of the following granularities can be requested/reported: the sensing node is requested to report or reports LOS/NLOS indicator per sensing node, the sensing node is requested to report or reports LOS/NLOS indicator per sensing RS resource, the sensing node is requested to report or reports LOS/NLOS indicator per sensing RS resource set, the sensing node is requested to report or reports LOS/NLOS indicator per path measurement.

LOS/NLOS type, one or more of the following LOS/NLOS type can be requested or reported: hard LOS/NLOS indicator (e.g., whether measurement is LOS or NLOS) , soft LOS/NLOS indicator (e.g., probability of LOS or NLOS with [0, 1] ) .

For LOS/NLOS indicator in measurement request or assistance data from SF/LMF to sensing node (s) , for example, SF/LMF can provide expected LOS/NLOS indicator per sensing RS resource or per sensing RS resource set or per UE/gNB or per sensing area or per sensing target to UE/gNB. one or a list of expected LOS/NLOS indicator value be included in measurement request or assistance data. One or more of the following can be applied.

The value range of expected LOS/NLOS indicator can be either sensing LOS/NLOS indicator or positioning LOS/NLOS indicator. If positioning LOS/NLOS is reused for sensing, the value range expected LOS/NLOS indicator can be [a, b] , where a is no less than 0 and b is no larger than 1. Per sensing node one or multiple expected LOS/NLOS indicator value (s) can be applied. Per sensing RS resource one or more expected LOS/NLOS indicator value (s) can be applied. Per sensing RS resource set one or more expected LOS/NLOS indicator value (s) can be applied. Per sensing RS frequency layer one or more expected LOS/NLOS indicator value (s) can be applied. Per sensing area one or more expected LOS/NLOS indicator value (s) can be applied. Per sensing target one or more expected LOS/NLOS indicator value (s) can be applied.

Once a sensing node receives expected LOS/NLOS value in either assistance data or measurement request, the sensing node may provide sensing measurement satisfying the corresponding LOS/NLOS requirement. In some scenarios, there may be two sensing areas, for one sensing node A, the SF/LMF is known that A can provide measurements for sensing area 1 with the restriction of LOS/NLOS value range [0.2, 0.4] , and A can provide measurements for sensing area 2 with the restriction of LOS/NLOS value range [0.6, 0.9] .

For the case of joint sensing and positioning/communication, one or more of the following can be enhanced.

Measurement request: SF/LMF request sensing node (e.g., gNB/UE) to provide sensing measurements using multiple Rx beams to receive the same Tx sensing RS. The multiple Rx beams can be provided in N groups, for example, one Rx beam group is for sensing, and the other Rx beam group is for positioning, or another Rx beam group is for communication.

Measurement report: Sensing node perform measurements using multiple Rx beams. The measurement can be provided per Rx beam group.

A beam group can include one or more of the following information: RS resource set ID: the RS can be sensing RS, PRS, SRS, or SSB; RS resource ID: the RS can be sensing RS, PRS, SRS, or SSB; spatial direction information, e.g., angle info, beam antenna angles; LCS to GCS translation parameters; or beam power, e.g., the relative power between sensing RS Resources per angle per sensing node.

Implementation Example 4: Antenna info/timing error

For the purpose of accuracy improvement, sensing node can report or be requested to report Rx error information together with sensing measurement, or a sensing node can report or be requested to report Tx error information together with sensing R configuration. One or more of the following error information or antenna information can be introduced for sensing to increase the sensing accuracy.

Timing error group (TEG) : Tx or Rx or RxTx Timing Errors, associated with sensing node transmissions on one or more sensing RS resources for sensing purpose or associated with sensing node reporting of one or more sensing measurements, that are within a certain margin.

Phase error group (PEG) : Tx or Rx or RxTx phase Errors, associated with sensing node transmissions on one or more sensing RS resources for sensing purpose or associated with sensing node reporting of one or more sensing measurements, that are within a certain margin.

Angle error group (AEG) : Tx or Rx or RxTx angle Errors, associated with sensing node transmissions on one or more sensing RS resources for sensing purpose or associated with sensing node reporting of one or more sensing measurements, that are within a certain margin.

Doppler error group (DEG) : Tx or Rx or RxTx doppler Errors, associated with sensing node transmissions on one or more sensing RS resources for sensing purpose or associated with sensing node reporting of one or more sensing measurements, that are within a certain margin.

Antenna reference point (ARP) : a sensing node may have one or multiple ARP (s) for either transmission or reception. The sensing node can report or be requested to report Tx or Rx ARP ID, one or more of the following can be supported. A sensing node can provide the ARP information in assistance data for sensing to SF/LMF or another sensing node, the ARP information can be a location of a Tx ARP or a Rx ARP, the location can be relative to a reference point. The ARP information is identified/associated with an ARP ID.

Error group margin, the margin can be for TEG, PEG, AEG or DEG.

For mitigating the sensing errors and increasing sensing accuracy from transmission perspective: gNB (e.g., a sensing node) may provide association relationship between sensing RS resources and Tx TEG/PEG/AEG/DEG/ARP ID to SF/LMF in the ASSISTANCE DATA; gNB can also provide association between sensing RS resources and Tx TEG/PEG/AEG/DEG/ARP ID for other sensing nodes (e.g., neighboring sensing node, gNB, TRP, UE, PRU, SRU) ; UE may provide association between sensing RS resources and Tx TEG/PEG/AEG/DEG/ARP ID for SF/LMF in assistance data; the association information includes one or more of the following: RS resource, carrier frequency, time stamp, Tx TEG/PEG/AEG/DEG/ARP ID; the UE can also provide the association between sensing RS resources and Tx TEG/PEG/AEG/DEG/ARP ID for other sensing nodes; neighboring sensing nodes (e.g. gNBs) can forward UE's associations information to SF/LMFs; UEs report whether they support the capability to report association relationships, the UE reports or be requested to report the capability to SF/LMF;

If the sensing function is sensing node/gNB/UE-based, SF/LMF may forward Tx TEG/PEG/AEG/DEG/ARP and sensing RS resource association relationships to the sensing node. For mitigating the sensing errors and increasing sensing accuracy from reception’s perspective: a sensing node can report or be requested to report Rx TEG/PEG/AEG/DEG/ARP ID in a sensing measurement report. Each reported Rx TEG or PEG or AEG or DEG or ARP ID can be associated with at least one sensing measurement. For example, Rx TEG ID can be reported associated with a timing related measurement (e.g., TOA, propagation delay) , a Rx PEG ID can be reported associated with a carrier phase related measurement (e.g., reference signal carrier phase, or reference signal carrier phase difference) , a Rx AEG ID can be reported associated with an angle measurement (e.g., angle of arrival, angle of departure) , a Rx DEG ID can be reported associated with a velocity related measurement (e.g., velocity, Doppler) .

A sensing node can report or be requested to report Rx TEG/PEG/AEG/DEG/ARP ID for one or more path (s) , one or more of the following can be supported. The path can be a reference path. For a sensing node, it can report a first sensing measurement (s) for reference path and a second sensing measurement for other paths, wherein the second sensing measurement is a differential measurement relative to the first sensing measurement. The same Rx TEG/PEG/AEG/DEG/ARP ID must be used to receive Reference path and other sensing path (s) . Reference path and other sensing paths may have the same or different Rx TEG/PEG/AEG/DEG/ARP IDs. SF/LMF request sensing node may receive a sensing RS using multiple Rx TEG/PEG/AEG/DEG/ARPs.

For mitigating the sensing errors and increasing sensing accuracy from both transmission and reception perspective, Rx or Tx or RxTx TEG/PEG/AEG/DEG information can be reported or be requested to be reported. Especially for monostatic sensing, a sensing node is responsible for both transmitting sensing RS and receiving the reflected/refracted/scattered sensing RS transmitted by itself. One or more of the following can be supported.

The sensing node may report RxTx TEG/PEG/AEG/DEG ID in the sensing measurement report. The sensing node may also report Tx TEG/PEG/AEG/DEG ID at the same time. The sensing node may also report Rx TEG/PEG/AEG/DEG IDs. The sensing node may also report both Rx ARP ID and Tx ARP ID at the same time (different antenna panels for monostatic sensing mode) .

Sensing node may report Rx TEG/PEG/AEG/DEG/ARP ID and Tx TEG/PEG/AEG/DEG/ARP ID in sensing measurement report. SF/LMF may request sensing node to measure a sensing RS using multiple different RxTx TEG/PEG/AEG/DEG ID and the same receive Tx TEG/PEG/AEG/DEG ID. SF/LMF may request a sensing node to measure a sensing RS using different Rx TEG/PEG/AEG/DEG/ARP ID. SF/LMF may request a sensing node to measure a sensing RS within an error group margin. SF/LMF may request a sensing node to transmit and measure the sensing RS under a requirement of transceiver antenna isolation.

The sensing node may report Rx/Tx/RxTx TEG/PEG/AEG/DEG margin in a sensing measurement report. For any one report of Rx/Tx/RxTx TEG/PEG/AEG/DEG ID, the sense node may report the associated margin value. The sensing node may restrict each measurement instance to report the same margin value for a EG type.

Implementation Example 5: Synchronization between sensing nodes

The SF/LMF or a sensing node (e.g., server sensing node) may need to know the synchronization information between the sensing nodes. One or more of the following signaling can be supported: request signaling for synchronization information: SF/LMF or a sensing node requests timing information or synchronization information of a sensing node; the sensing node reports timing information or synchronization information to SF/LMF or another sensing node via higher layer signaling; if there is a sensing node-based sensing method (e.g., sensing node is responsible for gathering all the sensing measurements and obtaining the detection/tracking/other sensing result of sensing target) , SF/LMF can forward the synchronization information (e.g., subframe boundary offset between multiple sense nodes) between multiple sensing nodes (e.g., anchor sensing node) to the sensing node; the synchronization information may include at least one or more of the following: SFN initialization time, SFN, UTC time, PCI, cell global ID, ARFCN, quality. If the sensing node is a UE, the timing information may also include the synchronization source information (e.g., ID of synchronization source, gNB, TRP, UE, GNSS) , whether it is in-coverage and whether it is directly synchronized to the synchronization source, DFN initialization time, DFN, RTD (relative time difference) information. The RTD information can be at least one of the following: time difference between two sensing nodes, timing difference between a sensing node and a reference node, timing information of a reference node.

In some examples, the above interactive synchronization information can be used for selecting appropriate sensing node. Especially for the case of bistatic sensing mode, two sensing nodes are configured to transmit or receive the sensing RS respectively. The two sensing nodes should be highly synchronized for the accuracy of sensing. If SF/LMF get the synchronization information of sensing nodes, SF/LMF can apply at least one or more of the following behaviors: synchronization information is used for selecting or discovering suitable sensing nodes, synchronization information is used for SF/LMF to decide whether one or more measurements of a sensing node is reliable.

In some embodiments, round-trip based method can be introduced in sensing for mitigating the impact of synchronization errors between sensing nodes. Specifically, as shown in FIG. 13, sensing node 1 (e.g., TRP 1) transmit a first sensing RS to sensing target (e.g., a cattle as shown in FIG. 13) , and a sensing node 2 (e.g., TRP 2) can receive the reflected first sensing RS. Also, the sensing node 2 can transmit a second sensing RS to the sensing target and the sensing node 1 can receive the reflected second sensing RS.

The signaling flow for round-trip based sensing method can include at least one or more of the following steps. SF/LMF or a serve sensing node can inform one or more sensing node to transmit a sensing RS or receive a sensing RS, wherein SF/LMF or a serve sensing node can provide at least one or more of the following: indicator of whether round-trip method is required, sensing node ID, indicator of whether the sensing node is an initiator to initiate the round-trip procedure, ID of the initiator sensing node, bandwidth of sensing RS, a time delay budget (arestriction of the round-trip based sensing) , a time window, a Tx beam range (e.g., for transmitter) , a Rx beam range (e.g., for receiver) . A first sensing node transmit sensing RS based on assistance data. For example, the Tx beam direction of the sensing RS is aimed at a sensing target or a sensing area. A request signaling can also be transmitted by the first sensing node, in this case, a second sensing node receiving the request is expected to transmit sensing RS. The request signaling can be designed in one or more of the following. The sensing RS can be designed to contain the request indicator. For example, a certain group of sensing RS sequence ID can be configured for request purpose. Alternatively, one or a list of sensing RS resource or sensing RS resource set can be configured for request purpose. For UE monostatic or bistatic sensing mode, the sensing RS can be a sidelink RS transmitted between UE (s) . the SCI or SL MAC CE can include a sensing request indicator. Either a new field added in SCI or rephrase the existing SCI field is applicable. If the sensing mode requires the involvement of both UE and gNB, the request indicator can be included in DCI or MAC CE. One or more of the following behaviors can be applied by the second sensing node. The second sensing node receive the sensing RS transmitted by a first sensing node. The second sensing node transmits sensing RS according to the sensing RS configuration/request from a gNB or from a SF/LMF. In other words, the second node may not wait for the transmission of the first sensing node. The second sensing node transmits sensing RS using the sensing RS of the first sensing node as QCL source. The QCL source can be the first sensing node’s a sensing RS resource, or a sensing RS resource set. For the second sensing node, the Tx beam can be the same as the Rx beam (Rx beam for receiving the first sensing node’s sensing RS) , or the Tx beam is equal to Rx beam direction ± Δ, or the Tx beam is a wider beam containing Rx beam, or the Rx beam is a wider beam containing Tx beam.

One or more of the following behaviors can be applied by the first sensing node. The first sensing node may receive the sensing RS transmitted by a second sensing node according to the sensing RS configuration/assistance data from another sensing node or from a SF/LMF. The first sensing node may transmit sensing RS using the sensing RS of the second sensing node as QCL source. The QCL source can be the second sensing node’s a sensing RS resource, or a sensing RS resource set. For the first sensing node, the Tx beam can be the same as the Rx beam (Rx beam for receiving the second sensing node’s sensing RS) , or the Tx beam is equal to Rx beam direction ± Δ, or the Tx beam is a wider beam containing Rx beam, or the Rx beam is a wider beam containing Tx beam.

For example, SF/LMF can choose TRP 1 as shown in FIG. 13 as an initiator and inform the ID of initiator to TRP 2. Once TRP 2 receives the sensing RS from TRP, TRP 2 can transmit the sensing RS based on the receiving beam of TRP 1’s sensing RS.

In another example, in order to alleviate the error introduced because the time gap between the transmission of two sensing nodes, one or a list of time windows can be configured or be requested for multiple sensing nodes transmission or reception of sensing RS in a same timing range. For example, if one of the sensing nodes involved in round-trip is moving with a velocity, extra error, the procedure of sensing round-trip cannot cost too much time. At least one or more of the following bullets or sub-bullets can be supported.

A sensing node can be requested/configured to transmit sensing RS within indicated one or a list of sensing transmission time window (STTW) . The STTW can be configured from server to sensing node (s) or SRU (s) . The server can be LMF, SF or gNB or UE. The sensing transmission time window is meant to enable transmission by two sensing nodes within a window or to enable simultaneous transmission by two sensing nodes. At least one of the followings can be supported.

A STTW is associated with at least one of: a sensing node ID, an SRU ID, a sensing RS resource ID, a sensing RS resource set ID, a sensing frequency layer, a sensing target, a sensing area. For example, a STTW can be associated with a list of sensing node, wherein each sensing node has a corresponding sensing RS resource/resource set.

If sensing nodes are gNB/TRPs, at least one or more of the following can be supported. gNB can be requested by SF/LMF to transmit sensing RS resource (s) within indicated STTW, SF/LMF can inform other gNBs about the STTW information for receiving sensing RS within the window. The STTW can be determined by a gNB, the STTW information can be shared to other gNBs via a Xn signaling.

If sensing nodes are UEs, at least one or more of the following can be supported. UE (s) can be configured by SF/LMF to transmit sensing RS resource (s) within indicated STTW. SF/LMF can inform other UEs about the STTW information for receiving sensing RS within the window. The serving gNB of a UE can be requested by SF/LMF to configure the sensing RS within indicated STTW (s) . The UE may receive the sensing RS configuration from its serving gNB. The STTW can be determined by a UE, the STTW information can be shared to other UEs via higher layer signaling, the signaling can be PC5-RRS signaling, SLPP signaling, or a new signaling (e.g., sensing protocol, SF) introduced for sensing.

If sensing nodes includes both UE and gNB, at least one or more of the following can be supported. UE (s) or gNB can be configured by SF/LMF to transmit sensing RS resource (s) within indicated STTW. SF/LMF can inform other sensing node (e.g., gNB, UE) about the STTW information for receiving sensing RS within the window. The serving gNB of a UE can be requested by SF/LMF to configure the sensing RS within indicated STTW (s) . The UE can receive the sensing RS configuration from its serving gNB. If the STTW is determined by a UE, the STTW information can be shared to gNB via UL RRC, MAC CE, UCI. If the STTW is determined by a gNB, the STTW information can be shared to UE via a RRC, MAC CE, DCI.

A sensing node can be requested/configured to measurement sensing RS within indicated one or a list of sensing measurement time window (SMTW) . The SMTW can be configured from server to sensing node (s) or SRU (s) , the server can be a LMF, a SF or gNB or a UE. The SMTW is meant to enable measurement by two sensing nodes within a window or to enable simultaneous measurement by two sensing nodes. At least one of the followings can be supported. A SMTW is associated with at least one of: a sensing node ID, an SRU ID, a sensing RS resource ID, a sensing RS resource set ID, a sensing frequency layer, a sensing target, a sensing area. For example, a SMTW can be associated with a list of sensing node, wherein each sensing node has a corresponding sensing RS resource/resource set (s) .

A sensing node can be requested/configured to measurement sensing RS within indicated one or a list of sensing time window (STW) . The STW can be configured from server to sensing node (s) or SRU (s) , the server can be a LMF, a SF or gNB or a UE. The STW is meant to enable transmission and measurement by two sensing nodes within a window or to enable simultaneous transmission measurement by two sensing nodes. At least one of the followings can be supported.

A STW is associated with at least one of: a sensing node ID, an SRU ID, a sensing RS resource ID, a sensing RS resource set ID, a sensing frequency layer, a sensing target, a sensing area. For example, a STW can be associated with a list of sensing node, wherein each sensing node has a corresponding sensing RS resource/resource set (s) .

An indicator can be introduced under the configuration of STW, wherein the indicator can indicate at least one of more of the following: whether the window is used for sensing RS transmission, whether the window is used for sensing RS measurement, whether the window is used for sensing RS measurement and transmission, choice of {Tx, Rx, Tx and Rx} .

The sensing transmission time window or sensing measurement time window or sensing time window can be defined with at least one of the following parameters. The start of the STTW or SMTW or STW, which can be indicated by at least one of subframe number, SFN, DFN, slot offset, symbol offset, the parameters may be defined relative to an SFN initialization time or DFN initialization time. The duration of the STTW or SMTW or STW. The duration can be at least one of: a number of consecutive symbols, a number of consecutive slots. The periodicity of the STTW or SMTW or STW. A window ID associated with each STTW or SMTW or STW if multiple windows are configured.

Implementation Example 6: Joint sensing RS and other RS (s)

The use cases of ISAC may include detection, positioning, tracking, motion monitoring and environment monitoring. One of the main differences between sensing target and environment can be: most of the environment is static and sensing target may move with a velocity. The larger the time span of sensing RS, the higher the velocity/Doppler estimation accuracy. In order to increase the velocity/Doppler estimation accuracy, the sensing node may be requested to transmit/measure sensing RS as long as possible and at the same time align with the response time requirement. However, increasing the transmission instances of sensing RS will potentially crowd out available communication resources.

To balance both the requirement of velocity/Doppler accuracy and limited available sensing RS resources, joint sensing RS and other RS (s) /RS A processing can be supported. For example, sensing RS and PT-RS can be associated for sensing (as shown in FIG. 11) , the other RS/RS A can be at least one of: DL PRS, SRS, PT-RS, DM-RS, SL PRS or CSI-RS or a newly defined RS. FIG. 14 illustrates an example potential signal pattern of sensing RS and PT-RS.

At least one or more of the following can be supported. A sensing node may provide other RS’s configuration or characteristics to a server. The server can be SF, or LMF or another sensing node. A server may provide the association information for joint RS sensing to one or more sensing node. The associated information can include at least one or a list of: sensing RS association configuration ID, sensing node ID, sensing target, sensing area, sensing RS resource ID, sensing RS resource set ID, sensing RS frequency layer ID, sensing RS carrier ID, sensing RS BWP ID, RS resource type, other RS (s) resource ID, other RS (s) resource set ID, other RS (s) frequency layer ID, other RS (s) carrier ID, other RS (s) BWP ID. A server may request sensing node to provide sensing measurements via joint RS processing. The request signaling can include at least one or a list of: whether joint sensing RS and other RS (s) measurement is requested, sensing RS association configuration ID, sensing node ID, sensing RS resource ID, sensing RS resource set ID, sensing RS frequency layer ID, sensing RS carrier ID, sensing RS BWP ID, RS resource type, other RS (s) resource ID, other RS (s) resource set ID, other RS (s) frequency layer ID, other RS (s) carrier ID, other RS (s) BWP ID. A sensing node can report an indicator in sensing measurement report. The indicator may include at least one of: sensing RS association configuration ID, whether the reported sensing measurement is generated via joint processing sensing RS and other RS (s) , other RS (s) ’s type (e.g., PTRS, DMRS, CSI-RS, PRS, SRS) , other RS (s) resource ID, other RS (s) resource set ID, other RS (s) frequency layer ID, other RS (s) carrier ID, other RS (s) BWP ID. A sensing node can report, or be requested by server to report its capability regarding joint sensing RS and other RS(s) processing, the corresponding capabilities comprise at least one of the following: whether the sensing node support joint sensing RS and other RS (s) processing; maximum other RS bandwidth in MHz associated with sensing RS supported by a sensing node; duration of D a sensing node can process every N ms/slot, the number of symbols D should consider both sensing RS duration and the associated other RS duration; assume a “sensing RS + other RS” (e.g., a sensing RS resource ID with associated other RS resource ID) is a sensing RS group, a sensing node can report the max number of sensing RS groups that it can process.

In some examples, to enable joint sensing RS and other RS processing, at least one of the following conditions can be satisfied for joint sensing RS and the other RS (s) measurement: transmitted by the same sensing node; transmitted from the same ARP, e.g., shared the same ARP ID; configured with the same QCL source, the QCL source may also be presented as spatial relation, spatial direction, beam direction, beam index; share the same Tx TEG/PEG/AEG/DEG ID or the same Rx TEG/PEG/AEG/DEG ID, or the same RxTx TEG/PEG/AEG/DEG ID, or the same error margin; same numerology, e.g., CP, SCS; same or different bandwidth; same comb size; same power, or the same PSD, or the same pathloss RS, or the same P0, or the same alpha; same timing advance offset or the same TAG; same antenna port or same port; or same periodicity.

In some examples, RS A and sensing RS can be associated for joint processing for sensing. Different RS A patterns or configurations can be introduced for the case of RS A with associated data and RS A without associated data. For example, if RS A is not scheduled with data and RS A is used for sensing purpose, the RS A pattern can occupy and only occupy one PRB, instead of occupying a PRB every N PRB (s) . At least one or more of the following can be supported.

A server (SF, LMF or a sensing node) can request base station to configure a RS A pattern for sensing purpose. In the RS A configuration, an indicator can be introduced in RRC signaling to specify the use case of RS A. For example, the indicator may include two choices {normal, sensing} , for “normal” , the RS A is used for PUSCH or PDSCH as usual; for “sensing” , the RS A is used for assisting sensing. Or the indicator may indicate RS A can be used for both data and sensing.

The RS A is difference from sensing RS, which may be used for increase sensing accuracy. For example, RS A can be configured with high time density for Doppler estimation or be configured for phase tracking.

The parameters for RS A configuration used for sensing may include at least one of the following: type indicator (e.g., whether the RS A can be used for sensing) , time density, number of ports or maximum number of ports, frequency density, frequency bandwidth (e.g., 1 PRB) , resource element offset, RS A power or power ratio or EPRE (energy per resource element) ratio, RS A resource ID, RS A resource set ID, sensing RS association configuration ID.

RS A and sensing RS can be associated for joint processing for sensing. The RS A can be transmitted or scheduled without associated communication data. A DCI can be used for the scheduling of RS A and not scheduling PUSCH or PDSCH. The DCI can include one or more of the following fields: PTRS-sensingRS association field (s) , indicator of whether DCI is used for scheduling RS A only, indicator of whether DCI is used for scheduling communication data, indicator id whether DCI is used for scheduling both RS A and communication data.

RS A and sensing RS can be associated for joint processing for sensing. The RS A can be transmitted or scheduled with or without associated sensing RS. A DCI can be used for the scheduling of either sensing RS or RS A or both sensing RS and RS A. The DCI can include at least one of the following fields: whether the DCI is used for scheduling sensing RS or used for scheduling RS A or used for both sensing RS and RS A, RS A resource ID, sensing RS resource ID, sensing RS association configuration ID.

In some example, PT-RS and sensing RS can be associated for joint processing for sensing, the PT-RS can be transmitted with associated data or without data. RRC can be used to configure the association information between PT-RS and sensing RS. DCI can be used for scheduling sensing RS or RS A. One example of DCI fields design is shown as below:

If sensing RS is associated with other RS for sensing, they may have same or different priority. One or more of the following can be specified. Sensing RS and other associated RS (s) can be assigned/configured with a same priority. If sensing RS is configured to be associated with other RS, the sensing RS has higher priority than other sensing RS. Sensing RS and other associated RS (s) remain their original priority. If sensing RS is configured to be associated with other RS, the sensing RS may have lower priority than other sensing RS. The priority can be equal to the maximum priority value among sensing RS resource and its associated RS. The priority can be equal to the minimum priority value among sensing RS resource and its associated RS.

For the case when either sensing RS or other RS (s) is dropped (e.g., due to the collision with other signals/channels) , one or more of the following solutions can be applied: drop sensing measurement in both sensing RS and associated RS; or perform sensing measurement only based on sensing RS.

Implementation Example 7: Collision rule/priority rule

The sensing function (SF) or LMF (e.g., a core network) or a sensing node (e.g., server sensing node) can be involved in dealing with interference or collision issue. At least one or more of the following procedures can be applied (in the following paragraph, SF/LMF can also be replaced by a sensing node, for example, a server sensing node) .

i.SF/LMF or a sensing node may send a request signaling to sensing nodes (e.g., UE, gNB) asking for preferred/expected sensing measurement time or non-preferred sensing measurement time.

a) The requested sensing measurement time is mainly intended to avoid conflicts between sensing and communication/positioning. For example, if a Rx sensing node is excepted to receive/transmit signals/channels for communication/positioning in a time stamp/duration, this time stamp/duration and its neighboring symbol (s) can be recognized as non-preferred sensing measurement time.

b) The preferred/expected or non-preferred sensing measurement time can also be a time window. The time window may include start time, duration, end time, and/or periodicity.

c) The preferred/expected or non-preferred sensing measurement time can be replaced by occupied/allocated time for communication or positioning.

d) The SF/LMF or a sensing node may additional request for a priority value associated with Each expected/preferred/non-preferred sensing measurement time.

ii. Upon receiving SF/LMF’s request, or if not requested up to sensing node itself, sensing node may send one or a list of preferred/expected or non-preferred sensing measurement time/time window to SF/LMF or to a sensing node.

a) Each expected/preferred/non-preferred sensing measurement time may be associated with a priority value. For example, if the non-preferred sensing measurement is associated with a highest-priority-value, that indicates that Rx sensing node can not measure any sensing RS in the time stamp.

iii. SF/LMF may collect expected/preferred/non-preferred sensing measurement time/time windows from a number of Rx sensing nodes. SF/LCF may sort out the preferred/non-preferred sensing transmit timing.

iv. SF/LMF deliver one or a list of expected/preferred/non-preferred sensing transmit time or time window (s) to Tx sensing nodes, or/and

a) the expected/preferred/non-preferred sensing transmit time or time window can be associated with a sensing RS resource configuration, or/and

b) the expected/preferred/non-preferred sensing transmit time or time window can be associated with a sensing RS resource set configuration, or/and

c) the expected/preferred/non-preferred sensing transmit time or time window can be associated with a sensing RS frequency layer configuration, or/and

d) the expected/preferred/non-preferred sensing transmit time or time window can be associated with a sensing node, or/and

e) the expected/preferred/non-preferred sensing transmit time or time window can be associated with a sensing target or a sensing area.

v.SF/LMF may send muting information to Tx sensing nodes.

a) Instead of sending all preferred/non-preferred time to Tx sensing nodes, to save some signaling overhead, the SF/LMF may send muting information to Tx sensing nodes based on the sensing Tx characteristics collected from Tx sensing nodes. For example, if some instances of a sensing RS resource/resource set have conflicts with Rx sensing nodes’ communication transmission, SF/LMF can mute the conflicted instances.

vi. SF/LMF may deliver the conflict information or interference information to Tx sensing nodes.

vii. SF/LMF can inform the Rx sensing node (e.g., victim sensing node) about the interference information. In some examples, Rx sensing node may quit the adjacent communication symbol. The interference information for Rx sensing node can include at least one of the following:

a) one or a list of sensing RS resource ID;

b) one or a list of sensing RS resource set ID;

c) one or a list Tx sensing node ID;

d) the time location of affected resource: at least one of: a slot index, a symbol index, number of slots, a number of symbols; or

e) the frequency location of affected resource: at least one of: PRB index, number of PRBs or number of Res.

viii. For either expected/preferred/non-preferred sensing measurement time/time windows or expected/preferred/non-preferred sensing transmission time/time windows, at least one or more of the following can be specified.

a) One or a list of window (s) can be (pre-) configured, each window is associated with a window ID.

b) At least one or more of the following can be configured for the window: duration, starting time, periodicity.

c) A priority indication associated with the window can be configured. For example, the window priority is associated with whether sensing RS transmission or reception has higher priority than communication or not, or whether sensing RS transmission or reception has higher priority than positioning or not.

d) Only one window configuration can be used at a time.

In some examples, for either windows (STTW, SMTW) in implementation example 5 or window (s) in this embodiment, at least one or more of the following can be applied: for latency reduction, a sensing node can request a window configuration with a window ID among all the preconfigured windows. Server may request sensing node or sensing node’s serving gNB to preconfigure windows. A gNB can activate or de-activate one of the pre-configured windows for a sensing node via MAC CE or DCI. Or a sensing node can activate or de-activate one of the pre-configured windows via SCI or SL MAC CE. The window can be configured with a processing type: for example, it may include at least one or more of the following choices: window for positioning (either Uu positioning or SL psoitioning) , window for sensing, window for communication (e.g., RRM) , window for both sensing and positioning, window for both sensing and communication, window for sensing, positioning and communication.

In some examples, collision rules regarding sensing RS’s transmission or measurement can be specified, one or more of the following can be used. Sensing RS transmission or measurement has lower priority than other signals or channels, or if the sensing RS symbol (s) , including the potential retuning time, collides with other signals or channels, when UE determines that sensing RS with Tx hopping is to be dropped, the colliding sensing RS symbol (s) are dropped. Sensing RS transmission or measurement has higher priority than positioning RS. Sensing RS transmission or measurement has lower priority than positioning RS. The priority of RS for both sensing and communication has higher priority than other signals/channels for either sensing or communication, or the priority of RS for both sensing and communication is equal to the maximum priority among that for sensing and that for communication. The priority of RS for both sensing and positioning has higher priority than other signals/channels for either sensing or positioning, or the priority of RS for both sensing and positioning is equal to the maximum priority among that for sensing and that for positioning.

DCI (s) for which the time interval between the last symbol of PDCCH and the sensing RS in is at least N symbols, or DCI (s) for which the time interval between the last symbol of PDCCH and the sensing RS in is at least N symbols and additional time duration.

Implementation Example 8: UE-based sensing and UE capability

A UE may play an important role for both positioning, sensing and communication. In this implementation example, UE capabilities for processing SL PRS for either only positioning or joint sensing and positioning are introduced. In such case, the server can allocate suitable RS resources considering UE capability.

If the SL PRS is used for sensing or for both sensing and positioning, the processing capability can be adjusted since it is more complex and cost more effort for a UE to processing a SL PRS resource and generate both positioning measurements and sensing measurements. At least one or more of the following can be specified.

Maximum number of active SL PRS resources for sensing or for both sensing and positioning across all configured resource pools in a slot assuming maximum SL PRS bandwidth can be supported and reported by UE. The value is no larger than the reported that for SL positioning.

Maximum number of slots with active SL PRS resources for sensing or for both sensing and positioning across all configured RPs assuming maximum SL PRS bandwidth in MHz can be supported and reported by UE. The value is no larger than the reported that for SL positioning.

Minimum time after the end of a slot carrying the active SL-PRS resource (s) for sensing or for both sensing and positioning assuming maximum number of symbols and maximum bandwidth for a UE to finish the SL-PRS resource and the associated PSCCH processing can be supported and reported by UE. The value is no larger than the reported that for SL positioning.

A new UE feature component can be introduced, or the maximum number of parallel SL PRS transmission/reception can be specified for SL positioning. The following can also be reported for sensing or for both sensing and SL positioning, wherein the reported value for either of the following bullets/sub-bullets is no larger than the reported value for SL positioning. Tthe terms “dedicated SL PRS resource pool” , “shared SL PRS resource pool” , “both dedicated SL PRS resource pool and shared SL PRS resource pool” can be replaced with each other for this implementation example. One or more of the following can be supported. Support up to N parallel SL PRS transmissions for dedicated SL PRS resource pool in mode 1, it may include both dynamic grants and configured grants. Support up to N1 parallel SL PRS transmissions for dynamic grants for dedicated SL PRS resource pool. Support up to N2 parallel SL PRS transmissions for configured grants for dedicated SL PRS resource pool. Maximum number (M) of slots for SL PRS transmission in dedicated SL PRS resource pool, which is reported and supported by UE. Maximum number (M1) of slots with active SL PRS resource for transmission for dynamic grants. Maximum number (M2) of slots with active SL PRS resource for transmission for configured grants.

If UE supports up to 1 SL PRS resource transmission in a slot. Maximum number of slots is equal to maximum number of SL PRS resources for transmission. The maximum number of slots can be smaller than the maximum number of SL PRS resources for transmission. For example, if one SCI triggers more than one resources in a slot, the maximum number of SL PRS resources for transmission is N times the maximum number of slots. The number of N is associated with the number of resources a SCI can trigger in a slot. There are association relations between maximum number (M) of slots for transmission and the “maximum parallel SL PRS transmissions supported on a dedicated SL PRS resource pool in mode 1” (N) , one or more of the following can be supported.

■ M = N, (M1=N1, M2=N2) .

■ M = maximum (N) , M can be equal to the maximum number of candidate N (s) .

■ M >= N, N can be regarded as the maximum number of SL PRS process that a UE can maintain or support.

Either the capability regarding M or the capability regarding N can be reported by UE or be requested to be reported by UE. In some embodiments, both capability regarding M and capability regarding N can be reported or be requested to be reported by UE.

Support up to N parallel SL PRS transmissions for dedicated SL PRS resource pool in mode 2. Maximum number (M) of slots for transmission are supported for dedicated SL PRS resource pool in mode 2, there are association relations between this feature and the “maximum parallel SL PRS transmissions supported on a dedicated SL PRS resource pool in mode 2” one or more of the following can be supported.

○ M = N.

○ M = maximum (N) , M can be equal to the maximum number of candidate N (s) .

○ M >= N, N can be regarded as the maximum number of SL PRS process that a UE can maintain or support.

Support up to N parallel SL PRS transmissions for dedicated SL PRS resource pool for both mode 1 and mode 2. Maximum number (M) of slots for transmission are supported for dedicated SL PRS resource pool in both mode 1 and mode 2. There are association relations between this feature and the “maximum parallel SL PRS transmissions supported on a dedicated SL PRS resource pool. ”

○ M = N.

○ M = maximum (N) , M can be equal to the maximum number of candidate N (s) .

For SL PRS reception, at least one or more of the following can be supported. A UE can report its capability regarding maximum number of slots with active SL PRS resources across all dedicated SL PRS resource pools or across mode 2 dedicated SL PRS resource pools or across mode 1 dedicated SL PRS resource pools. A UE can report its capability regarding maximum number of slots with active SL PRS resources across all shared resource pools or across mode 2 shared SL PRS resource pools, or across mode 1 shared SL PRS resource pools. A UE can report its capability regarding maximum number of parallel SL PRS receptions across all dedicated SL PRS resource pools or across mode 2 dedicated SL PRS resource pools or across mode 1 dedicated SL PRS resource pools. A UE can report its capability regarding maximum number of parallel SL PRS receptions across all shared resource pools or across mode 2 shared SL PRS resource pools, or across mode 1 shared SL PRS resource pools.

It should be understood that one or more features from the above/following implementation examples are not exclusive to the specific implementation examples, but can be combined in any manner (e.g., in any priority and/or order, concurrently or otherwise) .

FIG. 15 illustrates a flow diagram of a method 1500 for sensing enhancement. The method 1500 may be implemented using any one or more of the components and devices detailed herein in conjunction with FIGS. 1 to 14. In overview, the method 1500 may be performed by a firs node (e.g., a Rx node) , in some embodiments. Additional, fewer, or different operations may be performed in the method 1500 depending on the embodiment. At least one aspect of the operations is directed to a system, method, apparatus, or a computer-readable medium.

A first node (e.g., a reception (Rx) node) may receive assistance data for a sensing reference signal for Integrated Sensing and Communication (ISAC) from a second node. The first node may receive a sensing Reference Signal (RS) based on the assistance data from a third node. The first node may report a sensing measurement based on the received sensing RS to the second node. In some embodiments, the third node can be a transmission (Tx) node of sensing RS. The second node can be acting like a server to manage the procedure of sensing (e.g., choose sensing node, provide assistance data for reception (Rx) node, suggest sensing RS characteristics for Tx node, decide on the sensing mode, determine a sensing estimate for a sensing target or a sensing area) .

While various arrangements of the present solution have been described above, it should be understood that they have been presented by way of example only, and not by way of limitation. Likewise, the various diagrams may depict an example architectural or configuration, which are provided to enable persons of ordinary skill in the art to understand example features and functions of the present solution. Such persons would understand, however, that the solution is not restricted to the illustrated example architectures or configurations, but can be implemented using a variety of alternative architectures and configurations. Additionally, as would be understood by persons of ordinary skill in the art, one or more features of some arrangements can be combined with one or more features of another arrangement described herein. Thus, the breadth and scope of the present disclosure should not be limited by any of the above-described illustrative arrangements.

It is also understood that any reference to an element herein using a designation such as “first, ” “second, ” and so forth does not generally limit the quantity or order of those elements. Rather, these designations can be used herein as a convenient means of distinguishing between two or more elements or instances of an element. Thus, a reference to first and second elements does not mean that only two elements can be employed, or that the first element must precede the second element in some manner.

A person of ordinary skill in the art would further appreciate that any of the various illustrative logical blocks, modules, processors, means, circuits, methods and functions described in connection with the aspects disclosed herein can be implemented by electronic hardware (e.g., a digital implementation, an analog implementation, or a combination of the two) , firmware, various forms of program or design code incorporating instructions (which can be referred to herein, for convenience, as "software" or a "software module) , or any combination of these techniques. To clearly illustrate this interchangeability of hardware, firmware and software, various illustrative components, blocks, modules, circuits, and steps have been described above generally in terms of their functionality. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware, firmware or software, or a combination of these techniques, depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the overall system. Skilled artisans can implement the described functionality in various ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions do not cause a departure from the scope of the present disclosure.

Furthermore, a person of ordinary skill in the art would understand that various illustrative logical blocks, modules, devices, components and circuits described herein can be implemented within or performed by an integrated circuit (IC) that can include a general purpose processor, a digital signal processor (DSP) , an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) , a field programmable gate array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device, or any combination thereof. The logical blocks, modules, and circuits can further include antennas and/or transceivers to communicate with various components within the network or within the device. A general purpose processor can be a microprocessor, but in the alternative, the processor can be any conventional processor, controller, or state machine. A processor can also be implemented as a combination of computing devices, e.g., a combination of a DSP and a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in conjunction with a DSP core, or any other suitable configuration to perform the functions described herein.

If implemented in software, the functions can be stored as one or more instructions or code on a computer-readable medium. Thus, the steps of a method or algorithm disclosed herein can be implemented as software stored on a computer-readable medium. Computer-readable media includes both computer storage media and communication media including any medium that can be enabled to transfer a computer program or code from one place to another. A storage media can be any available media that can be accessed by a computer. By way of example, and not limitation, such computer-readable media can include RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM or other optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium that can be used to store desired program code in the form of instructions or data structures and that can be accessed by a computer.

In this document, the term "module" as used herein, refers to software, firmware, hardware, and any combination of these elements for performing the associated functions described herein. Additionally, for purpose of discussion, the various modules are described as discrete modules; however, as would be apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art, two or more modules may be combined to form a single module that performs the associated functions according embodiments of the present solution.

Additionally, memory or other storage, as well as communication components, may be employed in embodiments of the present solution. It will be appreciated that, for clarity purposes, the above description has described embodiments of the present solution with reference to different functional units and processors. However, it will be apparent that any suitable distribution of functionality between different functional units, processing logic elements or domains may be used without detracting from the present solution. For example, functionality illustrated to be performed by separate processing logic elements, or controllers, may be performed by the same processing logic element, or controller. Hence, references to specific functional units are only references to a suitable means for providing the described functionality, rather than indicative of a strict logical or physical structure or organization.

Various modifications to the embodiments described in this disclosure will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, and the general principles defined herein can be applied to other embodiments without departing from the scope of this disclosure. Thus, the disclosure is not intended to be limited to the embodiments shown herein, but is to be accorded the widest scope consistent with the novel features and principles disclosed herein, as recited in the claims below.

Claims

A wireless communication method, comprising:

receiving, by a first node from a second node, assistance data for a sensing reference signal for Integrated Sensing and Communication (ISAC) ;

receiving, by the first node, a sensing Reference Signal (RS) based on the assistance data from a third node; and

reporting, by the first node to the second node, a sensing measurement based on the received sensing RS.
The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of:

the first node is a base station, the second node is a server node, and the third node is the first node;

the first node is a base station, the second node is a server node, and the third node is a base station different from the first node and the second node;

the first node is a wireless communication device, the second node is a server node, and the third node is the first node;

the first node is a first wireless communication device, the second node is a server node, and the third node is a second wireless communication device different from the first wireless communication device;

the first node is a wireless communication device, the second node is a server node, and the third node is a base station;

the first node is a base station, the second node is a server node, and the third node is a wireless communication device; and

the server node comprises a core network node, a base station, or a wireless communication device.
The method of claim 1, wherein a gap period is between a first time-domain resource for sensing and a second time-domain resource for positioning or for communication, wherein the first node or the second node refrains from transmitting or receiving in the gap period.
The method of claim 3, wherein the gap period has a length of a time-domain resource unit or a part of a plurality of parts of a time-domain resource unit.
The method of claim 1, further comprising at least one of:

receiving, by the first node or the third node from the second node via a higher layer parameter, assistance information for potential interference, or

receiving, by a base station of the third node, from the second node via the higher layer parameter, the assistance information for potential interference;

wherein the third node, the second node, or the base station of the third node determines sensing RS configuration based on the potential interference information.
The method of claim 5, wherein the assistance information for the potential interference comprises at least one of:

an expected length of a Cyclic Prefix (CP) ;

a type of CP;

an expected length of the gap period;

a number a plurality of parts of a time-domain resource unit, the gap period comprises one of the plurality of parts;

an indication of whether the CP is to be extended;

an expected sensing distance information and an uncertainty thereof;

an expected sensing propagation delay and an uncertainty thereof; or

a maximum delay spread or a maximum delay difference between paths between the first node and the third node.
The method of claim 5, wherein the potential interference information is associated with at least one of: sensing Reference Signal (RS) resource information, a sensing RS resource set information, a Sensing Frequency Layer (SFL) , a sensing node Identifier (ID) , a spatial direction information, a sensing target, or a sensing area.
The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of:

the method further comprises sending, by the third node to the first node, potential interference information; or

the potential interference information comprises at least one of: sensing RS resource information, sensing RS resource set information, a time location or a time span, a frequency location, or a frequency span.
The method of claim 1, wherein a Long Cyclic Prefix (LCP) is applied to a time-domain resource.
The method of claim 9, wherein

the time-domain resource comprises at least one sensing Reference Signal (RS) resource; and

at least one of:

the LCP is applied to each of the at least one sensing RS resource;

the LCP is applied to each sensing RS resource set comprising two or more of the at least one sensing RS resource;

the LCP is applied to each Positioning Frequency Layer (PFL) or Sensing Frequency Layer (SFL) of the at least one sensing RS resource;

the LCP is applied to the first node or the third node;

the length of LCP is determined by a base station of the first node or the third node;

the length of LCP is determined by the second node; or

the length of LCP is determined by the first node or the third node.
The method of claim 9, wherein the length of LCP or the type of CP can be requested by a sensing node or the second node.
The method of claim 9, wherein a third time-domain resource comprises a first time-domain resource having a Cyclic Prefix (CP) and a second time-domain resource comprising the LCP, wherein the LCP has a length greater that of the CP.
The method of claim 1, wherein a first time-domain resource unit for sensing comprises a number of second time-domain resource units, and at least one of:

a length of a Long Cyclic Prefix (LCP) equals to a number multiplied by a length of a Cyclic Prefix (CP) ;

a pattern of the sensing RS is repeated within the first time-domain unit.
The method of claim 1, further comprising one of:

sending, by the first node, a request to the second node or the third node for the assistance data;

receiving, by the first node from the second node or the third node, the assistance data;

receiving, by the third node from the second node, the assistance data; or

sending, by the first node to the second node or the third node or a base station, the assistance data.
The method of claim 14, wherein the assistance data comprises one of:

location information of the first node or the third node, wherein the location information comprises at least one of a location coordinate, location quality, time information, or sensing node ID;

velocity information of the first node or the third node, wherein the velocity information comprises at least one of a velocity, velocity quality, time information, or sensing node ID; or

for the first node, the third node, a sensing RS resource, a sensing RS resource set, a sensing area, or a sensing target, at least one of expected propagation delay, Doppler, angle, power, or velocity.
The method of claim 14, wherein the assistance data comprises one of:

a time-varying sensing RS configuration, the time-varying sensing RS configuration being valid within a time interval;

assistance data being valid within an area;

assistance data being valid within a time interval;

assistance data being valid within a range or crossing a threshold of a Doppler shift or a velocity;

assistance data being valid within a range or crossing a threshold of an angle;

assistance data being valid within a range or crossing a threshold of a power; or

assistance data being valid within a range or crossing a threshold of a propagation delay.
The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving, by the first node, a request for sensing measurement report comprising velocity information.
The method of claim 17, wherein at least one of:

the sensing measurement request requests a periodical sensing measurement report or an one-shot report;

the interval between receiving the request for the sensing measurement report and sending the sensing measurement report is one of at least two interval, the at least two interval comprises a first interval and a second interval, the first interval being longer than the second interval, the first interval configured for the sensing report comprising velocity measurement or a Doppler measurement; or

the request comprises at least one of a request for velocity or Doppler, velocity or Doppler range, velocity or Doppler granularity, number of samples for the velocity or the Doppler, at least one Doppler measurements for each time measurement.
The method of claim 1, wherein the sensing measurement report comprises at least one of:

a time stamp for velocity measurement or Doppler measurement of a sensing object;

a time window for velocity measurement or Doppler measurement of the sensing object; or

a plurality of Doppler measurements per sensing node, per sensing RS resource, per sensing RS resource set, per time measurement, or per path.
The method of claim 1, further comprising:

reporting, by the first node, capabilities on the supporting features for sensing;

wherein the capabilities comprises at least one of:

whether Doppler measurement reporting is supported;

whether velocity range or velocity resolution is supported for sensing measurement reporting;

whether a plurality of Doppler measurements per timing measurement reporting is supported;

whether velocity/doppler reporting granularity is supported; or

whether N-sample reporting is supported.
The method of claim 1, wherein least one of:

the first node sends indication to the second node indicating whether any sensing target is detected;

the indication comprises a 1-bit indicator indicating no sensing target is detected;

the first node sends sensing measurements of each detected sensing target to the second node; or

the first node refrains from providing any sensing measurement report or error cause report to the second node, and the second node determined that the first node detects no sensing target, that there is no abnormality around a sensing area, or that there is no change compared to a previous measurement report.
The method of claim 1, wherein the sensing measurement report comprises at least one of:

a Line-Of-Sight (LOS) indicator or a Non-Line-Of-Sight (NLOS) indicator for sensing;

an LOS indicator or an NLOS indicator for positioning;

an LOS or an NLOS category;

an LOS or an NLOS granularity comprising at least one of: per sensing RS resource LOS or NLOS indicator, per sensing RS resource set LOS or NLOS indicator, per sensing node LOS or NLOS indicator, per path LOS or NLOS indicator; or

an LOS or an NLOS type comprising at least one of a hard value or a soft value.
The method of claim 1, wherein the sensing assistance data comprises at least one of:

an expected Line-Of-Sight (LOS) or Non-Line-Of-Sight (NLOS) indicator; or

a value range of an LOS or an NLOS indicator.
The method of claim 1, further comprising at least one of:

reporting, by the third node to the second node, an association information between a Transmission (Tx) Error Group (TEG) information and the sensing RS configuration; or

reporting, by the third node to the second node, an association information between a Tx antenna information and the sensing RS configuration, wherein

the association information comprises at least one or a list of a Tx TEG Identifier (ID) , a Tx Phase Error Group (PEG) ID, a Tx Angle Error Group (AEG) ID, a Tx Doppler Error Group (DEG) ID, a Reception (Rx) Antenna Reference Point (ARP) ID, a sensing RS resource ID, a sensing RS resource set ID, ID of the third node, or time information.
The method of claim 1, wherein the sensing measurement report is associated with an error group information or an antenna information, the information comprises at least one of:

a Reception (Rx) error group information;

an Rx antenna information;

an RxTx error group information;

an RxTx antenna information;

a Tx error group information; or

a Tx antenna information.
The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, by the first node from the second node, a request for reporting a Reception (Rx) error group information or an Rx antenna information with the sensing measurement, wherein the request comprises at least one of:

an error group information or an antenna information associated with measurements of at least one path; or

a plurality of sensing measurements associated with different error group information or antenna information for a sensing RS resource.
The method of claim 1, wherein at least one of:

the assistance data received by the first node from the second node comprise at least one of indicator of whether round-trip method is required, sensing node ID, indicator of whether the sensing node is an initiator to initiate the round-trip procedure, ID of the initiator sensing node, bandwidth of sensing RS, a time delay budget, a time window, a Transmission (Tx) beam range, a Rx beam range; or

the method further comprising transmitting, by the first node, a sensing RS to the third node wherein the Tx spatial direction is associated with the Reception (Rx) beam direction for receiving third node’s sensing RS.
The method of claim 1, further comprising at least one of:

receiving, by the first node or the third node from the second node or from a base station, at least one time window for sending the sensing signal; or

receiving, by the first node or the third node from the second node or from a base station, at least one time window for receiving the sensing signal.
The method of claim 28, wherein at least one of:

the parameters for the time window comprise at least one of an indication of whether the time window is used for sensing RS transmission, indication of whether the time window is used for sensing RS measurement, start time of the time window, duration, periodicity, window Identifier (ID) , or priority;

the time window is associated with at least one of a sensing node ID, an Sensing Reference Unit (SRU) ID, a sensing RS resource ID, a sensing RS resource set ID, a sensing frequency layer, a sensing target, or a sensing area; or

the time window can be activated or be de-activated.
The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, by the first node, an association information between sensing RS and a second RS, wherein the association information comprises at least one of sensing RS association configuration Identifier (ID) , sensing node ID, sensing target, sensing area, sensing RS resource ID, sensing RS resource set ID, sensing RS frequency layer ID, sensing RS carrier ID, sensing RS BWP ID, second RS resource type, second RS resource ID, second RS resource set ID, second RS frequency layer ID, second RS carrier ID, or second RS Bandwidth Part (BWP) ID.
The method of claim 1, wherein the sensing RS is measured in combination with a second Reference Signal (RS) .
The method of claim 1, wherein the sensing measurement report further comprising at least one of:

whether the reported sensing measurement is generated via joint processing sensing RS and a second RS, a type of the second RS, a second RS resource Identifier (ID) , a second RS resource set ID, a second RS frequency layer ID, a second RS carrier ID, a second RS Bandwidth Part (BWP) ID, or a sensing RS association configuration ID.
The method of claim 31, the sensing RS is measured in combination with the second RS in response to determining at least one of:

the sensing RS and a second RS is transmitted by a same sensing node;

the sensing RS and the second RS is transmitted from a same antenna;

the sensing RS and the second RS have a same spatial information;

the sensing RS and the second RS have a same error group information;

the sensing RS and the second RS have a same power;

the sensing RS and the second RS have a same timing advance information; or

the sensing RS and the second RS have a same periodicity.
The method of claim 31, wherein the parameters for the second RS configuration comprise at least one of type indicator, whether the second RS is transmitted without communication data, time density, number of ports or maximum number of ports, frequency density, frequency bandwidth, resource element offset, power or power ratio or Energy Per Resource Element (EPRE) ratio, resource ID of the second RS, resource set ID of the second RS, or sensing RS association configuration ID.
The method of claim 31, wherein Downlink Control Information (DCI) is used for scheduling the second RS, the DCI comprises at least one of:

at least one sensing RS association field;

an indicator of whether the DCI is used for scheduling RS A only;

an indicator of whether the DCI is used for scheduling communication data; or

an indicator of whether DCI is used for scheduling both RS A and communication data.
The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, by the first node from the second node, a request for preferred or expected sensing measurement time or non-preferred or non-expected sensing measurement time; and

sending, by the first node to the second node, at least one of:

one or more preferred or expected sensing measurement times or time windows; or

one or more non-preferred or non-expected sensing measurement times or time windows.
The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving, by the second node or the third node from the first network, at least one of:

one or more preferred or expected sensing measurement times or time windows; or

one or more non-preferred or non-expected sensing measurement times or time windows;

wherein

one of:

the one or more preferred or expected sensing measurement times or time windows are associated with a sensing RS resource configuration;

the one or more non-preferred or non-expected sensing measurement times or time windows are associated with the sensing RS resource configuration;

the one or more preferred or expected sensing measurement times or time windows are associated with a sensing RS resource set configuration;

the one or more non-preferred or non-expected sensing measurement times or time windows are associated with the sensing RS resource set configuration;

the one or more preferred or expected sensing measurement times or time windows are associated with a sensing RS frequency layer configuration;

the one or more non-preferred or non-expected sensing measurement times or time windows are associated with the sensing RS frequency layer configuration;

the one or more preferred or expected sensing measurement times or time windows are associated with the first node; or

the one or more non-preferred or non-expected sensing measurement times or time windows are associated with the first node.
The method of claim 1, further comprising at least one of:

receiving, by the second node from the third node, a request for preferred or expected sensing transmission time or non-preferred or non-expected sensing transmission time; and

sending, by the second node to the third node, at least one of:

one or more preferred or expected sensing transmission times or time windows; or one or more non-preferred or non-expected sensing transmission times or time windows.
A wireless communication method, comprising:

reporting, by a first wireless communication device to a network node or a second wireless communication device, capabilities on supporting SL positioning, wherein the capabilities comprise at least one of:

support up to a number of parallel SL PRS transmissions; or

support a maximum number of slots for SL PRS transmission.
The method of claim 39, wherein there are an association relationship between the maximum number of slots for SL PRS transmission and the maximum number of parallel SL PRS transmissions for either SL PRS resource allocation mode or SL PRS resource allocation mode 2.
A wireless communication apparatus comprising at least one processor and a memory, wherein the at least one processor is configured to read code from the memory and implement the method recited in claim 39.
A computer program product comprising a computer-readable program medium code stored thereupon, the code, when executed by at least one processor, causing the at least one processor to implement the method recited in claim 39.