Pre-emptive reconfiguration of measurement gap pattern for low positioning latency

1 . A wireless communications system comprising:

a first network element, the first network element being a first location management function (LMF) node in a core network of the wireless communications system;

a serving next generation Node B (serving gNB) in a radio access network of the wireless communications system, the serving gNB serving a user equipment (UE) of the wireless communication system; and

a second network element, the second network element being a second LMF node in the serving gNB in the radio access network of the wireless communications system,

the first network element comprising:

first memory storing first computer-executable instructions; and

a first processor configured to execute the first computer-executable instructions, wherein the first computer-executable instructions, when executed by the first processor, cause the first network element at least to perform:

sending, by the first network element, assistance data to the UE of the wireless communications system, the assistance data comprising:

target transmission and reception point (TRP) information list, which includes one of more cell IDs of one or more target TRPs of the UE, and

observed time difference of arrival (OTDOA) assistance data;

sending, by the first network element, positioning performance target data and all of the assistance data to the serving gNB of the UE, the positioning performance target data comprising:

a desired position accuracy,

a required position accuracy,

a desired target latency measured as elapsed time from location request to obtaining location coordinates, and

a required target latency measured as elapsed time from location request to obtaining location coordinates;

sending a first positioning request to the UE;

notifying the serving gNB that a first positioning session has started with respect to the UE by sending a first positioning session start notification message to the serving gNB;

receiving inter-frequency measurement results from the UE; and

notifying the serving gNB that the first positioning session has ended with respect to the UE by sending a first positioning session end notification message to the serving gNB; and

the second network element comprising:

second memory storing second computer-executable instructions; and

a second processor configured to execute the second computer-executable instructions, wherein the second computer-executable instructions, when executed by the second processor, cause the second network element at least to perform:

sending, by the second network element, the assistance data to the UE of the wireless communications system;

sending, by the second network element, the positioning performance target data and all of the assistance data to the serving gNB of the UE;

sending a second positioning request to the UE;

notifying the serving gNB that a second positioning session has started with respect to the UE by sending a second positioning session start notification message to the serving gNB;

receiving inter-frequency measurement results from the UE; and

notifying the serving gNB that the second positioning session has ended with respect to the UE by sending a second positioning session end notification message to the serving gNB; and

the serving gNB comprising:

third memory storing third computer-executable instructions; and

a third processor configured to execute the third computer-executable instructions, wherein the third computer-executable instructions, when executed by the third processor, cause the serving gNB at least to perform:

determining a measurement gap (MG) pattern based on the positioning performance target data and the assistance data, the determined MG pattern including an MG duration and an MG periodicity;

reconfigure the UE with the determined MG pattern, the reconfiguring comprising:

with regard to the first LMF node in the core network, reconfiguring the UE with the determined MG pattern only after a positioning request is sent by the first LMF node in the core network, and

with regard to the second LMF node in the serving gNB, reconfiguring the UE with the determined MG pattern after the gNB preemptively determines the MG pattern before the second LMF node in the serving gNB sends a positioning request, and only triggering use of the determined MG pattern at the UE after a positioning request is received at the UE from the second LMF node in the serving gNB.