Management of measurement gap signaling

1 . An apparatus for communication with a non-terrestrial network, NTN, the apparatus comprising: at least one processor, and at least one memory including a computer program code, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured, with the at least one processor, to cause the apparatus to:

receive, from a network, a measurement gap configuration signaling at least comprising a measurement gap configuration indicating a measurement gap for acquiring a position estimate of the apparatus;

receive, from the network, as part of the measurement gap configuration signaling, an allocation indicating a feedback resource for providing feedback on the reception of the measurement gap configuration;

receive, from the network, as part of the measurement gap configuration signaling, an allocation indicating a feedback resource for providing feedback on an attempt to acquire a position estimate;

attempt to acquire a position estimate of the apparatus during said measurement gap;

transmit, to the network, before the measurement gap, a feedback on the reception of the measurement gap configuration using said feedback resource for providing feedback on the reception of the measurement gap configuration; and

transmit, to the network, a feedback on the acquisition of the position estimate using said feedback resource for providing feedback on the attempt to acquire a position estimate.

2 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the feedback resource for providing feedback on the reception of the measurement gap configuration is a first HARQ feedback resource of a HARQ process associated with the measurement gap configuration signaling.

3 . The apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the feedback resource for providing feedback on the attempt to acquire a position estimate is a second HARQ feedback resource of the HARQ process associated with the measurement gap configuration signaling.

4 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the feedback resource for providing a feedback on the attempt to acquire a position estimate comprises a resource scheduled within the measurement gap and/or a resource scheduled after the measurement gap.

5 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the apparatus is further caused to

in case a position estimate of the apparatus is acquired during said measurement gap, determine whether and/or how to transmit validity information indicating a validity duration of said acquired position estimate to the network.

6 . The apparatus of claim 5 , wherein said determining whether and/or how to transmit said validity information is based on one or more of

the validity duration of said acquired position estimate;

the validity duration of the previous position estimate;

a comparison of the validity duration of said acquired position estimate and the validity duration of the previous position estimate;

a required remaining connection time; and

a comparison of a required remaining connection time and the validity duration of the previous position estimate.

7 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the apparatus is further caused to, in case a position estimate of the apparatus is acquired during said measurement gap,

transmit an acknowledgement of an acquisition of the position estimate as said feedback on the attempt to acquire a position estimate, in case the validity duration of said acquired position estimate is the same or longer than the validity duration of the previous position estimate; and/or

transmit a negative acknowledgement of an acquisition of the position estimate as said feedback on the attempt to acquire a position estimate, in case the validity duration of said acquired position estimate is smaller than the validity duration of the previous position estimate.

8 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein said feedback on the attempt to acquire a position estimate is configured to indicate one or more of:

an acknowledgement of an acquisition of the position estimate;

a negative acknowledgement of an acquisition of the position estimate;

whether there is a change of a validity duration of an acquired position estimate;

a change of a validity duration of an acquired position estimate relative to the validity duration of the previous position estimate.

9 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the apparatus is further caused to

in case a position estimate of the apparatus is acquired during said measurement gap, transmit, to the network, validity information indicating a validity duration of the acquired position estimate.

10 . The apparatus of claim 9 , wherein the validity information indicating a validity duration of the acquired position estimate is transmitted to the network

attached to data to be transmitted;

in response to a scheduling grant;

in a MAC CE;

via RRC signaling; and/or

in the feedback on the attempt to acquire a position estimate.

11 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the measurement gap configuration is received in a medium access control, MAC, control element, CE.

12 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein said measurement gap configuration signaling comprises a scheduling message for receiving the measurement gap configuration.

13 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the apparatus is further caused to, in case a position estimate of the apparatus is acquired, one or more of:

estimate a round trip time, RTT, based on the acquired position estimate;

determine a timing offset based on the acquired position estimate;

compensate a timing offset based on the acquired position estimate; and/or

transmit data based on a determined timing offset having been determined based on the acquired position estimate.

14 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the apparatus is or is part of one or more of the following:

a wireless terminal;

an low power wide area network LPWAN device;

an NB-IoT device; and/or

an eMTC device.

15 . A network entity of a non-terrestrial network, NTN, the network entity comprising: at least one processor, and at least one memory including a computer program code, wherein the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured, with the at least one processor, to cause the network entity to:

transmit, to an apparatus, a measurement gap configuration signaling at least comprising a measurement gap configuration indicating a measurement gap for acquiring a position estimate of the apparatus;

transmit, to the apparatus, as part of the measurement gap configuration signaling, an allocation indicating a feedback resource for providing feedback on the reception of the measurement gap configuration;

transmit, to the apparatus, as part of the measurement gap configuration signaling, an allocation indicating a feedback resource for providing feedback on the acquisition of the position estimate;

receive, from the apparatus, before the measurement gap, a feedback on the reception of the measurement gap configuration using said feedback resource for providing feedback on the reception of the measurement gap configuration; and

receive, from the apparatus using said feedback resource for providing feedback on an attempt to acquire a position estimate, a feedback on an attempt to acquire a position estimate during said measurement gap by the apparatus.

16 . The network entity of claim 15 , wherein the network entity is further caused to, based on the received feedback on an attempt to acquire a position estimate during said measurement gap, schedule a resource for the apparatus to transmit validity information indicating a validity duration of a position estimate acquired by the apparatus.

17 . A method, performed by at least one apparatus, the method comprising:

receiving, from a network, a measurement gap configuration signaling at least comprising a measurement gap configuration indicating a measurement gap for acquiring a position estimate of the apparatus;

receiving, from the network, as part of the measurement gap configuration signaling, an allocation indicating a feedback resource for providing feedback on the reception of the measurement gap configuration;

receiving, from the network, as part of the measurement gap configuration signaling, an allocation indicating a feedback resource for providing feedback on an attempt to acquire a position estimate;

attempting to acquire a position estimate of the apparatus during said measurement gap;

transmitting, to the network, before the measurement gap, a feedback on the reception of the measurement gap configuration using said feedback resource for providing feedback on the reception of the measurement gap configuration; and

transmitting, to the network, a feedback on the acquisition of the position estimate using said second feedback resource.