Sensing assisted positioning

1 . A method to support one or more positioning operations performed by a network entity, the method comprising:

receiving, from a first management function of a network, a first configuration that indicates a first parameter associated with a sensing operation, the sensing operation operable to measure a characteristic of an object within an environment;

receiving, from a second management function of the network, a second configuration that indicates a second parameter associated with a positioning operation, the positioning operation associated with a determination of a position of the object within the environment;

transmitting a positioning report based on the positioning operation and that is associated with the position of the object within the environment; and

transmitting a sensing report based on the sensing operation and that indicates a measurement of the characteristic to enable an update of the position of the object determined based on the positioning report.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein:

the first management function corresponds to a sensing management function (SnMF), and

the second management function corresponds to a location management function (LMF).

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein:

the first parameter indicates a sensing measurement,

the characteristic includes:

a distance between the network entity and the object,

an angle measurement indicating an angle formed by a beam transmitted during the sensing operation and the object,

a velocity of the object, or

a combination thereof.

4 . The method of claim 3 , wherein:

the first parameter further indicates an output of the sensing operation, and

the output includes:

a Doppler map,

a range,

an angle map,

a point cloud,

objects identified as a result of the sensing operation, the objects positioned in the environment and including the object, or

a combination thereof.

5 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

generating a positioning reference signal (PRS) based on the second parameter;

transmitting the PRS; and

generating the positioning report based on a reflected PRS, the reflected PRS reflected off of a surface of the object in response to transmission of the PRS.

6 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

generating a sensing signal based on the first parameter, wherein the sensing signal comprises a radio frequency (RF) signal.

7 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

transmitting the sensing report to the first management function, to the second management function, or both; and

transmitting the positioning report to the first management function, to the second management function, or both.

8 . The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

transmitting the sensing report to the first management function; and

transmitting the positioning report to the second management function, wherein the second management function is configured to receive the sensing report from the first management function and is configured to identify the position of the object based on the positioning report and the sensing report.

9 . A method to support a positioning operation and a sensing operation performed by a network, the method comprising:

establishing, between a first management function of the network and a second management function of the network, a joint positioning and sensing session;

transmitting a first configuration associated with a sensing operation;

transmitting a second configuration associated with a positioning operation;

receiving a sensing report that indicates a characteristic of an object within an environment, the characteristic determined based on the sensing operation;

receiving a positioning report; and

identifying a position of the object within the environment based on the positioning report and based on the characteristic indicated by the sensing report.

10 . The method of claim 9 , wherein:

the first management function includes a location management function (LMF); and

identifying the position of the object includes:

determining, by the first management function, the position of the object based on a positioning measurement indicated by the positioning report and based on a sensing measurement indicated by the sensing report, the sensing measurement is associated with:

a distance from a network entity to the object,

an angle measurement indicating an angle formed by a beam transmitted during the sensing operation and the object,

a velocity of the object, or

a combination thereof.

11 . The method of claim 9 , wherein establishing the joint positioning and sensing session includes performing, by the first management function, operations that include:

sending, to the second management function, capability information that indicates a capability of the first management function;

identifying one or more network entities, configurable by the second management function, to perform the sensing operation;

providing, to the second management function, a first indication of measurement types to be generated by the sensing operation; and

providing, to the second management function, a second indication of reference signal resources operable to perform positioning measurements.

12 . The method of claim 9 , wherein establishing the joint positioning and sensing session includes performing, by the second management function, operations that include:

sending, to the first management function, capability information that indicates a capability of the second management function;

identifying one or more network entities, configurable by the first management function, to perform the positioning operation;

providing, to the first management function, a first indication of reference signal resources operable to perform sensing measurements.

13 . The method of claim 9 , wherein:

transmitting the first configuration includes transmitting the first configuration to a first set of network entities, and

transmitting the second configuration includes transmitting the second configuration to a second set of network entities.

14 . The method of claim 13 , wherein at least one network entity is included in the first set of network entities and in the second set of network entities.

15 . The method of claim 13 , wherein at least one of the first set of network entities includes a base station, and wherein at least one of the second set of network entities includes a transmission reception point (TRP).

16 . The method of claim 13 , wherein at least one of the first set of network entities includes a transmission reception point (TRP), and wherein at least one of the second set of network entities includes a user equipment (UE).

17 . The method of claim 9 , wherein the first management function includes a location management function (LMF), and wherein the second management functions includes a sensing management function (SnMF).

18 . The method of claim 17 , wherein receiving the positioning report includes receiving the positioning report at the first management function, and wherein receiving the sensing report includes receiving the sensing report at the second management function.

19 . The method of claim 18 , further comprising:

transmitting, by the second management function, the sensing report to the first management function.

20 . The method of claim 17 , wherein receiving the positioning report includes receiving the positioning report at the first management function, and wherein receiving the sensing report includes receiving the sensing report at the first management function.

21 . The method of claim 20 , further comprising:

transmitting, by the first management function, the sensing report to the second management function.

22 . The method of claim 9 , wherein:

transmitting the first configuration includes transmitting the first configuration to a base station;

transmitting the second configuration includes transmitting the second configuration to the base station, wherein the base station is configured to transmit the first configuration and the second configuration to a network entity served by the base station.