Granted Patent B2

US 12,538,264 · App. 18/256,573 · Granted Jan 27, 2026

Inventors: Weimin Duan (San Diego, CA); Huilin Xu (Temecula, CA); Yuwei Ren (Beijing, CN)

Assignee: QUALCOMM Incorporated

H04W68/00H04B7/04013H04L5/0051

Abstract

Claims (90)

1 . A method of operating a wireless node, comprising:

measuring a first time of arrival (TOA) of a first sounding reference signal for positioning (SRS-P) from a user equipment (UE);

measuring a second TOA of a reflection of a second SRS-P from the UE off of a first reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS);

measuring a third TOA of a reflection of a third SRS-P from the UE off of a second RIS; and

transmitting, to a position estimation entity, measurement information based on the first, second and third TOAs.

2 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the first, second and third SRS-Ps correspond to the same SRS-P.

3 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the first, second and third SRS-Ps comprise two or more different SRS-Ps in association with one or more known transmission time offsets.

4 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the first SRS-P is associated with a first SRS-P type and the second and third SRS-Ps are associated with a second SRS-P type.

5 . The method of claim 4 ,

wherein the first SRS-P type corresponds to a default SRS-P type, and

wherein the second SRS-P type corresponds to a RIS-specific SRS-P type.

6 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the measurement information comprises:

the first, second and third TOAs, or

one or more time difference of arrival (TDOA) measurements based on the first, second and third TOAs, or

one or more reference signal time differences (RSTDs) based on the one or more TDOA measurements, or

a combination thereof.

7 . The method of claim 1 ,

wherein the wireless node corresponds to a serving base station of the UE, or

wherein the wireless node corresponds to a non-serving base station of the UE, or

wherein the wireless node corresponds to another UE associated with a known location.

8 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the UE corresponds to a reduced capability (RedCap) UE or a non-RedCap UE.

9 . The method of claim 1 ,

wherein the position estimation entity corresponds to the wireless node, and

wherein the transmission of the measurement information corresponds to a transfer of the measurement information from one logical component of the wireless node to another logical component of the wireless node.

10 . The method of claim 1 , wherein the position estimation entity corresponds to the UE, a serving base station of the UE, a location management function (LMF), a location server, or a combination thereof.

11 . The method of claim 1 ,

wherein a first propagation time between the wireless node and the first RIS is known,

wherein a second propagation time between the wireless node and the second RIS is known, and

wherein the measurement information is based on the first and second known propagation times.

12 . The method of claim 11 ,

wherein the measurement information is computed based on the first and second known propagation times, or

wherein the measurement information is configured to be further processed by the first and second known propagation times at the position estimation entity.

13 . The method of claim 12 ,

wherein the first and second propagation times are estimated via a radio access technology (RAT) positioning scheme, or

wherein the first and second propagation times are estimated via a RAT-independent positioning scheme.

14 . The method of claim 1 ,

wherein the first and second RISs comprise at least one RIS of a first type that is configured to reflect reference signals without baseband processing, or

wherein the first and second RISs comprise at least one RIS of a second type that is configured to reflect reference signals with baseband processing in association with a predetermined timing group delay or a dynamically reported timing group delay, or

a combination thereof.

15 . A method of operating a position estimation entity, comprising:

receiving, from a wireless node, measurement information based on a first time of arrival (TOA) of a first sounding reference signal for positioning (SRS-P) from a user equipment (UE), a second TOA of a reflection of a second SRS-P from the UE off of a first reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS), and a third TOA of a reflection of a third SRS-P from the UE off of a second RIS; and

determining a positioning estimate of the UE based at least in part on the measurement information.

16 . The method of claim 15 , wherein the first, second and third SRS-Ps correspond to the same SRS-P.

17 . The method of claim 16 , wherein the first, second and third SRS-Ps comprise two or more different SRS-Ps in association with one or more known transmission time offsets.

18 . The method of claim 16 , wherein the first SRS-P is associated with a first SRS-P type and the second and third SRS-Ps are associated with a second SRS-P type.

19 . The method of claim 18 ,

wherein the first SRS-P type corresponds to a default SRS-P type, and

wherein the second SRS-P type corresponds to a RIS-specific SRS-P type.

20 . The method of claim 16 , wherein the measurement information comprises:

the first, second and third TOAs, or

one or more time difference of arrival (TDOA) measurements based on the first, second and third TOAs, or

one or more reference signal time differences (RSTDs) based on the one or more TDOA measurements, or

a combination thereof.

21 . The method of claim 16 ,

wherein the wireless node corresponds to a serving base station of the UE, or

wherein the wireless node corresponds to a non-serving base station of the UE, or

wherein the wireless node corresponds to another UE associated with a known location.

22 . The method of claim 16 , wherein the UE corresponds to a reduced capability (RedCap) UE.

23 . The method of claim 16 ,

wherein the position estimation entity corresponds to the wireless node, and

wherein the reception of the measurement information corresponds to a transfer of the measurement information from one logical component of the wireless node to another logical component of the wireless node.

24 . The method of claim 16 , wherein the position estimation entity corresponds to the UE, a serving base station of the UE, a location management function (LMF), a location server, or a combination thereof.

25 . The method of claim 16 ,

wherein a first propagation time between the wireless node and the first RIS is known,

wherein a second propagation time between the wireless node and the second RIS is known, and

wherein the measurement information is based on the first and second known propagation times.

26 . The method of claim 25 ,

wherein the measurement information is computed based on the first and second known propagation times, or

wherein the measurement information is configured to be further processed by the first and second known propagation times at the position estimation entity.

27 . The method of claim 26 ,

wherein the first and second propagation times are estimated via a radio access technology (RAT) positioning scheme, or

wherein the first and second propagation times are estimated via a RAT-independent positioning scheme.

28 . The method of claim 16 ,

wherein the first and second RISs comprise at least one RIS of a first type that is configured to reflect reference signals without baseband processing, or

wherein the first and second RISs comprise at least one RIS of a second type that is configured to reflect reference signals with baseband processing in association with a predetermined timing group delay or a dynamically reported timing group delay, or

a combination thereof.

29 . A wireless node, comprising:

a memory;

at least one transceiver; and

at least one processor communicatively coupled to the memory and the at least one transceiver, the at least one processor configured to:

measure a first time of arrival (TOA) of a first sounding reference signal for positioning (SRS-P) from a user equipment (UE);

measure a second TOA of a reflection of a second SRS-P from the UE off of a first reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS);

measure a third TOA of a reflection of a third SRS-P from the UE off of a second RIS; and

transmit, to a position estimation entity, measurement information based on the first, second and third TOAs.

30 . A position estimation entity, comprising:

a memory;

at least one transceiver; and

at least one processor communicatively coupled to the memory and the at least one transceiver, the at least one processor configured to:

receive, from a wireless node, measurement information based on a first time of arrival (TOA) of a first sounding reference signal for positioning (SRS-P) from a user equipment (UE), a second TOA of a reflection of a second SRS-P from the UE off of a first reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS), and a third TOA of a reflection of a third SRS-P from the UE off of a second RIS; and

determine a positioning estimate of the UE based at least in part on the measurement information.

Assignments (1)

Continuity (1)

References Cited (12)