Associating a downlink reference signal for positioning of a user equipment with an uplink reference signal for transmission by the user equipment

A method of operating a user equipment (UE), comprising:

• receiving, from at least one base station as part of a positioning procedure for the UE, at least one downlink (DL) reference signal (RS) on a first set of resources;
• receiving, from a network entity, an indication of an association between the at least one DL RS with at least one uplink (UL) RS for transmission by the UE;
• and
• transmitting, to one or more base stations in response to the received indication, the at least one UL RS on a second set of resources as part of the positioning procedure for the UE.

A network entity, comprising:

• a memory;
• at least one processor coupled to the memory and at least one transceiver and configured to:
• schedule, as part of a positioning procedure for a user equipment (UE), a first set of resources for transmission of at least one downlink (DL) reference signal (RS) by at least one base station to the UE;
• associate the at least one DL RS with at least one uplink (UL) RS for transmission by the UE on a second set of resources to one or more base stations as part of the positioning procedure for the UE;
• and
• transmit, to the UE, an indication of the association between the at least one DL RS and the at least one UL RS.

A user equipment (UE), comprising:

• a memory;
• at least one processor coupled to the memory and at least one transceiver and configured to:
• receive, from at least one base station as part of a positioning procedure for the UE, at least one downlink (DL) reference signal (RS) on a first set of resources;
• receive, from a network entity, an indication of an association between the at least one DL RS with at least one uplink (UL) RS for transmission by the UE;
• and
• transmit, to one or more base stations in response to the received indication, the at least one UL RS on a second set of resources as part of the positioning procedure for the UE.