Hierarchical reporting of location assistance information for positioning reference signal (PRS) resources in a multi-beam user equipment-based positioning scenario

A positioning 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:
• cause the at least one transceiver to transmit assistance data for enabling a user equipment (UE) to estimate a location of the UE, the assistance data including a relative location of each of a plurality of transmission points, wherein the relative location of each of the plurality of transmission points is represented as a hierarchy of two or more levels of description, wherein a lower level of description is relative to a higher level of description, wherein a highest level of description is relative to a fixed reference point, and wherein, for each transmission point:
• a first level of description of the hierarchy of the two or more levels of description representing the relative location of the transmission point represents a location of a transmission-reception point (TRP) relative to the fixed reference point, and
• a second level of description of the hierarchy of the two or more levels of description representing the relative location of the transmission point represents a location corresponding to a positioning reference signal (PRS) resource set relative to the location corresponding to the TRP.

A method of wireless communication performed by a user equipment (UE), comprising:

• receiving, from a positioning entity, assistance data for enabling the UE to estimate a location of the UE, the assistance data including a relative location of each of a plurality of transmission points, wherein the relative location of each of the plurality of transmission points is represented as a hierarchy of two or more levels of description, wherein a lower level of description is relative to a higher level of description, and wherein a highest level of description is relative to a fixed reference point;
• receiving, from each of at least a subset of the plurality of transmission points, at least one positioning reference signal;
• and
• estimating the location of the UE based on characteristics of reception of the at least one positioning reference signal from each of the subset of the plurality of transmission points and the two or more levels of description and the fixed reference point for each of the subset of the plurality of transmission points.

A user equipment (UE), comprising:

• means for receiving, from a positioning entity, assistance data for enabling the UE to estimate a location of the UE, the assistance data including a relative location of each of a plurality of transmission points, wherein the relative location of each of the plurality of transmission points is represented as a hierarchy of two or more levels of description, wherein a lower level of description is relative to a higher level of description, and wherein a highest level of description is relative to a fixed reference point;
• means for receiving, from each of at least a subset of the plurality of transmission points, at least one positioning reference signal;
• and
• means for estimating the location of the UE based on characteristics of reception of the at least one positioning reference signal from each of the subset of the plurality of transmission points and the two or more levels of description and the fixed reference point for each of the subset of the plurality of transmission points.