Systems and methods for supporting location and country determination for 5G satellite access

A user equipment (UE) configured to support satellite wireless access by the UE to a serving public land mobile network (PLMN), comprising:

• a wireless transceiver configured to wirelessly communicate with a communication satellite;
• at least one memory;
• at least one processor coupled to the wireless transceiver and the at least one memory, wherein the at least one processor is configured to:
• receive, via the wireless transceiver, broadcast signaling from a plurality of communications satellites for a plurality of radio cells supported by the plurality of communications satellites, the broadcast signaling for each radio cell including a positioning identifier (PID), wherein the PID is changed over time such that each radio cell in the plurality of radio cells has a respective first PID at a first time and a respective second PID at a second time, the respective second PID different from the respective first PID;
• obtain measurements of the broadcast signaling for at least one radio cell of the plurality of radio cells;
• and
• send, via the wireless transceiver, the measurements and the PID for the at least one radio cell to a satellite NodeB (gNB), wherein the measurements and the PID enable a determination of a location and a country for the UE by the gNB.

A satellite NodeB (gNB) configured to support satellite wireless access by a user equipment (UE) to a serving public land mobile network (PLMN), comprising:

• an external interface configured to communicate with network entities;
• at least one memory;
• at least one processor coupled to the external interface and the at least one memory, wherein the at least one processor is configured to:
• receive, via the external interface from the UE, measurements of broadcast signaling for a plurality of radio cells and a positioning identifier (PID) for each radio cell of the plurality of radio cells, the broadcast signaling received by the UE from a plurality of communications satellites for the plurality of radio cells, wherein the PID for the each radio cell is changed over time such that each radio cell in the plurality of radio cells has a respective first PID at a first time and a respective second PID at a second time, the respective second PID different from the respective first PID;
• and
• determine a location and a country for the UE based on the measurements and the PID for the each radio cell.