UE positioning is needed in telecommunications for a variety of reasons such as

helping optimize the power usage of the phones and to increase the signal qualiy
of other users in the surrounding area. Round trip delay (RTD) is a metric used
as a way of estimating the distance of a UE from a given cell site. Across 3G/4
G technologies, the methods of measuring the distance are different. This will h
ighlight the various ways positioing is determined in LTE/CDMA.
Determining the position of the UE involves two main steps:
1 - radio sigbnals measurements
2 - position estimate computation and optional velocity computation based on the
measurements.
The basic signals used in terrestrial position methods are typically the E-UTRAN
radio transmissions. OTher signals such as Global Navigation Satellites Systems
can also be measured.

The principle is that these RF signals are traveling at the speed of light (c).
By finding the time (T) it takes to transmit from BTS to UE, the magnitude of th
e distance (d) of the UE from the site simply becomes d = cT. When generalizing
to 3D and taking into account the shape of the Earth, we must use trilateration
techniques to find exact positions.
METHODS:
1 - CELL ID METHOD (CID)
Simplest of the methods but very coarse. Only the serving cell of the UE is prov
ided. Since LTE EPC is involved in mobility management of UEs (e.g. tracking are
a updates from the UE), the serving cell of the UE is always known. Not very acc
urate, as we only know which cell the UE is located.
2 - ENHANCED CELL ID (ECID)
In ECID, the round trip time (RTT or RTD) between the eNodeB and UE is used to e
stimate the distance of the UE. Also, the network can use the Angle of Arrival o
f signals from the UE to provide direction information.
RTT is measured by looking at Timing Advance (TA) measurements, either from the
eNodeB or by querying the UE. TA measurements are used to help the UE synchroniz
e with the BTS. In LTE, when UE wish to establish RRC connection with eNB, it tr
ansmits a Random Access Preamble, eNB estimates the transmission timing of the t
erminal based on this. Now eNB transmits a Random Access Response which consists
of timing advance command, based on that UE adjusts the terminal transmit timin
g. With RTT alone, the site only knows the magnitude of the distance, not the ex
act position. This tells us the UE lies somewhere on a circle of radius d (with
the site at the middle), where d = cT.
According to 3GPP, TA must have a relative accuracy of better than or equal to 1
30 nanoseconds.
Radio Resource Control (RRC) is used in LTE on the Air interface (between UE and
BTS). It handles the control plan signaling. Main functions of RRC include conn
ection establishment and release functions and broadcast of system information (
which is information needed by the UE to connect to a network). There are two st
ates a phone can be in RRC_CONNECTED and RRC_IDLE. RRC_CONNECTED means the phone
is consuming resources on the network (such as watching video, checking email ,
etc.) To help cut down on UE power consumption, when the UE is inactive for a sh
ort period, the phone moves to the RRC_IDLE mode.
Angle of Arrival (AoA) is measured based on uplink transmissions from the UE and
the known configuration of the eNodeB antenna array. The received UE signal bet
ween successive antenna elements is typically phase-shifted by a measurable valu
e. The degree of this phase shift depends on the AoA, the antenna element spacin
g, and the carrier frequency. By measuring the phase shift and using known eNode
B characteristics, the AoA can be determined. Typical uplink signals used in thi
s measurement are Sounding Reference Signals (SRS) or Demodulation Reference Sig
nals (DM-RS). With this and RTT, we are able to better estimate where a UE is lo
cated.
Accuracy for above methods = 150m or coarser
Main sources of error - receive time uncertainty and multipath reflections

3 - A-GPS (Assisted GPS)

There are two fully global operating GNSS systems - GPS and GLONASS. There is an
individual receiver within the UEs for this type of signal. The receiver needs
at least 4 satellites to compute a 3-D position, while 3 is need to compute 2D p
osition. GPS alone has very slow data rates in general, however.Also, performanc
e is generally poor in high-obscuration areas and multipath scenarios, such as i
ndoor and dense urban areas.
Assisted GPS (A-GPS) is technique where the network provides information to the
UE about the positioning of the GPS satellites, which makes acquisition much fas
ter for the phone. This helps by effectively increasing the number of satellites
available for acquisition.
Accuracy for GPS: 10m - 50m

4 - OTDOA (Observed Diiference Time of Arrival)

OTDOA is similar process to GNSS position calculating. The UE measures the time
diffrences in downlink reference signals from two or more sites. Using the known
position of the base stations and these time diffrences, it is possible to calc
ulate position of the UE. To overcome the unreliablity of measuring refrence sig
nals in multipath environments, special position subframes have been defined in
Rel9 called Positioning Reference Signals. On these subframes, the RS is boosted
making it highly detectable and helps in the accuracy of RD measurement.
Accuracy: 50m - 200m

CDMA systems
1 - Advanced Forward Link Trilateraion (AFLT)
Solution developed by Qualcomm. The UE measures the phases of the CDMA pilot sig
nals that it sees. A location server associates each pilot measurement to a near
by tower and creates a database known as a base station almanac. CDMA BTSs are s
ynchronized with GPS time, which eliminates timing offsets between BTSs. Trilate
ration is then used to turn the tower positions and pilot measurements into a po
sition, much like GPS.

THINGS TO CONSIDER
LTE is IP based, meaning there is a slight processing delay that adds to the ina
ccuracy of exact positioning. CDMA can give more accurate positioing due to less
overhead on the Air interface.