QUALCOMM Incorporated
CLUSTER-BASED APPROACH TO POSITIONING OF VEHICLES IN VEHICLE PLATOONING OR AUTONOMOUS TRUCKING

Abstract:

A user equipment in a vehicle (v-UE) may transmit ranging signals, sometimes referred to as physical ranging signals (PRS), via inter-vehicle messages. The vehicle may be designated as a representative of a cluster of vehicles, e.g., in a vehicle platoon, and may broadcast and receive PRS on behalf of the cluster, while no other vehicles in the cluster broadcast PRS. PRS received from single representative vehicle in a separate cluster may be used to determine the inter-cluster distance between the two clusters. If the inter-cluster distance falls below a predetermined threshold, the v-UE may instruct all other vehicles in its cluster to begin broadcasting PRS, so that each vehicle can determine its distance to all other vehicles. Accordingly, the overhead due to broadcast PRS may be minimized until, e.g., accurate positioning between vehicles is warranted.