5G Hybrid Positioning Solutions: Moving Towards Hazardous Scenarios

Enterprise safety and production are closely related and inseparable, and safe production is the basis of enterprise development. Especially in the hazardous industries, there are many dangerous operating environments, such as furnaces and stockyards in steel plants, and flammable and explosive chemical installation areas. Accidents occur frequently, which cannot guarantee the safety of personnel, let alone safety in production.

To implement safe production and ensure the safety of personnel, it is necessary to make the location of personnel visible, hazardous areas manageable, and emergency response controllable. Many enterprises take safe production as their first priority, and begin to build a personnel positioning management system. Traditional positioning is mainly based on satellites, Bluetooth, UWB and other positioning technologies. Based on these positioning technologies, enterprises face the following problems in their choices:

• Satellite deteriorates its positioning accuracy due to obstruction, such as in the middle of multiple buildings or indoor areas of offices, factories, and shopfloors.
• Bluetooth and UWB have small positioning distance and need many hardware devices, resulting in high cost and complex maintenance. The construction in critical scenarios must be strictly approved, and it is difficult for on-site construction personnel to wire and obtain electricity, resulting in a long project construction period.
• Traditional Bluetooth, UWB and satellite positioning systems only focus on positioning capabilities, and cannot take into account the large-bandwidth wireless networks required for digital transformation of enterprises.

Facing the positioning requirements of critical scenarios, ZTE and upstream and downstream location service partners have insight into industry needs and scene characteristics, integrate a variety of positioning technologies, and build a 5G hybrid positioning solution based on 5G private networks.

As shown in Fig. 1, the 5G hybrid positioning solution is divided into four layers: terminal layer, network layer, platform layer, and service layer.

Regarding the terminal layer, where the measured object is located, the portability is of primacy. ZTE provides a variety of 5G positioning terminals such as mobile phones and safety helmets with communication capabilities. It also provides card terminals adopting Bluetooth and UWB. With the launch of 5G RedCap positioning chips, more 5G lightweight, low-power and low-cost terminals will come out, and 5G positioning will adapt to more scenarios.

The network layer, which completes positioning measurement and provides the basis for location services, can be based on a variety of positioning algorithms of 5G cellular, and can also extend traditional positioning algorithms to adapt to various scenarios. For example, in chemical plant areas, steel factories and other steel-structure places, there are many large metal equipment and brackets; in this environment, the signal obstruction is serious, which has a great impact on positioning measurement. At the same time, there are many hollow areas, so vertical dimension should be taken into account in positioning. For various complex environments, positioning algorithms such as UTDOA, AOA and ECID are adopted based on 5G networks and the environmental characteristics. Considering both cost and accuracy, traditional positioning technologies such as UWB, Bluetooth and satellite can be integrated for specific areas. A variety of positioning technologies and algorithms work together to adapt to various scenarios, which provides a location foundation for the construction of enterprise personnel positioning management system.

The platform layer includes location-based service (LBS) and map service. LBS provides location calculation based on measurement data at the network layer, and also provides basic location and trajectory analysis. Map service is used for closed parks or indoor places, providing map production rendering and location information presentation. It can choose centralized or distributed deployment methods according to the enterprise's existing cloud-edge architecture or its own distribution.

The service layer, which is the enterprise's service portal, provides enterprise-oriented application services, and is a part of the enterprise digital platform, including personnel management, vehicle management, electronic attendance, and electronic fence. It can also be combined with the digital twin technology to fully perceive people, equipment and environment, establish an efficient connection under the complex environment of the enterprise, and combine the operation of factory production system with the enterprise personnel positioning management system. The service layer and the platform layer are decoupled to be flexibly integrated. The digital platform of the enterprise can directly call the platform layer for application service presentation, or directly use the open location data of the platform layer to provide location services for the enterprise as required.

Enterprise-oriented location services need to consider map construction and end-to-end system integration, and also need to provide end-to-end positioning solutions in the fields of terminal, network, platform, map, and application integration, so as to ensure enterprises have a better service experience. ZTE has actively worked with partners to build and improve the solutions and gradually promote their maturity.

• 5G cellular positioning: ZTE has completed end-to-end commercial trials of 5G cellular positioning technology in different scenarios such as industrial manufacturing, transportation hubs, chemical parks, and hospitals.
• 5G+UWB deep integration: ZTE has carried out in-depth cooperation with industry-leading UWB enterprises, taking the lead in launching 5G+UWB deep integration solutions and promoting commercial trials and implementation.
• Interface standardization: ZTE has worked with industry chain partners to promote the standardization of location service interfaces, and has completed the integration with multiple business applications.
• 5G terminal form: ZTE has promoted terminal partners to enrich 5G terminal types.

ZTE will continue to work closely with partners to further promote the development of the 5G end-to-end industry chain, provide all-scenario 5G hybrid positioning solution for complex and hazardous scenarios, and promote the rapid implementation of positioning management systems. The solution will become one of the strong supports for 5G-enabled vertical industries, empowering enterprise security management and facilitating their digital transformation.