Detailed Action
1. This Office Action is in response to the applicant’s communication file don 11/05/2025. In virtue of this communication, claims 1, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10-12, 14, 15, 17-19, 22-25, 28, 29, 32, 33, 35-38, 40, 41, 44-46, 48, 72 and 95 are currently pending in this Office Action.
Response to Arguments
2. In Remarks on pages 11-15, applicant presents the arguments for “receiving, from the at least one second UE over the sidelink, an indication of a set of time resources, frequency resources, or both allocated for the positioning procedure; and transmitting at least one positioning reference signal on the set of time resources, frequency resources, or both allocated for the positioning procedure”.
2.1. To respond the applicant arguments for the claim limitation “receiving, from the at least one second UE over the sidelink, an indication of a set of time resources, frequency resources, or both allocated for the positioning procedure”, initially, it’s to note that examiner recognizes that the test for obviousness is what the combined teachings of the references would have suggested to those of ordinary skill in the art. See In re Keller, 642 F.2d 413, 208 USPQ 871 (CCPA 1981).
In addition, it’s to note that claim does not require whether the one second UE consider or create “an indication” or what required to be the indication such as a particular format in the message. Indeed, Khoryaev depicts fig. 5 that UE 105 could transmit the V2V message (to UE 105-1, in par. 0064), depicts fig. 8-10 that UE 105-1 generates geo-information report and transmits it to one or other UE (par. 0095, consider a case for UE 105-2 instead of eNB), and explains in par. 0099 that UE 105-1 and UE 105-2 could exchange a geo information report without eNB. It means that Khoryaev discloses the argued claim limitation that “the first UE would receive an indication for a geo-location report from the one second UE”.
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In second part, or seemingly missing part of what Khoryaev teaches, “a geo-location report” of Khoryaev could be replaced or substituted as a combined prior art with Mohammad Soleymani’s control information to indicate a set of time resources or frequency resources. See fig. 6-7 & fig. 10 of Mohammad Soleymani for indicating a set of time resources or frequency resources. See MPEP 2143, KSR Exemplary Rationale B, Simple substitution that one of ordinary skill in the art would have expected a combination of two prior art to indicate “a set of time resources or frequency resources”.
2.2. To respond applicant’s argument for the claim limitation “transmitting at least one positioning reference signal on the set of time resources, frequency resources, or both allocated for the positioning procedure”, recall that, as explained above, Khoryaev discloses UE 105 or UE 105-1 could exchange geo-location report over V2V resource with UE 1-5-2. (par. 0064, 0095 & 0099). In fact, geo-location report of Khoryaev would include a reference signal for positioning techniques by measuring the signal (par. 0035), for RRSI, SNR, RSRQ or RSRQ (see par. 0037 & 0062 for reference signal).
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In particular, Zhang teaches other UE for transmitting SCI X (2401 in fig. 9). It means that Zhang teaches explicitly transmitting SCI X over frequency or time resource. In this instant, X in SCI of Zhang could carry what Khoryaev and Mohammad Soleymani combination teaches such as reference signal of Khoryaev. What’s more, claim does not specifically define what’s required to be PRS such as a specific signal for ranging or measuring RSSI. Then, the claimed PRS does not exclude par. 0035 of Khoryaev for a reference signal to be measured for RSSI or RSRQ or RSRP or SNR. Hence, the reference signal of the combined Khoryaev and Mohammad Soleymani would have been transmitted by either Khoryaev or Mohammad Soleymani or the combination and the newly [at that time] cited prior art Zhang. See evidence from other for transmitting PRS: par. 0169 and fig. 12-13 in Khoryaev Pub. No.: US 2020/0275458 A1; and Xiao et al. Pub. No.: US 2022/0279310 A1 (positioning assistance data as PRS in par. 0029 & 0054-0055).
For the above reasons in Sections 2.1 – 2.2, claim rejections are sustained as applicant’s arguments are found not persuasive.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
3. The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
4. The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
5. Claims 1, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10-12, 14, 15, 18 19, 22, 24, 48 and 95 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Khoryaev et al. Pub. No.: US 2019/0059071 A1 in view of Mohammad Soleymani et al. Pub. No.: US 2022/0225292 A1 and Zhang et al. Pub. No.: US 2019/0356451 A1.
Claim 1
Khoryaev discloses a method (fig. 7-9) for deice to device synchronization) for wireless communication performed at a first user equipment (UE) (UE 105-1 in fig. 7), comprising:
transmitting a first sidelink control information (SCI-1) message (transmitting second message in 855 of fig. 8, see fig. 8-9, see UEs 105 in fig. 7 for exchanging geo-information indicating synchronization source, timestamp, i.e., control information in par. 0088-0089, SCI-1 is reasonably interpreted as second message in fig. 8-9 as explained in par. 0095) over a physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH) of a sidelink (par. 0095, geo-information report or CQI or PMI or power controlled transmission over PSCCH, consider UE 105-1 transmitting second message to one or more other UE as explained) between the first UE (UE 105-1 in fig. 7-9) and at least one second UE (UE 105-2 in fig. 7, see fig. 8-9 and par. 0095, for transmitting second message to other UE); and
receiving, from the at least one second UE over the sidelink, an indication of a set of time resources, frequency resources, or both allocated for the positioning procedure (time and frequency resource in par. 0081; 850-855 in fig. 8; see timestamp in 825 in fig. 5, resource allocation 905 and geo-info in steps 915 in fig. 9; see resource as time-frequency in par. 0105).
Although Khoryaev does not disclose: “transmitting a second sidelink control information (SCI-2) message to the at least one second UE over the PSCCH of the sidelink, the SCI-2 message associated with the SCI-1 message, the SCI-2 message including a request to perform a positioning procedure; and transmitting at least one positioning reference signal on the set of time resources, frequency resources, or both allocated for the positioning procedure”, the claim limitations are considered obvious by the following rationales.
Firstly, to consider the obviousness of the claim limitations “transmitting a second sidelink control information (SCI-2) message to the at least one second UE over the PSCCH of the sidelink, the SCI-2 message associated with the SCI-1 message, the SCI-2 message including a request to perform a positioning procedure”, recall that Khoryaev explains exchanging communications between UE 105-1 and UE 105-2 (fig. 7-9 and par. 0088-0099) and UE for capable of performing measurements such as RSRP, RSRQ or RSSI or SNR (par. 0035, one of those measurement could be performed for determining proximity as depicted in fig. 8-9, i.e., a positioning procedure). In other words, Khoryaev teaches performing a positioning procedure (fig. 9, steps 905-910-915; see measurement for RTT or RTD in par. 0103). What’s more, any of UE in fig. 7-9 of Khoryaev could transmit a first message and a second message to other UE. It means that if teaching of Khoryaev above are compared to the addressing claim limitations, the teaching from Khoryaev may not disclose explicitly “SCI-2 message and to be included a request to perform a positioning procedure in the SCI-2 message”. Herein, “a positioning procedure” is reasonably interpreted in accordance with MPEP 2111, as measuring for RTT or RSSI or RSRQ or RSRP of Khoryaev explained above. In particular, Mohammad Soleymani teaches the control information for sidelink SCI carried by PSSCH having 5 bit or 8 bits group destination ID or the group of UEs (par. 0054-0056, see UE destination ID and group destination ID in par. 0149-0150; see fig. 8-12 for SCI). In fig. 10 of Mohammad Soleymani, UE1 may transmit 2nd stage SCI + data to UE for a first time and a second time. Accordingly, one of ordinary skill in the art to include SCI of Mohammad Soleymani into transmitting messages of Khoryaev SCI-1 and SCI-2. See MPEP 2143, KSR Exemplary Rationale F.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify autonomous resource selection for vehicle-to-vehicle V2V sildelink communications of Khoryaev by providing sidelink control message as taught in Mohammad Soleymani. Such a modification would have included a sidelink communication to us a two-stage sidelink control information so that monitoring system and tracking system could be exchanged data effective over the sidelink as suggested in par. 0002 & 0016-0018 of Mohammad Soleymani.
Secondly, to consider the obviousness of the claim limitations “an indication of a set of time resources, frequency resources, or both allocated for the positioning procedure; and transmitting at least one positioning reference signal on the set of time resources, frequency resources, or both allocated for the positioning procedure”, recall that Khoryaev discloses messages with geo-information and resources over sidelink between UEs and performing location procedures (fig. 7-9), and Mohammad Soleymani explains SCI with a big format (fig. 8-12 and par. 0149-0150). As explained above, the combination would have performed equally well to the addressing claim limitation. However, to advance the prosecution further evidence is provided herein. In particular, Zhang teaches UE for detecting a PSCCH in format of SCI X transmitted by other UEs (par. 0282) and the indication in SCI X for resource and measurement RSRP or S-RRSI, as to a positioning procedure (par. 0282-0287 and see Table 1 in par. 0267 and Table 2-1 & 2-2 in par. 0269).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify autonomous resource selection for vehicle-to-vehicle V2V sildelink communications of Khoryaev in view of Mohammad Soleymani by providing V2X communication as taught in Zhang to obtain the claimed invention as specified in the claim. Such a modification would have included sci X, sidelink control information, over a PSCCH to communicate between user equipment UEs so that the reception and power usage would have optimized as suggested in par. 0014 of Zhang.
Claim 4
Khoryaev, in view of Mohammad Soleymani and Zhang, discloses the method of claim 1, wherein:
the SCI-1 message is scrambled by a destination identifier (Khoryaev, destination of a message in par. 0027; Mohammad Soleymani, see destination ID bit in the table in par. 0272 and a group destination ID in par. 0055, a UE destination ID in par. 0148; Zhang, fig. 7-9; it means that a message including destination ID as group ID or UE ID in par. 0148 of Mohammad Soleymani would be encoded or scrambled in OFDM system of par. 0040 of Khoryaev), or
the destination identifier is a field inside the SCI-2 message (Khoryaev destination of a message in par. 0027; Mohammad Soleymani, see destination ID filed in the table in par. 0272; Zhang, fig. 7-9; it means that a message includes destination ID as group ID or UE ID as field in 8 bit as explained in par. 0055 & 0148 of Mohammad Soleymani; accordingly, the combined prior art meets the claim conditions).
Claim 5
Khoryaev, in view of Mohammad Soleymani and Zhang, discloses the method of claim 4, wherein:
the destination identifier identifies a group of UEs including the at least one second UE (Khoryaev, destination of a message in par. 0027, see destination ID for unicast in par. 0272; Mohammad Soleymani, a group destination ID in par. 0055 and a UE destination ID in par. 0148 and destination ID bit in par. 0272; Zhang, fig. 7-9; hence, the combined prior art read on the claim),
or
the destination identifier indicates that the request to perform the positioning procedure is a broadcast to all UEs within wireless communication range of the first UE (Khoryaev, destination of a message in par. 0027 and see steps 905-910-915 in fig. 9 performing measurement for obtained GEO-information included from UE of fig. 8; Mohammad Soleymani, a group destination ID in par. 0055 and a UE destination ID in par. 0148; Zhang, fig. 7-9, 2302 in fig. 7 for measuring S-RSRP, i.e., position information; accordingly, one of ordinary skill in the art would have expected the combined prior art to perform equally well to the claim).
Claim 7
Khoryaev, in view of Mohammad Soleymani and Zhang, discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the transmitting the request comprises:
transmitting a medium access control control element (MAC-CE) on a physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH) of the sidelink (Khoryaev, MAC control element in par. 0095 and it could be over PSSCH in par. 0095), the MAC-CE including the request to perform the positioning procedure (Khoryaev, performing measuring steps in fig. 9 based on GEO-information received from fig. 8; Mohammad Soleymani, fig. 4 in view of SCI in fig. 10-14; Zhang, 2302 in fig. 7 for measuring S-RSRP and see par. 0282-0287; for these reasons, the combined prior art renders on the claim obvious).
Claim 8
Khoryaev, in view of Mohammad Soleymani and Zhang, discloses the method of claim 1, further comprising:
transmitting, over a physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH) of the sidelink (Khoryaev, PSSCH in par. 0095 and fig. 8-9; Mohammad Soleymani, DMRS pattern in fig. 17-20, PSSCH bit in par. 0253), a demodulation reference signal (DMRS) (DMRS in par. 0041 of Khoryaev; DMRS in par. 0267, and see DMRS bit in the table in par. 0272 of Mohammad Soleymani) associated with the request to perform the positioning procedure (Khoryaev, DMRS as GEO-information in fig. 8-9; Zhang, 2302 in fig. 7), wherein the request to perform the positioning procedure includes an indication that the DMRS is to be used for the positioning procedure (Khoryaev; in fig. 9, GEO-information, such as DMRS in par. 0041, is determined; Mohammad Soleymani, DMRS in fig. 17-20; Zhang, 2302 in fig. 7; accordingly, the combined prior art meets the claim requirement).
Claim 10
Khoryaev, in view of Mohammad Soleymani and Zhang, discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the request to perform the positioning procedure includes an indication of whether or not at least one reference signal associated with the request to perform the positioning procedure is to be used for positioning (Khoryaev, GEO-information in fig. 8-9; Mohammad Soleymani, DMRS bit indication bit in the table in par. 0272; Zhang, par. 0283, UE determines SCI X whether to measure; see MPEP 2111.04, II Contingent Limitations, for these reasons, one of ordinary skill in the art would have expected the combined prior art to perform equally well to the claim, or rather that the combined prior art meets the claim conditions).
Claim 11
Khoryaev, in view of Mohammad Soleymani and Zhang, discloses the method of claim 10, wherein the indication further indicates a number of the at least one reference signal, time locations, frequency locations, or both of the at least one reference signal, or both (Khoryaev, reference signal and resource in fig. 8-9, see time and frequence resource for sidelink V2V in fig. 4 and par. 0062; Mohammad Soleymani, see the table in par. 0272 for frequence resource bit, time resource bit and DMRS patterns bit, i.e., number or frequency of reference signal; Zhang, frequency resource bit and resource reservation bit in Table in par. 0267; and thus, the combined prior art reads on the claim).
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Claim 12
Khoryaev, in view of Mohammad Soleymani and Zhang, discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the request to perform the positioning procedure includes an indication that the at least one second UE is expected to perform the positioning procedure with the first UE (Khoryaev, fig. 8-9, UEs 105, or UE 105-2, for measuring proximity or the distance from UE 105-1 in par. 0102; Mohammad Soleymani, destination ID for unicast or group cast, i.e., to a specific UE or a group of UE, in the table in par. 0272; Zhang, step 2302 in fig. 7 and par. 0283, UE determines where to measure PSSCH-RSRP or RSSI; and thus, the combined prior art renders the claim obvious).
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Claim 14
Khoryaev, in view of Mohammad Soleymani and Zhang, discloses the method of claim 12, wherein the positioning procedure comprises a round-trip-time (RTT) positioning procedure (Khoryaev, reception-transmission time difference measurements in par. 0035 and a round trip time in par. 0103), the method further comprising:
receiving, from the at least one second UE, a second reference signal and a parameter indicating a time difference between reception at the second UE of a first reference signal transmitted by the first UE and a transmission time of the second reference signal (Khoryaev, time measurements in fig. 6-7, see reception-transmission time difference measurements in par. 0035 and steps 910-915 in fig. 9 and par. 0101-0103; Mohammad Soleymani, time differences in fig. 10-14; Zhang, time position from optional time position information in par. 0070-0071 & 0214; for these reasons, one of ordinary skill in the art would have expected the combined prior art to perform equally well to the claim, see MPEP 2143, KSR Exemplary Rationale F).
Claim 15
Khoryaev, in view of Mohammad Soleymani and Zhang, discloses the method of claim 14, wherein the first reference signal transmitted by the first UE is the at least one positioning reference signal (Khoryaev, GOE-information signal in fig. 8-9 and see par. 0101-0103 for own location or known coordinates, DMRS in par. 0041; Mohammad Soleymani, DMRS bit in the table in par. 0272; and hence, the combined prior art reads on the claim).
Claim 18
Khoryaev, in view of Mohammad Soleymani and Zhang, discloses the method of claim 14, further comprising:
estimating a relative location of the first UE based at least on a time difference between transmission of the first reference signal and reception of the second reference signal (Khoryaev, time measurements in fig. 6-7, see reception-transmission time difference measurements in par. 0035 and steps 910-915 in fig. 9 and par. 0101-0103; Mohammad Soleymani, time differences in fig. 10-14 and DMRS in table in par. 0272; Zhang, whether to measure RSRP or RSSI in 2302 in fig. 7 and par. 0283), the parameter indicating the time difference between reception at the at least one second UE of the first reference signal and the transmission time of the second reference signal (Khoryaev, offset in par. 0075, fig. 9 and par. 0101-0103 for calculating RSSI or RTT; Mohammad Soleymani, offset in fig. 10-14, and DMRS in fig. 17-20; Zhang, 2302 in fig. 7 and sync offset in par. 0214 and par. 0290; for these reasons, one of ordinary skill in the art would have expected the combined prior art to perform equally well to the claim, see MPEP 2143, Exemplary Rationale F).
Claim 19
Khoryaev, in view of Mohammad Soleymani and Zhang, discloses the method of claim 14, wherein:
the first UE transmits the first reference signal on a transmit beam (Khoryaev, a spatial beam index in par. 0073, spatial beam forming degrees in par. 0105 and see fig. 7-9; see fig. 8-14 of Mohammad Soleymani),
the second reference signal is transmitted by the at least one second UE on a transmit beam and received by the first UE on a receive beam (Khoryaev, fig. 7-9, receiving third message on the determined resource in fig. 8 and see beam in par. 0073 & 0105; Mohammad Soleymani, see UE1 & UE2 in fig. 8-14), or
any combination thereof (as explained above, the combined prior art meets the claim condition).
Claim 22
Khoryaev, in view of Mohammad Soleymani and Zhang, discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the request to perform the positioning procedure includes an indication that the at least one second UE is expected to report, to the first UE (Khoryaev, 855 in fig. 8, UE 105-1 receives geo-information report from another UE 105 as explained in par. 0088 & 0095-0097), a time difference between reception at the second UE of a reference signal transmitted by the first UE and reception at the second UE of a reference signal transmitted by a third UE involved in the positioning procedure with the first UE (Khoryaev, timestamp the geo-information in par. 0091 and par. 0097 explains geo-information report receives at UE 105-1 from one or more other UEs, i.e., second & third UE, offset in par. 0075, fig. 9 and par. 0101-0103 for calculating RSSI or RTT; Mohammad Soleymani, offset in fig. 10-14, and DMRS in fig. 17-20; Zhang, 2302 in fig. 7 and sync offset in par. 0214 and par. 0290; for these reasons, one of ordinary skill in the art would have expected the combined prior art to perform equally well to the claim, see MPEP 2143, Exemplary Rationale F).
Claim 24
Khoryaev, in view of Mohammad Soleymani and Zhang, discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the indication of the set of time resources, frequency resources, or both allocated for the positioning procedure is encoded in the SCI-2 message (Khoryaev, resources and report for geo-information in fig. 8-9 and see par. 0095-0097 & 0101-0103; Mohammad Soleymani, SCI message + data in fig. 9-14 and see frequency resource bit, time resource bit and DMRS bit in par. 0272; Zhang, see SCI fields for frequency resource bit in Table 1 in par. 0267; accordingly, the combined prior art reads on the claim).
Claim 48
Claim 48 is an user equipment claim corresponding to method claim 1. All of the limitation are found reciting for the structures of the same scopes of the respective limitations of claim 1. Accordingly, claim 48 is considered obvious by the same rationales applied in the rejection given to claim 1 set forth above. Additionally, Khoryaev teaches a first user equipment (UE) (UE 105-1 in fig. 1-10) comprising: one or more memories (302b in fig. 3 and par. 0045, 304g in fig. 3 and par. 0047); one or more processors (processors 302a in par. 0045); and one or more processors communicatively coupled to the one or more memories and the one or more transceivers, the one or more processor, either alone or in combination (as depicted in fig. 3 and explained par. 0044-0052, processor, memory, application circuitry and RF circuitry are communicating to perform the steps in fig. 8-10).
Claim 95
Claim 95 is an user equipment claim corresponding to method claim 1. All of the limitation are found reciting for the structures of the same scopes of the respective limitations of claim 1. Accordingly, claim 95 is considered obvious by the same rationales applied in the rejection given to claim 1 set forth above.
6. Claims 25, 28, 29, 32, 33, 35-38, 40, 41, 44, 46, and 72 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Khoryaev in view of Mohammad Soleymani, Zhang and Li et al. Pub. No.: US 2015/0271861 A1.
Claim 25
Khoryaev discloses a method (fig. 1-10 for reporting geo-information) for wireless communication performed at a second user equipment (UE) (other UEs in fig. 7-9 or UE 105-2 in fig. 7-9), comprising:
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receiving a first sidelink control information (SCI-1) message (transmitting second message in 855 of fig. 8, see fig. 8-9, see UEs 105 in fig. 7 for exchanging geo-information indicating synchronization source, timestamp, i.e., control information in par. 0088-0089, SCI-1 is reasonably interpreted as second message in fig. 8-9 as explained in par. 0095) over a physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH) of a sidelink (par. 0095, geo-information report or CQI or PMI or power controlled transmission over PSCCH, consider UE 105-1 transmitting second message to one or more other UE as explained) between the second UE and the first UE(UE 105-2 in fig. 7, see fig. 8-9 and par. 0095, for transmitting second message to other UE);
transmitting the positioning report or geo-information report to the first UE over the side link (third message in 855 in fig. 8 and see fig. 9).
Although Khoryaev does not disclose: “receiving a second sidelink control information (SCI-2) message from the first UE over the PSCCH of the sidelink, the SCI-2 message associated with the SCI-1 message, the SCI-2 message including a request to perform a positioning procedure; transmitting the request to perform the positioning procedure to a first network entity; receiving, from a second network entity, an indication of a set of time resources, frequency resources, or both allocated for the positioning procedure; and transmitting the indication of the set of time resources, frequency resources, or both allocated for the positioning procedure to the first UE over the sidelink”, the claim limitations are considered obvious by the following rationales.
Firstly, to consider the obviousness of the claim limitations “receiving a second sidelink control information (SCI-2) message from the first UE over the PSCCH of the sidelink, the SCI-2 message associated with the SCI-1 message, the SCI-2 message including a request to perform a positioning procedure”, recall that Khoryaev explains exchanging communications between UE 105-1 and UE 105-2 (fig. 7-9 and par. 0088-0099) and UE for capable of performing measurements such as RSRP, RSRQ or RSSI or SNR (par. 0035, one of those measurement could be performed for determining proximity as depicted in fig. 8-9, i.e., a positioning procedure). In other words, Khoryaev teaches performing a positioning procedure (fig. 9, steps 905-910-915; see measurement for RTT or RTD in par. 0103). What’s more, any of UE in fig. 7-9 of Khoryaev could transmit a first message and a second message to other UE. It means that if teaching of Khoryaev above are compared to the addressing claim limitations, the teaching from Khoryaev may not disclose explicitly “SCI-2 message and to be included a request to perform a positioning procedure in the SCI-2 message”. Herein, “a positioning procedure” is reasonably interpreted in accordance with MPEP 2111, as measuring for RTT or RSSI or RSRQ or RSRP of Khoryaev explained above. In particular, Mohammad Soleymani teaches the control information for sidelink SCI carried by PSSCH having 5 bit or 8 bits group destination ID or the group of UEs (par. 0054-0056, see UE destination ID and group destination ID in par. 0149-0150; see fig. 8-12 for SCI). In fig. 10 of Mohammad Soleymani, UE1 may transmit 2nd stage SCI + data to UE for a first time and a second time. Accordingly, one of ordinary skill in the art to include SCI of Mohammad Soleymani into transmitting messages of Khoryaev SCI-1 and SCI-2. See MPEP 2143, KSR Exemplary Rationale F.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify autonomous resource selection for vehicle-to-vehicle V2V sildelink communications of Khoryaev by providing sidelink control message as taught in Mohammad Soleymani. Such a modification would have included a sidelink communication to us a two-stage sidelink control information so that monitoring system and tracking system could be exchanged data effective over the sidelink as suggested in par. 0002 & 0016-0018 of Mohammad Soleymani.
Secondly, to consider the obviousness of the claim limitations “an indication of a set of time resources, frequency resources, or both allocated for the positioning procedure; and transmitting the indication of the set of time resources, frequency resources, or both allocated for the positioning procedure to the first UE over the sidelink”, recall that Khoryaev discloses messages with geo-information and resources over sidelink between UEs and performing location procedures (fig. 7-9), and Mohammad Soleymani explains SCI with a big format (fig. 8-12 and par. 0149-0150). As explained above, the combination would have performed equally well to the addressing claim limitation. However, to advance the prosecution further evidence is provided herein. In particular, Zhang teaches UE for detecting a PSCCH in format of SCI X transmitted by other UEs (par. 0282) and the indication in SCI X for resource and measurement RSRP or S-RRSI, as to a positioning procedure (par. 0282-0287 and see Table 1 in par. 0267 and Table 2-1 & 2-2 in par. 0269).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify autonomous resource selection for vehicle-to-vehicle V2V sildelink communications of Khoryaev in view of Mohammad Soleymani by providing V2X communication as taught in Zhang. Such a modification would have included sci X, sidelink control information, over a PSCCH to communicate between user equipment UEs so that the reception and power usage would have optimized as suggested in par. 0014 of Zhang.
Lastly, to address the obviousness of the claim limitations "transmitting the request to perform the positioning procedure to a first network entity; receiving, from a second network entity, an indication of a set of time resources, frequency resources, or both allocated for the positioning procedure”, recall that Khoryaev discloses eNB 110-1 & 110-2 for transmitting resource allocation messages to UE 105-1 & 105-2 for performing geo-information reporting (par. 0105 & 0111 and fig. 9), Mohammad Soleymani explains SCI format including frequency resource bit and DMRS bit (see table in par. 0272), and Zhang discloses measuring RSSI or RSRP as to location procedure (fig. 7). With the teaching mentioned from the prior art above, one of ordinary skill in the art would have expected eNB 110-1, eNB 110-2, UE 105-1 and UE 105-2 in fig. 1 of Khoryaev in view of the combined prior art to perform equally well to the addressing claim limitations. The evidence can be seen in Li. In particular, Li teaches transmitting the measurement report to a first network entity (eNB 1 in fig. 20, UE1 reports measurement as to request for mode 2 or a new resource in 2025 of fig. 20); receiving, from a second network entity (eNB2 in fig. 20), an indication of a set of time resources, frequency resources, or both allocated for the positioning procedure (receive resource pool information in 2040 in fig. 20 and par. 0165, see resources as timer in par. 0167 and frequency and time in par. 0134); and transmitting the indication of the set of time resources, frequency resources, or both allocated for the positioning procedure to the first UE over the sidelink (2050 in fig. 20 and par. 0165).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify autonomous resource selection for vehicle-to-vehicle V2V sildelink communications of Khoryaev in view of Mohammad Soleymani and Zhang by providing device to device D2D synchronization as taught in Li to obtain the claimed invention as specified in the claim. Such a modification would have included D2D communication links between user equipment UEs to apply different communication modes so that D2D UE could have served users in a wide or local geographic range without the need for access points as suggested in par. 0003-0004 of Li.
Claim 28
Khoryaev, in view of Mohammad Soleymani, Zhang and Li, discloses the method of claim 25, wherein:
the SCI-1 message is scrambled by a destination identifier (Khoryaev, destination of a message in par. 0027; Mohammad Soleymani, see destination ID bit in the table in par. 0272 and a group destination ID in par. 0055, a UE destination ID in par. 0148; Zhang, fig. 7-9; it means that a message including destination ID as group ID or UE ID in par. 0148 of Mohammad Soleymani would be encoded or scrambled in OFDM system of par. 0040 of Khoryaev), or
the destination identifier is a field inside the SCI-2 message (Khoryaev destination of a message in par. 0027; Mohammad Soleymani, see destination ID filed in the table in par. 0272; Zhang, fig. 7-9; it means that a message includes destination ID as group ID or UE ID as field in 8 bit as explained in par. 0055 & 0148 of Mohammad Soleymani; accordingly, the combined prior art meets the claim conditions).
Claim 29
Khoryaev, in view of Mohammad Soleymani, Zhang and Li, discloses the method of claim 28, wherein:
the destination identifier identifies a group of UEs including the second UE (Khoryaev, destination of a message in par. 0027, see destination ID for unicast in par. 0272; Mohammad Soleymani, a group destination ID in par. 0055 and a UE destination ID in par. 0148 and destination ID bit in par. 0272; Zhang, fig. 7-9; hence, the combined prior art read on the claim), or
the destination identifier indicates that the request to perform the positioning procedure is a broadcast to all UEs within wireless communication range of the first UE (Khoryaev, destination of a message in par. 0027 and see steps 905-910-915 in fig. 9 performing measurement for obtained GEO-information included from UE of fig. 8; Mohammad Soleymani, a group destination ID in par. 0055 and a UE destination ID in par. 0148; Zhang, fig. 7-9, 2302 in fig. 7 for measuring S-RSRP, i.e., position information; accordingly, one of ordinary skill in the art would have expected the combined prior art to perform equally well to the claim).
Claim 32
Khoryaev, in view of Mohammad Soleymani, Zhang and Li, discloses the method of claim 25, further comprising:
receiving, over a physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH) of the sidelink (Khoryaev, consider fig. 8-9 over PSSCH in par. 0095; Mohammad Soleymani, PSSCH bit in par. 0253), a demodulation reference signal (DMRS) associated with the request to perform the positioning procedure (DMRS in par. 0041 of Khoryaev; DMRS in fig. 17-20 of Mohammad Soleymani; and thus, the combined prior art meets the claim requirement).
Claim 33
Khoryaev, in view of Mohammad Soleymani, Zhang and Li, discloses the method of claim 32, wherein the request to perform the positioning procedure includes an indication that the DMRS is to be used for the positioning procedure (Khoryaev, DMRS as GEO-information in fig. 8-9; Zhang, 2302 in fig. 7), the method further comprising: performing a positioning measurement of the DMRS based on the indication that the DMRS is to be used for the positioning procedure (Khoryaev; in fig. 9, GEO-information, such as DMRS in par. 0041, is determined; Mohammad Soleymani, DMRS in fig. 17-20; Zhang, 2302 in fig. 7; accordingly, the combined prior art meets the claim requirement).
Claim 35
Khoryaev, in view of Mohammad Soleymani, Zhang and Li, discloses the method of claim 33, wherein the indication comprises a one-bit field in the SCI-1 message received from the first UE over the sidelink (see frequency resource bit, DMRS bit, etc., in the table in par. 0272 of Mohammad Soleymani; Zhang, fields in Table 1 in par. 0267; and thus, the combined prior art reads on the claim).
Claim 36
Khoryaev, in view of Mohammad Soleymani, Zhang and Li, discloses the method of claim 25, wherein the request to perform the positioning procedure includes an indication of whether or not at least one reference signal associated with the request to perform the positioning procedure is to be used for positioning (Khoryaev, GEO-information in fig. 8-9; Mohammad Soleymani, DMRS bit indication bit in the table in par. 0272; Zhang, par. 0283, UE determines SCI X whether to measure; see MPEP 2111.04, II Contingent Limitations, for these reasons, one of ordinary skill in the art would have expected the combined prior art to perform equally well to the claim, or rather that the combined prior art meets the claim conditions).
Claim 37
Khoryaev, in view of Mohammad Soleymani, Zhang and Li, discloses the method of claim 36, wherein the indication further indicates a number of the at least one reference signal, time locations, frequency locations, or both of the at least one reference signal, or both (Khoryaev, reference signal and resource in fig. 8-9, see time and frequence resource for sidelink V2V in fig. 4 and par. 0062; Mohammad Soleymani, see the table in par. 0272 for frequence resource bit, time resource bit and DMRS patterns bit, i.e., number or frequency of reference signal; Zhang, frequency resource bit and resource reservation bit in Table in par. 0267; and thus, the combined prior art reads on the claim).
Claim 38
Khoryaev, in view of Mohammad Soleymani, Zhang and Li, discloses the method of claim 25, wherein the request to perform the positioning procedure includes an indication that the second UE is expected to perform the positioning procedure with the first UE (Khoryaev, fig. 8-9, UEs 105, or UE 105-2, for measuring proximity or the distance from UE 105-1 in par. 0102; Mohammad Soleymani, destination ID for unicast or group cast, i.e., to a specific UE or a group of UE, in the table in par. 0272; Zhang, step 2302 in fig. 7 and par. 0283, UE determines where to measure PSSCH-RSRP or RSSI; and thus, the combined prior art renders the claim obvious).
Claim 40
Khoryaev, in view of Mohammad Soleymani, Zhang and Li, discloses the method of claim 38, wherein the positioning procedure comprises a round-trip-time (RTT) positioning procedure (Khoryaev, reception-transmission time difference measurements in par. 0035 and a round trip time in par. 0103), the method further comprising:
transmitting, to the first UE over the sidelink, a second reference signal and a parameter indicating a time difference between reception at the second UE of a first reference signal transmitted by the first UE and transmission of the second reference signal (Khoryaev, time measurements in fig. 6-7, see reception-transmission time difference measurements in par. 0035 and steps 910-915 in fig. 9 and par. 0101-0103; Mohammad Soleymani, time differences in fig. 10-14; Zhang, time position from optional time position information in par. 0070-0071 & 0214; for these reasons, one of ordinary skill in the art would have expected the combined prior art to perform equally well to the claim, see MPEP 2143, KSR Exemplary Rationale F).
Claim 41
Khoryaev, in view of Mohammad Soleymani, Zhang and Li, discloses the method of claim 40, wherein the first reference signal transmitted by the first UE is the at least one positioning reference signal (Khoryaev, GOE-information signal in fig. 8-9 and see par. 0101-0103 for own location or known coordinates, DMRS in par. 0041; Mohammad Soleymani, DMRS bit in the table in par. 0272; and hence, the combined prior art reads on the claim).
Claim 44
Khoryaev, in view of Mohammad Soleymani, Zhang and Li, discloses the method of claim 25, wherein the request to perform the positioning procedure includes an indication that the second UE is expected to report, to the first UE (Khoryaev, 855 in fig. 8, UE 105-1 receives geo-information report from another UE 105 as explained in par. 0088 & 0095-0097), a time difference between reception at the second UE of a reference signal transmitted by the first UE and reception at the second UE of a reference signal transmitted by a third UE involved in the positioning procedure with the first UE (Khoryaev, timestamp the geo-information in par. 0091 and par. 0097 explains geo-information report receives at UE 105-1 from one or more other UEs, i.e., second & third UE, offset in par. 0075, fig. 9 and par. 0101-0103 for calculating RSSI or RTT; Mohammad Soleymani, offset in fig. 10-14, and DMRS in fig. 17-20; Zhang, 2302 in fig. 7 and sync offset in par. 0214 and par. 0290; for these reasons, one of ordinary skill in the art would have expected the combined prior art to perform equally well to the claim, see MPEP 2143, Exemplary Rationale F).
Claim 46
Khoryaev, in view of Mohammad Soleymani, Zhang and Li, discloses the method of claim 25, wherein the second UE encodes the indication of the set of time resources, frequency resources, or both allocated for the positioning procedure in the SCI-2 message (Khoryaev, resources and report for geo-information in fig. 8-9 and see par. 0095-0097 & 0101-0103; Mohammad Soleymani, SCI message + data in fig. 9-14 and see frequency resource bit, time resource bit and DMRS bit in par. 0272; Zhang, see SCI fields for frequency resource bit in Table 1 in par. 0267; accordingly, the combined prior art reads on the claim).
Claim 72
Claim 72 is an user equipment claim corresponding to method claim 1. All of the limitation are found reciting for the structures of the same scopes of the respective limitations of claim 1. Accordingly, claim 72 is considered obvious by the same rationales applied in the rejection given to claim 1 set forth above. Additionally, Khoryaev teaches a second user equipment (UE) (UE 105-2 in fig. 1-10) comprising: one or more memories (302b in fig. 3 and par. 0045, 304g in fig. 3 and par. 0047); one or more processors (processors 302a in par. 0045); and one or more processors communicatively coupled to the one or more memories and the one or more transceivers, the one or more processor, either alone or in combination (as depicted in fig. 3 and explained par. 0044-0052, processor, memory, application circuitry and RF circuitry are communicating to perform the steps in fig. 8-10).
Allowable Subject Matter
7. Claims 17, 23 and 45 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
8. THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Contact Information
9. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SAN HTUN whose telephone number is (571)270-3190. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Thursday 7 AM - 5 PM.
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/SAN HTUN/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2643