DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Response to Amendment/Remarks
This communication is considered fully responsive to the amendment filed on 08/18/2025.
Claims 1-20 are pending and are examined in this office action.
Claims 1-15 have been amended.
New claims 16-20 has been added and no claim has been canceled.
In view of the applicant’s argument and amendment, objection to the claims have been withdrawn.
Response to Arguments
Regarding Independent claim 1 previously rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103, Applicant's arguments, see “Zhou fails to disclose "measuring, for each candidate positioning beam pair of a first subset of candidate positioning beam pairs, at least one respective positioning reference signal metric, wherein said first subset of candidate positioning beam pairs comprises a number of candidate positioning beam pairs less than a total number of a plurality of candidate positioning beam pairs,".” on pages 8-10 filed on 08/18/2025 , with respect to ZHOU et al. (US 20200186205 A1; hereinafter as “ZHOU), have been fully considered but are moot, over the limitations of “measuring, for each candidate positioning beam pair of a first subset of candidate positioning beam pairs, at least one respective positioning reference signal metric, wherein said first subset of candidate positioning beam pairs comprises a number of candidate positioning beam pairs less than a total number of a plurality of candidate positioning beam pairs," . Said limitations are newly added to the amended Claim 1 and have been addressed in instant office action, as shown in section 35 USC 103 rejection below, remapping using previously cited prior art and with newly identified prior art teachings from newly found references JASSAL et al. (US 20240275466 A1; hereinafter as “JASSAL ), thus rendering said Applicant’s arguments moot.
Regarding all dependent claims: the applicant alleges that all dependent claims are allowable since they depend from all the independent claims above. The examiner respectfully disagrees in view of the above explanation of independent claims. Thus the rejection is deemed proper.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
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.
Claims 1-8, 14-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over ZHOU et al. (US 20200186205 A1; hereinafter as “ZHOU”; provided in IDS) in view of JASSAL et al. (US 20240275466 A1; hereinafter as “JASSAL”, which has priority dated October 13, 2021).
With respect to independence claim:
Regarding claim 1, ZHOU teaches, a terminal device (see fig. 1: UE 104: ;[0034]) comprising:
at least one processor (aforesaid terminal device with multiple processors : 044]; [0177]); and
at least one memory storing instructions that, when executed with the at least one processor (terminal device with processors and memory: [0177]-[0178]), cause the terminal device to perform:
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measuring, for each candidate positioning beam pair of a first subset of candidate positioning beam pairs, at least one respective positioning reference signal metric,
wherein each candidate positioning beam pair of said plurality of candidate positioning beam pairs represents a combination of a respective receive beam of said terminal device and a respective transmit beam of a respective network node of one or more network nodes (see fig. 1A: “ A beam sweeping process in a wireless communication system will be briefly introduced below with reference to FIG. 1A. The right arrow in FIG. 1A indicates the downlink direction from a base station 100 to a terminal device 104, and the left arrow indicates the uplink direction from the terminal device 104 to the base station 100. As shown in FIG. 1A, the base station 100 includes n.sub.t_DL downlink transmitting beams (n.sub.t_DL is a natural number greater than or equal to 1, and exemplified in FIG. 1A as n.sub.t_DL=9), and the terminal device 104 includes n.sub.r_DL downlink receiving beams (n.sub.r_DL is a natural number greater than or equal to 1, exemplified in FIG. 1A as n.sub.r_DL=5 ”: [0034], [0038-[0039], Fig. 2: element 202, “the beam pair determination unit 202 (==measure in claim ) can be configured to determine K beam pairs in a communication link between a first communication terminal device and a second communication terminal device for a wireless communication system, where K is natural number. Each beam pair may include a transmitting beam and a receiving beam, and has corresponding gain level. The first communication terminal device and the second communication terminal device may be any communication terminal device that performs communication transmission and reception through beamforming, including but not limited to a base station and a terminal device. ”: [0045], [0049], Fig. 5A-Fig. 5D, [0056]-[0061], Fig. 9c element 931, [0106]-[0108], fig. 12A element 1201, “ FIG. 12A illustrates an example method for communication according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. As shown in FIG. 12A, the method 1200 can comprise determining K beam pairs in a communication link between a first communication terminal device and a second communication terminal device for a wireless communication system, where K is a natural number, and each beam pair comprises a transmitting beam and a receiving beam (block 1201). the receiving end (==UE 104) uses the beam pair (T1, R1) to communicate at the position (x1, y1) and the corresponding beam gain is 1.5, the receiving end may associate the beam pair (T1, R1), the position (x1, y1) with beam gain 1.5. For another example, if the receiving end performs beam sweeping at the position (x2, y2) and obtains the beam gain of each beam pair between the transmitting beams T1 to T2 and the receiving beams R1 to R2, the receiving end may associate each beam pair, the position (x2, y2) with the corresponding beam gain. According to other embodiments, the beam gain of each beam pair at a corresponding position may be simulated and stored in advance by means of channel modeling: [0059]]; see fig. 4 element 405; measure /obtain beam pair : 0055]; “receiving beam to receive reference signals on multiple transmitting beams from the base station for beam gain measurements of each beam pair.”: [0106]; “ terminal device to calculate a beam gain gradient for a downlink beam pair, and the method further comprises: based on beam scan configuration information indicated by the base station, receive reference signals on a plurality of transmitting beams from the base station by using a plurality of receiving beams, in order to measure beam gains of respective beam pairs; and store the beam gains of the respective beam pairs, in order to calculate beam gain gradients for the K beam pairs.”: [0143]; “ base station to calculate a beam gain gradient for an uplink beam pair, and the method further comprises: based on beam scan configuration information, receive reference signals on a plurality of transmitting beams from the terminal device by using a plurality of receiving beams, in order to measure beam gains of respective beam pairs; and store the beam gains of the respective beam pairs, in order to calculate beam gain gradients for the K beam pairs.”: [0145]);
estimating (==fig. 4 element 410 ), for each candidate positioning beam pair of a second subset of candidate positioning beam pairs, at least one respective positioning reference signal metric at least partially based on said measured positioning reference signal metrics, wherein said second subset of candidate positioning beam pairs comprises one or more candidate positioning beam pairs of said plurality of candidate positioning beam pairs that is/are not part of said first subset of candidate positioning beam pairs (see fig. 4: element 410; “ the K beam pairs determined by the beam pair determination unit 202 may be all the detected beam pairs between the first communication terminal device and the second communication terminal device, may be a predetermined number of beam pairs among all these beam pairs, or may be the portion of these beam pairs that meets a predetermined condition ”; [0056]; see fig. 2 element 204, “the beam gain gradient calculation unit 204 can be configured to calculate a beam gain gradient for each beam pair, where the beam gain gradient may indicate a spatial gain variation of a respective beam pair. ”: [0046]; [0049]-[0050]; [0062]-[0074]; fig. 9C element 933; “At 933, the terminal device may store the beam gain performance of each beam pair to calculate the beam gain gradient for the corresponding beam pair. The terminal device can determine K beam pairs and calculate beam gain gradients for the corresponding beam pairs. In some examples, the K beam pairs may be all or a part of the beam pairs detected between the base station and the terminal device. The K value and the value of the gradient radius R used to calculate the beam gain gradient may be specified by the communication standard or determined by the base station (for example, may be included in the beam sweeping configuration information ”;[0107], see fig. 12B element 1243; “he method 1240 can further comprise calculating a beam gain gradient for each beam pair (block 1243) ”: [0146]);
selecting, at least partially based on said measured positioning reference signal metrics and said estimated positioning reference signal metrics, one or more candidate positioning beam pairs from said plurality of candidate positioning beam pairs as positioning beam pairs for downlink positioning (see fig. 9C : selecting Active Beam PAIR; “terminal device selects the active beam pair at 937, and transmits the identification information of the active beam pair to the base station at 935. ”: [0108] ).
ZHOU does not expressively teaches,
wherein said first subset of candidate positioning beam pairs comprises a number of candidate positioning beam pairs less than a total number of a plurality of candidate positioning beam pairs.
JASSAL, in the same field of endeavor, discloses:
wherein said first subset of candidate positioning beam pairs comprises a number of candidate positioning beam pairs less than a total number of a plurality of candidate positioning beam pairs ( UE receives an indication of candidate beams to use to establish a new beam pair link : [0188]; Aforesaid UE scans candidate beams and established best beam pair link based on selected best candidate beam : [0202]. NOTE: since UE is pick/select BEST candidate beam out of total candidate beam, so numbers to candidates position beam pairs is less than to total number of positioning beam pairs).
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 the teaching of ZHOU to include the above recited limitations as taught by JASSAL. The suggestion/motivation would be to provide beam management for wireless communication and, in particular embodiments, to joint beam management in integrated terrestrial/non-terrestrial networks.: (JASSAL; [0002]).
Regarding claim 14, ZHOU in view of JASSAL teaches, A method, performed at least with a terminal device, the method comprising:
measuring, for each candidate positioning beam pair of a first subset of candidate positioning beam pairs, at least one respective positioning reference signal metric, wherein said first subset of candidate positioning beam pairs wherein said first subset of candidate positioning beam pairs comprises a number of candidate positioning beam pairs less than a total number of a plurality of candidate positioning beam pairs a plurality of candidate positioning beam pairs, wherein each candidate positioning beam pair of said plurality of candidate positioning beam pairs represents a combination of a respective receive beam of said terminal device and a respective transmit beam of a respective network node of one or more network nodes;
estimating, for each candidate positioning beam pair of a second subset of candidate positioning beam pairs, at least one respective positioning reference signal metric at least partially based on said measured positioning reference signal metrics, wherein said second subset of candidate positioning beam pairs comprises one or more candidate positioning beam pairs of said plurality of candidate positioning beam pairs that is/are not part of said first subset of candidate positioning beam pairs;
selecting, at least partially based on said measured positioning reference signal metrics and said estimated positioning reference signal metrics, one or more candidate positioning beam pairs from said plurality of candidate positioning beam pairs as positioning beam pairs for downlink positioning (Regarding claim 14, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the same reason as set forth in claim 1)..
Regarding claim 15, ZHOU in view of JASSAL teaches, A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising computer program code, the computer program code when executed by a processor of an terminal device causing said terminal device to :
measure, for each candidate positioning beam pair of a first subset of candidate positioning beam pairs, at least one respective positioning reference signal metric, wherein said first subset of candidate positioning beam pairs wherein said first subset of candidate positioning beam pairs comprises a number of candidate positioning beam pairs less than a total number of a plurality of candidate positioning beam pairs,
wherein each candidate positioning beam pair of said plurality of candidate positioning beam pairs represents a combination of a respective receive beam of said terminal device and a respective transmit beam of a respective network node of one or more network nodes; estimate, for each candidate positioning beam pair of a second subset of candidate positioning beam pairs, at least one respective positioning reference signal metric at least partially based on said measured positioning reference signal metrics, wherein said second subset of candidate positioning beam pairs comprises one or more candidate positioning beam pairs of said plurality of candidate positioning beam pairs that is/are not part of said first subset of candidate positioning beam pairs; select, at least partially based on said measured positioning reference signal metrics and said estimated positioning reference signal metrics, one or more candidate positioning beam pairs from said plurality of candidate positioning beam pairs as positioning beam pairs for downlink positioning (Regarding claim 15, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the same reason as set forth in claim 1).
Regarding claim 2, ZHOU in view of JASSAL teaches the invention of claim 1 as set forth above. Further, ZHOU teaches, wherein said plurality of candidate positioning beam pairs represents available combinations of receive beams of said terminal device and transmit beams of said one or more network nodes (see fig. 1A-1B: “ As shown in FIG. 1A, during a downlink beam sweeping process, each downlink transmitting beam 102 of the n.sub.t_DL downlink transmitting beams of the base station 100 transmits n.sub.r_DL downlink reference signals to the terminal device 104, and the terminal device 104 receives the n.sub.r_DL downlink reference signals through the n.sub.r_DL downlink receiving beams respectively. In this way, the n.sub.t_DL downlink transmitting beams of the base station 100 sequentially transmit n.sub.t_DL×n.sub.r_DL downlink reference signals to the terminal device 104, and each downlink receiving beam 106 of the terminal device 104 receives n.sub.t_DL downlink reference signals, that is, the n.sub.r_DL downlink receiving beams of the terminal device 104 receive a total of n.sub.t_DL×n.sub.r_DL downlink reference signals from the base station 100. The terminal device 104 measures the n.sub.t_DL×n.sub.r_DL downlink reference signals (such as measuring the received signal power of the downlink reference signal (such as RSRP)), so that the downlink transmitting beam of the base station 100 and the downlink receiving beam of the terminal device 104 when the measurement result is better or the best are determined as the matched transmitting and receiving beam pairs of the downlink, and a downlink beam pair is established. ”: [0034]-[0035], [0038]-[0039]).
Regarding claim 3, ZHOU in view of JASSAL teaches the invention of claim 1 as set forth above. Further, ZHOU teaches, where the instructions that, when executed with the at least one processor, cause the terminal device to perform determining said first subset of candidate positioning beam pairs (see fig. 2: “ the beam pair determination unit 202 can be configured to determine K beam pairs in a communication link between a first communication terminal device and a second communication terminal device for a wireless communication system, where K is natural number. Each beam pair may include a transmitting beam and a receiving beam, and has corresponding gain level. The first communication terminal device and the second communication terminal device may be any communication terminal device that performs communication transmission and reception through beamforming, including but not limited to a base station and a terminal device. According to one example, the first communication terminal device may be a base station, and the second communication terminal device may be a terminal device; and vice versa.”;[0044]-[0045] [0056]).
Regarding claim 4, ZHOU in view of JASSAL teaches the invention of claim 1 as set forth above. Further, ZHOU teaches, wherein said first subset of candidate positioning beam pairs is determined with at least one of: (i) selecting candidate positioning beam pairs from said plurality of candidate positioning beam pairs; or (ii) randomly selecting candidate positioning beam pairs from said plurality of candidate positioning beam pairs; or (iii) selecting, for each network node of said one or more network nodes, candidate positioning beam pairs from said plurality of candidate positioning beam pairs representing at least substantially equally spaced receive beams of said terminal device and/or at least substantially equally spaced transmit beams of said respective network node; or (iv) selecting candidate positioning beam pairs from said plurality of candidate positioning beam pairs based on at least one of (i) beam widths of the beams, or (ii) spatial diversity of the beams, or (iii) time (see fig. 2 element 202 : [0045]-[0046], Fig. 5A-5D, “beam pair determination unit 202 may determine all of beam pairs or a predetermined number of beam pairs for communication, or may determine those beam pairs that satisfy a predetermined condition for communication. For example, if the predetermined number is 2 beam pairs, the beam pair determination unit 202 may determine the 2 beam pairs with the highest gain, that is, (T6, R3) with a gain of 19.6 and (T13, R4) with a gain of 17.4 are used for communication. ”: “or example, the beam gain of beam pair (T1, R1) at position (x1, y1) is 1.5, and the beam gain of beam pair (T2, R1) at position (x5, y5) is 2.8. Similarly, the beam gain in FIG. 5A is only a relatively high and low level, and does not indicate the absolute gain value. ”: [0057]-[0060]).
Regarding claim 5, , ZHOU in view of JASSAL teaches the invention of claim 1 as set forth above. Further, ZHOU teaches, wherein said at least one respective positioning reference signal metric is or represents at least one of: (i) a Received Signal Strength Indicator, RSSI; or (ii) a Reference Signal Received Power, RSRP; or (iii) a Signal-to-Noise Ratio, SNR; or (iv) a power of the strongest channel tap; or (v) a Carrier-to-Interference Ratio, CIR (“ terminal device 104 measures the n.sub.t_DL×n.sub.r_DL downlink reference signals (such as measuring the received signal power of the downlink reference signal (such as RSRP)), so that the downlink transmitting beam of the base station 100 and the downlink receiving beam of the terminal device 104 when the measurement result is better or the best are determined as the matched transmitting and receiving beam pairs of the downlink, and a downlink beam pair is established. ”: [0035], “ Then, it can also be said that the beam gain gradient is used to indicate a spatial gain variation of a beam. In the embodiments of the present disclosure, the gain is preferably characterized by a received power parameter (for example RSRP, etc.), and may also be characterized by communication quality parameters such as a block error rate (BLER), a signal-to-noise ratio, and the like, for reflecting the beamforming transmission quality of the transmitting end obtained at the receiving end. The variation may be understood as the amount or rate of the spatial gain variation of a beam pair, such as the deviation degree or discrete degree of the gain, or the deviation speed or discrete speed. ”: [0049]-[0055]).
Regarding claim 6, , ZHOU in view of JASSAL teaches the invention of claim 6 as set forth above. Further, ZHOU teaches, wherein said at least one respective positioning reference signal metric is estimated for each candidate positioning beam pair of said second subset of candidate positioning beam pairs at least partially based on said measured positioning reference signal metrics with: calculating, for each candidate positioning beam pair of said second subset of candidate positioning beam pairs, a respective weighted average of said measured positioning reference signal metrics ([0062]-[0076]).
Regarding claim 7, , ZHOU in view of JASSAL teaches the invention of claim 1 as set forth above. Further, ZHOU teaches, wherein: at least two positioning reference signal metrics measured for respective candidate positioning beam pairs of said first subset of candidate positioning beam pairs are used for calculating said respective weighted average of measured positioning reference signal metrics, and/or. for each candidate positioning beam pair of said second subset of candidate positioning beam pairs, the positioning reference signal metrics measured for respective candidate positioning beam pairs of said first subset of candidate positioning beam pairs representing a respective transmit beam of the same respective network node like said respective candidate positioning beam pair of said second subset of candidate positioning beam pairs are used for calculating said respective weighted average of measured positioning reference signal metrics, and/or for each candidate positioning beam pair of said second subset of candidate positioning beam pairs, positioning reference signal metrics that were (i) most recently measured or (ii) measured within a measurement time window are used for calculating said respective weighted average of measured positioning reference signal metrics : ([0062]-[0076]).
Regarding claim 8, , ZHOU in view of JASSAL teaches the invention of claim 6 as set forth above. Further, ZHOU teaches, : wherein at least one weight used for calculating, for at least one respective candidate positioning beam pair of said second subset of candidate positioning beam pairs, said respective weighted average of measured positioning reference signal metrics is determined at least partially based on at least one of (i) a spatial distance between, or (ii) beam widths of, or (iii) antenna correlation information associated with at least one beam represented with said respective candidate positioning beam pair of said second subset of candidate positioning beam pairs and at least one beam represented with said respective candidate positioning beam pairs of said first subset of candidate positioning beam pairs, and/or wherein at least one weight used for calculating, for at least one respective candidate positioning beam pair of said second subset of candidate positioning beam pairs, said respective weighted average of measured positioning reference signal metrics is determined at least partially based on a time of measurement of at least one measured positioning reference signal metrics of said measured positioning reference signal metrics (:[0035]-[0036], [0042]-[0043]; [0062]-[0076]).
Regarding claim 16, , ZHOU in view of JASSAL teaches the invention of claim 1 as set forth above. Further, ZHOU teaches, wherein the instructions, when executed with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to perform receiving, from a one of the one or more network nodes (==BS), positioning assistance information representing the first subset of candidate positioning beam pairs ( “The base station 100 measures the n.sub.r_UL×n.sub.t_UL uplink reference signals (such as measuring the received signal power of the uplink reference signal (such as RSRP)), so that the uplink transmitting beam of the terminal device 104 and the uplink receiving beam of the base station 100 when the measurement result is better or the best are determined as the matched transmitting and receiving beam pairs of the uplink, and an uplink beam pair is established.”: [0036]).
Regarding claim 17, , ZHOU in view of JASSAL teaches the invention of claim 14 as set forth above. Further, ZHOU teaches, , further comprising determining said first subset of candidate positioning beam pairs (“ Assuming that in the above example, the gain of beam pair 1 is 15, and the gains of both beam pairs 1′ and 1″ are 5, then it can be similarly estimated that the variation between the gain of the beam pair 1 at position B (or C) and the gain at position A is large, that is, the beam gain gradient for beam pair 1 at position A is also large. As it can be seen, the variation in gain with neighboring beam pairs can reflect a spatial gain variation of a given beam pair, so the gain gradient for the given beam pair can be indicated with the variation in gain with neighboring beam pairs.”:[0051]).
Regarding claim 18, , ZHOU in view of JASSAL teaches the invention of claim 14 as set forth above. Further, ZHOU teaches, further comprising receiving, from a one of the one or more network nodes, positioning assistance information representing the first subset of candidate positioning beam pairs ( “The base station 100 measures the n.sub.r_UL×n.sub.t_UL uplink reference signals (such as measuring the received signal power of the uplink reference signal (such as RSRP)), so that the uplink transmitting beam of the terminal device 104 and the uplink receiving beam of the base station 100 when the measurement result is better or the best are determined as the matched transmitting and receiving beam pairs of the uplink, and an uplink beam pair is established.”: [0036]).
Regarding claim 19, , ZHOU in view of JASSAL teaches the invention of claim 15 as set forth above. Further, ZHOU teaches, The non-transitory computer readable medium according to claim 15, wherein the computer program code, when executed with the processor, cause the terminal device to determine said first subset of candidate positioning beam pairs (“ Assuming that in the above example, the gain of beam pair 1 is 15, and the gains of both beam pairs 1′ and 1″ are 5, then it can be similarly estimated that the variation between the gain of the beam pair 1 at position B (or C) and the gain at position A is large, that is, the beam gain gradient for beam pair 1 at position A is also large. As it can be seen, the variation in gain with neighboring beam pairs can reflect a spatial gain variation of a given beam pair, so the gain gradient for the given beam pair can be indicated with the variation in gain with neighboring beam pairs.”:[0051]).
Regarding claim 20, , ZHOU in view of JASSAL teaches the invention of claim 1 as set forth above. Further, ZHOU teaches, The non-transitory computer readable medium according to claim 15, wherein the computer program code, when executed with the processor, cause the terminal device to receive, from a one of the one or more network nodes, positioning assistance information representing the first subset of candidate positioning beam pairs ( “The base station 100 measures the n.sub.r_UL×n.sub.t_UL uplink reference signals (such as measuring the received signal power of the uplink reference signal (such as RSRP)), so that the uplink transmitting beam of the terminal device 104 and the uplink receiving beam of the base station 100 when the measurement result is better or the best are determined as the matched transmitting and receiving beam pairs of the uplink, and an uplink beam pair is established.”: [0036]).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
Claims 9-13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over ZHOU in view of JASSAL and further in view of KATLA et al. (US 20220321192 A1; hereinafter as “KATLA”).
Examiner’s note: in what follows, references are drawn to ZHOU unless otherwise mentioned.
Regarding claim 9, ZHOU in view of JASSAL teaches the invention of claim 1 as set forth above. ZHOU in view of JASSAL does not expressively teaches, wherein said at least one respective positioning reference signal metric is estimated for each candidate positioning beam pair of said second subset of candidate positioning beam pairs at least partially based on said measured positioning reference signal metrics with using a machine learning algorithm.
KATLA, in the same field of endeavor, discloses:
wherein said at least one respective positioning reference signal metric is estimated for each candidate positioning beam pair of said second subset of candidate positioning beam pairs at least partially based on said measured positioning reference signal metrics with using a machine learning algorithm ( “An example method in accordance with some embodiments may include: obtaining input data comprising a user equipment location, a number of user equipments (UEs), and a desired receive signal strength; processing the input data with a neural network having weights determined from a training phase to generate a set of one or more beam-pair indices; performing a beam search over at least a subset of the set of beam-pair indices; and receiving at least one beam-pair index from a user equipment that provides the desired received signal strength. ”: [0005]; “ Recently, machine learning aided wireless transmission has gained attention due to its more accurate predictions and superior performance over conventional methods dispensing with learning. More particularly, learning based approaches in localization may be more effective for minimizing the localization error.”:[0115]).
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 the teaching of ZHOU in view of JASSAL to include the above recited limitations as taught by KATLA. The suggestion/motivation would be to provide improved performance at a reduced search complexity : (KATLA; [0118]).
Regarding claim 10, ZHOU in view of JASSAL in view of KATLA teaches the invention of claim 9 as set forth above. Further, KATLA teaches, wherein said machine learning algorithm is implemented as one of: (i) a deep neural network, or (ii) a convolutional neural network, or (iii) a generative adversial network, or (iv) a long-short term memory, or (v) a time delay neural network ( “FIG. 5A is schematic illustration showing an example neural network model according to some embodiments. FIG. 5B is schematic illustration showing an example softmax feedforward neural network model according to some embodiments. A neural network is referred to as a deep neural network if the number of hidden layers 512, 562 is higher than one, such as shown in FIGS. 5A and 5B, in which the number of hidden layers is two for each figure. As seen in FIGS. 5A and 5B, the training samples are passed to the input layer and the weights are designed for minimizing the error, which is the difference between the true and predicted output values. In FIGS. 5A and 5B, W.sub.1 508, 558, W.sub.2 516, 566, and W.sub.3 522, 572 are the weights and b.sub.1 510, 560, b.sub.2 518, 568, and b.sub.3 524, 574 are the biases for going from the input layer 502, 552 to each of the hidden layers 512, 562 to the output layer 526, respectively, such that W(p,q) denotes the weight attached between the nodes p and q. Matrix x.sub.i 504, 554 is the input of the network. Matrices u.sub.i and v are neuron input matrices at the nodes of the network, where i denotes the class. For FIG. 5A, y.sub.1 528 and y.sub.2 530 are the neural network outputs. For FIG. 5B, net.sub.1 576 and net.sub.2 578 are the neural network outputs, while y.sub.1 582 and y.sub.2 584 are the output probabilities 586 outputted by the softmax function 580. ”: [0136]; “ ” Systems and methods are described for an adaptive multi-fingerprint-based beam alignment scheme that adapts fingerprints using a deep learning neural network to match the current traffic conditions and location information. Multiple fingerprints are collected for different traffic conditions in a given location. The base station uses a deep learning feedforward neural network, such as a softmax classifier, to adapt the selection of a fingerprint to the current traffic conditions and location information. Training weights may be designed offline for the selection of the fingerprint. Upon selection of the fingerprint, the base station may relay the information of the fingerprint selected to the user terminal. The base station performs a training process to select a beam-pair from the fingerprint which meets a target received signal power. The user terminal reports back the index of the beam-pair from the selected fingerprint if the beam-pair meets the threshold, thereby significantly reducing the search complexity.:[0111]).
Regarding claim 11, ZHOU in view of JASSAL in view of KATLA teaches the invention of claim 9 as set forth above. Further, ZHOU teaches, , wherein said machine learning algorithm receives one or more positioning reference signal metric matrices as input, wherein said one or more positioning reference signal metric matrices comprise(s) said measured positioning reference signal metrics as matrix elements (see fig. 5A: [0136], [0141], [0147]-[-0148]).
Regarding claim 12, ZHOU in view of JASSAL in view of KATLA teaches the invention of claim 11 as set forth above. Further, ZHOU teaches, wherein each of said positioning reference signal metric matrices comprises respective positioning reference signal metrics measured for respective candidate positioning beam pairs of said first subset of candidate positioning beam pairs representing a respective transmit beam of the same respective network node ([0134]-[148]; [0151]-[0158]).
Regarding claim 13, ZHOU in view of JASSAL in view of KATLA teaches the invention of claim 11 as set forth above. Further, ZHOU teaches, A terminal device according to claim 11, wherein said measured positioning reference signal metrics are positioned in said one or more positioning reference signal metric matrices at least partially based on spatial distances between beams represented with said candidate positioning beam pairs of said first subset of candidate positioning beam pairs ([0134]-[148]; [0151]-[0158]).
.
Conclusion
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.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to M MOSTAZIR RAHMAN whose telephone number is (571)272-4785. The examiner can normally be reached 8:30am-5:00pm PST.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Derrick Ferris can be reached at 571-272-3123. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/M Mostazir Rahman/Examiner, Art Unit 2411
/DERRICK W FERRIS/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2411
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