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
2. This is a Non-Final Office action in response to applicant’s remarks and arguments filed on 01/28/2026.
3. Status of the claims:
• Claims 1, 25, and 33-35 have been amended.
• Claim 7 has been canceled.
• Claim 36 has been added.
• Claims 1-6, 8-36 are currently pending and have been examined.
Response to remarks/arguments
4. Applicant’s remarks and arguments filed on 01/28/2026 with respect to amended independent claims 1, 25, and 33-35 have been fully considered but are moot in view of the new ground(s) of rejection. Upon further search and consideration, a new ground(s) rejection is made in view of Wang et al. (WO 2018/126987 A1).
5. In response to Applicant’s remarks and arguments filed on 08/20/2018 regarding amended independent claims 1, 25, and 33-35, the Examiner acknowledges that Li does not explicitly teach the newly recited features as argued by Applicant. However, the system of Wang et al. (WO 2018/126987 A1) cures this deficiency.
Please see the rejection below.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
6. 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 (i.e., Wanging from AIA to pre-AIA ) 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.
7. 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.
8. The factual inquiries 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.
9. This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
10. Claims 1-6, 8-24, 33, 35-36 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Iyer et al. (U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2017/0366311 A1), Garudadri et al. (U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 20090259922 A1), further in view of Wang et al. (WO 2018/126987 A1).
Regarding claim 1, Iyer discloses a method of wireless communication performed by a wireless communication device (Fig. 60), comprising:
determining a configuration for a sensing reference signal to be transmitted by the wireless communication device (Iyer, para. [0141]: Periodic SRS transmissions may be based on UE specific SRS configurations. Moreover, Lyer teaches the UE may be configured with a common SRS configuration to all numerologies, see para. [0246]), wherein the configuration is associated with a wideband structure (Iyer, para. [0151]: SRS transmission is configured in wideband mode);
transmitting the sensing reference signal in accordance with the configuration (Iyer, para. [0143], [0150]: the SRS may be transmitted in every alternate (every even or every odd) subcarrier in the assigned SRS bandwidth. Iyer further discloses that eNB can configure each of UEs to transmit SRS in hopping mode with a different hopping schedule to reduce SRS interference).
Iyer does not appear to explicitly disclose performing a wireless sensing operation based at least in part on receiving sensor information and based at least in part on the configuration.
In the same field of endeavor, Garudadri discloses performing a wireless sensing operation based at least in part on receiving sensor information and based at least in part on the configuration (Garudadri, para. [0109]: a sensing device (e.g., a wireless sensing device) may include a sensor adapted to sense or to provide data to be transmitted based on data (e.g., received data and/or oversampled data). For example, the sensing operation may be controlled in some aspects by control information in the data (part on the configuration)).
It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art at the time of invention to combine the teaching of Iyer with the teaching of Garudadri to include the above features such as performing a wireless sensing operation based at least in part on receiving sensor information and based at least in part on the configuration as taught by Garudadri. The motivation for doing so would have been to provide different data processing functionality (Garudadri, [0006]).
The combination of Lyer and Garudadri does not appear to teach wherein the configuration indicates a length of the sensing reference signal based at least in part on a comb size associated with the sensing reference signal.
In the same field of endeavor, Wang teaches wherein the configuration indicates a length of the sensing reference signal based at least in part on a comb size associated with the sensing reference signal (Wang, Fig. 6, page 12, lines 18-20: each resource block in the system has 12 subcarriers, and 4 resource blocks have a total of 48 subcarriers. When the number of transmission combs is 2, the minimum length of the reference signal sequence is 48/2=24).
It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art at the time of invention to combine the teaching of Iyer with the teaching of Garudadri to include the above features such as performing a wireless sensing operation based at least in part on receiving sensor information and based at least in part on the configuration as taught by Garudadri. The motivation for doing so would have been to improve the utilization of SRS resources and the flexibility of resource scheduling (Wang, page 5, para. [0002]).
Regarding claim 2, Iyer, Garudadri, and Wang disclose the method of claim 1, wherein the configuration is associated with at least one of a flexible time resource allocation or a flexible frequency resource allocation (Iyer, para. 105, 139, 191: To provide frequency diversity, frequency hopping on the slot boundary is used as shown in FIG. 6. That is, one “frequency resource” consists of 12 subcarriers at the upper part of the spectrum within the first slot of a subframe and an equally sized resource at the lower part of the spectrum during the second slot of the subframe).
Regarding claim 3, Iyer, Garudadri, and Wang disclose the method of claim 1, wherein the configuration indicates scheduling information for the sensing reference signal (Iyer, para. 139: The eNB may use this information for uplink frequency selective scheduling. In addition, UL Sounding Reference Signals (SRS) may be used by the base station for CSI estimation for supporting uplink channel-dependent scheduling and link adaptation).
Regarding claim 4, Iyer, Garudadri, and Wang disclose the method of claim 3, wherein the scheduling information includes at least one of: periodic scheduling information, semi-persistent scheduling information, or aperiodic scheduling information (Iyer, para. 141, 147: Periodic SRS transmissions may be based on UE specific SRS configurations).
Regarding claim 5, Iyer, Garudadri, and Wang disclose the method of claim 1, wherein the configuration indicates a staggering pattern for the sensing reference signal (Iyer, para. 272, 155: the NR-SRS transmission pattern can be configured as a pattern of M.sub.p pre-coded SRS and M.sub.np non-pre-coded SRS within a fixed time duration).
Regarding claim 6, Iyer, Garudadri, and Wang disclose the method of claim 5, wherein the staggering pattern indicates frequency locations over multiple symbols of the sensing reference signal (Iyer, para. 214, 243: for transmitting the scheduling request NR-SR, symbols and resources for signaling NR-SR within the UL region of the container be assigned through pre-defined locations in the standards specification).
Regarding claim 8, Iyer, Garudadri, and Wang disclose the method of claim 5, wherein a comb size of the staggering pattern is based at least in part on a bandwidth configuration of the wideband structure (Iyer, para. 85, 151: the wideband and narrowband SRS sequence length is adaptive to each supported numerology, and the configuration of wideband SRS is signaled via higher layer signaling (for example, RRC signaling) for each supported numerology).
Regarding claim 9, Iyer, Garudadri, and Wang disclose the method of claim 8, wherein the comb size is indicated by a table entry corresponding to the bandwidth configuration of the wideband structure (Iyer, para. 182: The wideband and narrowband SRS sequence length is adaptive to each supported numerology, the configuration of wideband SRS is signaled via higher layer signaling (for example, RRC signaling) for each supported numerology. The time domain location of SRS symbols is not limited to the last symbol of a time interval X (or equivalent time unit of a TTI/subframe) and can be adaptive based on either aperiodic or periodic transmission. Time, frequency, and orthogonal resources for SRS can be allocated by either using DL control channel or RRC configuration).
Regarding claim 10, Iyer, Garudadri, and Wang disclose the method of claim 8, wherein the comb size is determined based at least in part on signaling received from a base station (Iyer, para. 143: transmissionComb may be used where, e.g., the SRS may be transmitted in every alternate (every even or every odd) subcarrier in the assigned SRS bandwidth. transmissionComb takes values 0 or 1 which informs whether to transmit SRS in every even or odd subcarrier in the assigned SRS bandwidth. By doing this, the eNodeB can multiplex two UEs with same cyclicShift, frequency and time resources but different transmissionComb (0 or 1).).
Regarding claim 11, Iyer, Garudadri, and Wang disclose the method of claim 5, wherein frequency locations of the staggering pattern are defined based at least in part on a number of symbols of the sensing reference signal and a comb size of the staggering pattern (Iyer, para. 143: transmissionComb may be used where, e.g., the SRS may be transmitted in every alternate (every even or every odd) subcarrier in the assigned SRS bandwidth. transmissionComb takes values 0 or 1 which informs whether to transmit SRS in every even or odd subcarrier in the assigned SRS bandwidth. By doing this, the eNodeB can multiplex two UEs with same cyclicShift, frequency and time resources but different transmissionComb (0 or 1).).
Regarding claim 12, Iyer, Garudadri, and Wang disclose the method of claim 5, wherein the staggering pattern spans an entire bandwidth of the wideband structure (Iyer, para. 246: spans the entire frequency band either with frequency hopping or without frequency hopping. The common numerology SRS may be similar to legacy LTE SRS with the difference that it has a dedicated numerology.).
Regarding claim 13, Iyer, Garudadri, and Wang disclose the method of claim 5, wherein the staggering pattern spans a sub-band of the wideband structure (Lyer, para. [0246]: The SRS may be configured with a numerology (e.g., subcarrier spacing, frame and subframe structure, etc.) dedicated to a common SRS. SRS dedicated numerology may be different from use case or service specific (e.g. eMBB, URLL, mMTC, etc.) numerology and may not be limited to any particular subband of the available system frequency band. It may span the entire frequency band either with frequency hopping or without frequency hopping), and wherein the staggering pattern is used in multiple sub-bands of the wideband structure with a frequency hopping pattern (Iyer, para. 277: wide band URLLC slots are illustrated. Different partial sub-band mini-slots (e.g., URLLC slot 1, 2 and 3) are shown in Slot 1 of the reference numerology within the Subframe, and different full sub-band mini-slots (e.g., URLLC slot 4 and 5, are shown in Slot 2 of the reference numerology within the Subframe)).
Regarding claim 14, Iyer, Garudadri, and Wang disclose the method of claim 13, wherein the sub-band is defined based at least in part on a resource block or a resource block group (Iyer, para. 89, 153: sub-band is defined based on a resource block).
Regarding claim 15, Iyer, Garudadri, and Wang disclose the method of claim 5, wherein a plurality of staggering patterns are used for respective sub-bands of the wideband structure (Iyer, para. 151: when SRS transmission is configured in wideband mode, one single transmission of the SRS covers the bandwidth of interest. The channel quality estimate is obtained within a single SC-FDMA symbol. When SRS transmission is configured as FH mode (narrowband SRS), the SRS transmission is split into a series of narrowband transmissions that will cover the whole bandwidth region of interest.), wherein the respective sub-bands are defined based at least in part on resource blocks (Iyer, para. 89, 153: sub-band is defined based on resource blocks).
Regarding claim 16, Iyer, Garudadri, and Wang disclose the method of claim 1, wherein the configuration indicates a dedicated resource for the sensing reference signal (Iyer, para. 246, 180: a dedicated resource for the sensing reference signal (SRS)).
Regarding claim 17, Iyer, Garudadri, and Wang disclose the method of claim 1, further comprising: identifying a collision between one or more symbols of the sensing reference signal and an uplink channel (Iyer, para. 158: a number of rules apply when LTE SRS collide with PUCCH transmission); and dropping the one or more symbols of the sensing reference signal based at least in part on the collision (Iyer, para. 158: a number of rules apply when LTE SRS collide with PUCCH transmission. For example, a UE does not transmit SRS whenever SRS and CQI transmissions happen to coincide in the same subframe).
Regarding claim 18, Iyer, Garudadri, and Wang disclose the method of claim 1, wherein the configuration identifies a symbol-level or slot-level time domain resource pattern for the wireless sensing signal (Iyer, para. 183, 250: The SRS transmission resources such as allocated SRS bandwidth and starting symbol in time also can be dynamically configured by DL control channel or semistatically configured by RRC signaling. Moreover paragraphs 113, 277 further disclose as the case of data transmission, it is important for hybrid ARQ ACK/NACK to gather frequency diversity, which can be achieved via slot-level hopping, as illustrated in FIG. 9. Moreover, Iyer further discloses different partial sub-band mini-slots (e.g., URLLC slot 1, 2 and 3) are shown in Slot 1 of the reference numerology within the Subframe, and different full sub-band mini-slots (e.g., URLLC slot 4 and 5, are shown in Slot 2 of the reference numerology within the Subframe)).
Regarding claim 19, Iyer, Garudadri, and Wang disclose the method of claim 1, wherein the configuration indicates a gap for radio frequency switching before the sensing reference signal is transmitted (Iyer, para. 143, 277, 296: srs-Bandwidth defines the bandwidth that needs to be used while transmitting SRS in a subframe. srs-HoppingBandwidth is defined for the purpose of frequency hopping of SRS. If frequency hopping of the SRS is enabled, then srs-HoppingBandwidth is smaller than srs-Bandwidth. freqDomainPosition defines the starting position of the SRS in the frequency domain).
Regarding claim 20, Iyer, Garudadri, and Wang disclose the method of claim 1, wherein the configuration indicates a gap for radio frequency switching associated with frequency hopping between a first sub-band and a second sub-band during transmission of the sensing reference signal (Iyer, para. 143, 277, 296: srs-Bandwidth defines the bandwidth that needs to be used while transmitting SRS in a subframe. srs-HoppingBandwidth is defined for the purpose of frequency hopping of SRS. If frequency hopping of the SRS is enabled, then srs-HoppingBandwidth is smaller than srs-Bandwidth. freqDomainPosition defines the starting position of the SRS in the frequency domain. By varying from 1 to 8, cyclicShift generates up to 8 different SRS which are orthogonal to each other.).
Regarding claim 21, Iyer, Garudadri, and Wang disclose the method of claim 1, wherein the configuration indicates a sequence for the sensing reference signal, wherein the sequence is based at least in part on at least one of:
a sequence used for a channel state information reference signal (Iyer, para. 160: supporting both beamformed CSI-RS and non-pre-coded CSI-RS and will further improve the two schemes to support more antenna ports),
a sequence used for a sounding reference signal,
a pi divided by 2 (π/2) binary phase shift keying modulation scheme,
one or more Zadoff-Chu sequences (Iyer, para. 148: LTE SRS map to physical resources both in time and frequency. SRS uses the same sequence as uplink Demodulation Reference Signals (DMRS). Since the cyclic shift versions of the Zadoff-Chu sequence are orthogonal, several UEs (up to 8) can transmit using different cyclic shifts on the same physical radio resource), or
a modified sequence for a channel state information reference signal.
Regarding claim 22, Iyer, Garudadri, and Wang disclose the method of claim 1, wherein the sensing reference signal is transmitted in a millimeter wave band (Iyer, para. 299: the ultra-mobile broadband is expected to share a common design framework with the flexible radio access below 6 GHz, with cmWave and mmWave specific design optimizations).
Regarding claim 23, Iyer, Garudadri, and Wang disclose the method of claim 1, wherein the sensing reference signal is a downlink signal or an uplink signal (Iyer, para. 139: SRS may also be used by the base station to obtain CSI estimation for DL in the case of channel reciprocity.).
Regarding claim 24, Iyer, Garudadri, and Wang disclose the method of claim 1, wherein determining the configuration further comprises: receiving information indicating the configuration (Iyer, para. 182, 202, 244: receives information indicating the configuration).
Regarding claim 33, Iyer discloses a wireless communication device for wireless communication (Fig. 70), comprising: a memory (FIG. 70: Memory 130); and one or more processors (FIG. 70: Processor 118) operatively coupled to the memory, the memory and the one or more processors configured to:
determine a configuration for a sensing reference signal to be transmitted by the wireless communication device (Iyer, para. [0141]: Periodic SRS transmissions may be based on UE specific SRS configurations. Moreover, Lyer teaches the UE may be configured with a common SRS configuration to all numerologies, see para. [0246]), wherein the configuration is associated with a wideband structure (Iyer, para. 151: SRS transmission is configured in wideband mode);
transmit the sensing reference signal in accordance with the configuration (Iyer, para. 143, 150: the SRS may be transmitted in every alternate (every even or every odd) subcarrier in the assigned SRS bandwidth. Iyer further discloses that eNB can configure each of UEs to transmit SRS in hopping mode with a different hopping schedule to reduce SRS interference).
Iyer does not appear to explicitly disclose perform a wireless sensing operation based at least in part on receiving sensor information and based at least in part on the configuration.
In the same field of endeavor, Garudadri discloses perform a wireless sensing operation based at least in part on receiving sensor information and based at least in part on the configuration (Garudadri, para. 109: A sensing device (e.g., a wireless sensing device) may include a sensor adapted to sense or to provide data to be transmitted based on data (e.g., received data and/or oversampled data). For example, the sensing operation may be controlled in some aspects by control information in the data (part on the configuration)).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art at the time of invention to combine the teaching of Iyer with the teaching of Garudadri to include the above features into the system of Iyer such as performing a wireless sensing operation based at least in part on receiving sensor information and based at least in part on the configuration as taught by Garudadri. The motivation for doing so would have been to provide different data processing functionality (Garudadri, [0006]).
The combination of Lyer and Garudadri does not appear to teach wherein the configuration indicates a length of the sensing reference signal based at least in part on a comb size associated with the sensing reference signal.
In the same field of endeavor, Wang teaches wherein the configuration indicates a length of the sensing reference signal based at least in part on a comb size associated with the sensing reference signal (Wang, Fig. 6, page 12, lines 18-20: each resource block in the system has 12 subcarriers, and 4 resource blocks have a total of 48 subcarriers. When the number of transmission combs is 2, the minimum length of the reference signal sequence is 48/2=24).
It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art at the time of invention to combine the teaching of Iyer with the teaching of Garudadri to include the above features such as performing a wireless sensing operation based at least in part on receiving sensor information and based at least in part on the configuration as taught by Garudadri. The motivation for doing so would have been to improve the utilization of SRS resources and the flexibility of resource scheduling (Wang, page 5, para. [0002]).
Regarding claim 35, Iyer discloses an apparatus for wireless communication (FIG. 60), comprising:
means for determining a configuration for a sensing reference signal to be transmitted by the wireless communication device (Iyer, para. 141: Periodic SRS transmissions may be based on UE specific SRS configurations), wherein the configuration is associated with a wideband structure (Iyer, para. 151: SRS transmission is configured in wideband mode);
means for transmitting the sensing reference signal in accordance with the configuration (Iyer, para. 143, 150: the SRS may be transmitted in every alternate (every even or every odd) subcarrier in the assigned SRS bandwidth. Iyer further discloses that eNB can configure each of UEs to transmit SRS in hopping mode with a different hopping schedule to reduce SRS interference).
Iyer does not appear to explicitly disclose means for performing a wireless sensing operation based at least in part on receiving sensor information and based at least in part on the configuration.
In the same field of endeavor, Garudadri discloses performing a wireless sensing operation based at least in part on receiving sensor information and based at least in part on the configuration (Garudadri, para. 109: A sensing device (e.g., a wireless sensing device) may include a sensor adapted to sense or to provide data to be transmitted based on data (e.g., received data and/or oversampled data). For example, the sensing operation may be controlled in some aspects by control information in the data (part on the configuration)).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art at the time of invention to combine the teaching of Iyer with the teaching of Garudadri to include the above features into the system of Iyer such as performing a wireless sensing operation based at least in part on receiving sensor information and based at least in part on the configuration as taught by Garudadri. The motivation for doing so would have been to provide different data processing functionality (Garudadri, [0006]).
The combination of Lyer and Garudadri does not appear to teach wherein the configuration indicates a length of the sensing reference signal based at least in part on a comb size associated with the sensing reference signal.
In the same field of endeavor, Wang teaches wherein the configuration indicates a length of the sensing reference signal based at least in part on a comb size associated with the sensing reference signal (Wang, Fig. 6, page 12, lines 18-20: each resource block in the system has 12 subcarriers, and 4 resource blocks have a total of 48 subcarriers. When the number of transmission combs is 2, the minimum length of the reference signal sequence is 48/2=24).
It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art at the time of invention to combine the teaching of Iyer with the teaching of Garudadri to include the above features such as performing a wireless sensing operation based at least in part on receiving sensor information and based at least in part on the configuration as taught by Garudadri. The motivation for doing so would have been to improve the utilization of SRS resources and the flexibility of resource scheduling (Wang, page 5, para. [0002]).
Regarding claim 36, Iyer, Garudadri, and Wang disclose the wireless communication device of claim 33, wherein the configuration indicates a staggering pattern for the sensing reference signal (Iyer, para. 272, 155: the NR-SRS transmission pattern can be configured as a pattern of M.sub.p pre-coded SRS and M.sub.np non-pre-coded SRS within a fixed time duration).
11. Claims 25-32, 34 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Iyer et al. (U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2017/0366311 A1) in view of Wang et al. (WO 2018/126987 A1).
Regarding claim 25, Iyer discloses a method of wireless communication performed by a network entity (Fig. 71: base station controller (BSC)), comprising:
determining a configuration for a sensing reference signal to be transmitted by the wireless communication device (Iyer, para. [0141]: Periodic SRS transmissions may be based on UE specific SRS configurations. Moreover, Lyer teaches the UE may be configured with a common SRS configuration to all numerologies, see para. [0246]), wherein the configuration is associated with a wideband structure (Iyer, para. 151: SRS transmission is configured in wideband mode);
transmitting, to the wireless communication device, information indicating the configuration (Iyer, para. 143, 150: the SRS may be transmitted in every alternate (every even or every odd) subcarrier in the assigned SRS bandwidth. Iyer further discloses that eNB can configure each of UEs to transmit SRS in hopping mode with a different hopping schedule to reduce SRS interference).
Lyer does not appear to teach wherein the configuration indicates a length of the sensing reference signal based at least in part on a comb size associated with the sensing reference signal.
In the same field of endeavor, Wang teaches wherein the configuration indicates a length of the sensing reference signal based at least in part on a comb size associated with the sensing reference signal (Wang, Fig. 6, page 12, lines 18-20: each resource block in the system has 12 subcarriers, and 4 resource blocks have a total of 48 subcarriers. When the number of transmission combs is 2, the minimum length of the reference signal sequence is 48/2=24).
It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art at the time of invention to combine the teaching of Iyer to include the above features such as the configuration indicates a length of the sensing reference signal based at least in part on a comb size associated with the sensing reference signal as taught by Wang. The motivation for doing so would have been to improve the utilization of SRS resources and the flexibility of resource scheduling (Wang, page 5, para. [0002]).
Regarding claim 26, Iyer and Wang disclose the method of claim 25, wherein the configuration is associated with at least one of a flexible time resource allocation or a flexible frequency resource allocation (Iyer, para. 105, 139, 191: To provide frequency diversity, frequency hopping on the slot boundary is used as shown in FIG. 6. That is, one “frequency resource” consists of 12 subcarriers at the upper part of the spectrum within the first slot of a subframe and an equally sized resource at the lower part of the spectrum during the second slot of the subframe).
Regarding claim 27, Iyer and Wang disclose the method of claim 25, wherein the configuration indicates scheduling information for the sensing reference signal (Iyer, para. 139: The eNB may use this information for uplink frequency selective scheduling. In addition, UL Sounding Reference Signals (SRS) may be used by the base station for CSI estimation for supporting uplink channel-dependent scheduling and link adaptation).
Regarding claim 28, Iyer and Wang disclose the method of claim 25, wherein the configuration indicates a staggering pattern for the sensing reference signal (Iyer, para. 272, 155: the NR-SRS transmission pattern can be configured as a pattern of M.sub.p pre-coded SRS and M.sub.np non-pre-coded SRS within a fixed time duration).
Regarding claim 29, Iyer and Wang disclose the method of claim 28, wherein a comb size of the staggering pattern is based at least in part on a bandwidth configuration of the wideband structure (Iyer, para. 85, 151: the wideband and narrowband SRS sequence length is adaptive to each supported numerology, and the configuration of wideband SRS is signaled via higher layer signaling (for example, RRC signaling) for each supported numerology).
Regarding claim 30, Iyer and Wang disclose the method of claim 28, wherein the staggering pattern spans a sub-band of the wideband structure (Iyer, para. 246: spans the entire frequency band either with frequency hopping or without frequency hopping. The common numerology SRS may be similar to legacy LTE SRS with the difference that it has a dedicated numerology), and wherein the staggering pattern is used in multiple sub-bands of the wideband structure with a frequency hopping pattern (Iyer, para. 277: wide band URLLC slots are illustrated. Different partial sub-band mini-slots (e.g., URLLC slot 1, 2 and 3) are shown in Slot 1 of the reference numerology within the Subframe, and different full sub-band mini-slots (e.g., URLLC slot 4 and 5, are shown in Slot 2 of the reference numerology within the Subframe)).
Regarding claim 31, Iyer and Wang disclose the method of claim 28, wherein a plurality of staggering patterns are used for respective sub-bands of the wideband structure (Iyer, para. 151: when SRS transmission is configured in wideband mode, one single transmission of the SRS covers the bandwidth of interest. The channel quality estimate is obtained within a single SC-FDMA symbol. When SRS transmission is configured as FH mode (narrowband SRS), the SRS transmission is split into a series of narrowband transmissions that will cover the whole bandwidth region of interest).
Regarding claim 32, Iyer and Wang disclose the method of claim 25, wherein the configuration indicates a sequence for the sensing reference signal (Iyer, para. 148: LTE SRS map to physical resources both in time and frequency. SRS uses the same sequence as uplink Demodulation Reference Signals (DMRS). Since the cyclic shift versions of the Zadoff-Chu sequence are orthogonal, several UEs (up to 8) can transmit using different cyclic shifts on the same physical radio resource).
Regarding claim 34, Iyer discloses a network entity for wireless communication (Fig. 71: base station controller (BSC)), comprising: a memory (FIG. 70: Memory 130); and one or more processors (FIG. 70: Processor 118) operatively coupled to the memory, the memory and the one or more processors configured to:
determine a configuration for a sensing reference signal to be transmitted by the wireless communication device (Iyer, para. [0141]: Periodic SRS transmissions may be based on UE specific SRS configurations. Moreover, Lyer teaches the UE may be configured with a common SRS configuration to all numerologies, see para. [0246])), wherein the configuration is associated with a wideband structure (Iyer, para. 151: SRS transmission is configured in wideband mode);
transmit the sensing reference signal in accordance with the configuration (Iyer, para. 143, 150: the SRS may be transmitted in every alternate (every even or every odd) subcarrier in the assigned SRS bandwidth. Iyer further discloses that eNB can configure each of UEs to transmit SRS in hopping mode with a different hopping schedule to reduce SRS interference).
Lyer does not appear to teach wherein the configuration indicates a length of the sensing reference signal based at least in part on a comb size associated with the sensing reference signal.
In the same field of endeavor, Wang teaches wherein the configuration indicates a length of the sensing reference signal based at least in part on a comb size associated with the sensing reference signal (Wang, Fig. 6, page 12, lines 18-20: each resource block in the system has 12 subcarriers, and 4 resource blocks have a total of 48 subcarriers. When the number of transmission combs is 2, the minimum length of the reference signal sequence is 48/2=24).
It would have been obvious to one with ordinary skill in the art at the time of invention to combine the teaching of Iyer with the teaching of Wang to include the above features such as the configuration indicates a length of the sensing reference signal based at least in part on a comb size associated with the sensing reference signal as taught by Wang. The motivation for doing so would have been to improve the utilization of SRS resources and the flexibility of resource scheduling (Wang, page 5, para. [0002]).
Conclusion
12. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JEAN F VOLTAIRE whose telephone number is (571)272-3953. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 9:30-6:30 PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, REBECCA E. SONG can be reached at (571)270-3667. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/JEAN F VOLTAIRE/Examiner, Art Unit 2417
/PAUL H. MASUR/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2417
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