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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 02/09/2026 has been entered.
Priority
Acknowledgment is made of applicant’s claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119 (a)-(d). The certified copy has been filed in parent Application No. CN202010777753.9, filed on 08/05/2020.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1, 11, and 20 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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., changing 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.
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1, 11, 20, 30, and 59-74 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Koryaev et al. (US 20220159415 A1).
Regarding claim 1, Koryaev discloses
A measurement method for positioning (see Fig. 5, positioning method), comprising:
receiving resource configuration information and measurement constraint information transmitted by a location management function (LMF) (see paragraph 0052, “ The following two types of gNB reporting may be considered: gNB shares measurements to network (LMF/location server) (in general, the corresponding signaling for this type of reporting can be developed by RAN2, however RAN1 may need to work and decide on parameters to be included into that signaling); gNB shares measurements results to UEs (either directly or through LMF/location server)”; Fig. 5, step 502 and step 504); wherein the measurement constraint information is used for indicating a target device how to measure resources corresponding to the resource configuration information (see Fig. 5, step 504; paragraph 0071, “In block 504, the method 500 receives a DL PRS report configuration that indicates a set of measurements to be performed by a UE for each of the plurality of DL PRS resources within the DL PRS resource set”), and the measurement constraint information is further used for indicating the target device to measure a part of resources corresponding to the resource configuration information (see paragraphs 0024-0025; paragraph 0027, “For network based positioning solutions, it may be beneficial for all measurements done by the UE to be directly requested by the network and to be performed in accordance with the configuration provided by network.”);
receiving angle information of the resources corresponding to the resource configuration information transmitted by the LMF (see paragraph 0055, “The list of DL PRS resource sets may provide full information on DL PRS transmission schedule to a UE, so that the UE is aware on which resources which signal is transmitted. Each DL PRS resource is associated with a geographical coordinate of transmission reception point and angular information (beam transmission direction).”); and
measuring the part of the resources based on the resource configuration information and the measurement constraint information, and transmitting a measurement result to the LMF (see Fig. 5, step 506 perform position measurements, step 512 report position measurements).
Regarding claim 11, the same cited sections and rationale from claim 1 are applied.
Regarding claim 20, the same cited sections and rationale for claim 1 is applied. The only difference between claim 1 and claim 20 is that claim 1 refers to a method while claim 20 refers to an apparatus. The examiner considers Khoryaev Figs. 7-11 that depict a device, memory, transceiver, and processor to show that the target device apparatus performs the measurement method of claim 1.
Regarding claim 30, Khoryaev further discloses
A location management function (LMF), comprising: a memory, a transceiver and a processor,
the memory is configured to store a computer program; the transceiver is configured to transmit and receive data under a control of the processor; and the processor is configured to read the computer program in the memory and perform the method of claim 11 (see Fig. 11 and paragraph 0156).
Regarding claim 59, Khoryaev further discloses
The method of claim 1, wherein the target device is a user equipment (UE) (see Fig. 6, UE devices 602 and 604); the resource configuration information is positioning reference signal (PRS) resource configuration information, and the measurement constraint information is PRS measurement constraint information (see Abstract, “User equipment (UE) positioning within a 5G New Radio (NR) network may be determined by receiving a downlink (DL) position reference signal (PRS) resource set indicating a plurality of DL PRS resources and receiving a DL PRS report configuration that indicates a set of measurements to be performed by a UE for each of the plurality of DL PRS resources within the DL PRS resource set”);
the PRS measurement constraint information is used for indicating the ULE how to measure PRS resources corresponding to the PRS resource configuration information.
Regarding claim 60, Khoryaev further discloses
The method of claim 59, wherein a first PRS resource set comprises the PRS resources corresponding to the PRS resource configuration information, a second PRS resource set comprises PRS resources corresponding to the PRS measurement constraint information, and the second PRS resource set is a subset of the first PRS resource set (see Fig. 1; paragraph 0021);
the indicating the UE how to measure PRS resources corresponding to the PRS resource configuration information, comprises:
indicating the UE to only measure PRS resources in the first PRS resource set other than the second PRS resource set (see paragraphs 0024-0025, UE can be configured to measure a single measurement or multiple measurements); or
indicating the UE to only measure PRS resources in the second PRS resource set; or
indicating the UE to measure PRS resources in the first PRS resource set other than the second PRS resource set and determine whether to measure PRS resources in the second PRS resource set according to first signaling, wherein the first signaling is configured by the LMF to the UE; or
indicating the UE to measure PRS resources in the second PRS resource set and determine whether to measure PRS resources in the first PRS resource set other than the second PRS resource set according to first signaling, wherein the first signaling is configured by the LMF to the UE.
Regarding claim 61, Khoryaev further discloses
The method of claim 1, wherein the target device is a base station (see Fig. 7; paragraph 0099, “FIG. 7 illustrates an example of infrastructure equipment 700 in accordance with various embodiments. The infrastructure equipment 700 may be implemented as a base station, radio head, RAN node, AN, application server, and/or any other element/device discussed herein. In other examples, the infrastructure equipment 700 could be implemented in or by a UE.”); the resource configuration information is sounding reference signal (SRS) resource configuration information, and the measurement constraint information is SRS measurement constraint information (see paragraph 0066, “As discussed herein, for operation in Mode-2, it is assumed that a UE may conduct measurements across DL PRS resources of different DL PRS resource sets and associate its RX beams with each configured DL PRS resource. In this case, if the UE supports beam correspondence, it may apply RX beam for UL transmission. This UE behavior may be beneficial at least from link budget perspective. In order to support such operation from specification perspective, the DL PRS and UL SRS (PRS) resources can be associated with each other.”; paragraph 0068);
the SRS measurement constraint information is used for indicating the base station how to measure SRS resources corresponding to the SRS resource configuration information.
Regarding claim 62, Khoryeav further discloses
The method of claim 61, wherein a first SRS resource set comprises the SRS resources corresponding to the SRS resource configuration information, a second SRS resource set comprises SRS resources corresponding to the SRS measurement constraint information, and the second SRS resource set is a subset of the first SRS resource set (see paragraph 0066, “In order to support such operation from specification perspective, the DL PRS and UL SRS (PRS) resources can be associated with each other.”);
the indicating the base station how to measure SRS resources corresponding to the SRS resource configuration information, comprises:
indicating the base station to only measure SRS resources in the first SRS resource set other than the second SRS resource set (see paragraph 0068, “The UE TA behavior for UL-TDOA and RTT includes the following options: Option 1: the UE applies the same timing advance for all UL SRS(PRS) Resources across all UL SRS(PRS) Resource Sets as for serving cell (reference); Option 2: the UE applies the timing advance corresponding to one of the neighboring cells for all UL SRS(PRS) resources across all UL SRS(PRS) resource sets; Option 3: UE applies individual timing advance for all UL SRS(PRS) resources across all UL SRS(PRS) resource sets; Option 4: UE applies common timing offset for transmission on all UL SRS(PRS) resources across all UL SRS(PRS) Resource sets. The value of common timing offset is indicated by gNB independently of timing advance. The common timing offset is defined either with respect to DL reception timing or DL reception timing and timing advance.”); or
indicating the base station to only measure SRS resources in the second SRS resource set; or
indicating the base station to measure SRS resources in the first SRS resource set other than the second SRS resource set and determine whether to measure SRS resources in the second SRS resource set according to first signaling, wherein the first signaling is configured by the LMF to the base station; or
indicating the base station to measure SRS resources in the second SRS resource set and determine whether to measure SRS resources in the first SRS resource set other than the second SRS resource set according to first signaling, wherein the first signaling is configured by the LMF to the base station.
Regarding claim 63, Khoryeav further discloses
The method of claim 61, further comprising: transmitting first location information of UE to the LMF to indicate a predicted location of the UE (paragraph 0028, “In the case of network assisted UE-based positioning, the network may request the UE to provide an estimate of the UE location using measurements from DL PRS resources provided by the network (e.g., DL PRS resources IDs).”; paragraph 0061, “For Construction of UE Centric DL PRS resource allocation or DL PRS measurement report (DPMR), a UE may provide the following information to the network/location server: Cell ID; SSB index (e.g. corresponding to max SS−RSRP value); CSI-RS Resource ID (e.g., corresponding to max L1-RSRP value); UE location information (e.g., if UE has a-priori knowledge of it coordinates);”).
Regarding claim 64, Khoryeav further discloses
The method of claim 63, wherein the first location information comprises angle information of an uplink signal and/or received power information of the uplink signal (paragraph 0071, “In block 510, the method 500 determines a reference signal received power (RSRP) metric or a signal to noise and interference ratio (SINR) metric associated with the at least two DL PRS resources”).
Regarding claim 65, Khoryeav further discloses
The method of claim 61, further comprising:
transmitting angle information corresponding to the SRS resources to the LMF, wherein the angle information comprises a horizontal dimension angle and a vertical dimension angle; and/or
transmitting angle information corresponding to PRS resources to the LMF, wherein the angle information comprises a horizontal dimension angle and a vertical dimension angle (paragraph 0226, “Example 29b may include the method of example 16b or some other example herein, wherein the soft LOS metric is defined, the estimation of DL AoD is calculated based on the DL PRS resource Id information with the heist soft LOS metric.”; paragraph 0229, “gNB shares measurements to network (LMF/location server)”).
Regarding claims 66-69, the same cited sections and rationale from claims 59-62 are applied.
Regarding claim 70, Khoryeav further discloses
The method of claim 11, further comprising:
receiving first location information of the UE, and determining a predicted location of the UE based on the first location information (paragraph 0028, “In the case of network assisted UE-based positioning, the network may request the UE to provide an estimate of the UE location using measurements from DL PRS resources provided by the network (e.g., DL PRS resources IDs).”; paragraph 0061, “For Construction of UE Centric DL PRS resource allocation or DL PRS measurement report (DPMR), a UE may provide the following information to the network/location server: Cell ID; SSB index (e.g. corresponding to max SS−RSRP value); CSI-RS Resource ID (e.g., corresponding to max L1-RSRP value); UE location information (e.g., if UE has a-priori knowledge of it coordinates);”; paragraph 0179, “Example 17a may include the apparatus of example 15a wherein the performing position measurements further includes generating a reference signal time difference (RSTD) measurement by estimating timing of a first arrival path from at least two of the plurality of DL PRS resources.”);
receiving angle information of the resources corresponding to the resource configuration information, wherein the angle information comprises a horizontal dimension angle and a vertical dimension angle ((paragraph 0226, “Example 29b may include the method of example 16b or some other example herein, wherein the soft LOS metric is defined, the estimation of DL AoD is calculated based on the DL PRS resource Id information with the heist soft LOS metric.”; paragraph 0229, “gNB shares measurements to network (LMF/location server)”); and
determining the measurement constraint information based on the predicted location, location information of the base station, and the angle information (paragraph 0022, “NR supports DL PRS report configuration information signaled to the UE by higher layers. The DL PRS report is configured independently from DL PRS resource sets and indicates a set of measurements to be conducted by the UE for indicated DL PRS resource sets IDs or DL PRS resource IDs.”; paragraph 0031, “The reference DL PRS resource ID can be provided to the UE by the network as a part of assistance information or selected by the UE. Thus, one or a combination of reference resource ID selection is used for DL-TDOA and RTT measurements: DL PRS reference resource ID is provided by the network using higher layer signaling (e.g., as a part of DL PRS report configuration) or If DL PRS reference resource ID is not provided by the network, it is selected by the UE and indicated to the network as a part of UE reporting.”).
Regarding claims 71-74, the same cited sections and rationale from claims 59-62 are applied.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ISABELLA A EDRADA whose telephone number is (571)272-4859. The examiner can normally be reached Mon - Fri 9am-5pm ET.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Vladimir Magloire can be reached at (571) 270-5144. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/ISABELLA A EDRADA/Examiner, Art Unit 3648
/BERNARR E GREGORY/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3648
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