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 .
Acknowledgement
2. Acknowledgment is made of Applicant’s submission of the request for continued examination on December 23, 2025. Claims 1-30 are pending. This communication is considered fully responsive and sets forth below.
Information Disclosure Statement
3. Acknowledgment is made of Applicant’s submission of information disclosure statement (IDS), dated on December 23, 2025, after the mailing date of the previous office action. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
4. 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.
5. 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 of this title, 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.
6. Claims 1-10, 12-21, and 23-30 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cha et al. (US 2023/0142084) (hereinafter Cha) in view of Koskela et al. (US 2023/0217403) (hereinafter Koskela).
Regarding Claim 1, Cha discloses a method of operating a user equipment (UE), comprising: receiving, from a network entity, information associated with a plurality of positioning reference signal (PRS) measurement instances (MIs) of one or more PRS resources associated with a transmission reception point (TRP) (¶[0534]: a network node may transmit an RS related to positioning, and the UE may receive a plurality of RSs related to positioning including the RS. ¶[0309]: the UE may receive, from the gNB/location server/LMF, a configuration/indication of a pair of the DL RS resource and UL RS resource to be used to calculate/obtain the UE Rx-Tx time difference measurement and/or the number N of samples. ¶[0535]: obtaining the measurement value related to the positioning by the UE may include acquiring a plurality of samples based on at least one RS among the plurality of RSs. ¶[0211]: the BS may be understood as a comprehensive term including a remote radio head (RRH), an eNB, a gNB, a TP, a reception point (RP) ¶[0161]: The OTDOA positioning method uses time measured for DL signals received from multiple TPs including an eNB, an ng-eNB, and a PRS-only TP by the UE) performing one or more measurements at each of the plurality of PRS MIs of the same PRS resource of the one or more PRS resources (¶[0535]: obtaining the measurement value related to the positioning by the UE may include acquiring a plurality of samples based on at least one RS among the plurality of RSs. ¶[0208]: a sample may be a measurement value for positioning and provided to apply a filtering process. ¶[0213]: UE calculates/obtains and reports a UE location/positioning-related measurement (e.g., a value a value used by the gNB/(location) server/LMF for UE positioning); and transmitting, to the network entity, a measurement information associated with the one or more measurements derived on the same PRS resource (Fig. 11 1105(a): transmitting information related to positioning. ¶[0213]: UE calculates/obtains and reports a UE location/positioning-related measurement (e.g., a value a value used by the gNB/(location) server/LMF for UE positioning. ¶[0440]: in transmitting the measurement, the UE may also transmit/report a specific DL/UL RS resource on which the measurement is obtained to the cells/gNBs/TRPs. ¶[0443]: the UE may need to obtain and/or report UE Rx-Tx time difference measurement and/or RSTD measurement for the two specific cells/TRP/gNB using the “same PRS resource(s)”) from at least two of the plurality of PRS MIs (Section 2.2 Eq. 4 ¶[0087] configures a PRS resource to be transmitted multiple times, thereby creating two or more distinct measurement instances of the same resource).
Cha does not disclose wherein each PRS MI is received on a different time instance on the same bandwidth and the measurement report being a single measurement report including multiple measurement instances for the same PRS resource set.
However, Koskela discloses wherein each PRS MI is received on a different time instance on the same bandwidth and the measurement report being a single measurement report including multiple measurement instances for the same PRS resource set (¶[0073] & [0074]: the PRS measurements in T reporting instances for the same PRS resources in the prior art teaches the limitation of “multiple measurement instances for the same PRS resource set;”
In fact, receiving each PRS measurement instance accordingly in time and the report including the PRS measurements in T reporting instances for the same PRS resources in the prior art teaches the limitation of “wherein each PRS MI is received on a different time instance on the same bandwidth and the measurement report being a single measurement report including multiple measurement instances for the same PRS resource set” in the instant application).
Thus, it would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to one of ordinary skill in art to implement the method of Koskela in the system of Cha.
The motivation for implementing wherein each PRS MI is received on a different time instance on the same bandwidth and the measurement report being a single measurement report including multiple measurement instances for the same PRS resource set, is to further enhance the mechanism for a dynamic updating of PRSs, wherein a user equipment receives continuous positioning configuration, the continuous positioning configuration comprises a periodic reporting configuration and an event-based reporting configuration, and then the user equipment performs measurements based on the continuous positioning configuration and transmitting a measurement report to a network entity.
Regarding Claim 2, Cha discloses wherein the measurement report comprises a time stamp associated with the measurement information for each of the PRS MIs ((¶[0203]: UE may be configured/instructed to report time stamp information defining the UE measurement associated with the time stamp to the LMF/location server/gNB ¶[0397]: when the Rx-Tx time difference is reported, the employed RX beam information/Rx panel information/Tx beam information/Tx panel information and/or time-stamp information may be reported together. ¶[0444]: the UE Rx-Tx time difference measurement and RSTD measurement may be assigned the same time-stamp. That is, for example, the UE may assign and/or report the same time-stamp when reporting the measurement).
Koskela further discloses the measurement report in the single measurement report (¶[0073]).
Regarding Claim 3, Cha discloses wherein the measurement report indicates that some or all of the measurement information is valid across multiple PRS MIs (¶[0397]: when the UE reports the time-stamp together, the operation may be interpreted as reporting a valid time of the Rx-Tx time difference measurement reported to the counterpart UE together. ¶[0398]: UE #2 may provide UE #1 with the time average (filtering) window/filtering information used by UE #2, in consideration of the movement velocity/movement speed/position change of UE #2. For example, UE #1 may infer/interpret/obtain the valid time of the positioning measurement information provided from UE #2 based thereon. ¶[0397] implies that the reported measurement is associated with a specific validity window, not just an instantaneous value; while ¶[0398] the measurement may reflect an averaged value that is valid in a time window rather than single point in time.)
Regarding Claim 4, Cha discloses wherein the measurement report comprises an indication of a time range that comprises the multiple PRS MIs (¶[0555]: the at least one processor included in the UE may transmit the information related to the time window. ¶[0221]: the network may configure/indicate, for the UE, a measurement filtering time window for acquiring the UE Rx-Tx time difference measurement. ¶[0397]: when the UE reports the time-stamp together, the operation may be interpreted as reporting a valid time of the Rx-Tx time difference measurement reported to the counterpart UE together. ¶[0221] indicated that the UE performs measurements over a configured time window and not a single point in time. ¶[0397] indicates a temporal validity which implicitly reference a time range encompassing more than one PRS MI).
Regarding Claim 5, Cha discloses wherein the one or more measurements at each of the plurality of PRS MIs comprise a received signal time difference (RSTD) measurement, a reference signal received power (RSRP) measurement, receive-transmit (Rx-Tx) measurement, or any combination thereof (¶[0443]: UE may need to obtain and/or report UE Rx-Tx time difference measurement and/or RSTD measurement for the two specific cells/TRP/gNB using the “same PRS resource(s). ¶[0397]: when the UE reports the time-stamp together, the operation may be interpreted as reporting a valid time of the Rx-Tx time difference measurement reported to the counterpart UE together. ¶[0480]: measuring the DL PRS and reporting an associated measurement (e.g., RSTD, Rx-Tx time difference, RSRP, etc.)).
Regarding Claim 6, Cha discloses wherein the plurality of PRS MIs comprises each PRS MI between the measurement report and a previous measurement report (¶[0365]: a measurement acquired at a time closest to the reporting instance and/or reporting time among the L measurements may be R.sub.1 (or R.sub.L), and a measurement acquired at the earliest time before the reporting instance and/or reporting time point may be R.sub.L (or R.sub.1). ¶[0362]: L>0 may be a parameter that is set/indicated to consider L recently acquired measurements … it may be L measurements recently acquired before the reporting instance. ¶[0337]: the UE to exclude, when the UE fails to acquire a measurement (e.g., timing measurement) from a specific DL RS resource. ¶[0365] describes how a set of L measurements used for reporting is indexed in temporal order from earliest to the most recent relative to the reporting time. Equation 9-1 also indicates that the UE applies a filter over the full set of L measurements. ¶[0362] implies that the filtering window is an aggregation of acquired measurements. ¶[0337] implies only failed acquisitions are excluded and all others are used in the aggregation and reporting).
Regarding Claim 7, Cha discloses further comprising: selecting the PRS MIs based on a set of reporting criteria (¶[0338]: whether measurement acquisition for a specific DL RS resource has failed may be determined based on a specific criterion such as a criterion that reference signal received power (RSRP) and/or signal to noise ratio (SNR) higher than or equal to a certain level/threshold).
Koskela further discloses the PRS MIs in the single measurement report (¶[0073]).
Regarding Claim 8, Cha discloses wherein the set of reporting criteria comprise: a mobility of the UE, (¶[0372]: considering the mobility of the UE, it may be more reasonable for the UE to determine a filtering window (e.g., average window) in consideration of its own movement speed/position change, etc.) a quality of the one or more measurements at each of the plurality of PRS MIs, or a combination thereof (¶[0338]: whether measurement acquisition for a specific DL RS resource has failed may be determined based on a specific criterion such as a criterion that reference signal received power (RSRP) and/or signal to noise ratio (SNR) higher than or equal to a certain level/threshold)
Regarding Claim 9, Cha discloses wherein the PRS MIs comprise each PRS MI between the measurement report and a previous measurement report, (¶[0010]: based on information related to the number of measurement samples being obtained, the number of the plurality of samples may be less than or equal to the number of the measurement samples.) or wherein the PRS MIs comprise less than all of the PRS MIs between the measurement report and the previous measurement report (¶[0010]: based on information related to the number of measurement samples being obtained, the number of the plurality of samples may be less than or equal to the number of the measurement samples. ¶[0338]: whether measurement acquisition for a specific DL RS resource has failed may be determined based on a specific criterion such as a criterion that reference signal received power (RSRP) and/or signal to noise ratio (SNR) higher than or equal to a certain level/threshold is not guaranteed. ¶[0454]: the reporting may be indicated/configured in association with a specific rule/criterion requiring that reporting should be performed using L (>=1) most recent measurement samples. ¶[0338] implies that if all PRS MIs meet the quality threshold, all instances are included and if some fail, the report includes less than all MIs. ¶[0454] implies a subset of samples between the reports may be selected and L does not need to equal all MIs between reports).
Koskela further discloses the PRS MIs in the single measurement report (¶[0073]).
Regarding Claim 10, Cha discloses wherein the measurement report comprises differential reporting for at least one measurement type across the PRS MIs (¶[0508]: the effect of the UE Tx/Rx timing error ((e.sub.TX.sup.UE+e.sub.RX.sup.UE)) may be eliminated by the difference between two RTT measurement values ¶[0513]: N PRS occasions/SRS occasions may be indicated. For example, each UE measurement instance may be configured with N (>=1 or >1) instances of a DL PRS resource set. ¶[0508] describe differential reporting by computing the differences between RTT measurements for PRS occasion e.g., RTT1-RTT2. This operation is performed across multiple PRS MIs as evident in ¶[0513] where each MI is tied to DL PRS resources).
Koskela further discloses the PRS MIs in the single measurement report (¶[0073]).
Regarding Claim 12, Cha discloses a method of operating a network entity, comprising: transmitting, to a user equipment (UE), information associated with a plurality of positioning reference signal (PRS) measurement instances (MIs) of one or more PRS resources associated with a transmission reception point (TRP) (¶[0534]: a network node may transmit an RS related to positioning, and the UE may receive a plurality of RSs related to positioning including the RS. ¶[0309]: the UE may receive, from the gNB/location server/LMF, a configuration/indication of a pair of the DL RS resource and UL RS resource to be used to calculate/obtain the UE Rx-Tx time difference measurement and/or the number N of samples. ¶[0535]: obtaining the measurement value related to the positioning by the UE may include acquiring a plurality of samples based on at least one RS among the plurality of RSs. ¶[0211]: the BS may be understood as a comprehensive term including a remote radio head (RRH), an eNB, a gNB, a TP, a reception point (RP) ¶[0161]: The OTDOA positioning method uses time measured for DL signals received from multiple TPs including an eNB, an ng-eNB, and a PRS-only TP by the UE)), and receiving, from the UE, a measurement report comprising measurement information based on one or more measurements derived on the same PRS resource (Fig. 11 1105(a): transmitting information related to positioning. ¶[0213]: UE calculates/obtains and reports a UE location/positioning-related measurement (e.g., a value a value used by the gNB/(location) server/LMF for UE positioning ¶[0440]: in transmitting the measurement, the UE may also transmit/report a specific DL/UL RS resource on which the measurement is obtained to the cells/gNBs/TRPs. ¶[0443]: the UE may need to obtain and/or report UE Rx-Tx time difference measurement and/or RSTD measurement for the two specific cells/TRP/gNB using the “same PRS resource(s).”) from at least two of the plurality of PRS MIs (Section 2.2 Eq. 4 ¶[0087] configures a PRS resource to be transmitted multiple times, thereby creating two or more distinct measurement instances of the same resource).
Cha does not disclose wherein each PRS MI is received on a different time instance on the same bandwidth and the measurement report being a single measurement report including multiple measurement instances for the same PRS resource set.
However, Koskela discloses wherein each PRS MI is received on a different time instance on the same bandwidth and the measurement report being a single measurement report including multiple measurement instances for the same PRS resource set (¶[0073] & [0074]: the PRS measurements in T reporting instances for the same PRS resources in the prior art teaches the limitation of “multiple measurement instances for the same PRS resource set;”
In fact, receiving each PRS measurement instance accordingly in time and the report including the PRS measurements in T reporting instances for the same PRS resources in the prior art teaches the limitation of “wherein each PRS MI is received on a different time instance on the same bandwidth and the measurement report being a single measurement report including multiple measurement instances for the same PRS resource set” in the instant application).
Thus, it would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to one of ordinary skill in art to implement the method of Koskela in the system of Cha.
The motivation for implementing wherein each PRS MI is received on a different time instance on the same bandwidth and the measurement report being a single measurement report including multiple measurement instances for the same PRS resource set, is to further enhance the mechanism for a dynamic updating of PRSs, wherein a user equipment receives continuous positioning configuration, the continuous positioning configuration comprises a periodic reporting configuration and an event-based reporting configuration, and then the user equipment performs measurements based on the continuous positioning configuration and transmitting a measurement report to a network entity.
Regarding Claim 13, Cha discloses wherein the measurement report comprises a time stamp associated with the measurement information for each of the PRS MIs (¶[0203]: UE may be configured/instructed to report time stamp information defining the UE measurement associated with the time stamp to the LMF/location server/gNB). ¶[0397]: when the Rx-Tx time difference is reported, the employed RX beam information/Rx panel information/Tx beam information/Tx panel information and/or time-stamp information may be reported together. ¶[0444]: the UE Rx-Tx time difference measurement and RSTD measurement may be assigned the same time-stamp. That is, for example, the UE may assign and/or report the same time-stamp when reporting the measurement).
Koskela further discloses the measurement report in the single measurement report (¶[0073]).
Regarding Claim 14, Cha discloses wherein the measurement report indicates that some or all of the measurement information is valid across multiple PRS MIs (¶[0397]: when the UE reports the time-stamp together, the operation may be interpreted as reporting a valid time of the Rx-Tx time difference measurement reported to the counterpart UE together. ¶[0398]: UE #2 may provide UE #1 with the time average (filtering) window/filtering information used by UE #2, in consideration of the movement velocity/movement speed/position change of UE #2. For example, UE #1 may infer/interpret/obtain the valid time of the positioning measurement information provided from UE #2 based thereon. ¶[0397] implies that the reported measurement is associated with a specific validity window, not just an instantaneous value; while ¶[0398] the measurement may reflect an averaged value that is valid in a time window rather than single point in time.)
Regarding Claim 15, Cha discloses wherein the measurement report comprises an indication of a time range that comprises the multiple PRS MIs (¶[0555]: the at least one processor included in the UE may transmit the information related to the time window. ¶[0221]: the network may configure/indicate, for the UE, a measurement filtering time window for acquiring the UE Rx-Tx time difference measurement. ¶[0397]: when the UE reports the time-stamp together, the operation may be interpreted as reporting a valid time of the Rx-Tx time difference measurement reported to the counterpart UE together. ¶[0221] indicated that the UE performs measurements over a configured time window and not a single point in time. ¶[0397] indicates a temporal validity which implicitly reference a time range encompassing more than one PRS MI).
Regarding Claim 16, Cha discloses wherein the measurement information is associated with a received signal time difference (RSTD) measurement, a reference signal received power (RSRP) measurement, a receive-transmit (Rx-Tx) measurement, or any combination thereof (¶[0443]: UE may need to obtain and/or report UE Rx-Tx time difference measurement and/or RSTD measurement for the two specific cells/TRP/gNB using the “same PRS resource(s). ¶[0397]: when the UE reports the time-stamp together, the operation may be interpreted as reporting a valid time of the Rx-Tx time difference measurement reported to the counterpart UE together. ¶[0480]: measuring the DL PRS and reporting an associated measurement (e.g., RSTD, Rx-Tx time difference, RSRP, etc.)).
Regarding Claim 17, Cha discloses wherein the plurality of PRS MIs comprises each PRS MI between the measurement report and a previous measurement report (¶[0365]: a measurement acquired at a time closest to the reporting instance and/or reporting time among the L measurements may be R.sub.1 (or R.sub.L), and a measurement acquired at the earliest time before the reporting instance and/or reporting time point may be R.sub.L (or R.sub.1). ¶[0362]: L>0 may be a parameter that is set/indicated to consider L recently acquired measurements … it may be L measurements recently acquired before the reporting instance. ¶[0337]: the UE to exclude, when the UE fails to acquire a measurement (e.g., timing measurement) from a specific DL RS resource. ¶[0365] describes how a set of L measurements used for reporting is indexed in temporal order from earliest to the most recent relative to the reporting time. Equation 9-1 also indicates that the UE applies a filter over the full set of L measurements. ¶[0362] implies that the filtering window is an aggregation of acquired measurements. ¶[0337] implies only failed acquisitions are excluded and all others are used in the aggregation and reporting)
Regarding Claim 18, Cha discloses wherein PRS MIs are selected based on a set of reporting criteria (¶[0338]: whether measurement acquisition for a specific DL RS resource has failed may be determined based on a specific criterion such as a criterion that reference signal received power (RSRP) and/or signal to noise ratio (SNR) higher than or equal to a certain level/threshold).
Koskela further discloses the PRS MIs in the single measurement report (¶[0073]).
Regarding Claim 19, Cha discloses wherein the set of reporting criteria comprise: a mobility of the UE (¶[0372]: considering the mobility of the UE, it may be more reasonable for the UE to determine a filtering window (e.g., average window) in consideration of its own movement speed/position change, etc.), a quality of one or more measurements at each of the plurality of PRS MIs, or a combination thereof (¶[0338]: whether measurement acquisition for a specific DL RS resource has failed may be determined based on a specific criterion such as a criterion that reference signal received power (RSRP) and/or signal to noise ratio (SNR) higher than or equal to a certain level/threshold).
Regarding Claim 20, Cha discloses wherein the PRS MIs comprises each PRS MI between the measurement report and a previous measurement report (¶[0010]: based on information related to the number of measurement samples being obtained, the number of the plurality of samples may be less than or equal to the number of the measurement samples.), or wherein the PRS MIs comprises less than all of the PRS MIs between the measurement report and the previous measurement report (¶[0010]: based on information related to the number of measurement samples being obtained, the number of the plurality of samples may be less than or equal to the number of the measurement samples. ¶[0338]: whether measurement acquisition for a specific DL RS resource has failed may be determined based on a specific criterion such as a criterion that reference signal received power (RSRP) and/or signal to noise ratio (SNR) higher than or equal to a certain level/threshold is not guaranteed. ¶[0454]: the reporting may be indicated/configured in association with a specific rule/criterion requiring that reporting should be performed using L (>=1) most recent measurement samples ¶[0338] implies that if all PRS MIs meet the quality threshold, all instances are included and if some fail, the report includes less than all MIs). ¶[0454] implies a subset of samples between the reports may be selected and L does not need to equal all MIs between reports)
Koskela further discloses the PRS MIs in the single measurement report (¶[0073]).
Regarding Claim 21, Cha discloses wherein the measurement report comprises differential reporting for at least one measurement type across the PRS MIs (¶[0508]: the effect of the UE Tx/Rx timing error ((e.sub.TX.sup.UE+e.sub.RX.sup.UE)) may be eliminated by the difference between two RTT measurement values ¶[0513]: N PRS occasions/SRS occasions may be indicated. For example, each UE measurement instance may be configured with N (>=1 or >1) instances of a DL PRS resource set. ¶[0508] describe differential reporting by computing the differences between RTT measurements for PRS occasion e.g., RTT1-RTT2. This operation is performed across multiple PRS MIs as evident in ¶[0513] where each MI is tied to DL PRS resources).
Koskela furhter discloses the PRS MIs in the single measurement report (¶[0073]).
Regarding Claim 23, Cha discloses a user equipment (UE), comprising: a memory (Fig. 21 230); at least one transceiver (Fig. 21 235); and at least one processor communicatively coupled to the memory and the at least one transceiver (Fig. 21 210), the at least one processor configured to: receive, via the at least one transceiver, from a network entity, information associated with a plurality of positioning reference signal (PRS) measurement instances (MIs) of one or more PRS resources associated with a transmission reception point (TRP) (¶[0401]: a network node may transmit an RS related to positioning and the UE may receive a plurality of RSs related to positioning including the RS. ¶[0207]: the UE may receive, from the gNB/location server/LMF, a configuration/indication of a pair of the DL RS resource and UL RS resource to be used to calculate/obtain the UE Rx-Tx time difference measurement and/or the number N of samples. ¶[0535]: obtaining the measurement value related to the positioning by the UE may include acquiring a plurality of samples based on at least one RS among the plurality of RSs. ¶[0211]: the BS may be understood as a comprehensive term including a remote radio head (RRH), an eNB, a gNB, a TP, a reception point (RP) ¶[0161]: The OTDOA positioning method uses time measured for DL signals received from multiple TPs including an eNB, an ng-eNB, and a PRS-only TP by the UE); perform one or more measurements at each of the plurality of PRS MIs of the same PRS resource of the one or more PRS resources (¶[0535]: obtaining the measurement value related to the positioning by the UE may include acquiring a plurality of samples based on at least one RS among the plurality of RSs. ¶[0208]: a sample may be a measurement value for positioning and provided to apply a filtering process. ¶[0213]: UE calculates/obtains and reports a UE location/positioning-related measurement (e.g., a value a value used by the gNB/(location) server/LMF for UE positioning); and transmit, via the at least one transceiver, to the network entity, a measurement report comprising measurement information associated with the one or more measurements derived on the same PRS resource (Fig. 11 1105(a): transmitting information related to positioning. ¶[0213]: UE calculates/obtains and reports a UE location/positioning-related measurement (e.g., a value a value used by the gNB/(location) server/LMF for UE positioning ¶[0440]: in transmitting the measurement, the UE may also transmit/report a specific DL/UL RS resource on which the measurement is obtained to the cells/gNBs/TRPs. ¶[0443]: the UE may need to obtain and/or report UE Rx-Tx time difference measurement and/or RSTD measurement for the two specific cells/TRP/gNB using the “same PRS resource(s)”) from at least two of the plurality of PRS MIs (Section 2.2 Eq. 4 ¶[0087] configures a PRS resource to be transmitted multiple times, thereby creating two or more distinct measurement instances of the same resource).
Cha does not disclose wherein each PRS MI is received on a different time instance on the same bandwidth and the measurement report being a single measurement report including multiple measurement instances for the same PRS resource set.
However, Koskela discloses wherein each PRS MI is received on a different time instance on the same bandwidth and the measurement report being a single measurement report including multiple measurement instances for the same PRS resource set (¶[0073] & [0074]: the PRS measurements in T reporting instances for the same PRS resources in the prior art teaches the limitation of “multiple measurement instances for the same PRS resource set;”
In fact, receiving each PRS measurement instance accordingly in time and the report including the PRS measurements in T reporting instances for the same PRS resources in the prior art teaches the limitation of “wherein each PRS MI is received on a different time instance on the same bandwidth and the measurement report being a single measurement report including multiple measurement instances for the same PRS resource set” in the instant application).
Thus, it would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to one of ordinary skill in art to implement the method of Koskela in the system of Cha.
The motivation for implementing wherein each PRS MI is received on a different time instance on the same bandwidth and the measurement report being a single measurement report including multiple measurement instances for the same PRS resource set, is to further enhance the mechanism for a dynamic updating of PRSs, wherein a user equipment receives continuous positioning configuration, the continuous positioning configuration comprises a periodic reporting configuration and an event-based reporting configuration, and then the user equipment performs measurements based on the continuous positioning configuration and transmitting a measurement report to a network entity.
Regarding Claim 24, Cha discloses wherein the measurement report comprises a time stamp associated with the measurement information for each of the PRS MIs ((¶[0203]: UE may be configured/instructed to report time stamp information defining the UE measurement associated with the time stamp to the LMF/location server/gNB. ¶[0397]: when the Rx-Tx time difference is reported, the employed RX beam information/Rx panel information/Tx beam information/Tx panel information and/or time-stamp information may be reported together. ¶[0444]: the UE Rx-Tx time difference measurement and RSTD measurement may be assigned the same time-stamp. That is, for example, the UE may assign and/or report the same time-stamp when reporting the measurement) or wherein the measurement report indicates that some or all of the measurement information is valid across multiple PRS MIs, (¶[0397]: when the UE reports the time-stamp together, the operation may be interpreted as reporting a valid time of the Rx-Tx time difference measurement reported to the counterpart UE together. ¶[0398]: UE #2 may provide UE #1 with the time average (filtering) window/filtering information used by UE #2, in consideration of the movement velocity/movement speed/position change of UE #2. For example, UE #1 may infer/interpret/obtain the valid time of the positioning measurement information provided from UE #2 based thereon. ¶[0397] implies that the reported measurement is associated with a specific validity window, not just an instantaneous value; while ¶[0398] the measurement may reflect an averaged value that is valid in a time window rather than single point in time) or wherein the measurement report comprises an indication of a time range that comprises the multiple PRS MIs, or any combination thereof MIs (¶[0555]: the at least one processor included in the UE may transmit the information related to the time window. ¶[0221]: the network may configure/indicate, for the UE, a measurement filtering time window for acquiring the UE Rx-Tx time difference measurement. ¶[0397]: when the UE reports the time-stamp together, the operation may be interpreted as reporting a valid time of the Rx-Tx time difference measurement reported to the counterpart UE together. ¶[0221] indicated that the UE performs measurements over a configured time window and not a single point in time. ¶[0397] indicates a temporal validity which implicitly reference a time range encompassing more than one PRS MI).
Koskela further discloses the measurement report in the single measurement report (¶[0073]).
Regarding Claim 25, Cha discloses wherein the one or more measurements at each of the plurality of PRS MIs comprise a received signal time difference (RSTD) measurement, a reference signal received power (RSRP) measurement, receive-transmit (Rx-Tx) measurement, or any combination thereof (¶[0443]: UE may need to obtain and/or report UE Rx-Tx time difference measurement and/or RSTD measurement for the two specific cells/TRP/gNB using the “same PRS resource(s). ¶[0397]: when the UE reports the time-stamp together, the operation may be interpreted as reporting a valid time of the Rx-Tx time difference measurement reported to the counterpart UE together. ¶[0480]: measuring the DL PRS and reporting an associated measurement (e.g., RSTD, Rx-Tx time difference, RSRP, etc.)).
Regarding Claim 26, Cha discloses wherein the plurality of PRS MIs comprises each PRS MI between the measurement report and a previous measurement report (¶[0365]: a measurement acquired at a time closest to the reporting instance and/or reporting time among the L measurements may be R.sub.1 (or R.sub.L), and a measurement acquired at the earliest time before the reporting instance and/or reporting time point may be R.sub.L (or R.sub.1). ¶[0362]: L>0 may be a parameter that is set/indicated to consider L recently acquired measurements … it may be L measurements recently acquired before the reporting instance. ¶[0337]: the UE to exclude, when the UE fails to acquire a measurement (e.g., timing measurement) from a specific DL RS resource. ¶[0365] describes how a set of L measurements used for reporting is indexed in temporal order from earliest to the most recent relative to the reporting time. Equation 9-1 also indicates that the UE applies a filter over the full set of L measurements. ¶[0362] implies that the filtering window is an aggregation of acquired measurements. ¶[0337] implies only failed acquisitions are excluded and all others are used in the aggregation and reporting).
Regarding Claim 27, Cha discloses wherein the measurement report comprises differential reporting for at least one measurement type across the PRS MIs (¶[0508]: the effect of the UE Tx/Rx timing error ((e.sub.TX.sup.UE+e.sub.RX.sup.UE)) may be eliminated by the difference between two RTT measurement values ¶[0513]: N PRS occasions/SRS occasions may be indicated. For example, each UE measurement instance may be configured with N (>=1 or >1) instances of a DL PRS resource set. ¶[0508] describe differential reporting by computing the differences between RTT measurements for PRS occasion e.g., RTT1-RTT2. This operation is performed across multiple PRS MIs as evident in ¶[0513] where each MI is tied to DL PRS resources).
Koskela further discloses the PRS MIs in the single measurement report (¶[0073]).
Regarding Claim 28, Cha discloses a network component, comprising: a memory (Fig. 21 230 ¶[0407]: The device illustrated in FIG. 21 may be a UE and/or a BS (e.g., eNB or gNB or TP) ; at least one transceiver (Fig. 21 235); and at least one processor communicatively coupled to the memory and the at least one transceiver (Fig. 21 210), the at least one processor configured to: transmit, via the at least one transceiver, to a user equipment (UE), information associated with a plurality of positioning reference signal (PRS) measurement instances (MIs) of one or more PRS resources associated with a transmission reception point (TRP) (¶[0401]: a network node may transmit an RS related to positioning and the UE may receive a plurality of RSs related to positioning including the RS. ¶[0207]: the UE may receive, from the gNB/location server/LMF, a configuration/indication of a pair of the DL RS resource and UL RS resource to be used to calculate/obtain the UE Rx-Tx time difference measurement and/or the number N of samples. ¶[0535]: obtaining the measurement value related to the positioning by the UE may include acquiring a plurality of samples based on at least one RS among the plurality of RSs. ¶[0211]: the BS may be understood as a comprehensive term including a remote radio head (RRH), an eNB, a gNB, a TP, a reception point (RP) ¶[0161]: The OTDOA positioning method uses time measured for DL signals received from multiple TPs including an eNB, an ng-eNB, and a PRS-only TP by the UE) and receive, via the at least one transceiver, from the UE, a measurement report comprising measurement information based on one or more measurements derived on the same PRS resource (Fig. 11 1105(a): transmitting information related to positioning. ¶[0213]: UE calculates/obtains and reports a UE location/positioning-related measurement (e.g., a value a value used by the gNB/(location) server/LMF for UE positioning ¶[0440]: in transmitting the measurement, the UE may also transmit/report a specific DL/UL RS resource on which the measurement is obtained to the cells/gNBs/TRPs. ¶[0443]: the UE may need to obtain and/or report UE Rx-Tx time difference measurement and/or RSTD measurement for the two specific cells/TRP/gNB using the “same PRS resource(s)”) from at least two of the plurality of PRS MIs (Section 2.2 Eq. 4 ¶[0087] configures a PRS resource to be transmitted multiple times, thereby creating two or more distinct measurement instances of the same resource).
Cha does not disclose wherein each PRS MI is received on a different time instance on the same bandwidth and the measurement report being a single measurement report including multiple measurement instances for the same PRS resource set.
However, Koskela discloses wherein each PRS MI is received on a different time instance on the same bandwidth and the measurement report being a single measurement report including multiple measurement instances for the same PRS resource set (¶[0073] & [0074]: the PRS measurements in T reporting instances for the same PRS resources in the prior art teaches the limitation of “multiple measurement instances for the same PRS resource set;”
In fact, receiving each PRS measurement instance accordingly in time and the report including the PRS measurements in T reporting instances for the same PRS resources in the prior art teaches the limitation of “wherein each PRS MI is received on a different time instance on the same bandwidth and the measurement report being a single measurement report including multiple measurement instances for the same PRS resource set” in the instant application).
Thus, it would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to one of ordinary skill in art to implement the method of Koskela in the system of Cha.
The motivation for implementing wherein each PRS MI is received on a different time instance on the same bandwidth and the measurement report being a single measurement report including multiple measurement instances for the same PRS resource set, is to further enhance the mechanism for a dynamic updating of PRSs, wherein a user equipment receives continuous positioning configuration, the continuous positioning configuration comprises a periodic reporting configuration and an event-based reporting configuration, and then the user equipment performs measurements based on the continuous positioning configuration and transmitting a measurement report to a network entity.
Regarding Claim 29, Cha discloses the network component of wherein the measurement report comprises a time stamp associated with the measurement information for each of the two or more PRS MIs, ((¶[0203]: UE may be configured/instructed to report time stamp information defining the UE measurement associated with the time stamp to the LMF/location server/gNB. ¶[0397]: when the Rx-Tx time difference is reported, the employed RX beam information/Rx panel information/Tx beam information/Tx panel information and/or time-stamp information may be reported together. ¶[0444]: the UE Rx-Tx time difference measurement and RSTD measurement may be assigned the same time-stamp. That is, for example, the UE may assign and/or report the same time-stamp when reporting the measurement) or wherein the measurement report indicates that some or all of the measurement information is valid across multiple PRS MIs, (¶[0397]: when the UE reports the time-stamp together, the operation may be interpreted as reporting a valid time of the Rx-Tx time difference measurement reported to the counterpart UE together. ¶[0398]: UE #2 may provide UE #1 with the time average (filtering) window/filtering information used by UE #2, in consideration of the movement velocity/movement speed/position change of UE #2. For example, UE #1 may infer/interpret/obtain the valid time of the positioning measurement information provided from UE #2 based thereon. ¶[0397] implies that the reported measurement is associated with a specific validity window, not just an instantaneous value; while ¶[0398] the measurement may reflect an averaged value that is valid in a time window rather than single point in time) or wherein the measurement report comprises an indication of a time range that comprises the multiple PRS MIs, (¶[0555]: the at least one processor included in the UE may transmit the information related to the time window. ¶[0221]: the network may configure/indicate, for the UE, a measurement filtering time window for acquiring the UE Rx-Tx time difference measurement. ¶[0397]: when the UE reports the time-stamp together, the operation may be interpreted as reporting a valid time of the Rx-Tx time difference measurement reported to the counterpart UE together. ¶[0221] indicated that the UE performs measurements over a configured time window and not a single point in time. ¶[0397] indicates a temporal validity which implicitly reference a time range encompassing more than one PRS MI) or wherein the measurement information is associated with a received signal time difference (RSTD) measurement, a reference signal received power (RSRP) measurement, a receive-transmit (Rx-Tx) measurement, or any combination thereof, or any combination thereof (¶[0443]: UE may need to obtain and/or report UE Rx-Tx time difference measurement and/or RSTD measurement for the two specific cells/TRP/gNB using the “same PRS resource(s). ¶[0397]: when the UE reports the time-stamp together, the operation may be interpreted as reporting a valid time of the Rx-Tx time difference measurement reported to the counterpart UE together. ¶[0480]: measuring the DL PRS and reporting an associated measurement (e.g., RSTD, Rx-Tx time difference, RSRP, etc.)).
Koskela further discloses the measurement report in the single measurement report (¶[0073]).
Regarding Claim 30, Cha discloses wherein the plurality of PRS MIs comprises each PRS MI between the measurement report and a previous measurement report, (¶[0365]: a measurement acquired at a time closest to the reporting instance and/or reporting time among the L measurements may be R.sub.1 (or R.sub.L), and a measurement acquired at the earliest time before the reporting instance and/or reporting time point may be R.sub.L (or R.sub.1). ¶[0362]: L>0 may be a parameter that is set/indicated to consider L recently acquired measurements … it may be L measurements recently acquired before the reporting instance. ¶[0337]: the UE to exclude, when the UE fails to acquire a measurement (e.g., timing measurement) from a specific DL RS resource. ¶[0365] describes how a set of L measurements used for reporting is indexed in temporal order from earliest to the most recent relative to the reporting time. Equation 9-1 also indicates that the UE applies a filter over the full set of L measurements. ¶[0362] implies that the filtering window is an aggregation of acquired measurements. ¶[0337] implies only failed acquisitions are excluded and all others are used in the aggregation and reporting) or wherein the measurement report comprises differential reporting for at least one measurement type across the PRS MIs or a combination thereof(¶[0508]: the effect of the UE Tx/Rx timing error ((e.sub.TX.sup.UE+e.sub.RX.sup.UE)) may be eliminated by the difference between two RTT measurement values ¶[0513]: N PRS occasions/SRS occasions may be indicated. For example, each UE measurement instance may be configured with N (>=1 or >1) instances of a DL PRS resource set. ¶[0508] describe differential reporting by computing the differences between RTT measurements for PRS occasion e.g., RTT1-RTT2. This operation is performed across multiple PRS MIs as evident in ¶[0513] where each MI is tied to DL PRS resources).
Koskela further discloses the PRS MIs in the single measurement report (¶[0073]).
Allowable Subject Matter
7. Claims 11 and 22 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim 1 or 12, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claim(s).
Regarding claim 11, the prior art in single or in combination fails to teach "wherein, for the at least one measurement type, the measurement information associated with each PRS MI following an earliest of the PRS MIs in the single measurement report is indicated differentially relative to the earliest of the PRS MIs in the single measurement report, or wherein, for the at least one measurement type, the measurement information associated with each PRS MI following an earliest of the PRS MIs in the single measurement report is indicated differentially relative to a preceding PRS MI” in combination with other limitation of the claim(s).
Similar limitations are included in claim 22.
Conclusion
8. The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to
US11375390, which teaches a device and method for handling a measurement configuration, which specifies a measurement bandwidth.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to WEI ZHAO whose telephone number is (571)270-5672. The examiner can normally be reached from 8:00AM to 5:00PM Monday through Friday.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, JAE Y LEE can be reached on (571) 270-3936. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/WEI ZHAO/ Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2473