DETAILED ACTION
This communication is in response to applicant's response filed under 37 C.F.R. §1.111, dated December 8, 2025 in response to a non-final office action. Claims 1, 2, 4-6, 9, 10, 12-14, 17, 18, and 20 have been amended. Claims 1-20 are subject to examination and have been examined.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments with respect to the claims have been considered but are moot in view of the new grounds of rejection.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor, or for pre-AIA the applicant regards as the invention.
Regarding claims 1, 9 and 17, the claims recite the limitation, “… information related to transmission of s directional sensing signal …” (Emphasis added). It is unclear what the “s” directional sensing signal is, as there is no details in the specification. For purposes of examination, the Examiner has interpreted the limitation to read, ““… information related to transmission of directional sensing signal …”
Regarding claims 2-8, 10-16, and 18-20, claims 2-8 each depend on independent claim 1, claims 10-16 each depend on independent claim 9, and claims 18-20 each depend on independent claim 17 and therefore, inherit the 35 U.S.C. 112(b) issues of the independent claims.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claims 1-6, 9-14, and 17-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Jassal et.al. (US Patent Application Publication, 20240314884, hereinafter, “Jassal”) in view of Roy et.al. (US Patent Application Publication, 20230086144, hereinafter, “Roy”).
Regarding claim 1, Jassal teaches:
A method performed by a user equipment (UE), the method comprising (Jassal: [0125] FIG. 6 illustrates a signaling flow-chart capturing the behavior of the TRP 170, the UE 110 and the generic self-driving vehicle 110e according to aspects of the present application.):
transmitting, to a base station (BS), UE sensing capability information (Jassal: [0130] Once the UE 110 has received (606) sensing capability information from the generic self-driving vehicle 110e with which the UE 110 is associated, the UE 110 may transmit (608) a “UE Capability Extension request message” to a TRP 170 … [0132] In one embodiment, the UE Capability Extension request message 700 may, instead, be a “Sensing Capability Extension request message.” ... Fig. 6);
transmitting, to the BS, a sensing configuration request, the sensing configuration request including sensing application type, sensing range, sensing resolution, and sensing periodicity (Jassal: [0132] In one embodiment, the UE Capability Extension request message 700 may, instead, be a “Sensing Capability Extension request message.” The rationale for such a name is that the request message is for adding a sensing capability to the UE's existing or built-in capability. The higher-layer signaling 608 would then contain a higher-layer parameter SensingCapabilityExtensionRequest, which may have one or more entries and each entry may contain other higher-layer parameters such as Sensor ID, Sensor Type, Sensing range, Measurement Type and Measurement Periodicity … [0135] Other higher-layer parameters that may be provided for one of the sensors fitted on the associated device in the UE Capability Extension request message 700 are: a “Sensing resolution accuracy” parameter … [0140] For a given sensor, the Sensing resolution accuracy parameter may be used to indicate the sensing resolution accuracies (e.g., 1 cm) supported by the given sensor. Fig. 6).
Although Jassal teaches the UE transmitting the Sensing Capability Extension request message to the TRP, which includes the Sensor Type, Sensing range, Measurement Type and Measurement Periodicity, and a “Sensing resolution accuracy” parameter, Jassal does not explicitly teach:
receiving, from the BS, a sensing configuration, the sensing configuration including sensing transmission power, power control related parameters, information related to transmission of s directional sensing signal, and sensing resources and periodicity; and
performing, based on the sensing configuration, a sensing procedure.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Roy teaches:
receiving, from the BS, a sensing configuration, the sensing configuration including sensing transmission power, power control related parameters, information related to transmission of s directional sensing signal, and sensing resources and periodicity (Roy: [0200] After transmitting a JCS resource request, the WTRU may monitor for a JCS configuration response (e.g., transmitted from a gNB) … [0204] A JCS [Joint communications and sensing] configuration response may include one or more sensing configurations. Any of the sensing configurations may include one or more of the following parameters: … [0207] a periodicity of sensing cycles; [0208] one or more directions of sensing (e.g., for multi-directional radar measurements) … [0211] time-frequency resources … [0216] a transmit power level (e.g., a maximum power per sensing cycle, a maximum power per direction or maximum power per RE per direction and/or a maximum power per PRB per direction); and [0217] an active flag, which may be used by the WTRU to determine whether this sensing configuration may be used/activated or not after receiving the configuration.); and
performing, based on the sensing configuration, a sensing procedure (Roy: [0250] For each of the active sensing configurations (e.g., to perform sensing measurements), the WTRU may perform sensing signal transmissions (e.g., RSs and/or JCS-RSs) on the allocated resources (e.g., after applying the configured time offset). The WTRU may be configured with REs for sensing signal transmissions (e.g., RSs and/or JCS-RSs), where, for example, those REs may be time/frequency multiplexed with REs including the uplink/downlink control/data for other applications or/and for other WTRUs.).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Jassal to include the features as taught by Roy above in order to provide wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) initiated active sensing. (Roy, ¶ [0002]).
Regarding claim 9, Jassal teaches:
A user equipment (UE), the UE comprising (Jassal: [0125] FIG. 6 illustrates a signaling flow-chart capturing the behavior of the TRP 170, the UE 110 and the generic self-driving vehicle 110e according to aspects of the present application.):
a processor (Jassal: [0045] The ED 110 includes at least one memory 208. The memory 208 stores instructions and data used, generated, or collected by the ED 110. For example, the memory 208 could store software instructions or modules configured to implement some or all of the functionality and/or embodiments described herein and that are executed by one or more processing unit(s) (e.g., a processor 210) ... Fig. 3); and
a transceiver operably coupled to the processor, the transceiver configured to (Jassal: [0044] The ED 110 includes a transmitter 201 and a receiver 203 coupled to one or more antennas 204 ... Fig. 3):
transmit, to a base station (BS), UE sensing capability information (Jassal: [0130] Once the UE 110 has received (606) sensing capability information from the generic self-driving vehicle 110e with which the UE 110 is associated, the UE 110 may transmit (608) a “UE Capability Extension request message” to a TRP 170 … [0132] In one embodiment, the UE Capability Extension request message 700 may, instead, be a “Sensing Capability Extension request message.” ... Fig. 6), and
transmit, to the BS, a sensing configuration request, the sensing configuration request including sensing application type, sensing range, sensing resolution, and sensing periodicity (Jassal: [0132] In one embodiment, the UE Capability Extension request message 700 may, instead, be a “Sensing Capability Extension request message.” The rationale for such a name is that the request message is for adding a sensing capability to the UE's existing or built-in capability. The higher-layer signaling 608 would then contain a higher-layer parameter SensingCapabilityExtensionRequest, which may have one or more entries and each entry may contain other higher-layer parameters such as Sensor ID, Sensor Type, Sensing range, Measurement Type and Measurement Periodicity … [0135] Other higher-layer parameters that may be provided for one of the sensors fitted on the associated device in the UE Capability Extension request message 700 are: a “Sensing resolution accuracy” parameter … [0140] For a given sensor, the Sensing resolution accuracy parameter may be used to indicate the sensing resolution accuracies (e.g., 1 cm) supported by the given sensor. Fig. 6).
Although Jassal teaches the UE transmitting the Sensing Capability Extension request message to the TRP, which includes the Sensor Type, Sensing range, Measurement Type and Measurement Periodicity, and a “Sensing resolution accuracy” parameter, Jassal does not explicitly teach:
receive, from the BS, a sensing configuration, the sensing configuration including sensing transmission power, power control related parameters, information related to transmission of s directional sensing signal, and sensing resources and periodicity,
wherein the UE is configured to perform, based on the sensing configuration, a sensing procedure.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Roy teaches:
receive, from the BS, a sensing configuration, the sensing configuration including sensing transmission power, power control related parameters, information related to transmission of s directional sensing signal, and sensing resources and periodicity (Roy: [0200] After transmitting a JCS resource request, the WTRU may monitor for a JCS configuration response (e.g., transmitted from a gNB) … [0204] A JCS [Joint communications and sensing] configuration response may include one or more sensing configurations. Any of the sensing configurations may include one or more of the following parameters: … [0207] a periodicity of sensing cycles; [0208] one or more directions of sensing (e.g., for multi-directional radar measurements) … [0211] time-frequency resources … [0216] a transmit power level (e.g., a maximum power per sensing cycle, a maximum power per direction or maximum power per RE per direction and/or a maximum power per PRB per direction); and [0217] an active flag, which may be used by the WTRU to determine whether this sensing configuration may be used/activated or not after receiving the configuration.),
wherein the UE is configured to perform, based on the sensing configuration, a sensing procedure (Roy: [0250] For each of the active sensing configurations (e.g., to perform sensing measurements), the WTRU may perform sensing signal transmissions (e.g., RSs and/or JCS-RSs) on the allocated resources (e.g., after applying the configured time offset). The WTRU may be configured with REs for sensing signal transmissions (e.g., RSs and/or JCS-RSs), where, for example, those REs may be time/frequency multiplexed with REs including the uplink/downlink control/data for other applications or/and for other WTRUs.).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Jassal to include the features as taught by Roy above in order to provide wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) initiated active sensing. (Roy, ¶ [0002]).
Regarding claim 17, Jassal teaches:
A base station, comprising (Jassal: [0125] FIG. 6 illustrates a signaling flow-chart capturing the behavior of the TRP 170, the UE 110 and the generic self-driving vehicle 110e according to aspects of the present application.):
a processor (Jassal: [0052] As illustrated in FIG. 3, the T-TRP 170 includes at least one transmitter 252 and at least one receiver 254 coupled to one or more antennas 256 ... Fig. 3.); and
a transceiver operably coupled to the processor, the transceiver configured to (Jassal: [0052] ... The T-TRP 170 further includes a processor 260 for performing operations ... Fig. 3.):
receive, from a user equipment (UE) (Jassal: [0130] Once the UE 110 has received (606) sensing capability information from the generic self-driving vehicle 110e with which the UE 110 is associated, the UE 110 may transmit (608) a “UE Capability Extension request message” to a TRP 170 … [0132] In one embodiment, the UE Capability Extension request message 700 may, instead, be a “Sensing Capability Extension request message.” ... Fig. 6), and
receive, from the UE, a sensing configuration request, the sensing configuration request including sensing application type, sensing range, sensing resolution, and sensing periodicity (Jassal: [0132] In one embodiment, the UE Capability Extension request message 700 may, instead, be a “Sensing Capability Extension request message.” The rationale for such a name is that the request message is for adding a sensing capability to the UE's existing or built-in capability. The higher-layer signaling 608 would then contain a higher-layer parameter SensingCapabilityExtensionRequest, which may have one or more entries and each entry may contain other higher-layer parameters such as Sensor ID, Sensor Type, Sensing range, Measurement Type and Measurement Periodicity … [0135] Other higher-layer parameters that may be provided for one of the sensors fitted on the associated device in the UE Capability Extension request message 700 are: a “Sensing resolution accuracy” parameter … [0140] For a given sensor, the Sensing resolution accuracy parameter may be used to indicate the sensing resolution accuracies (e.g., 1 cm) supported by the given sensor. Fig. 6).
Although Jassal teaches the UE transmitting the Sensing Capability Extension request message to the TRP, which includes the Sensor Type, Sensing range, Measurement Type and Measurement Periodicity, and a “Sensing resolution accuracy” parameter, Jassal does not explicitly teach:
transmit, to the UE, a sensing configuration, the sensing configuration including sensing transmission power, power control related parameters, information related to transmission of s directional sensing signal, and sensing resources and periodicity.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Roy teaches:
transmit, to the UE, a sensing configuration, the sensing configuration including sensing transmission power, power control related parameters, information related to transmission of s directional sensing signal, and sensing resources and periodicity (Roy: [0200] After transmitting a JCS resource request, the WTRU may monitor for a JCS configuration response (e.g., transmitted from a gNB) … [0204] A JCS [Joint communications and sensing] configuration response may include one or more sensing configurations. Any of the sensing configurations may include one or more of the following parameters: … [0207] a periodicity of sensing cycles; [0208] one or more directions of sensing (e.g., for multi-directional radar measurements) … [0211] time-frequency resources … [0216] a transmit power level (e.g., a maximum power per sensing cycle, a maximum power per direction or maximum power per RE per direction and/or a maximum power per PRB per direction); and [0217] an active flag, which may be used by the WTRU to determine whether this sensing configuration may be used/activated or not after receiving the configuration.).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Jassal to include the features as taught by Roy above in order to provide wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) initiated active sensing. (Roy, ¶ [0002]).
Regarding claims 2, 10, and 18, Jassal-Roy discloses on the features with respect to claims 1, 9, and 17 as outlined above.
Roy further teaches:
wherein the UE sensing capability information includes the UE sensing capability information including coexistence of sensing function with cellular communication function within the UE, UE sensing hardware capability, and capability related to UE sensing parameters or modes (Roy: [0098] 5G technologies and systems are designed to operate in the upper frequency bands, for example in the 28 GHz band and bands above 28 GHz band. This indicates a convergence of the frequency bands used by different technologies, such as radar and mobile communication systems. Given the convergence of the frequency bands between radar and mobile communications and the ubiquity of consumer devices with radar capability, technologies that can jointly handle communications and sensing on the same architecture/platform may be more cost effective and have lower complexity as compared to two independent platforms.), and
wherein the UE sensing capability information further comprises one of:
whether the UE is capable of successive interference cancellation for simultaneous reception of cellular communication and sensing signals (Roy: [0045] The WTRU 102 may include a full duplex radio for which transmission and reception of some or all of the signals (e.g., associated with particular subframes for both the UL (e.g., for transmission) and downlink (e.g., for reception) may be concurrent and/or simultaneous. The full duplex radio may include an interference management unit to reduce and or substantially eliminate self-interference via either hardware (e.g., a choke) or signal processing via a processor (e.g., a separate processor (not shown) or via processor 118) …).
The rationale and motivation for adding this teaching of Roy is the same as the rationale and motivation for claims 1, 9, and 17.
Regarding claims 3, 11, and 19, Jassal-Roy discloses on the features with respect to claims 1, 9, and 17 as outlined above.
Roy further teaches:
wherein the UE sensing capability information comprises one of:
whether simultaneous operation of sensing and communication is possible (Roy: [0045] The WTRU 102 may include a full duplex radio for which transmission and reception of some or all of the signals (e.g., associated with particular subframes for both the UL (e.g., for transmission) and downlink (e.g., for reception) may be concurrent and/or simultaneous. The full duplex radio may include an interference management [i.e., for sensing] unit to reduce and or substantially eliminate self-interference via either hardware (e.g., a choke) or signal processing via a processor (e.g., a separate processor (not shown) or via processor 118) …).
The rationale and motivation for adding this teaching of Roy is the same as the rationale and motivation for claims 1, 9, and 17.
Regarding claims 4, 12, and 20, Jassal-Roy discloses on the features with respect to claims 1, 9, and 17 as outlined above.
Roy further teaches:
wherein the UE sensing capability information comprises one of:
a maximum transmission power capability for sensing (Roy: [0216] a transmit power level (e.g., a maximum power per sensing cycle, a maximum power per direction or maximum power per RE per direction and/or a maximum power per PRB per direction).).
The rationale and motivation for adding this teaching of Roy is the same as the rationale and motivation for claims 1, 9, and 17.
Regarding claims 5 and 13, Jassal-Roy discloses on the features with respect to claims 1 and 9 as outlined above.
Roy further teaches:
wherein the sensing configuration request further includes one of:
whether directional sensing is employed (Roy: [0265] ... The activation/reconfiguration request may include other configuration/sensing parameters for one, some or all of the selected candidate sensing configurations. The other configuration/sensing parameters may include, for example, any of directionality, beam width and transmit power information …).
The rationale and motivation for adding this teaching of Roy is the same as the rationale and motivation for claims 1, and 9.
Regarding claims 6 and 14, Jassal-Roy discloses on the features with respect to claims 1 and 9 as outlined above.
Roy further teaches:
wherein the sensing configuration request comprises an index for one of a plurality of predefined sensing modes, each of the plurality of predefined sensing modes associated with one of a transmission power, a bandwidth (Roy: [0265] ... The activation/reconfiguration request may include other configuration/sensing parameters for one, some or all of the selected candidate sensing configurations. The other configuration/sensing parameters may include, for example, any of directionality, beam width and transmit power information …), range, a periodicity, a resolution, whether directional sensing is used, a sensing duration, or sensing application type.
The rationale and motivation for adding this teaching of Roy is the same as the rationale and motivation for claims 1, and 9.
Claims 7 and 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Jassal-Roy in view of Bai et.al. (US Patent Application Publication, 20230188389, hereinafter, “Bai”).
Regarding claim 7 and 15, Jassal-Roy discloses on the features with respect to claims 1 and 9 as outlined above.
Jassal-Roy does not explicitly teach:
wherein the sensing configuration received from the BS further includes a number of beams allowed for sensing sweeping, a beamforming/antenna gain allowed, or a 3 decibels (dB) beam width.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Bai teaches:
wherein the sensing configuration received from the BS further includes a number of beams allowed for sensing sweeping (Bai: [0052] At 506, the UE 502 may transmit an RF sensing capability message to the BS 504. For example, the RF sensing capability message sent by the UE 502 may indicate maximum bandwidth, a time duration, a waveform, and/or a number of beams that the UE 502 supports for RF sensing … [0053] The BS 504, at block 507, may determine an RF sensing configuration for the UE 502 to perform RF sensing. The BS 504 may determine the RF sensing configuration based on the capability message from the UE 402. At 508, the BS 504 may transmit the RF sensing configuration to the UE 502 ...).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Jassal-Roy to include the features as taught by Bai above in order to improve radio frequency (RF) sensing. (Bai, ¶ [0005]).
Claims 8 and 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Jassal-Roy in view of Shibaike et.al. (US Patent Application Publication, 20240324006, hereinafter, “Shibaike”).
Regarding claim 8 and 16, Jassal-Roy discloses on the features with respect to claims 1 and 9 as outlined above.
Jassal-Roy does not explicitly teach:
wherein the sensing configuration received from the BS further includes parameters related to channel access mechanism if unlicensed spectrum is configured, the parameters including listen-before-talk (LBT) type, contention window size, energy and/or signal detection threshold, or allowance of channel occupancy time (COT) sharing.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Shibaike teaches:
wherein the sensing configuration received from the BS further includes parameters including listen-before-talk (LBT) type (Shibaike: [0118] Note that the UE capability may be defined to indicate whether the terminal 20 supports an omni-directional LBT after the completion of sensing using each beam according to time division multiplexing. In addition, the UE capability may be defined to indicate whether the terminal 20 supports a UE side operation in a case where the base station 10 performs an omni-directional LBT after the completion of sensing using each beam according to time division multiplexing. …).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Jassal-Roy to include the features as taught by Shibaike above in order to determine a beam to be applied to a directional LBT. (Shibaike, ¶ [0007]).
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any extension fee pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to LIEM H NGUYEN whose telephone number is (408) 918-7636. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Friday, 8:00AM-4:30PM PT.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Noel Beharry can be reached on (571) 270-5630. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/LIEM H. NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2416