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 .
Priority
Examiner acknowledges Applicant’s claim to priority benefits of GR20200100746 filed 12/23/2020 and GR20210100310 field on 05/06/2021.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement(s) (IDS) submitted on 6/6/2024 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement(s) is/are being considered if signed and initialed by the Examiner.
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 allowance or after an Office action under Ex Parte Quayle, 25 USPQ 74, 453 O.G. 213 (Comm'r Pat. 1935). 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, prosecution in this application has been reopened pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 10/28/2025 has been entered.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claims 1-7, 9, 14-20, 22, 27-28, 31, 33-34, 37-38, 41 and 43-44 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Goyal et al. (US 2022/0295442 A1), in view of Khoryaev et al. (US 2016/0095080 A1).
Regarding claim 1, Goyal et al. (‘442) discloses “a method performed by a first user equipment (UE) for determining a position of the first UE (paragraph 7: Network-initiated WTRU (wireless transmit/receive unit) group positioning techniques; paragraph 8: WTRU may perform positioning measurements), the method comprising:
receiving a first reference signal from a network entity (paragraph 3: the WTRU (wireless transmit/receive unit) may receive the configuration from a network entity such as a gNB, eNB, base station, positioning server etc.);
sending one or more sidelink reference signals to a plurality of sidelink UEs (paragraph 3: the WTRU (wireless transmit/receive unit) may receive a configuration associated with transmission of reference signals (e.g., sidelink synchronization signals) to target WTRUs);
determining a receive-transmit (Rx-Tx) time difference associated with each sidelink UE, wherein the Rx-Tx time difference associated with each sidelink UE is a time difference between receiving the first reference signal from the network entity and sending the sidelink reference signal to a respective sidelink UE (paragraph 3 : the WTRU (wireless transmit/receive unit) may monitor for and/or receive respective measurement report(s) from respective target WTRU(s) (e.g., a target WTRU may receive a reference signal transmitted by the WTRU and send an associated measurement report to the WTRU with a measurement associated with the reference signal));
receiving a time difference measured by each sidelink UE, wherein the time difference measured by each sidelink UE is the time difference between receiving the sidelink reference signal from the first UE and receiving a second reference signal from the network entity (paragraph 6: the measuring WTRU (wireless transmit/receive unit) may determine the reference signal time difference (RSTD) between the downlink transmission and the uplink transmission…the measuring WTRU may report the RSTD measurement, e.g., to a positioning server (e.g., E-SMLC, SUPL SLP, LMF, etc.), which may be a physical or logical network entity); and
processing the Rx-Tx time difference associated with each sidelink UE for generating differential range-sums for the plurality of sidelink UEs based on the Rx-Tx time differences associated with each sidelink UE and the time difference measured by each sidelink UE (paragraph 92: for OTDOA, the WTRU (wireless transmit/receive unit) may receive signals from a reference cell (e.g., the serving cell) and several neighbor cells, and may measure the observed time differences of arrival of the signals (e.g., between each neighbor cell and the reference cell)…the WTRU may report the reference signal time differences (RSTD) back to the network…using the locations of the cells, the fixed timing differences among them; paragraph 137: an in-coverage WTRU (wireless transmit/receive unit) may prepare a group positioning report, for example, upon reception of measurement reports from one or more out-of-coverage WTRUs. In examples, the group positioning report may include the measurement results (e.g., AOA, Rx-Tx time difference, RSRP, etc.) of one or more out-of-coverage WTRUs and the corresponding WTRU IDs (e.g., ProSe IDs) of the respective out-of-coverage WTRUs…the in-coverage WTRU may derive the measurement results of one or more out-of-coverage WTRUs with respect to the in-coverage WTRU's (e.g., the in-coverage WTRU's position, time, etc.)…if the measurement result of an in-coverage WTRU includes the Rx-Tx time difference of a respective WTRU, the in-coverage WTRU may derive the RTT for that WTRU as an updated measurement result. The in-coverage WTRU may include the updated measurement result in the in-coverage WTRU's group positioning report),”
Goyal et al. (‘442) describes the WTRU may report the reference signal time differences (RSTD) back to the network…using the locations of the cells, the fixed timing differences among them, and other information, the network may derive the WTRU's position by triangulation (e.g., assuming there are at least 3 cells measured) and/or other proprietary methods…FIG. 2 is an example associated with OTDOA, where each time difference (TDOA) determines a hyperbola…as illustrated in FIG. 2, the intersection of the hyperbolas may be the estimated location of a WTRU…at least 3 timing measurements (e.g., a reference measurement and 2 neighbor cell measurements) may be used to estimate the WTRU's coordinates (paragraph 92). Goyal et al. (‘442) does not explicitly disclose “each differential range-sum is a difference between a range-sum for a reference sidelink UE from the plurality of sidelink UEs and a range-sum for another sidelink UE from the plurality of sidelink UEs, and wherein the range-sum for each sidelink UE is a sum of a first range between the first UE and the network entity and a second range between the first UE and the respective sidelink UE, wherein the position of the first UE is determined based at least in part on the differential range-sums for the plurality of sidelink UEs.”
Khoryaev et al. (‘080) relates to device to device assisted positioning in wireless communication system. Khoryaev et al. (‘080) teaches “each differential range-sum is a difference between a range-sum for a reference sidelink UE from the plurality of sidelink UEs and a range-sum for another sidelink UE from the plurality of sidelink UEs, and wherein the range-sum for each sidelink UE is a sum of a first range between the first UE and the network entity and a second range between the first UE and the respective sidelink UE, wherein the position of the first UE is determined based at least in part on the differential range-sums for the plurality of sidelink UEs (paragraph 20: The processing circuitry may execute the instructions to: connect, via a Sidelink channel associated with the radio interface, with a second UE that is in proximity to the UE; connect, via the radio interface, with a cellular network; transmit, to the second UE and over the Sidelink channel, a first positioning reference signal from which first timing information, relating to a distance between the UE and second UE, is derivable; transmit, via the radio interface, a second positioning reference signal from which second timing information, relating to a distance between the UE and a base station associated with the cellular network, is derivable; and receive, from a location server and via the radio interface, a location of the UE that was determined based at least on the first and second positioning reference signals; paragraph 47: Figure 3: target UE 310 may receive positioning reference signals from eNBs 340-360 and anchor UEs 320 and 330…the positioning reference signals from anchor UEs 320 and 330 may include signals transmitted over direct Sidelink channels…the positioning reference signals from eNBs 340-360 may include signals transmitted over the cellular links associated with wireless network 220…the positioning reference signal received by target UE 310 may include timing information, which may relate to a distance between target UE 310 and the transmitting source…differences in the timing information from the various sources (e.g., eNBs 340-360 and anchor UEs 320 and 330) and/or signal time of arrival values may correspond to a distance of target UE 310 from the transmitting source. Because the location (e.g., as a three-dimensional coordinate value) of each of the transmitting sources may be known, multilateration-based techniques may be applied to the calculated distances to determine the location of target UE 310).”
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 method of Goyal et al. (‘442) with the teaching of Khoryaev et al. (‘080) for more accurately determine device positions (Khoryaev et al. (‘080) – paragraph 14). In addition, both of the prior art references, (Goyal et al. (‘442) and Khoryaev et al. (‘080)) teach features that are directed to analogous art and they are directed to the same field of endeavor, such as, sidelink time difference of arrival-based positioning.
Regarding claim 2, which is dependent on independent claim 1, Goyal et al. (‘442)/Khoryaev et al. (‘080) discloses the method of claim 1. Goyal et al. (‘442) further discloses “processing the Rx-Tx time difference associated with each sidelink UE for generating the differential range-sums for the plurality of sidelink UEs comprises determining the differential range-sums for the plurality of sidelink UEs based on the Rx-Tx time differences associated with each sidelink UE and the time difference measured by each sidelink UE (paragraph 92: for OTDOA, the WTRU may receive signals from a reference cell (e.g., the serving cell) and several neighbor cells, and may measure the observed time differences of arrival of the signals (e.g., between each neighbor cell and the reference cell). The WTRU may report the reference signal time differences (RSTD) back to the network…using the locations of the cells, the fixed timing differences among them; paragraph 137: an in-coverage WTRU may prepare a group positioning report, for example, upon reception of measurement reports from one or more out-of-coverage WTRUs. In examples, the group positioning report may include the measurement results (e.g., AOA, Rx-Tx time difference, RSRP, etc.) of one or more out-of-coverage WTRUs and the corresponding WTRU IDs (e.g., ProSe IDs) of the respective out-of-coverage WTRUs. The in-coverage WTRU may derive the measurement results of one or more out-of-coverage WTRUs with respect to the in-coverage WTRU's (e.g., the in-coverage WTRU's position, time, etc.)…if the measurement result of an in-coverage WTRU includes the Rx-Tx time difference of a respective WTRU, the in-coverage WTRU may derive the RTT for that WTRU as an updated measurement result. The in-coverage WTRU may include the updated measurement result in the in-coverage WTRU's group positioning report).”
Regarding claim 3, which is dependent on claim 2, Goyal et al. (‘442)/Khoryaev et al. (‘080) discloses the method of claim 2. Goyal et al. (‘442) further discloses “determining the differential range-sums comprises: determining, for each sidelink UE, the range-sum based on the Rx-Tx time difference associated with a respective sidelink UE and the time difference measured by the respective sidelink UE; and determining the difference between the range-sum for the reference sidelink UE and the range-sum for each other sidelink UE from the plurality of sidelink UEs (paragraph 92: for OTDOA, the WTRU may receive signals from a reference cell (e.g., the serving cell) and several neighbor cells, and may measure the observed time differences of arrival of the signals (e.g., between each neighbor cell and the reference cell)…the WTRU may report the reference signal time differences (RSTD) back to the network…using the locations of the cells, the fixed timing differences among them; paragraph 137: an in-coverage WTRU may prepare a group positioning report, for example, upon reception of measurement reports from one or more out-of-coverage WTRUs…the group positioning report may include the measurement results (e.g., AOA, Rx-Tx time difference, RSRP, etc.) of one or more out-of-coverage WTRUs and the corresponding WTRU IDs (e.g., ProSe IDs) of the respective out-of-coverage WTRUs…the in-coverage WTRU may derive the measurement results of one or more out-of-coverage WTRUs with respect to the in-coverage WTRU's (e.g., the in-coverage WTRU's position, time, etc.)…if the measurement result of an in-coverage WTRU includes the Rx-Tx time difference of a respective WTRU, the in-coverage WTRU may derive the RTT for that WTRU as an updated measurement result…the in-coverage WTRU may include the updated measurement result in the in-coverage WTRU's group positioning report).”
Regarding claim 4, which is dependent on claim 2, Goyal et al. (‘442)/Khoryaev et al. (‘080) discloses the method of claim 2. Goyal et al. (‘442) further discloses “the time difference measured by each sidelink UE is received directly from each sidelink UE (paragraph 3: the WTRU (wireless transmit/receive unit) may monitor for and/or receive respective measurement report(s) from respective target WTRU(s) (e.g., a target WTRU may receive a reference signal transmitted by the WTRU and send an associated measurement report to the WTRU with a measurement associated with the reference signal)).”
Regarding claim 5, which is dependent on claim 2, Goyal et al. (‘442)/Khoryaev et al. (‘080) discloses the method of claim 2. Goyal et al. (‘442) further discloses “the time difference measured by each sidelink UE is received from a location server (paragraph 117: Network-initiated WTRU group positioning techniques may be provided. One or more of the following may apply…to perform WTRU group positioning, one or more WTRUs may be configured to send reference signals, (e.g., PRSs dedicated for WTRU positioning, synchronization signals, DMRS in a broadcast channel, CSI-RS, etc.) on the sidelink…the WTRUs may be referred to herein as anchor WTRUs…the target WTRUs (e.g., the WTRUs for which the positions are estimated, which may be referred to herein as non-anchor WTRUs or target WTRUs) may be configured to perform measurements (e.g., RSRP, Time of arrival (TOA), Angle of Arrival (AOA), RSTD, Time difference of arrivals (TDOA), etc.) on the reference signals, which may be transmitted by one or more anchor WTRUs, e.g., on the sidelink channel…the selection and configuration of anchor WTRUs may be performed by the network (e.g., positioning server/serving BS). For example, a selection (e.g., an initial selection) of anchor WTRUs may include the WTRUs for which the absolute positions are known…the position of the respective WTRUs may be updated based on the group formation techniques described herein…the assignment of anchor WTRU(s) to target WTRUs may be performed by the network (e.g., a positioning server or a serving BS). A target WTRU may be assigned one or more anchor WTRUs…the anchor WTRUs (e.g., each anchor WTRU) may be assigned to one more target WTRUs…a collection of one or more anchor WTRUs and one or more target WTRUs that share similar (e.g., mutual) assignments or mappings and do not share similar (e.g., mutual) assignments with other target WTRUs or anchor WTRUs may be a group).”
Regarding claim 6, which is dependent on claim 2, Goyal et al. (‘442)/Khoryaev et al. (‘080) discloses the method of claim 2. Goyal et al. (‘442) further discloses “receiving with the time difference measured by the respective sidelink UE, an identifier for the network entity, an identifier for the second reference signal received from the network entity, an identifier for the sidelink reference signal received from the first UE, and an identifier for the sidelink UE (paragraph 154: If the target WTRU performs measurements using the reference signals from one or more anchor WTRUs, the target WTRU may send a measurement report (e.g., comprising one or more of RS identifier, angular info, RSTD, Rx-Tx time difference, RSRP, etc.) to the configured destination anchor WTRU…the configuration of the sidelink resource(s) used to send a measurement report and the WTRU ID (e.g., ProSe ID) of the destination anchor WTRU may be received in the measurement configuration, which, as described herein, may be sent by a positioning server or by the serving BS; claim 18: a wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) comprising: a processor configured to: receive configuration information associated with transmission of positioning signals to target WTRUs, wherein the configuration information indicates a first target WTRU identifier for a first target WTRU, a second target WTRU identifier for a second target WTRU, sidelink resources, and one or more thresholds; transmit one or more positioning signals on one or more of the sidelink resources…receive a first measurement report from a first target WTRU…if a first measurement associated with the first measurement report from the first target WTRU exceeds a first threshold, send a first indication indicating measurement information associated with the first measurement).”
Regarding claim 7, which is dependent on claim 2, Goyal et al. (‘442)/Khoryaev et al. (‘080) discloses the method of claim 2. Goyal et al. (‘442) further discloses “receiving from a location server, an identifier for the reference sidelink UE (paragraph 154: If the target WTRU performs measurements using the reference signals from one or more anchor WTRUs, the target WTRU may send a measurement report (e.g., comprising one or more of RS identifier, angular info, RSTD, Rx-Tx time difference, RSRP, etc.) to the configured destination anchor WTRU…the configuration of the sidelink resource(s) used to send a measurement report and the WTRU ID (e.g., ProSe ID) of the destination anchor WTRU may be received in the measurement configuration, which, as described herein, may be sent by a positioning server or by the serving BS).”
Regarding claim 9, which is dependent on claim 2, Goyal et al. (‘442)/Khoryaev et al. (‘080) discloses the method of claim 2. Goyal et al. (‘442) further discloses “determining the position of the first UE based at least in part on the differential range-sums for the plurality of sidelink UEs (paragraph 92: the WTRU may report the reference signal time differences (RSTD) back to the network…using the locations of the cells, the fixed timing differences among them, and other information, the network may derive the WTRU's position by triangulation (e.g., assuming there are at least 3 cells measured) and/or other proprietary methods…FIG. 2 is an example associated with OTDOA, where each time difference (TDOA) determines a hyperbola…as illustrated in FIG. 2, the intersection of the hyperbolas may be the estimated location of a WTRU…at least 3 timing measurements (e.g., a reference measurement and 2 neighbor cell measurements) may be used to estimate the WTRU's coordinates).”
Regarding independent claim 14, which is a corresponding device claim of independent method claim 1, Goyal et al. (‘442)/KO et al. (‘335) discloses all the claimed invention as shown above for claim 1. Goyal et al. (‘442) further discloses “at least one wireless transceiver configured to wirelessly communicate with other entities in a wireless network (Figure 1A; Figure 1C; Figure 2; Figures 4-5; Figures 7-8); at least one memory; and at least one processor coupled to the at least one wireless transceiver and the at least one memory (Figure 1B: processor 118).”
Regarding claim 15, which is dependent on independent claim 14, and which is a corresponding device claim of method claim 2, Goyal et al. (‘442)/Khoryaev et al. (‘080) discloses all the claimed invention as shown above for claim 2.
Regarding claim 16, which is dependent on claim 15, and which is a corresponding device claim of method claim 3, Goyal et al. (‘442)/Khoryaev et al. (‘080) discloses all the claimed invention as shown above for claim 3.
Regarding claim 17, which is dependent on claim 15, and which is a corresponding device claim of method claim 4, Goyal et al. (‘442)/Khoryaev et al. (‘080) discloses all the claimed invention as shown above for claim 4.
Regarding claim 18, which is dependent on claim 15, and which is a corresponding device claim of method claim 5, Goyal et al. (‘442)/Khoryaev et al. (‘080) discloses all the claimed invention as shown above for claim 5.
Regarding claim 19, which is dependent on claim 15, and which is a corresponding device claim of method claim 6, Goyal et al. (‘442)/Khoryaev et al. (‘080) discloses all the claimed invention as shown above for claim 6.
Regarding claim 20, which is dependent on claim 15, and which is a corresponding device claim of method claim 7, Goyal et al. (‘442)/Khoryaev et al. (‘080) discloses all the claimed invention as shown above for claim 7.
Regarding claim 22, which is dependent on claim 15, and which is a corresponding device claim of method claim 9, Goyal et al. (‘442)/Khoryaev et al. (‘080) discloses all the claimed invention as shown above for claim 9.
Regarding independent claim 27, Goyal et al. (‘442) discloses “a method performed by a first user equipment (UE) for determining a position of a second UE, the first UE in sidelink communication with the second UE (paragraph 7: Network-initiated WTRU (wireless transmit/receive unit) group positioning techniques; paragraph 8: WTRU may perform positioning measurements), the method comprising:
receiving a first reference signal from a network entity (paragraph 3: the WTRU (wireless transmit/receive unit) may receive the configuration from a network entity such as a gNB, eNB, base station, positioning server etc.);
receiving a sidelink reference signal from the second UE (paragraph 3: the WTRU (wireless transmit/receive unit) may receive a configuration associated with transmission of reference signals (e.g., sidelink synchronization signals) to target WTRUs); and
determining a time difference between receiving the sidelink reference signal from the second UE and receiving the first reference signal from the network entity (paragraph 3 : the WTRU (wireless transmit/receive unit) may monitor for and/or receive respective measurement report(s) from respective target WTRU(s) (e.g., a target WTRU may receive a reference signal transmitted by the WTRU and send an associated measurement report to the WTRU with a measurement associated with the reference signal));
receiving receive-transmit (Rx-Tx) time difference associated with each sidelink UE measured by the second UE, wherein the Rx-Tx time difference associated with each sidelink UE is a time difference measured by the second UE between receiving a second reference signal from the network entity (paragraph 92: for OTDOA, the WTRU (wireless transmit/receive unit) may receive signals from a reference cell (e.g., the serving cell) and several neighbor cells, and may measure the observed time differences of arrival of the signals (e.g., between each neighbor cell and the reference cell)…the WTRU may report the reference signal time differences (RSTD) back to the network…using the locations of the cells, the fixed timing differences among them; paragraph 137: an in-coverage WTRU (wireless transmit/receive unit) may prepare a group positioning report, for example, upon reception of measurement reports from one or more out-of-coverage WTRUs. In examples, the group positioning report may include the measurement results (e.g., AOA, Rx-Tx time difference, RSRP, etc.) of one or more out-of-coverage WTRUs and the corresponding WTRU IDs (e.g., ProSe IDs) of the respective out-of-coverage WTRUs…the in-coverage WTRU may derive the measurement results of one or more out-of-coverage WTRUs with respect to the in-coverage WTRU's (e.g., the in-coverage WTRU's position, time, etc.)…if the measurement result of an in-coverage WTRU includes the Rx-Tx time difference of a respective WTRU, the in-coverage WTRU may derive the RTT for that WTRU as an updated measurement result. The in-coverage WTRU may include the updated measurement result in the in-coverage WTRU's group positioning report) and
sending a sidelink reference signal to a respective sidelink UEs;receiving time differences measured by a plurality of sidelink UEs (paragraph 3 : the WTRU (wireless transmit/receive unit) may monitor for and/or receive respective measurement report(s) from respective target WTRU(s) (e.g., a target WTRU may receive a reference signal transmitted by the WTRU and send an associated measurement report to the WTRU with a measurement associated with the reference signal)); and
processing the time difference between receiving the sidelink reference signal from the second UE (paragraph 6: the measuring WTRU (wireless transmit/receive unit) may determine the reference signal time difference (RSTD) between the downlink transmission and the uplink transmission…the measuring WTRU may report the RSTD measurement, e.g., to a positioning server (e.g., E-SMLC, SUPL SLP, LMF, etc.), which may be a physical or logical network entity).”
Goyal et al. (‘442) does not explicitly disclose :receiving the first reference signal from the network entity for generating differential range-sums for the second UE and the plurality of sidelink UEs including the first UE based on the receive-transmit (Rx-Tx) time difference associated with each sidelink UE measured by the second UE, wherein the differential range-sums for the second UE and the plurality of sidelink UEs is further based on the time differences measured by the plurality of sidelink UEs, each differential range-sum is a difference between a range-sum for a reference sidelink UE from the plurality of sidelink UEs and a range-sum for another sidelink UE from the plurality of sidelink UEs, and wherein the range-sum for each sidelink UE is a sum of a first range between the first UE and the network entity and a second range between the first UE and the respective sidelink UE, wherein the position of the first UE is determined based at least in part on the differential range-sums for the plurality of sidelink UEs.”
Goyal et al. (‘442) describes the WTRU may report the reference signal time differences (RSTD) back to the network…using the locations of the cells, the fixed timing differences among them, and other information, the network may derive the WTRU's position by triangulation (e.g., assuming there are at least 3 cells measured) and/or other proprietary methods…FIG. 2 is an example associated with OTDOA, where each time difference (TDOA) determines a hyperbola…as illustrated in FIG. 2, the intersection of the hyperbolas may be the estimated location of a WTRU…at least 3 timing measurements (e.g., a reference measurement and 2 neighbor cell measurements) may be used to estimate the WTRU's coordinates (paragraph 92). Goyal et al. (‘442) does not explicitly disclose “each differential range-sum is a difference between a range-sum for a reference sidelink UE from the plurality of sidelink UEs and a range-sum for another sidelink UE from the plurality of sidelink UEs, and wherein the range-sum for each sidelink UE is a sum of a first range between the second UE and the network entity and a second range between the second UE and the respective sidelink UE, and wherein the position of the second UE is determined based at least in part on the differential range-sums for the plurality of sidelink UEs.”
Khoryaev et al. (‘080) relates to device to device assisted positioning in wireless communication system. Khoryaev et al. (‘080) teaches teaches “receiving the first reference signal from the network entity for generating differential range-sums for the second UE and the plurality of sidelink UEs including the first UE based on the receive-transmit (Rx-Tx) time difference associated with each sidelink UE measured by the second UE, wherein the differential range-sums for the second UE and the plurality of sidelink UEs is further based on the time differences measured by the plurality of sidelink UEs, each differential range-sum is a difference between a range-sum for a reference sidelink UE from the plurality of sidelink UEs and a range-sum for another sidelink UE from the plurality of sidelink UEs, and wherein the range-sum for each sidelink UE is a sum of a first range between the first UE and the network entity and a second range between the first UE and the respective sidelink UE, wherein the position of the first UE is determined based at least in part on the differential range-sums for the plurality of sidelink UEs (paragraph 20: The processing circuitry may execute the instructions to: connect, via a Sidelink channel associated with the radio interface, with a second UE that is in proximity to the UE; connect, via the radio interface, with a cellular network; transmit, to the second UE and over the Sidelink channel, a first positioning reference signal from which first timing information, relating to a distance between the UE and second UE, is derivable; transmit, via the radio interface, a second positioning reference signal from which second timing information, relating to a distance between the UE and a base station associated with the cellular network, is derivable; and receive, from a location server and via the radio interface, a location of the UE that was determined based at least on the first and second positioning reference signals; paragraph 47: Figure 3: target UE 310 may receive positioning reference signals from eNBs 340-360 and anchor UEs 320 and 330. The positioning reference signals from anchor UEs 320 and 330 may include signals transmitted over direct Sidelink channels. The positioning reference signals from eNBs 340-360 may include signals transmitted over the cellular links associated with wireless network 220. In one implementation, the positioning reference signal received by target UE 310 may include timing information, which may relate to a distance between target UE 310 and the transmitting source. For example, differences in the timing information from the various sources (e.g., eNBs 340-360 and anchor UEs 320 and 330) and/or signal time of arrival values may correspond to a distance of target UE 310 from the transmitting source. Because the location (e.g., as a three-dimensional coordinate value) of each of the transmitting sources may be known, multilateration-based techniques may be applied to the calculated distances to determine the location of target UE 310).”
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 method of Goyal et al. (‘442) with the teaching of Khoryaev et al. (‘080) for more accurately determine device positions (Khoryaev et al. (‘080) – paragraph 14). In addition, both of the prior art references, (Goyal et al. (‘442) and Khoryaev et al. (‘080)) teach features that are directed to analogous art and they are directed to the same field of endeavor, such as, sidelink time difference of arrival-based positioning.
Regarding claim 28, which is dependent on independent claim 27, Goyal et al. (‘442)/Khoryaev et al. (‘080) discloses the method of claim 27. Goyal et al. (‘442) further discloses “processing the time difference between receiving the sidelink reference signal from the second UE and receiving the first reference signal from the network entity for generating the differential range-sums comprises sending the time difference to a location server (paragraph 117: Network-initiated WTRU group positioning techniques may be provided. One or more of the following may apply. To perform WTRU group positioning, one or more WTRUs may be configured to send reference signals, (e.g., PRSs dedicated for WTRU positioning, synchronization signals, DMRS in a broadcast channel, CSI-RS, etc.) on the sidelink…the WTRUs may be referred to herein as anchor WTRUs…the target WTRUs (e.g., the WTRUs for which the positions are estimated, which may be referred to herein as non-anchor WTRUs or target WTRUs) may be configured to perform measurements (e.g., RSRP, Time of arrival (TOA), Angle of Arrival (AOA), RSTD, Time difference of arrivals (TDOA), etc.) on the reference signals, which may be transmitted by one or more anchor WTRUs, e.g., on the sidelink channel. The selection and configuration of anchor WTRUs may be performed by the network (e.g., positioning server/serving BS)…a selection (e.g., an initial selection) of anchor WTRUs may include the WTRUs for which the absolute positions are known. In examples, the position of the respective WTRUs may be updated based on the group formation techniques described herein…the assignment of anchor WTRU(s) to target WTRUs may be performed by the network (e.g., a positioning server or a serving BS)…a target WTRU may be assigned one or more anchor WTRUs. The anchor WTRUs (e.g., each anchor WTRU) may be assigned to one more target WTRUs. A collection of one or more anchor WTRUs and one or more target WTRUs that share similar (e.g., mutual) assignments or mappings and do not share similar (e.g., mutual) assignments with other target WTRUs or anchor WTRUs may be a group).”
Regarding claim 31, which is dependent on independent claim 27, Goyal et al. (‘442)/Khoryaev et al. (‘080) discloses the method of claim 27. Goyal et al. (‘442) further discloses “processing the time difference between receiving the sidelink reference signal from the second UE and receiving the first reference signal from the network entity for generating the differential range-sums comprises sending the time difference to the second UE (paragraph 3: the WTRU (wireless transmit/receive unit) may monitor for and/or receive respective measurement report(s) from respective target WTRU(s) (e.g., a target WTRU may receive a reference signal transmitted by the WTRU and send an associated measurement report to the WTRU with a measurement associated with the reference signal); paragraph 6: the measuring WTRU (wireless transmit/receive unit) may determine the reference signal time difference (RSTD) between the downlink transmission and the uplink transmission…the measuring WTRU may report the RSTD measurement, e.g., to a positioning server (e.g., E-SMLC, SUPL SLP, LMF, etc.), which may be a physical or logical network entity).”
Regarding claim 33, which is dependent on claim 31, Goyal et al. (‘442)/Khoryaev et al. (‘080) discloses the method of claim 31. Goyal et al. (‘442) further discloses “the second UE determines the differential range-sums and determines the position of the second UE based on the differential range-sums (paragraph 92: For OTDOA, the WTRU may receive signals from a reference cell (e.g., the serving cell) and several neighbor cells, and may measure the observed time differences of arrival of the signals (e.g., between each neighbor cell and the reference cell). The WTRU may report the reference signal time differences (RSTD) back to the network. Using the locations of the cells, the fixed timing differences among them; paragraph 137: an in-coverage WTRU may prepare a group positioning report, for example, upon reception of measurement reports from one or more out-of-coverage WTRUs. In examples, the group positioning report may include the measurement results (e.g., AOA, Rx-Tx time difference, RSRP, etc.) of one or more out-of-coverage WTRUs and the corresponding WTRU IDs (e.g., ProSe IDs) of the respective out-of-coverage WTRUs…the in-coverage WTRU may derive the measurement results of one or more out-of-coverage WTRUs with respect to the in-coverage WTRU's (e.g., the in-coverage WTRU's position, time, etc.)…if the measurement result of an in-coverage WTRU includes the Rx-Tx time difference of a respective WTRU, the in-coverage WTRU may derive the RTT for that WTRU as an updated measurement result. The in-coverage WTRU may include the updated measurement result in the in-coverage WTRU's group positioning report).”
Regarding claim 34, which is dependent on independent claim 27, Goyal et al. (‘442)/Khoryaev et al. (‘080) discloses the method of claim 27. Goyal et al. (‘442) further discloses “processing the time difference between receiving the sidelink reference signal from the second UE and receiving the first reference signal from the network entity for generating the differential range-sums comprises sending the time difference to an entity, further comprising sending with the time difference, an identifier for the network entity, an identifier for the first reference signal received from the network entity, an identifier for the sidelink reference signal received from the second UE, and an identifier for the first UE (paragraph 154: if the target WTRU performs measurements using the reference signals from one or more anchor WTRUs, the target WTRU may send a measurement report (e.g., comprising one or more of RS identifier, angular info, RSTD, Rx-Tx time difference, RSRP, etc.) to the configured destination anchor WTRU. The configuration of the sidelink resource(s) used to send a measurement report and the WTRU ID (e.g., ProSe ID) of the destination anchor WTRU may be received in the measurement configuration, which, as described herein, may be sent by a positioning server or by the serving BS; claim 18: a wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) comprising: a processor configured to: receive configuration information associated with transmission of positioning signals to target WTRUs, wherein the configuration information indicates a first target WTRU identifier for a first target WTRU, a second target WTRU identifier for a second target WTRU, sidelink resources, and one or more thresholds; transmit one or more positioning signals on one or more of the sidelink resources; receive a first measurement report from a first target WTRU; and if a first measurement associated with the first measurement report from the first target WTRU exceeds a first threshold, send a first indication indicating measurement information associated with the first measurement).”
Regarding independent claim 37, which is which is a corresponding device claim of independent method claim 27, Goyal et al. (‘442)/Khoryaev et al. (‘080) discloses all the claimed invention as shown above for claim 27.
Regarding claim 38, which is dependent on independent claim 37, and which is a corresponding device claim of method claim 28, Goyal et al. (‘442)/Khoryaev et al. (‘080) discloses all the claimed invention as shown above for claim 28.
Regarding claim 41, which is dependent on independent claim 37, and which is a corresponding device claim of method claim 31, Goyal et al. (‘442)/Khoryaev et al. (‘080) discloses all the claimed invention as shown above for claim 31.
Regarding claim 43, which is dependent on claim 41, and which is a corresponding device claim of method claim 33, Goyal et al. (‘442)/Khoryaev et al. (‘080) discloses all the claimed invention as shown above for claim 33.
Regarding claim 44, which is dependent on independent claim 37, and which is a corresponding device claim of method claim 34, Goyal et al. (‘442)/Khoryaev et al. (‘080) discloses all the claimed invention as shown above for claim 34.
Claims 8 and 21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Goyal et al. (US 2022/0295442 A1)/Khoryaev et al. (US 2016/0095080 A1), in view of Hannan et al. (US 2013/0203447 A1).
Regarding claim 8, which is dependent on claim 2, Goyal et al. (‘442)/Khoryaev et al. (‘080) discloses the method of claim 2. Goyal et al. (‘442)/Khoryaev et al. (‘080) does not explicitly disclose “determining to use the differential range-sums for determining the position of the first UE based at least in part on a group-delay calibration status of the first UE.”
Hannan et al. (‘447) relates to determining the location of a mobile device in a communications network. Hannan et al. (‘447) teaches “determining to use the differential range-sums for determining the position of the first UE based at least in part on a group-delay calibration status of the first UE (claim 11: the step of adjusting each determined range and adjusting the determined propagation delay includes adjusting each range and the propagation delay as a function of a value selected from the group consisting of: downlink signal strength, UE Rx-Tx time difference, distance values between nodes, topography of the network, terrain, reference received signal power, reference signal quality, presence of multipath, and combinations thereof).”
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 method of Goyal et al. (‘442)/Khoryaev et al. (‘080) with the teaching of Hannan et al. (‘447) for improved position determination (Khoryaev et al. (‘080) – paragraph 8). In addition, all of the prior art references, (Goyal et al. (‘442), Khoryaev et al. (‘080) and Hannan et al. (‘447)) teach features that are directed to analogous art and they are directed to the same field of endeavor, such as, user equipment-based positioning.
Regarding claim 21, which is dependent on claim 15, and which is a corresponding device claim of method claim 8, Goyal et al. (‘442)/Khoryaev et al. (‘080)/Hannan et al. (‘447) discloses all the claimed invention as shown above for claim 8.
Claims 10-12 and 23-25, 29-30, 32, 39-40 and 42 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Goyal et al. (US 2022/0295442 A1)/Khoryaev et al. (US 2016/0095080 A1), in view of Sadiq et al. (US 2019/0364536 A1).
Regarding claim 10, which is dependent on claim 2, Goyal et al. (‘442)/Khoryaev et al. (‘080) discloses the method of claim 2. Goyal et al. (‘442)/Khoryaev et al. (‘080) does not explicitly disclose “sending the differential range-sums for the plurality of sidelink UEs to a location server, wherein the position of the first UE is determined by the location server based at least in part on the differential range-sums for the plurality of sidelink UEs.”
Sadiq et al. (‘536) relates to wireless communication system determining timing measurements for position estimation. Sadiq et al. (‘536) teaches “sending the differential range-sums for the plurality of sidelink UEs to a location server, wherein the position of the first UE is determined by the location server based at least in part on the differential range-sums for the plurality of sidelink UEs (paragraph 23: various aspects described herein generally relate to wireless communication systems, and more particularly, to determining a timing resolution and a range of reported timing measurements used for position estimation…in one aspect, a method for determining the timing resolution and range of reported timing measurements used for position estimation may comprise receiving positioning beacons from multiple network nodes at a user equipment (UE), measuring an observed time difference of arrival (OTDOA) between the received positioning beacons, quantizing the measured OTDOA according to a timing resolution and/or a range that depend at least in part on one or more signal parameters associated with the received positioning beacons, and transmitting a report containing the quantized OTDOA to a network entity, which may correspond to one or more of the multiple network nodes from which the positioning beacons were received (e.g., a serving base station) or a location server; paragraph 73: FIG. 6 illustrates an exemplary method 600 for determining a timing resolution and range of reported timing measurements…the method 600 may be performed by a user equipment (UE) 604, such as the UE 350 having the structural configuration shown in FIG. 3 and/or any other suitable UE that may be described or otherwise contemplated herein. At block 610, the UE 604 may receive positioning beacons from multiple network nodes, wherein the received positioning beacons include at least a first positioning beacon received from a first network node and a second positioning beacon received from a second network node (e.g., two different base stations, two distant transmission points that belong to the same base station, or the same base station and same transmission point but be different beams). At block 620, the UE 604 may measure an observed time difference of arrival (OTDOA) between the first positioning beacon and the second positioning beacon, which may be quantized at block 630 according to a timing resolution and a range that depend at least in part on one or more signal parameters associated with the received positioning beacons…at block 640, the UE 604 may then transmit a report containing the quantized OTDOA to a network entity (e.g., a serving base station or location server) …the serving base station may correspond to one or more of the network nodes from which the positioning beacons were received and may use the report in estimating or otherwise determining the position of the UE 604. In other aspects, the serving base station may receive and then transmit the report containing the quantized OTDOA to a location server for use in estimating or otherwise determining the position of the UE 604…alternatively, the network entity may be the location server in communication with the UE 604 and which may receive the report containing the quantized OTDOA via communication path other than the serving base station (e.g., other base station, small cell AP, WLAN AP, etc.)…the various aspects discussed herein will generally be described in relation to UE 604 transmitting the report to a serving base station…at least some aspects disclosed advantageously allow for the timing resolution (e.g., step size) and/or the range of the reported OTDOA values to depend on certain configurations of the beacon signal, rather than using the same fixed resolution and/or range for all different configurations).”
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 method of Goyal et al. (‘442)/Khoryaev et al. (‘080) with the teaching of Sadiq et al. (‘536) for improved position determination (Sadiq et al. (‘536) – paragraph 23. In addition, all of the prior art references, (Goyal et al. (‘442), Khoryaev et al. (‘080) and Sadiq et al. (‘536)) teach features that are directed to analogous art and they are directed to the same field of endeavor, such as, user equipment-based positioning.
Regarding claim 11, which is dependent on independent claim 1, Goyal et al. (‘442)/Khoryaev et al. (‘080) discloses the method of claim 2. Goyal et al. (‘442)/Khoryaev et al. (‘080) does not explicitly disclose “processing the Rx-Tx time difference associated with each sidelink UE for generating the differential range-sums for the plurality of sidelink UEs comprises sending the Rx-Tx time difference associated with each sidelink UE to a location server, wherein the differential range-sums for the plurality of sidelink UEs is determined by the location server based on the Rx-Tx time differences associated with each sidelink UE and the time difference measured by each sidelink UE, and wherein the position of the first UE is determined by the location server based at least in part on the differential range- sums for the plurality of sidelink UEs.”
Sadiq et al. (‘536) relates to wireless communication system determining timing measurements for position estimation. Sadiq et al. (‘536) teaches “processing the Rx-Tx time difference associated with each sidelink UE for generating the differential range-sums for the plurality of sidelink UEs comprises sending the Rx-Tx time difference associated with each sidelink UE to a location server, wherein the differential range-sums for the plurality of sidelink UEs is determined by the location server based on the Rx-Tx time differences associated with each sidelink UE and the time difference measured by each sidelink UE, and wherein the position of the first UE is determined by the location server based at least in part on the differential range- sums for the plurality of sidelink UEs (paragraph 23: various aspects described herein generally relate to wireless communication systems, and more particularly, to determining a timing resolution and a range of reported timing measurements used for position estimation…a method for determining the timing resolution and range of reported timing measurements used for position estimation may comprise receiving positioning beacons from multiple network nodes at a user equipment (UE), measuring an observed time difference of arrival (OTDOA) between the received positioning beacons, quantizing the measured OTDOA according to a timing resolution and/or a range that depend at least in part on one or more signal parameters associated with the received positioning beacons, and transmitting a report containing the quantized OTDOA to a network entity, which may correspond to one or more of the multiple network nodes from which the positioning beacons were received (e.g., a serving base station) or a location server; paragraph 73: according to various aspects, FIG. 6 illustrates an exemplary method 600 for determining a timing resolution and range of reported timing measurements…the method 600 may be performed by a user equipment (UE) 604, such as the UE 350 having the structural configuration shown in FIG. 3 and/or any other suitable UE that may be described or otherwise contemplated herein. At block 610, the UE 604 may receive positioning beacons from multiple network nodes, wherein the received positioning beacons include at least a first positioning beacon received from a first network node and a second positioning beacon received from a second network node (e.g., two different base stations, two distant transmission points that belong to the same base station, or the same base station and same transmission point but be different beams). At block 620, the UE 604 may measure an observed time difference of arrival (OTDOA) between the first positioning beacon and the second positioning beacon, which may be quantized at block 630 according to a timing resolution and a range that depend at least in part on one or more signal parameters associated with the received positioning beacons…at block 640, the UE 604 may then transmit a report containing the quantized OTDOA to a network entity (e.g., a serving base station or location server)…the serving base station may correspond to one or more of the network nodes from which the positioning beacons were received and may use the report in estimating or otherwise determining the position of the UE 604…the serving base station may receive and then transmit the report containing the quantized OTDOA to a location server for use in estimating or otherwise determining the position of the UE 604. Alternatively, the network entity may be the location server in communication with the UE 604 and which may receive the report containing the quantized OTDOA via communication path other than the serving base station (e.g., other base station, small cell AP, WLAN AP, etc.)…the various aspects discussed herein will generally be described in relation to UE 604 transmitting the report to a serving base station…at least some aspects disclosed advantageously allow for the timing resolution (e.g., step size) and/or the range of the reported OTDOA values to depend on certain configurations of the beacon signal, rather than using the same fixed resolution and/or range for all different configurations).”
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 method of Goyal et al. (‘442)/Khoryaev et al. (‘080) with the teaching of Sadiq et al. (‘536) for improved position determination (Sadiq et al. (‘536) – paragraph 23. In addition, all of the prior art references, (Goyal et al. (‘442), Khoryaev et al. (‘080) and Sadiq et al. (‘536)) teach features that are directed to analogous art and they are directed to the same field of endeavor, such as, user equipment-based positioning.
Regarding claim 12, which is dependent on claim 11, Goyal et al. (‘442)/Khoryaev et al. (‘080)/Sadiq et al. (‘536) discloses the method of claim 2. Goyal et al. (‘442) further discloses “sending with the Rx-Tx time difference associated with each sidelink UE to the location server an identifier for the network entity, an identifier for the first reference signal received from the network entity, an identifier for the one or more sidelink reference signals sent to the plurality of sidelink UEs, an identifier for the first UE, and an identifier for each of the sidelink UEs (paragraph 154: if the target WTRU performs measurements using the reference signals from one or more anchor WTRUs, the target WTRU may send a measurement report (e.g., comprising one or more of RS identifier, angular info, RSTD, Rx-Tx time difference, RSRP, etc.) to the configured destination anchor WTRU. The configuration of the sidelink resource(s) used to send a measurement report and the WTRU ID (e.g., ProSe ID) of the destination anchor WTRU may be received in the measurement configuration, which, as described herein, may be sent by a positioning server or by the serving BS; claim 18: a wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) comprising: a processor configured to: receive configuration information associated with transmission of positioning signals to target WTRUs, wherein the configuration information indicates a first target WTRU identifier for a first target WTRU, a second target WTRU identifier for a second target WTRU, sidelink resources, and one or more thresholds; transmit one or more positioning signals on one or more of the sidelink resources; receive a first measurement report from a first target WTRU; and if a first measurement associated with the first measurement report from the first target WTRU exceeds a first threshold, send a first indication indicating measurement information associated with the first measurement).”
Regarding claim 23, which is dependent on claim 15, and which is a corresponding device claim of method claim 10, Goyal et al. (‘442)/Khoryaev et al. (‘080)/Sadiq et al. (‘536) discloses all the claimed invention as shown above for claim 10.
Regarding claim 24, which is dependent on independent claim 14, and which is a corresponding device claim of method claim 11, Goyal et al. (‘442)/Khoryaev et al. (‘080)/Sadiq et al. (‘536) discloses all the claimed invention as shown above for claim 11.
Regarding claim 25, which is dependent on claim 24, and which is a corresponding device claim of method claim 12, Goyal et al. (‘442)/Khoryaev et al. (‘080)/Sadiq et al. (‘536) discloses all the claimed invention as shown above for claim 12.
Regarding claim 29, which is dependent on claim 28, Goyal et al. (‘442)/Khoryaev et al. (‘080) discloses the method of claim 28. Goyal et al. (‘442)/Khoryaev et al. (‘080) does not explicitly disclose “the differential range-sums are determined by the location server and the position of the second UE is determined by the location server based on the differential range-sums.”
Sadiq et al. (‘536) relates to wireless communication system determining timing measurements for position estimation. Sadiq et al. (‘536) teaches “the differential range-sums are determined by the location server and the position of the second UE is determined by the location server based on the differential range-sums (paragraph 23: various aspects described herein generally relate to wireless communication systems, and more particularly, to determining a timing resolution and a range of reported timing measurements used for position estimation. For example, in one aspect, a method for determining the timing resolution and range of reported timing measurements used for position estimation may comprise receiving positioning beacons from multiple network nodes at a user equipment (UE), measuring an observed time difference of arrival (OTDOA) between the received positioning beacons, quantizing the measured OTDOA according to a timing resolution and/or a range that depend at least in part on one or more signal parameters associated with the received positioning beacons, and transmitting a report containing the quantized OTDOA to a network entity, which may correspond to one or more of the multiple network nodes from which the positioning beacons were received (e.g., a serving base station) or a location server; paragraph 73: according to various aspects, FIG. 6 illustrates an exemplary method 600 for determining a timing resolution and range of reported timing measurements. The method 600 may be performed by a user equipment (UE) 604, such as the UE 350 having the structural configuration shown in FIG. 3 and/or any other suitable UE that may be described or otherwise contemplated herein…at block 610, the UE 604 may receive positioning beacons from multiple network nodes, wherein the received positioning beacons include at least a first positioning beacon received from a first network node and a second positioning beacon received from a second network node (e.g., two different base stations, two distant transmission points that belong to the same base station, or the same base station and same transmission point but be different beams). At block 620, the UE 604 may measure an observed time difference of arrival (OTDOA) between the first positioning beacon and the second positioning beacon, which may be quantized at block 630 according to a timing resolution and a range that depend at least in part on one or more signal parameters associated with the received positioning beacons…at block 640, the UE 604 may then transmit a report containing the quantized OTDOA to a network entity (e.g., a serving base station or location server) …the serving base station may correspond to one or more of the network nodes from which the positioning beacons were received and may use the report in estimating or otherwise determining the position of the UE 604…the serving base station may receive and then transmit the report containing the quantized OTDOA to a location server for use in estimating or otherwise determining the position of the UE 604…alternatively, the network entity may be the location server in communication with the UE 604 and which may receive the report containing the quantized OTDOA via communication path other than the serving base station (e.g., other base station, small cell AP, WLAN AP, etc.). For simplicity, the various aspects discussed herein will generally be described in relation to UE 604 transmitting the report to a serving base station…at least some aspects disclosed advantageously allow for the timing resolution (e.g., step size) and/or the range of the reported OTDOA values to depend on certain configurations of the beacon signal, rather than using the same fixed resolution and/or range for all different configurations).”
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 method of Goyal et al. (‘442)/Khoryaev et al. (‘080) with the teaching of Sadiq et al. (‘536) for improved position determination (Sadiq et al. (‘536) – paragraph 23. In addition, all of the prior art references, (Goyal et al. (‘442), Khoryaev et al. (‘080) and Sadiq et al. (‘536)) teach features that are directed to analogous art and they are directed to the same field of endeavor, such as, user equipment-based positioning.
Regarding claim 30, which is dependent on claim 28, Goyal et al. (‘442)/Khoryaev et al. (‘080) discloses the method of claim 28. Goyal et al. (‘442)/Khoryaev et al. (‘080) does not explicitly disclose “the location server sends the time difference to the second UE and the second UE determines the differential range-sums and determines the position of the second UE based on the differential range-sums.”
Sadiq et al. (‘536) relates to wireless communication system determining timing measurements for position estimation. Sadiq et al. (‘536) teaches “the location server sends the time difference to the second UE and the second UE determines the differential range-sums and determines the position of the second UE based on the differential range-sums (paragraph 23: various aspects described herein generally relate to wireless communication systems, and more particularly, to determining a timing resolution and a range of reported timing measurements used for position estimation. For example, in one aspect, a method for determining the timing resolution and range of reported timing measurements used for position estimation may comprise receiving positioning beacons from multiple network nodes at a user equipment (UE), measuring an observed time difference of arrival (OTDOA) between the received positioning beacons, quantizing the measured OTDOA according to a timing resolution and/or a range that depend at least in part on one or more signal parameters associated with the received positioning beacons, and transmitting a report containing the quantized OTDOA to a network entity, which may correspond to one or more of the multiple network nodes from which the positioning beacons were received (e.g., a serving base station) or a location server; paragraph 73: according to various aspects, FIG. 6 illustrates an exemplary method 600 for determining a timing resolution and range of reported timing measurements…the method 600 may be performed by a user equipment (UE) 604, such as the UE 350 having the structural configuration shown in FIG. 3 and/or any other suitable UE that may be described or otherwise contemplated herein. At block 610, the UE 604 may receive positioning beacons from multiple network nodes, wherein the received positioning beacons include at least a first positioning beacon received from a first network node and a second positioning beacon received from a second network node (e.g., two different base stations, two distant transmission points that belong to the same base station, or the same base station and same transmission point but be different beams)…at block 620, the UE 604 may measure an observed time difference of arrival (OTDOA) between the first positioning beacon and the second positioning beacon, which may be quantized at block 630 according to a timing resolution and a range that depend at least in part on one or more signal parameters associated with the received positioning beacons…at block 640, the UE 604 may then transmit a report containing the quantized OTDOA to a network entity (e.g., a serving base station or location server)…the serving base station may correspond to one or more of the network nodes from which the positioning beacons were received and may use the report in estimating or otherwise determining the position of the UE 604…the serving base station may receive and then transmit the report containing the quantized OTDOA to a location server for use in estimating or otherwise determining the position of the UE 604…alternatively, the network entity may be the location server in communication with the UE 604 and which may receive the report containing the quantized OTDOA via communication path other than the serving base station (e.g., other base station, small cell AP, WLAN AP, etc.)…the various aspects discussed herein will generally be described in relation to UE 604 transmitting the report to a serving base station…additionally, it will be appreciated that at least some aspects disclosed advantageously allow for the timing resolution (e.g., step size) and/or the range of the reported OTDOA values to depend on certain configurations of the beacon signal, rather than using the same fixed resolution and/or range for all different configurations).”
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 method of Goyal et al. (‘442)/Khoryaev et al. (‘080) with the teaching of Sadiq et al. (‘536) for improved position determination (Sadiq et al. (‘536) – paragraph 23. In addition, all of the prior art references, (Goyal et al. (‘442), Khoryaev et al. (‘080) and Sadiq et al. (‘536)) teach features that are directed to analogous art and they are directed to the same field of endeavor, such as, user equipment-based positioning.
Regarding claim 32, which is dependent on claim 31, Goyal et al. (‘442)/Khoryaev et al. (‘080) discloses the method of claim 31. Goyal et al. (‘442)/Khoryaev et al. (‘080) does not explicitly disclose “the second UE determines the differential range-sums and a location server determines the position of the second UE based on the differential range-sums.”
Sadiq et al. (‘536) relates to wireless communication system determining timing measurements for position estimation. Sadiq et al. (‘536) teaches “the second UE determines the differential range-sums and a location server determines the position of the second UE based on the differential range-sums (paragraph 23: various aspects described herein generally relate to wireless communication systems, and more particularly, to determining a timing resolution and a range of reported timing measurements used for position estimation…in one aspect, a method for determining the timing resolution and range of reported timing measurements used for position estimation may comprise receiving positioning beacons from multiple network nodes at a user equipment (UE), measuring an observed time difference of arrival (OTDOA) between the received positioning beacons, quantizing the measured OTDOA according to a timing resolution and/or a range that depend at least in part on one or more signal parameters associated with the received positioning beacons, and transmitting a report containing the quantized OTDOA to a network entity, which may correspond to one or more of the multiple network nodes from which the positioning beacons were received (e.g., a serving base station) or a location server; paragraph 73: according to various aspects, FIG. 6 illustrates an exemplary method 600 for determining a timing resolution and range of reported timing measurements…the method 600 may be performed by a user equipment (UE) 604, such as the UE 350 having the structural configuration shown in FIG. 3 and/or any other suitable UE that may be described or otherwise contemplated herein…at block 610, the UE 604 may receive positioning beacons from multiple network nodes, wherein the received positioning beacons include at least a first positioning beacon received from a first network node and a second positioning beacon received from a second network node (e.g., two different base stations, two distant transmission points that belong to the same base station, or the same base station and same transmission point but be different beams)…at block 620, the UE 604 may measure an observed time difference of arrival (OTDOA) between the first positioning beacon and the second positioning beacon, which may be quantized at block 630 according to a timing resolution and a range that depend at least in part on one or more signal parameters associated with the received positioning beacons…at block 640, the UE 604 may then transmit a report containing the quantized OTDOA to a network entity (e.g., a serving base station or location server)…the serving base station may correspond to one or more of the network nodes from which the positioning beacons were received and may use the report in estimating or otherwise determining the position of the UE 604…the serving base station may receive and then transmit the report containing the quantized OTDOA to a location server for use in estimating or otherwise determining the position of the UE 604…alternatively, the network entity may be the location server in communication with the UE 604 and which may receive the report containing the quantized OTDOA via communication path other than the serving base station (e.g., other base station, small cell AP, WLAN AP, etc.). For simplicity, the various aspects discussed herein will generally be described in relation to UE 604 transmitting the report to a serving base station…at least some aspects disclosed advantageously allow for the timing resolution (e.g., step size) and/or the range of the reported OTDOA values to depend on certain configurations of the beacon signal, rather than using the same fixed resolution and/or range for all different configurations).”
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 method of Goyal et al. (‘442)/Khoryaev et al. (‘080) with the teaching of Sadiq et al. (‘536) for improved position determination (Sadiq et al. (‘536) – paragraph 23. In addition, all of the prior art references, (Goyal et al. (‘442), Khoryaev et al. (‘080) and Sadiq et al. (‘536)) teach features that are directed to analogous art and they are directed to the same field of endeavor, such as, user equipment-based positioning.
Regarding claim 39, which is dependent on claim 38, and which is a corresponding device claim of method claim 29, Goyal et al. (‘442)/Khoryaev et al. (‘080)/Sadiq et al. (‘536) discloses all the claimed invention as shown above for claim 29.
Regarding claim 40, which is dependent on claim 38, and which is a corresponding device claim of method claim 30, Goyal et al. (‘442)/Khoryaev et al. (‘080)/Sadiq et al. (‘536) discloses all the claimed invention as shown above for claim 30.
Regarding claim 42, which is dependent on claim 41, and which is a corresponding device claim of method claim 32, Goyal et al. (‘442)/Khoryaev et al. (‘080)/Sadiq et al. (‘536) discloses all the claimed invention as shown above for claim 32.
Claims 13 and 26 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Goyal et al. (US 2022/0295442 A1)/Khoryaev et al. (US 2016/0095080 A1)/Sadiq et al. (US 2019/0364536 A1), further in view of Hannan et al. (US 2013/0203447 A1).
Regarding claim 13, which is dependent on claim 11, Goyal et al. (‘442)/Khoryaev et al. (‘080)/Sadiq et al. (‘536) discloses the method of claim 11. Goyal et al. (‘442)/Khoryaev et al. (‘080)/Sadiq et al. (‘536) does not explicitly disclose “sending to the location server a group-delay calibration status of the first UE, wherein the use of the differential range-sums for the plurality of sidelink UEs to determine the position for the first UE is determined by the location server based at least in part on the group-delay calibration status of the first UE.”
Hannan et al. (‘447) relates to determining the location of a mobile device in a communications network. Hannan et al. (‘447) teaches “sending to the location server a group-delay calibration status of the first UE, wherein the use of the differential range-sums for the plurality of sidelink UEs to determine the position for the first UE is determined by the location server based at least in part on the group-delay calibration status of the first UE (claim 11: he step of adjusting each determined range and adjusting the determined propagation delay includes adjusting each range and the propagation delay as a function of a value selected from the group consisting of: downlink signal strength, UE Rx-Tx time difference, distance values between nodes, topography of the network, terrain, reference received signal power, reference signal quality, presence of multipath, and combinations thereof).”
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 method of Goyal et al. (‘442)/Khoryaev et al. (‘080)/Sadiq et al. (‘536) with the teaching of Hannan et al. (‘447) for improved position determination (KO et al. (‘335) – paragraph 8). In addition, all of the prior art references, (Goyal et al. (‘442), Khoryaev et al. (‘080), Sadiq et al. (‘536) and Hannan et al. (‘447)) teach features that are directed to analogous art and they are directed to the same field of endeavor, such as, user equipment-based positioning.
Regarding claim 26, which is dependent on claim 24, and which is a corresponding device claim of method claim 13, Goyal et al. (‘442)/Khoryaev et al. (‘080)//Sadiq et al. (‘536)/Hannan et al. (‘447) discloses all the claimed invention as shown above for claim 13.
Claim 35 and 45 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Goyal et al. (US 2022/0295442 A1)/Khoryaev et al. (US 2016/0095080 A1), further in view of Smith et al. (US 9,351,112 B2).
Regarding claim 35, which is dependent on claim 34, Goyal et al. (‘442)/Khoryaev et al. (‘080)/Sadiq et al. (‘536) discloses the method of claim 34. Goyal et al. (‘442)/Khoryaev et al. (‘080) does not explicitly disclose “sending a time stamp with the time difference.”
Smith et al. (‘112) relates to determining the location of a mobile device in a communications network. Smith et al. (‘112) teaches “sending a time stamp with the time difference (Column 23 lines 56-63: the mobile device may be configured to send a request for location information to another mobile device…the request may be sent after the authentication process between mobile devices, and may include a time stamp which may be sub-seconds in size (milliseconds)…another mobile device may respond with a message that also has its time stamp and when it received the time stamp from the initiating mobile device; Column 25 lines 8-26: FIG. 9C-9D illustrate that distance vectors may be computed between the mobile devices 901, 902, 903, and 904 as part of an embodiment location determination solution…in FIG. 9C mobile 901 using the hybrid trilateration method determines is relative position with respect to mobile devices 902, 903 and 904 respectively…reference numbers 915, 909, and 916 identify the relative areas of mobile devices 902, 903, and 904, respectively…as part of the hybrid trilateration operations of the embodiment location determination solution, mobile devices 902, 903, and 904 may locate mobile device 901, and the mobile device 901 may compute a distance vector between itself and mobile devices 902, 903 and or 904…the mobile device 901 may initiate communications with mobile device 902 (although mobile device 902 could initiate the communication) and exchange time stamps, positional information, sensor data…the same process may occur with respect to mobile devices 904 and 903, in which positional and sensor information is exchanged; Column 27 lines 43-62: mobile device 901 may send a request for position information to mobile device 902…the information may be sent after the authentication process between mobile devices, and may include a time stamp…the time stamp may be sub seconds in size (e.g., milliseconds). The mobile device 902 may respond with a message that also has a time stamp, and timing information pertaining to when the mobile device 902 received the time stamp from mobile device 901. Three messages may be transferred quickly to establish time synchronization…the time differences may then be compared, along with possible pulses or pings, to establish an estimated distance vector between the mobile devices…knowing the distance vector and the x, y, and z coordinates of both 901 and 902, a point-to-point fix may be established. In various embodiments, the position fix may be extrapolated to synchronize the trilateration time stamp with a time stamp of a dead reckoning calculation. Similarly, the time interval adopted for dead reckoning calculation updates may be adopted as the time interval between trilateration recalculations).”
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 method of Goyal et al. (‘442)/Khoryaev et al. (‘080) with the teaching of Smith et al. (‘112) for more reliable position determination. In addition, all of the prior art references, (Goyal et al. (‘442), Khoryaev et al. (‘080) and Smith et al. (‘112)) teach features that are directed to analogous art and they are directed to the same field of endeavor, such as, user equipment-based positioning.
Regarding claim 45, which is dependent on claim 44, and which is a corresponding device claim of method claim 35, Goyal et al. (‘442)/Khoryaev et al. (‘080)/Sadiq et al. (‘536) discloses all the claimed invention as shown above for claim 35.
Claim 36 and 46 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Goyal et al. (US 2022/0295442 A1)/Khoryaev et al. (US 2016/0095080 A1), further in view of KO et al. (US 2022/0326335 A1).
Regarding claim 36, which is dependent on independent claim 27, Goyal et al. (‘442)/Khoryaev et al. (‘080)/Sadiq et al. (‘536) discloses the method of claim 27. Goyal et al. (‘442)/Khoryaev et al. (‘080) does not explicitly disclose “measuring signal strength of one or more signals received from the second UE; sending indications of signal strength of the one or more signals received from the second UE for determining the reference sidelink UE based at least in part on the indications of signal strength of signals from the second UE measured by each sidelink UE including the first UE.”
KO et al. (‘335) relates to a wireless communication system. KO et al. (‘335) teaches “measuring signal strength of one or more signals received from the second UE; sending indications of signal strength of the one or more signals received from the second UE for determining the reference sidelink UE based at least in part on the indications of signal strength of signals from the second UE measured by each sidelink UE including the first UE (paragraph 155: UE measurement: E-UTRA reference signal received power (RSRP), E-UTRA reference signal received quality (RSRQ), UE E-UTRA Rx-Tx Time difference, GSM EDGE random access network (GERAN)/WLAN reference signal strength indication (RSSI), UTRAN common pilot channel (CPICH) received signal code power (RSCP), UTRAN CPICH Ec/Io [0156] E-UTRAN measurement: ng-eNB Rx-Tx Time difference, timing advance (TADV), angle of arrival (AoA)).”
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 method of Goyal et al. (‘442)/Khoryaev et al. (‘080) with the teaching of KO et al. (‘335) for more efficient position determination (KO et al. (‘335) – paragraph 23). In addition, all of the prior art references, (Goyal et al. (‘442), Khoryaev et al. (‘080) and KO et al. (‘335)) teach features that are directed to analogous art and they are directed to the same field of endeavor, such as, side link-based positioning.
Regarding claim 46, which is dependent on independent claim 37, and which is a corresponding device claim of method claim 36, Goyal et al. (‘442)/Khoryaev et al. (‘080)/Sadiq et al. (‘536) discloses all the claimed invention as shown above for claim 36.
Citation of Pertinent Prior Art
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Werner et al. (US 2014/0295881 A1) describes location server 250 may comprise some or all of the devices of location server 400 as illustrated in FIG. 4. Location server 400 may include a communications interface 430, such as a network interface, which is capable of transmitting and receiving messages over a network 230, one or more general-purpose processors 410 and/or specialized processors or DSPs 420, memory 440 such as RAM, ROM, FLASH or other operating memory as well as device-based memory such as internal disc drives and external memory 450 such as hard disc drives, optical drives or other external memory devices. The communications interface 430 may be capable of receiving from mobile device 100 differences in times of arrival of PRS signals and estimated locations of the mobile device 100…differences in times of arrival and estimated locations of the mobile device 100 may be used to calculate and/or update a differential FLC value associated for a base station pair, such as base station 210a and base station 210b…communications interface 430 may also be capable of receiving messages comprising measured times of arrival of acquired PRS signals from mobile station 100b which may be used, in some embodiments, to calculate an estimate of the location of mobile station 100b…processor 410 and/or DSP 420 may be used to calculate the estimate of the location of mobile station 100b based, at least in part, on measured times of arrival of signals acquired from base station 210a and base station 210b (or a difference in times of arrival of PRS signals 123c and 123d from base stations 210a and base stations 210b), estimated locations of base stations 210a and 210b, and the differential FLC value for base stations 210a and 210b (e.g., from execution of machine-readable instructions stored on memory 440)…computed differential FLC values and/or measured differences in times of arrival may be combined with parameters derived from other base station pairs, measurements of ranges to other terrestrial transceivers and pseudorange measurements from GNSS satellites…in an embodiment for an LTE network, Location server 400 may comprise an evolved Secure User Plane Location Center (eSMLC) (paragraph 36); FIG. 8 illustrates placement of a mobile device 800 relative to base stations 801 and 802 forming a pair of base stations in a communication network according to an embodiment…FIG. 8 merely shows one base stations that are in range of mobile device 800…multiple different pairs of base stations in a network may be in range of mobile device 800…there may be other mobile devices within range of base stations 801 and 802…FLC values may be determined for different pairs of base stations in a communication network…location server 250 at block 620 may compute an FLC value for a pair of base stations (base stations "1" and "2") as shown in FIG. 8 according to relation (1) as follows (paragraph 48); location server 250 may determine an estimated location of mobile device 100b based, at least in part, on parameters comprising a measured difference between a time of arrival of a first PRS signal (e.g., wireless signal 123c) transmitted from a first base station (e.g., base station 210a) and time of arrival of a second PRS signal (e.g., wireless signal 123d) transmitted from a second base station (e.g., base station 210b), estimated locations of the first and second base stations, and a differential FLC value for the first and second base stations…additional measurements may be used in calculating the estimated location of mobile device 100b such as measurements of ranges to other terrestrial transmitters and/or psuedoranges to GNSS satellites (paragraph 68).
CN 111989584 A [English Translation] describes a method for assisting location determination of UE in communication by a shared communication medium in an unlicensed spectrum, comprising: receiving the positioning auxiliary data at the UE; the positioning auxiliary data comprises a plurality of PRS configuration for a plurality of auxiliary cells having overlapping coverage area; each auxiliary cell in a plurality of auxiliary cells has different PRS configuration in a plurality of PRS configuration, wherein each PRS configuration of the plurality of PRS configuration comprises a positioning time common set, wherein a plurality of auxiliary cell contention positioning time common set; the first positioning time of the UE in the positioning time common set, measuring the first PRS of the eNB of the first auxiliary cell from a plurality of auxiliary cells, wherein the first eNB sends the first PRS on the shared communication medium, wherein the first PRS is configured according to a first PRS configuration in a plurality of PRS configurations; the second positioning time of the UE in the positioning time common set, measuring the second PRS of the second eNB of the second auxiliary cell from a plurality of auxiliary cells, wherein the second eNB on the shared communication medium sends the second PRS, wherein the second PRS is configured according to a second PRS configuration in the plurality of PRS configurations; and sending the measurement of the first PRS to the location server by the UE, the measurement of the second PRS, the identification of the first PRS configuration and the identification of the second PRS configuration.
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/NUZHAT PERVIN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3648