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 .
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 (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
The following is a quotation of 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 1-30 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over EP3726896 (hereinafter, Hu) in view of Huang (US 2023/0138181).
Regarding claims 1, 12, 24 and 29, Hu discloses a base station (or access node 200 in FIG. 1a) comprising: a transceiver; a memory; and one or more processors communicatively coupled to the transceiver and the memory (paragraph 13, lines 3-6: “The memory is configured to couple to the processor, and stores a program (instruction) and data that are necessary to the apparatus. In addition, the apparatus may further include a communications interface … The communications interface may be a transceiver.”) and configured to perform the following:
receiving, at the base station, the uplink positioning reference signal from a user equipment via a transceiver (FIG. 6 and paragraph 146, line 1: “S503: The UE sends the positioning reference signal to the access node.”; Paragraph 206, lines 102: “in another implementation, the transceiver unit 901 is configured to perform the steps performed by the UE in … S503 in FIG. 6, and/or other steps in this application”);
determining, at the base station, a plurality of measurement values (multipath positioning measurement information) of the uplink positioning reference signal, each of the plurality of measurement values being of a same type of measurement, and corresponding to the uplink positioning reference signal (paragraph 148, lines 1-2: “S504: The access node obtains multipath positioning measurement information that is based on a single access node and that is for the UE.”; Paragraph 132, lines 10-12: “The access node may detect an AOA and/or a TOA of a same signal (an uplink positioning reference signal) by using a multi-antenna technology, to obtain measurement values of a multipath AOA and/or TOA.”); and
sending, from the base station to a server (or a positioning service function entity), a report including the plurality of measurement values of the uplink positioning reference signal (paragraph 150, lines 1-2: “S505: The access node sends the multipath positioning measurement information that is based on the single access node to the positioning service function entity”).
Hu fails to disclose sending, from the base station to the server, at least one indication that the plurality of measurement values corresponds to a same uplink positioning reference signal.
However, in an analogous art, Huang discloses sending, from a base station (corresponding to an access network device) to a server (corresponding to a positioning management device), at least one indication (or indexes) that the plurality of measurement values corresponds to a same uplink positioning reference signal (paragraph 154, lines 1-3: “1304. The access network device sends measurement information to the positioning management device, where the measurement information includes indexes of a plurality of uplink reference signal resources … and a measurement result corresponding to the index of each uplink reference signal resource”; Paragraph 157, lines 1-2: “1305. The positioning management device determines positioning information of the terminal device based on … the measurement information”). 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 base station in Hu by incorporating this feature taught in Huang for the purpose of allowing a server to group related measurement values, thereby achieving faster and more efficient processing of uplink-based positioning data.
Regarding claims 2, 13, 25 and 30, Hu discloses that the at least one indication comprises a same uplink positioning reference signal identifier for the plurality of measurement values of the uplink positioning reference signal, or a same timestamp value for the plurality of measurement values of the uplink positioning reference signal, or a combination thereof (paragraph 88: “a timestamp of sending the positioning reference signal by the single access node”).
Regarding claims 3, 14 and 26, Hu discloses that the transceiver comprises a plurality of antenna elements, and wherein each of the plurality of measurement values of the uplink positioning reference signal corresponds to a respective one of the plurality of antenna elements (paragraph 87: “using a multi-antenna technology, to obtain measurement values of a multipath AOA and/or TOA.”).
Regarding claims 4, 15 and 27, Hu discloses that each of the plurality of measurement values of the uplink positioning reference signal corresponds to a respective one of a plurality of paths of the same uplink positioning reference signal (paragraph 79: “a propagation path of an electromagnetic wave received by the UE 100 may be classified into two types of paths.”).
Regarding claims 5, 16 and 28, Hu discloses that the report comprises a plurality of index sets each corresponding to a respective one of the plurality of measurement values of the uplink positioning reference signal and indicative of the respective one of the plurality of antenna elements and the respective one of the plurality of paths (paragraph 80, lines 9-12: “In a scenario in which the access node 200 performs the positioning measurement, the single access node 200 detects, by using a multi-antenna technology, different angles of arrival and/or times of arrival of a same signal by receiving a positioning reference signal sent by the UE 100 that is to be positioned in an uplink direction”).
Regarding claims 6 and 17, Hu discloses that each of the plurality of index sets is further indicative of a measurement type of the respective one of the plurality of measurement values of the uplink positioning reference signal (paragraph 80, line 12: “… to obtain measurement values of multipath AOAs and/or TOAs.”).
Regarding claims 7 and 18, Hu discloses that each of the plurality of measurement values of the uplink positioning reference signal corresponds to a respective one of a plurality of paths of the same uplink positioning reference signal (paragraph 132, lines 10-11: “The access node may detect an AOA and/or a TOA of a same signal (an uplink positioning reference signal) by using a multi-antenna technology”).
Regarding claims 8 and 19, Hu discloses that the transceiver comprises a plurality of antenna elements, and wherein each of the plurality of measurement values of the uplink positioning reference signal comprises a combination of other measurement values corresponding to the plurality of antenna elements (paragraph 80, lines 9-12: “In a scenario in which the access node 200 performs the positioning measurement, the single access node 200 detects, by using a multi-antenna technology, different angles of arrival and/or times of arrival of a same signal by receiving a positioning reference signal sent by the UE 100 that is to be positioned in an uplink direction”).
Regarding claims 9 and 20, the combination of Hu and Huang fails to disclose that the other measurement values comprise power values and the combination of other measurement values corresponding to the plurality of antenna elements is either a sum of the power values or an average of the power values.
However, Official notice is taken that it is very well known in the art to disclose that measurement values comprise power values and a combination of other measurement values corresponding to a plurality of antenna elements is either a sum of the power values or an average of the power values. 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 base station in Hu and Huang by incorporating this feature for the purpose of achieving a more stable and robust estimate of a received signal condition.
Regarding claims 10 and 21, Hu discloses that each of the plurality of measurement values of the uplink positioning reference signal comprises a power value, or an angle of arrival value, or a time of arrival value, or a time difference value relative to a reference time, or any combination thereof (paragraph 80, line 12: “… to obtain measurement values of multipath AOAs and/or TOAs.”).
Regarding claims 11, 22 and 23, Hu discloses that the plurality of measurement values is a plurality of first measurement values, and wherein the one or more processors are configured to order the plurality of first measurement values in the report based on values of second measurement values that correspond to the plurality of first measurement values and that are omitted from the report (paragraph 95, lines 3-7: “. If the locations of the at least two reflectors are known, related processing of location estimation on the reflectors in a processing procedure may be omitted, and the location of the UE may be estimated directly by using the locations of the at least two reflectors and the measurement values of the TOAs and the AOAs of the reflection paths corresponding to the at least two reflection paths.”).
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to the pending claims have been considered but are moot because a new ground of rejection is applied to the claims.
Huang is introduced as the new ground of rejection of the claims 1-30. Huang discloses sending, from the base station to the server, at least one indication that the plurality of measurement values corresponds to a same uplink positioning reference signal. One skilled in the art would have been motivated to combine Hu and Huang for the reasons discussions in the rejection above.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SAM BHATTACHARYA whose telephone number is (571)272-7917. The examiner can normally be reached weekdays, 9-5:30.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Matthew D. Anderson can be reached at (571) 272-4177. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/SAM BHATTACHARYA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2646