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 .
DETAILED ACTION
This office action is in response to the RCE filed 4/6/2026 in which Claims 1-30 are pending.
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 4/6/2026 has been entered.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see pages 9-10, filed 4/6/2026, with respect to the rejection(s) of claim(s) 1, 11 under 35 U.S.C. 102 have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of Nilsson et al.
Applicant’s arguments, see pages 11-12, filed 4/6/2026, with respect to the rejection(s) of claim(s) 17, 28 under 35 U.S.C. 102 have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of Leng.
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.
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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claim(s) 1-7, 11-13, 17, 21-28, 30 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over U.S. Patent Publication 2025/0063553 to Jakobsson et al (“Jakobsson”) in view of U.S. Patent Publication 2024/0372664 to Nilsson et al (“Nilsson”).
As to Claim 1, Jakobsson teaches a network device for wireless communications, the network device comprising: at least one memory; and at least one processor coupled to the at least one memory (a (e.g., first and/or feedback) radio node, in particular a wireless device or terminal 10 or a UE (User Equipment). Radio node 10 comprises processing circuitry (which may also be referred to as control circuitry) 20, which may comprise a controller connected to a memory, see ¶ 0055) and configured to: receive, via a radio resource control (RRC) configuration, a definition of a sounding reference signal (SRS) usage case corresponding to radio frequency (RF) sensing (the radio may transmit the communication signalling and receive (and/or monitor for) the sensing signalling, and additionally may transmit the sensing signalling, or vice versa. It should be considered that the receiving sensing signalling may comprise, and/or be based on monitoring for the sensing signalling, see ¶ 0008; Sensing signalling may generally be represented by reference signalling [SRS], see ¶ 0021; The communication signalling and/or sensing signalling may be based on an OFDM wave-form, e.g. OFDM and/or SC-FDM [sensing via RF], see ¶ 0022; A radio node adapted for sensing operation and/or radar operation may be adapted for, and/or be configured or configurable, for transmitting and/or receiving signalling for sensing or radar functionality, in particular according to a configuration for sensing and/or processing signalling…The sensing operation may be mono-static and/or multi-static. Sensing signalling may be reference signalling, and/or may be communication signalling and/or signalling dedicated for sensing, see ¶ 0025; Some of the possible applications of sensing using cellular communication systems are traffic monitoring and crash avoidance, gesture/motion detection, presence detection of objects or persons, vital sign detection, environment mapping, particle/pollution detection, etc [sounding reference signal usage case corresponding to RF sensing], see ¶ 0037; reference signalling may be and/or comprise CSI-RS and/or PT-RS and/or DMRS, e.g. transmitted by the network node. In other variants, the reference signalling may be transmitted by a UE, e.g. to a network node or other UE, in which case it may comprise and/or be Sounding Reference signalling [UE centric RF sensing], see ¶ 0075; The receiver can be informed about the reference signalling by the transmitter, e.g. being configured and/or signalling with control signalling, in particular physical layer signalling and/or higher layer signalling (e.g., DCI and/or RRC signalling), and/or may determine the corresponding information itself, e.g. a network node configuring a UE to transmit reference signalling, see ¶ 0077); receive a configuration for SRS resources for user equipment (UE) centric RF sensing based on the defined SRS usage case (At the receiver, the reflected signal (e.g., reflected from one or more objects and/or from the surrounding) is received, and may be matched and/or filtered with the transmitted wave-form to give the delay (e.g., representing the distance of the object), and/or the phase rotation between consecutive wave forms, e.g. representing the Doppler shift due to the movement of the object [defined SRS use case]…The following description of receiver processing is independent of the wave-form type and is equally applicable to wave-forms, as well as any typical communication wave-form such as OFDM, DFT-s-OFDM, etc. As one example, the wave-form may comprise, and/or be based on, and/or represent, and/or be one or several OFDM or DFT-S-OFDM symbols (or even sub-symbols), and/or block symbols, as it is the common wave-form used in most of the existing wireless access links (used for wireless and/or cellular communication). A sensing signal may be based on OFDM symbols, in particular a train of OFDM symbols as sensing signalling; such train may be repeated a plurality of times, e.g. according to a periodicity, e.g. in one or more sensing frames [receive a configuration for SRS resources for user equipment (UE) centric RF sensing based on the defined SRS usage case], see ¶ 0054; reference signalling may be and/or comprise CSI-RS and/or PT-RS and/or DMRS, e.g. transmitted by the network node. In other variants, the reference signalling may be transmitted by a UE, e.g. to a network node or other UE, in which case it may comprise and/or be Sounding Reference signalling [UE centric RF sensing], see ¶ 0075); and
receive a sensing signal comprising the SRS resources (the sensing signalling and the communication signalling may be transmitted and/or received at least partly, or fully, overlapping in time, e.g. in an operation time interval, or one or more sub-intervals thereof. Partly overlapping in time may refer to part of the sensing signalling not overlapping with the communication signalling, fully overlapping may refer to all of the sensing signalling overlapping with communication signalling, see ¶ 0013; sensing signalling and communication signalling occupy the same frequency spectrum, e.g. the same carrier. Frequency multiplexing may generally refer to different locations of the frequency spectrum being assigned to sensing signalling and communication signalling, e.g. different parts of the carrier bandwidth; additionally, different bandwidths may be assigned to sensing signalling and communication signalling, see ¶ 0016; Communication signalling may be. and/or comprise, data signalling and/or control signalling and/or reference signalling, see ¶ 0025).
Jakobsson does not expressly disclose wherein the SRS resources are configured to maintain phase coherency across the SRS resources to support Doppler-based RF sensing.
Nilsson teaches wherein the SRS resources are configured to maintain phase coherency across the SRS resources to support Doppler-based RF sensing (The SRS transmission with the time gap may be used for estimation of a Doppler frequency shift of carrier signals used in communication between the communication device and the wireless communication network. The estimated Doppler frequency shift may in turn be used for pre-compensation of Doppler effects due to high-velocity movement of the communication device, e.g., in a high-speed train [Doppler based RF sensing], see ¶ 0073; Several signals can be transmitted from different antenna ports in a same location. These signals can have the same large-scale properties, for instance in terms of Doppler shift/spread, average delay spread, or average delay, when measured at the receiver. These antenna ports are then said to be quasi co-located (QCL). If the UE knows that two antenna ports are QCL with respect to a certain parameter (e.g., Doppler spread), the UE can estimate the parameter for one reference signal (e.g., DMRS) received from one antenna port based on another reference signal (e.g., TRS) transmitted from the other antenna port, see ¶ 0116; Doppler estimation is enabled by phase coherent SRS transmissions across slots. In this embodiment, a multitude of SRS sets, with one or a multitude of SRS resources each, are configured to be transmitted in the same or different slot, where the union or a subset of all the SRS resources of the multitude of SRS resource sets are transmitted phase coherently and separated sufficiently in time domain to enable Doppler estimation, see ¶ 0148).
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify Jakobsson with Nilsson to teach wherein the SRS resources are configured to maintain phase coherency across the SRS resources to support Doppler-based RF sensing. The suggestion/motivation would have been in order for an SRS resource to be transmitted at two or more different time instances (see ¶ 0141).
As to Claim 2, Jakobsson and Nilsson depending on Claim 1, Jakobsson teaches wherein the network device is configured to operate as at least one of a sensing receiver performing bistatic sensing using the SRS resources (Depending on whether the radio node is adapted for full-duplex operation or not, operating utilising sensing signalling may comprise operating in the same direction (e.g., both operations comprise or consists of transmitting, or both comprise or consist of receiving), or in different directions (for either or both operations, or between operations and/or for one operation). Thus, different use cases and types of setup (mono-static or multi-static) may be considered, see ¶ 0022; A multi-static scenario may not require simultaneous transmission and reception from the same node, see ¶ 0040) or a sensing receiver and a sensing transmitter performing monostatic sensing using the SRS resources ( The radio node may be capable of full-duplex operation (transmitting and receiving at the same time, e.g. of communication and/or sensing signalling, e.g. utilising a plurality of different antenna sub-arrays and/or panels), e.g. for operation in mono-static sensing operation, see ¶ 0007; The sensing signalling and communication signalling may be transmitted by the same transmitting node, e.g. the radio node, or by different nodes. In particular, it may be considered that the radio node transmits both communication signalling and sensing signalling, and may additionally monitor for and/or receive a reflection of the sensing signalling, e.g. in a mono-static scenario. In some cases, the radio node may receive the communication signalling and the sensing signalling, and/or may additionally transmit the sensing signalling, e.g. in a mono-static scenario, see ¶ 0008).
As to Claim 3, Jakobsson and Nilsson depending on Claim 1, Jakobsson teaches wherein the network device is a UE (The radio node may for example be a wireless device or user equipment or terminal, or a network node or signalling radio node or base station, see ¶ 0009).
As to Claim 4, Jakobsson and Nilsson depending on Claim 1, Jakobsson teaches wherein the at least one processor is configured to receive the configuration for the SRS resources for UE centric RF sensing from at least one of a base station or a network entity (Joint communication and sensing (JCAS) is emerging as one of the use cases in future wireless cellular communication such as 6G. In one approach, it may be considered using cellular communication nodes (base stations/UEs) to sense the environment by either using the communication-specific signals and/or dedicated sensing signals, see ¶ 0037).
As to Claim 5, Jakobsson and Nilsson depending on Claim 4, Jakobsson teaches wherein the SRS resources are configured by the base station for UE centric RF sensing one of with or without coordination with the network entity (Sensing, also referred to as active sensing, may generally refer to transmitting signalling and/or receiving reflection/s of this signalling, e.g. radar signalling and/or communication signalling; Sensing may comprise and/or be based on processing received (reflected) signalling to determine one or more properties of a target object, e.g. position and/or speed (total speed, or a component thereof, e.g. to direction of the receiver) and/or shape and/or size and/or velocity (total, or a component thereof) and/or surface structure and/or reflexivity of a reflecting object, e.g. based on one or more signalling characteristics of the transmitted (radar) signalling and/or one or more signalling characteristics of the received (radar) signalling, and/or based on one or more changes and/or shifts and/or differences and/or delta (e.g., one value subtracted from another value) between one or more signalling characteristics of the transmitted signalling and/or received signalling. For a multi-static case, the receiving node may be informed about the one or more signalling characteristics, e.g. based on configuration (e,g, higher layer signalling like RRC signalling or MAC layer signalling, or F1 signalling, or X2 signalling, or physical layer signalling), see ¶ 0046; In active sensing, a signal or signalling like radar signalling is transmitted to probe the environment, and the received reflections are used to estimate for example position and/or speed and/or velocity of the object/s in a range covered by the signalling [sensing with coordination with the network entity], see ¶ 0047).
As to Claim 6, Jakobsson and Nilsson depending on Claim 1, Jakobsson teaches wherein the SRS resources are also for used for positioning purposes (Sensing, also referred to as active sensing, may generally refer to transmitting signalling and/or receiving reflection/s of this signalling, e.g. radar signalling and/or communication signalling; Sensing may comprise and/or be based on processing received (reflected) signalling to determine one or more properties of a target object, e.g. position and/or speed (total speed, or a component thereof, e.g. to direction of the receiver) [SRS resources used for positioning] and/or shape and/or size and/or velocity (total, or a component thereof) and/or surface structure and/or reflexivity of a reflecting object, e.g. based on one or more signalling characteristics of the transmitted (radar) signalling and/or one or more signalling characteristics of the received (radar) signalling, and/or based on one or more changes and/or shifts and/or differences and/or delta (e.g., one value subtracted from another value) between one or more signalling characteristics of the transmitted signalling and/or received signalling, see ¶ 0046; In active sensing, a signal or signalling like radar signalling is transmitted to probe the environment, and the received reflections are used to estimate for example position and/or speed and/or velocity of the object/s in a range covered by the signalling, see ¶ 0047; Communication signalling may be. and/or comprise, data signalling and/or control signalling and/or reference signalling, see ¶ 0025).
As to Claim 7, Jakobsson and Nilsson depending on Claim 1, Jakobsson teaches wherein the sensing signal comprises an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) waveform (the radio node being adapted for wireless communication, and being adapted for sensing and/or for radar operation, the method comprising transmitting and/or receiving sensing signalling. The sensing signalling is frequency domain multiplexed with communication signalling, see ¶ 0005).
As to Claim 11, Jakobsson teaches a method for wireless communications at a network device, the method comprising: receiving, via a radio resource control (RRC) configuration, a definition of a sounding reference signal (SRS) usage case corresponding to radio frequency (RF) sensing (the radio may transmit the communication signalling and receive (and/or monitor for) the sensing signalling, and additionally may transmit the sensing signalling, or vice versa. It should be considered that the receiving sensing signalling may comprise, and/or be based on monitoring for the sensing signalling, see ¶ 0008; Sensing signalling may generally be represented by reference signalling [SRS], see ¶ 0021; The communication signalling and/or sensing signalling may be based on an OFDM wave-form, e.g. OFDM and/or SC-FDM [sensing via RF], see ¶ 0022; A radio node adapted for sensing operation and/or radar operation may be adapted for, and/or be configured or configurable, for transmitting and/or receiving signalling for sensing or radar functionality, in particular according to a configuration for sensing and/or processing signalling…The sensing operation may be mono-static and/or multi-static. Sensing signalling may be reference signalling, and/or may be communication signalling and/or signalling dedicated for sensing, see ¶ 0025; Some of the possible applications of sensing using cellular communication systems are traffic monitoring and crash avoidance, gesture/motion detection, presence detection of objects or persons, vital sign detection, environment mapping, particle/pollution detection, etc [sounding reference signal usage case corresponding to RF sensing], see ¶ 0037; reference signalling may be and/or comprise CSI-RS and/or PT-RS and/or DMRS, e.g. transmitted by the network node. In other variants, the reference signalling may be transmitted by a UE, e.g. to a network node or other UE, in which case it may comprise and/or be Sounding Reference signalling [UE centric RF sensing], see ¶ 0075; The receiver can be informed about the reference signalling by the transmitter, e.g. being configured and/or signalling with control signalling, in particular physical layer signalling and/or higher layer signalling (e.g., DCI and/or RRC signalling), and/or may determine the corresponding information itself, e.g. a network node configuring a UE to transmit reference signalling, see ¶ 0077);
receiving, by the network device, a configuration for SRS resources for user equipment (UE) centric RF sensing based on the defined SRS usage case (At the receiver, the reflected signal (e.g., reflected from one or more objects and/or from the surrounding) is received, and may be matched and/or filtered with the transmitted wave-form to give the delay (e.g., representing the distance of the object), and/or the phase rotation between consecutive wave forms, e.g. representing the Doppler shift due to the movement of the object [defined SRS use case]…The following description of receiver processing is independent of the wave-form type and is equally applicable to wave-forms, as well as any typical communication wave-form such as OFDM, DFT-s-OFDM, etc. As one example, the wave-form may comprise, and/or be based on, and/or represent, and/or be one or several OFDM or DFT-S-OFDM symbols (or even sub-symbols), and/or block symbols, as it is the common wave-form used in most of the existing wireless access links (used for wireless and/or cellular communication). A sensing signal may be based on OFDM symbols, in particular a train of OFDM symbols as sensing signalling; such train may be repeated a plurality of times, e.g. according to a periodicity, e.g. in one or more sensing frames [receive a configuration for SRS resources for user equipment (UE) centric RF sensing based on the defined SRS usage case], see ¶ 0054; reference signalling may be and/or comprise CSI-RS and/or PT-RS and/or DMRS, e.g. transmitted by the network node. In other variants, the reference signalling may be transmitted by a UE, e.g. to a network node or other UE, in which case it may comprise and/or be Sounding Reference signalling [UE centric RF sensing], see ¶ 0075); and
receiving, by the network device, a sensing signal comprising the SRS resources (the sensing signalling and the communication signalling may be transmitted and/or received at least partly, or fully, overlapping in time, e.g. in an operation time interval, or one or more sub-intervals thereof. Partly overlapping in time may refer to part of the sensing signalling not overlapping with the communication signalling, fully overlapping may refer to all of the sensing signalling overlapping with communication signalling, see ¶ 0013; sensing signalling and communication signalling occupy the same frequency spectrum, e.g. the same carrier. Frequency multiplexing may generally refer to different locations of the frequency spectrum being assigned to sensing signalling and communication signalling, e.g. different parts of the carrier bandwidth; additionally, different bandwidths may be assigned to sensing signalling and communication signalling, see ¶ 0016; Communication signalling may be. and/or comprise, data signalling and/or control signalling and/or reference signalling, see ¶ 0025).
Jakobsson does not expressly disclose wherein the SRS resources are configured to maintain phase coherency across the SRS resources to support Doppler-based RF sensing.
Nilsson teaches wherein the SRS resources are configured to maintain phase coherency across the SRS resources to support Doppler-based RF sensing (The SRS transmission with the time gap may be used for estimation of a Doppler frequency shift of carrier signals used in communication between the communication device and the wireless communication network. The estimated Doppler frequency shift may in turn be used for pre-compensation of Doppler effects due to high-velocity movement of the communication device, e.g., in a high-speed train [Doppler based RF sensing], see ¶ 0073; Several signals can be transmitted from different antenna ports in a same location. These signals can have the same large-scale properties, for instance in terms of Doppler shift/spread, average delay spread, or average delay, when measured at the receiver. These antenna ports are then said to be quasi co-located (QCL). If the UE knows that two antenna ports are QCL with respect to a certain parameter (e.g., Doppler spread), the UE can estimate the parameter for one reference signal (e.g., DMRS) received from one antenna port based on another reference signal (e.g., TRS) transmitted from the other antenna port, see ¶ 0116; Doppler estimation is enabled by phase coherent SRS transmissions across slots. In this embodiment, a multitude of SRS sets, with one or a multitude of SRS resources each, are configured to be transmitted in the same or different slot, where the union or a subset of all the SRS resources of the multitude of SRS resource sets are transmitted phase coherently and separated sufficiently in time domain to enable Doppler estimation, see ¶ 0148).
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify Jakobsson with Nilsson to teach wherein the SRS resources are configured to maintain phase coherency across the SRS resources to support Doppler-based RF sensing. The suggestion/motivation would have been in order for an SRS resource to be transmitted at two or more different time instances (see ¶ 0141).
As to Claim 12, Jakobsson and Nilsson depending on Claim 11, Jakobsson teaches further comprising performing at least one of bistatic sensing using the SRS resources or monostatic sensing using the SRS resources (Depending on whether the radio node is adapted for full-duplex operation or not, operating utilising sensing signalling may comprise operating in the same direction (e.g., both operations comprise or consists of transmitting, or both comprise or consist of receiving), or in different directions (for either or both operations, or between operations and/or for one operation). Thus, different use cases and types of setup (mono-static or multi-static) may be considered, see ¶ 0022; A multi-static scenario may not require simultaneous transmission and reception from the same node, see ¶ 0040) or a sensing receiver and a sensing transmitter performing monostatic sensing using the SRS resources ( The radio node may be capable of full-duplex operation (transmitting and receiving at the same time, e.g. of communication and/or sensing signalling, e.g. utilising a plurality of different antenna sub-arrays and/or panels), e.g. for operation in mono-static sensing operation, see ¶ 0007; The sensing signalling and communication signalling may be transmitted by the same transmitting node, e.g. the radio node, or by different nodes. In particular, it may be considered that the radio node transmits both communication signalling and sensing signalling, and may additionally monitor for and/or receive a reflection of the sensing signalling, e.g. in a mono-static scenario. In some cases, the radio node may receive the communication signalling and the sensing signalling, and/or may additionally transmit the sensing signalling, e.g. in a mono-static scenario, see ¶ 0008).
As to Claim 13, Jakobsson and Nilsson depending on Claim 11, Jakobsson teaches further comprising receiving the configuration for the SRS resources for UE centric RF sensing from at least one of a base station or a network entity (Joint communication and sensing (JCAS) is emerging as one of the use cases in future wireless cellular communication such as 6G. In one approach, it may be considered using cellular communication nodes (base stations/UEs) to sense the environment by either using the communication-specific signals and/or dedicated sensing signals, see ¶ 0037).
Claim(s) 17, 21-28, 30 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over U.S. Patent Publication 2025/0063553 to Jakobsson et al (“Jakobsson”) in view of U.S. Patent Publication 2026/0153612 to Leng et al (“Leng”).
As to Claim 17, Jakobsson teaches a network device for wireless communications, the network device comprising: at least one memory; and at least one processor coupled to the at least one memory (a (e.g., first and/or feedback) radio node, in particular a wireless device or terminal 10 or a UE (User Equipment). Radio node 10 comprises processing circuitry (which may also be referred to as control circuitry) 20, which may comprise a controller connected to a memory, see ¶ 0055) and configured to: select one or more sounding reference signal (SRS) resources from a resource pool comprising SRS resources for user equipment (UE) centric radio frequency (RF) sensing (A radio node may configure itself, e.g., based on configuration data received from a network or network node. A network node may utilise, and/or be adapted to utilise, its circuitry/ies for configuring. Allocation information may be considered a form of configuration data. Configuration data may comprise and/or be represented by configuration information, and/or one or more corresponding indications and/or message/s, see ¶ 0126; configuring may include determining configuration data representing the configuration and providing, e.g. transmitting, it to one or more other nodes (parallel and/or sequentially), which may transmit it further to the radio node (or another node, which may be repeated until it reaches the wireless device). Alternatively, or additionally, configuring a radio node, e.g., by a network node or other device, may include receiving configuration data and/or data pertaining to configuration data, e.g., from another node like a network node, which may be a higher-level node of the network, and/or transmitting received configuration data to the radio node. Accordingly, determining a configuration and transmitting the configuration data to the radio node may be performed by different network nodes or entities, which may be able to communicate via a suitable interface, e.g., an X2 interface in the case of LTE or a corresponding interface for NR. Configuring a terminal may comprise scheduling downlink and/or uplink transmissions for the terminal, e.g. downlink data and/or downlink control signalling and/or DCI and/or uplink control or data or communication signalling, in particular acknowledgement signalling, and/or configuring resources and/or a resource pool therefor, see ¶ 0127); and
receive a sensing signal comprising the one or more SRS resources (the sensing signalling and the communication signalling may be transmitted and/or received at least partly, or fully, overlapping in time, e.g. in an operation time interval, or one or more sub-intervals thereof. Partly overlapping in time may refer to part of the sensing signalling not overlapping with the communication signalling, fully overlapping may refer to all of the sensing signalling overlapping with communication signalling, see ¶ 0013; sensing signalling and communication signalling occupy the same frequency spectrum, e.g. the same carrier. Frequency multiplexing may generally refer to different locations of the frequency spectrum being assigned to sensing signalling and communication signalling, e.g. different parts of the carrier bandwidth; additionally, different bandwidths may be assigned to sensing signalling and communication signalling, see ¶ 0016; Communication signalling may be. and/or comprise, data signalling and/or control signalling and/or reference signalling, see ¶ 0025).
Jakobsson does not expressly disclose wherein the SRS resources correspond to different waveform types, and wherein the selection is based on an interference impact associated with the waveform types under different Doppler scenarios.
Leng teaches wherein the SRS resources correspond to different waveform types, and wherein the selection is based on an interference impact associated with the waveform types under different Doppler scenarios (A UE of a moving object can be configured by a sensing interaction server to sense or receive a sensing radar's signals for interaction sensing. For executing an interaction sensing, the UE may request the sensing interaction server to get the sensing radar's configuration information, e.g., the sensing radar's waveform (e.g., a type of the waveform (such as, frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW), orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM), etc.), and related parameter), sensing time slot, frequency, beam direction, transmission power, etc, see ¶ 0054; the configuration of the sensing radar 302, UE 301-1b and UE 301-2b can construct virtual radar signals [interference] to emulate original sensing radar FMCW signals transmitted by the sensing radar 302, and then compare the radar signals received at UE and the constructed virtual radar signals to calculate its distance and velocity relative to the sensing radar 302. In this example, UE 301-1b and UE 301-2b can use configuration information of the sensing radar 302 to construct the virtual radar signals which are the substantially same with (or similar as) the signals actually transmitted by the sensing radar 302. The virtual radar signals would have a same waveform (e.g., a triangular FMCW signal), a same timing and a same magnitude with the signals actually transmitted by the sensing radar 302. So, the constructed virtual radar signals could be used to emulate practical radar transmission signals, for extracting a velocity and distance at the UE side, see ¶ 0058).
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify Jakobsson with Leng to teach wherein the SRS resources correspond to different waveform types, and wherein the selection is based on an interference impact associated with the waveform types under different Doppler scenarios. The suggestion/motivation would have been in order to transmit FMCW signals and receive echo signals, so as to sense the objects around it (see ¶ 0057).
As to Claim 21, Jakobsson and Leng depending on Claim 17, Jakobsson teaches wherein the network device is configured to operate as one of a sensing receiver to perform bistatic sensing using the one or more SRS resources (Depending on whether the radio node is adapted for full-duplex operation or not, operating utilising sensing signalling may comprise operating in the same direction (e.g., both operations comprise or consists of transmitting, or both comprise or consist of receiving), or in different directions (for either or both operations, or between operations and/or for one operation). Thus, different use cases and types of setup (mono-static or multi-static) may be considered, see ¶ 0022; A multi-static scenario may not require simultaneous transmission and reception from the same node, see ¶ 0040) or a sensing receiver and a sensing transmitter to perform monostatic sensing using the one or more SRS resources (The radio node may be capable of full-duplex operation (transmitting and receiving at the same time, e.g. of communication and/or sensing signalling, e.g. utilising a plurality of different antenna sub-arrays and/or panels), e.g. for operation in mono-static sensing operation, see ¶ 0007; The sensing signalling and communication signalling may be transmitted by the same transmitting node, e.g. the radio node, or by different nodes. In particular, it may be considered that the radio node transmits both communication signalling and sensing signalling, and may additionally monitor for and/or receive a reflection of the sensing signalling, e.g. in a mono-static scenario. In some cases, the radio node may receive the communication signalling and the sensing signalling, and/or may additionally transmit the sensing signalling, e.g. in a mono-static scenario, see ¶ 0008).
As to Claim 22, Jakobsson and Leng depending on Claim 17, Jakobsson teaches wherein the network device is a UE (The radio node may for example be a wireless device or user equipment or terminal, or a network node or signalling radio node or base station, see ¶ 0009).
As to Claim 23, Jakobsson and Leng depending on Claim 17, Jakobsson teaches wherein the at least one processor is configured to indicate a sensing capability of the network device and an intention of the network device to join the resource pool (A radio node adapted for sensing operation and/or radar operation may be adapted for, and/or be configured or configurable, for transmitting and/or receiving signalling for sensing or radar functionality, in particular according to a configuration for sensing and/or processing signalling. The radio node may share circuitry like processing circuitry and/or radio circuitry and/or antenna circuitry and/or antenna elements and/or sub-arrays between communication signalling and sensing operation and/or sensing signalling. The sensing operation may be mono-static and/or multi-static. Sensing signalling may be reference signalling, and/or may be communication signalling and/or signalling dedicated for sensing. Sensing signalling may have different types of signalling, e.g. based on, or associated to use and/or object and/or sensing function (e.g., which parameters of an object are to be determined) [indicate sensing capability of the network device], see ¶ 0025; A radio node may configure itself, e.g., based on configuration data received from a network or network node. A network node may utilise, and/or be adapted to utilise, its circuitry/ies for configuring. Allocation information may be considered a form of configuration data. Configuration data may comprise and/or be represented by configuration information, and/or one or more corresponding indications and/or message/s, see ¶ 0126; configuring may include determining configuration data representing the configuration and providing, e.g. transmitting, it to one or more other nodes (parallel and/or sequentially), which may transmit it further to the radio node (or another node, which may be repeated until it reaches the wireless device). Alternatively, or additionally, configuring a radio node, e.g., by a network node or other device, may include receiving configuration data and/or data pertaining to configuration data, e.g., from another node like a network node, which may be a higher-level node of the network, and/or transmitting received configuration data to the radio node. Accordingly, determining a configuration and transmitting the configuration data to the radio node may be performed by different network nodes or entities, which may be able to communicate via a suitable interface, e.g., an X2 interface in the case of LTE or a corresponding interface for NR. Configuring a terminal may comprise scheduling downlink and/or uplink transmissions for the terminal, e.g. downlink data and/or downlink control signalling and/or DCI and/or uplink control or data or communication signalling, in particular acknowledgement signalling, and/or configuring resources and/or a resource pool therefor [intention of the network device to join the resource pool], see ¶ 0127; it may be considered that a network node provides some control functionality, e.g. by configuring resources, in particular one or more resource pool/s, for sidelink communication, and/or monitoring a sidelink, e.g. for charging purposes, see ¶ 0138).
As to Claim 24, Jakobsson and Leng depending on Claim 23, Jakobsson teaches wherein the sensing capability of the network device comprises at least one of a bandwidth for RF sensing or a time window for the RF sensing (the radio may transmit the communication signalling and receive (and/or monitor for) the sensing signalling, and additionally may transmit the sensing signalling, or vice versa…Operation using sensing signalling and communication signalling may pertain to a specific time period, e.g. a joint operation interval, in which both communication and sensing is performed…In particular, sensing signalling may occupy a first frequency bandwidth, and the communication signalling may occupy a second frequency bandwidth, wherein the first and second frequency bandwidths may be non-overlapping and/or disjunct and/or separated in frequency domain, see ¶ 0008; The parameters of a sensing signal (which in general may also be referred to as sensing signalling, or radar signal, or radar signalling) may include a bandwidth, like a minimum bandwidth, and/or a duration like a minimum duration of the sensing signal, and/or a minimum and/or maximum repetition periodicity, and/or a minimum duration of the sensing frame (a time interval in which sensing signalling may be transmitted), may be designed such above sensing requirement/s are met, see ¶ 0053).
As to Claim 25, Jakobsson and Leng depending on Claim 17, Jakobsson teaches wherein the at least one processor is configured to sense the resource pool prior to selecting the one or more SRS resources from the resource pool (A radio node may configure itself, e.g., based on configuration data received from a network or network node. A network node may utilise, and/or be adapted to utilise, its circuitry/ies for configuring. Allocation information may be considered a form of configuration data. Configuration data may comprise and/or be represented by configuration information, and/or one or more corresponding indications and/or message/s, see ¶ 0126; configuring may include determining configuration data representing the configuration and providing, e.g. transmitting, it to one or more other nodes (parallel and/or sequentially), which may transmit it further to the radio node (or another node, which may be repeated until it reaches the wireless device). Alternatively, or additionally, configuring a radio node, e.g., by a network node or other device, may include receiving configuration data and/or data pertaining to configuration data, e.g., from another node like a network node, which may be a higher-level node of the network, and/or transmitting received configuration data to the radio node. Accordingly, determining a configuration and transmitting the configuration data to the radio node may be performed by different network nodes or entities, which may be able to communicate via a suitable interface, e.g., an X2 interface in the case of LTE or a corresponding interface for NR. Configuring a terminal may comprise scheduling downlink and/or uplink transmissions for the terminal, e.g. downlink data and/or downlink control signalling and/or DCI and/or uplink control or data or communication signalling, in particular acknowledgement signalling, and/or configuring resources and/or a resource pool therefor, see ¶ 0127; it may be considered that a network node provides some control functionality, e.g. by configuring resources, in particular one or more resource pool/s, for sidelink communication, and/or monitoring a sidelink, e.g. for charging purposes, see ¶ 0138).
As to Claim 26, Jakobsson and Leng depending on Claim 17, Jakobsson teaches wherein the at least one processor is configured to coordinate with a base station RF sensing operations performed by the network device for sharing the SRS resources with other network devices (Joint communication and sensing (JCAS) is emerging as one of the use cases in future wireless cellular communication such as 6G. In one approach, it may be considered using cellular communication nodes (base stations/UEs) to sense the environment by either using the communication-specific signals and/or dedicated sensing signals, and provide information such as location, shape, speed, etc of the objects in the surrounding. Some of the possible applications of sensing using cellular communication systems are traffic monitoring and crash avoidance, gesture/motion detection, presence detection of objects or persons, vital sign detection, environment mapping, particle/pollution detection, etc. In general, joint communication and sensing may comprise and/or be based on utilising radio nodes for a communication network for sensing and/or radar operation, e.g. sharing radio circuitry and/or antennas and/or resources [sharing SRS resources with other network devices], see ¶ 0037).
As to Claim 27, Jakobsson and Leng depending on Claim 17, Jakobsson teaches wherein the resource pool is one of periodic, aperiodic, or semi-persistent (SPS) (Dynamic configuration may be based on low-level signalling, e.g. control signalling on the physical layer and/or MAC layer, in particular in the form of DCI or SCI. Periodic/semi-static may pertain to longer timescales, e.g. several slots and/or more than one frame, and/or a non-defined number of occurrences, e.g., until a dynamic configuration contradicts, or until a new periodic configuration arrives. A periodic or semi-static configuration may be based on, and/or be configured with, higher-layer signalling, in particular RCL layer signalling and/or RRC signalling and/or MAC signalling, see ¶ 0155).
As to Claim 28, Jakobsson teaches a method for wireless communications at a network device, the method comprising: selecting, by the network device, one or more sounding reference signal (SRS) resources from a resource pool comprising SRS resources for user equipment (UE) centric radio frequency (RF) sensing (A radio node may configure itself, e.g., based on configuration data received from a network or network node. A network node may utilise, and/or be adapted to utilise, its circuitry/ies for configuring. Allocation information may be considered a form of configuration data. Configuration data may comprise and/or be represented by configuration information, and/or one or more corresponding indications and/or message/s, see ¶ 0126; configuring may include determining configuration data representing the configuration and providing, e.g. transmitting, it to one or more other nodes (parallel and/or sequentially), which may transmit it further to the radio node (or another node, which may be repeated until it reaches the wireless device). Alternatively, or additionally, configuring a radio node, e.g., by a network node or other device, may include receiving configuration data and/or data pertaining to configuration data, e.g., from another node like a network node, which may be a higher-level node of the network, and/or transmitting received configuration data to the radio node. Accordingly, determining a configuration and transmitting the configuration data to the radio node may be performed by different network nodes or entities, which may be able to communicate via a suitable interface, e.g., an X2 interface in the case of LTE or a corresponding interface for NR. Configuring a terminal may comprise scheduling downlink and/or uplink transmissions for the terminal, e.g. downlink data and/or downlink control signalling and/or DCI and/or uplink control or data or communication signalling, in particular acknowledgement signalling, and/or configuring resources and/or a resource pool therefor, see ¶ 0127); and
receiving, by the network device, a sensing signal comprising the one or more SRS resources (the sensing signalling and the communication signalling may be transmitted and/or received at least partly, or fully, overlapping in time, e.g. in an operation time interval, or one or more sub-intervals thereof. Partly overlapping in time may refer to part of the sensing signalling not overlapping with the communication signalling, fully overlapping may refer to all of the sensing signalling overlapping with communication signalling, see ¶ 0013; sensing signalling and communication signalling occupy the same frequency spectrum, e.g. the same carrier. Frequency multiplexing may generally refer to different locations of the frequency spectrum being assigned to sensing signalling and communication signalling, e.g. different parts of the carrier bandwidth; additionally, different bandwidths may be assigned to sensing signalling and communication signalling, see ¶ 0016; Communication signalling may be. and/or comprise, data signalling and/or control signalling and/or reference signalling, see ¶ 0025).
Jakobsson does not expressly disclose wherein the SRS resources correspond to different waveform types, and wherein the selection is based on an interference impact associated with the waveform types under different Doppler scenarios.
Leng teaches wherein the SRS resources correspond to different waveform types, and wherein the selection is based on an interference impact associated with the waveform types under different Doppler scenarios (A UE of a moving object can be configured by a sensing interaction server to sense or receive a sensing radar's signals for interaction sensing. For executing an interaction sensing, the UE may request the sensing interaction server to get the sensing radar's configuration information, e.g., the sensing radar's waveform (e.g., a type of the waveform (such as, frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW), orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM), etc.), and related parameter), sensing time slot, frequency, beam direction, transmission power, etc, see ¶ 0054; the configuration of the sensing radar 302, UE 301-1b and UE 301-2b can construct virtual radar signals [interference] to emulate original sensing radar FMCW signals transmitted by the sensing radar 302, and then compare the radar signals received at UE and the constructed virtual radar signals to calculate its distance and velocity relative to the sensing radar 302. In this example, UE 301-1b and UE 301-2b can use configuration information of the sensing radar 302 to construct the virtual radar signals which are the substantially same with (or similar as) the signals actually transmitted by the sensing radar 302. The virtual radar signals would have a same waveform (e.g., a triangular FMCW signal), a same timing and a same magnitude with the signals actually transmitted by the sensing radar 302. So, the constructed virtual radar signals could be used to emulate practical radar transmission signals, for extracting a velocity and distance at the UE side, see ¶ 0058).
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify Jakobsson with Leng to teach wherein the SRS resources correspond to different waveform types, and wherein the selection is based on an interference impact associated with the waveform types under different Doppler scenarios. The suggestion/motivation would have been in order to transmit FMCW signals and receive echo signals, so as to sense the objects around it (see ¶ 0057).
As to Claim 30, Jakobsson and Leng depending on Claim 28, Jakobsson teaches further comprising indicating, by the network device, a sensing capability of the network device and an intention of the network device to join the resource pool (A radio node adapted for sensing operation and/or radar operation may be adapted for, and/or be configured or configurable, for transmitting and/or receiving signalling for sensing or radar functionality, in particular according to a configuration for sensing and/or processing signalling. The radio node may share circuitry like processing circuitry and/or radio circuitry and/or antenna circuitry and/or antenna elements and/or sub-arrays between communication signalling and sensing operation and/or sensing signalling. The sensing operation may be mono-static and/or multi-static. Sensing signalling may be reference signalling, and/or may be communication signalling and/or signalling dedicated for sensing. Sensing signalling may have different types of signalling, e.g. based on, or associated to use and/or object and/or sensing function (e.g., which parameters of an object are to be determined) [indicate sensing capability of the network device], see ¶ 0025; A radio node may configure itself, e.g., based on configuration data received from a network or network node. A network node may utilise, and/or be adapted to utilise, its circuitry/ies for configuring. Allocation information may be considered a form of configuration data. Configuration data may comprise and/or be represented by configuration information, and/or one or more corresponding indications and/or message/s, see ¶ 0126; configuring may include determining configuration data representing the configuration and providing, e.g. transmitting, it to one or more other nodes (parallel and/or sequentially), which may transmit it further to the radio node (or another node, which may be repeated until it reaches the wireless device). Alternatively, or additionally, configuring a radio node, e.g., by a network node or other device, may include receiving configuration data and/or data pertaining to configuration data, e.g., from another node like a network node, which may be a higher-level node of the network, and/or transmitting received configuration data to the radio node. Accordingly, determining a configuration and transmitting the configuration data to the radio node may be performed by different network nodes or entities, which may be able to communicate via a suitable interface, e.g., an X2 interface in the case of LTE or a corresponding interface for NR. Configuring a terminal may comprise scheduling downlink and/or uplink transmissions for the terminal, e.g. downlink data and/or downlink control signalling and/or DCI and/or uplink control or data or communication signalling, in particular acknowledgement signalling, and/or configuring resources and/or a resource pool therefor [intention of the network device to join the resource pool], see ¶ 0127; it may be considered that a network node provides some control functionality, e.g. by configuring resources, in particular one or more resource pool/s, for sidelink communication, and/or monitoring a sidelink, e.g. for charging purposes, see ¶ 0138).
Claim(s) 8-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over U.S. Patent Publication 2025/0063533 to Jakobsson et al (“Jakobsson”) in view of U.S. Patent Publication 2024/0372664 to Nilsson et al (“Nilsson”) in further view of U.S. Patent Publication 2020/0382252 to Sun.
As to Claim 8, Jakobsson and Nilsson depending on Claim 1, Jakobsson does not expressly disclose wherein the at least one processor is configured to receive an indication of phase coherency across the SRS resources. Sun teaches wherein the at least one processor is configured to receive an indication of phase coherency across the SRS resources (the second indication information is also used to indicate the number of beams, the first indication information is used to indicate whether uplink transmission channels of the terminal are coherent. The first indication information is used to indicate that uplink transmission channels of the terminal are non-coherent, and the second indication information is specifically used to indicate that the number of beams is 1 to indicate one beam for each port; or, the first indication information is used to indicate phases of uplink transmission channels of the terminal are partially coherent, and the second indication information is specifically used to indicate a beam for each port pair; or, the first indication information is used to indicate phases of uplink transmission channels of the terminal are partially coherent, and the second indication information is specifically used to indicate a beam for each port pair; the above port pair is pre-specified, see ¶ 0175; the second SRS resources are precoded among the antennas that are coherent, see ¶ 0177; a rule of the sorting is a predefined rule, or a rule configured by the network device which includes sorting according to a condition of whether phases of ports are coherent, see ¶ 0178; the first indication information to be used to indicate at least one of following: the number of first Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) resource sets required by the terminal, the number of first SRS resources in each of the first SRS resource sets, the maximum number of layers of uplink multi-antenna transmission of the terminal, whether uplink transmission channels of the terminal are coherent, see ¶ 0197).
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify Jakobsson and Nilsson with Sun to teach wherein the at least one processor is configured to receive an indication of phase coherency across the SRS resources. The suggestion/motivation would have been in order for the first indication information to be used to indicate at least one of following: the number of first Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) resource sets required by the terminal, the number of first SRS resources in each of the first SRS resource sets, the maximum number of layers of uplink multi-antenna transmission of the terminal, whether uplink transmission channels of the terminal are coherent (see ¶ 0197).
As to Claim 9, Jakobsson, Nilsson and Sun depending on Claim 8, Sun teaches wherein the at least one processor is configured to receive the indication of phase coherency across the SRS resources from a base station (the first indication information to be used to indicate at least one of following: the number of first Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) resource sets required by the terminal, the number of first SRS resources in each of the first SRS resource sets, the maximum number of layers of uplink multi-antenna transmission of the terminal, whether uplink transmission channels of the terminal are coherent, see ¶ 0197).
As to Claim 10, Jakobsson and Nilsson depending on Claim 1, Jakobsson does not expressly disclose wherein the configuration for the SRS resources for UE centric RF sensing implicitly indicates phase coherency across the SRS resources. Sun teaches wherein the configuration for the SRS resources for UE centric RF sensing implicitly indicates phase coherency across the SRS resources (the first indication information to be used to indicate at least one of following: the number of first Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) resource sets required by the terminal, the number of first SRS resources in each of the first SRS resource sets, the maximum number of layers of uplink multi-antenna transmission of the terminal, whether uplink transmission channels of the terminal are coherent, see ¶ 0197).
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify Jakobsson with Sun to teach wherein the configuration for the SRS resources for UE centric RF sensing implicitly indicates phase coherency across the SRS resources. The suggestion/motivation would have been in order for the first indication information to be used to indicate at least one of following: the number of first Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) resource sets required by the terminal, the number of first SRS resources in each of the first SRS resource sets, the maximum number of layers of uplink multi-antenna transmission of the terminal, whether uplink transmission channels of the terminal are coherent (see ¶ 0197).
As to Claim 14, Jakobsson and Nilsson depending on Claim 11, Jakobsson and Nilsson do not expressly disclose further comprising receiving, by the network device, an indication of phase coherency across the SRS resources. Sun teaches wherein the at least one processor is configured to receive an indication of phase coherency across the SRS resources (the second indication information is also used to indicate the number of beams, the first indication information is used to indicate whether uplink transmission channels of the terminal are coherent. The first indication information is used to indicate that uplink transmission channels of the terminal are non-coherent, and the second indication information is specifically used to indicate that the number of beams is 1 to indicate one beam for each port; or, the first indication information is used to indicate phases of uplink transmission channels of the terminal are partially coherent, and the second indication information is specifically used to indicate a beam for each port pair; or, the first indication information is used to indicate phases of uplink transmission channels of the terminal are partially coherent, and the second indication information is specifically used to indicate a beam for each port pair; the above port pair is pre-specified, see ¶ 0175; the second SRS resources are precoded among the antennas that are coherent, see ¶ 0177; a rule of the sorting is a predefined rule, or a rule configured by the network device which includes sorting according to a condition of whether phases of ports are coherent, see ¶ 0178; the first indication information to be used to indicate at least one of following: the number of first Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) resource sets required by the terminal, the number of first SRS resources in each of the first SRS resource sets, the maximum number of layers of uplink multi-antenna transmission of the terminal, whether uplink transmission channels of the terminal are coherent, see ¶ 0197).
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify Jakobsson and Nilsson with Sun to teach further comprising receiving, by the network device, an indication of phase coherency across the SRS resources. The suggestion/motivation would have been in order for the first indication information to be used to indicate at least one of following: the number of first Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) resource sets required by the terminal, the number of first SRS resources in each of the first SRS resource sets, the maximum number of layers of uplink multi-antenna transmission of the terminal, whether uplink transmission channels of the terminal are coherent (see ¶ 0197).
As to Claim 15, Jakobsson, Nilsson and Sun depending on Claim 14, Sun teaches wherein the at least one processor is configured to receive the indication of phase coherency across the SRS resources from a base station (the first indication information to be used to indicate at least one of following: the number of first Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) resource sets required by the terminal, the number of first SRS resources in each of the first SRS resource sets, the maximum number of layers of uplink multi-antenna transmission of the terminal, whether uplink transmission channels of the terminal are coherent, see ¶ 0197).
As to Claim 16, Jakobsson and Nilsson depending on Claim 11, Jakobsson and Nilsson do not expressly disclose wherein the configuration for the SRS resources for UE centric RF sensing implicitly indicates phase coherency across the SRS resources. Sun teaches wherein the configuration for the SRS resources for UE centric RF sensing implicitly indicates phase coherency across the SRS resources (the first indication information to be used to indicate at least one of following: the number of first Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) resource sets required by the terminal, the number of first SRS resources in each of the first SRS resource sets, the maximum number of layers of uplink multi-antenna transmission of the terminal, whether uplink transmission channels of the terminal are coherent, see ¶ 0197).
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify Jakobsson and Nilsson with Sun to teach wherein the configuration for the SRS resources for UE centric RF sensing implicitly indicates phase coherency across the SRS resources. The suggestion/motivation would have been in order for the first indication information to be used to indicate at least one of following: the number of first Sounding Reference Signal (SRS) resource sets required by the terminal, the number of first SRS resources in each of the first SRS resource sets, the maximum number of layers of uplink multi-antenna transmission of the terminal, whether uplink transmission channels of the terminal are coherent (see ¶ 0197).
Claim(s) 18-20, 29 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over U.S. Patent Publication 2025/0063533 to Jakobsson et al (“Jakobsson”) in view of U.S. Patent Publication 2026/0153612 to Leng et al (“Leng”) in further view of U.S. Patent Publication 2015/0160066 to Sai.
As to Claim 18, Jakobsson and Leng depending on Claim 17, Jakobsson and Leng do not expressly disclose wherein the SRS resources within the resource pool comprise different types of waveforms. Sai teaches wherein the SRS resources within the resource pool comprise different types of waveforms (The Tx circuitry is configured to provide multiple waveform types, including for example pulsed CW waveforms, pulsed LFM waveforms, pulsed SFCW waveforms and pulsed FMCW waveforms, for different applications based on the power conditions (e.g., duration and amplitude of the current supply and/or voltage supply) or other power limitations (e.g., a government regulatory limitation presented by the particular application). For example, if the power supply for the disclosed multi-waveform pulsed radar system in a particular application is very limited, such as 4-20 mA loop power, then the waveform adaptively selected can be a relatively short pulse with a CW waveform inside the pulse. The pulse width of the CW radar pulse can be sub-nanosecond, typically ranging from tens to hundreds of picoseconds, corresponding to a 3-dB bandwidth of at least 2 GHz. Pulsed CW is recognized to be well suited for low power operation, because the carrier frequency for CW waveforms is fixed, rather than sweeping. The pulse width can be short (e.g., sub-nanosecond), which means less time is needed for energy supply to the signal generator and the PA. On the other hand, variable carrier frequency waveforms such as LFW, FMCW and SFCW need a longer time (compared to CW) to complete sweeping of defined frequency band (i.e., the carrier frequency is changing from one frequency to another in a continuous or in a discrete manner), see ¶ 0018).
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify Jakobsson and Leng with Sai to teach wherein the SRS resources within the resource pool comprise different types of waveforms. The suggestion/motivation would have been in order to achieve an adaptive pulsed multi-waveform radar system including a programmable transmitter having multiple waveform capability (see ¶ 0024).
As to Claim 19, Jakobsson, Leng and Sai depending on Claim 18, Jakobsson teaches wherein the different types of waveforms comprise non-orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (non-OFDM) waveforms (operation may be based on an OFDM wave-form or a SC-FDM wave-form (e.g., downlink and/or uplink), in particular a FDF-SC-FDM -based wave-form [non-OFDM waveforms]. However, operation based on a single carrier wave-form, e.g. SC-FDE (which may be pulse-shaped or Frequency Domain Filtered, e.g. based on modulation scheme and/or MCS), may be considered for downlink and/or uplink).
As to Claim 20, Jakobsson, Leng and Sai depending on Claim 18, Sai teaches wherein the different types of waveforms comprise a linear frequency modulation (LFM) waveform, a short continuous wave (CW) pulse waveform, and a long CW pulse waveform (The Tx circuitry is configured to provide multiple waveform types, including for example pulsed CW waveforms, pulsed LFM waveforms, pulsed SFCW waveforms and pulsed FMCW waveforms, for different applications based on the power conditions (e.g., duration and amplitude of the current supply and/or voltage supply) or other power limitations (e.g., a government regulatory limitation presented by the particular application). For example, if the power supply for the disclosed multi-waveform pulsed radar system in a particular application is very limited, such as 4-20 mA loop power, then the waveform adaptively selected can be a relatively short pulse with a CW waveform inside the pulse [short CW pulse waveform]. The pulse width of the CW radar pulse can be sub-nanosecond, typically ranging from tens to hundreds of picoseconds, corresponding to a 3-dB bandwidth of at least 2 GHz. Pulsed CW is recognized to be well suited for low power operation, because the carrier frequency for CW waveforms is fixed, rather than sweeping. The pulse width can be short (e.g., sub-nanosecond), which means less time is needed for energy supply to the signal generator and the PA. On the other hand, variable carrier frequency waveforms such as LFW, FMCW and SFCW need a longer time (compared to CW) to complete sweeping of defined frequency band (i.e., the carrier frequency is changing from one frequency to another in a continuous or in a discrete manner), see ¶ 0018; For applications dealing with a slow moving target, pulsed SFCW (see FIG. 2C) or pulsed FMCW (see FIG. 2D) waveforms can be selected. In the slow moving situation, the pulse width can be on the order of hundreds of milliseconds [long pulse CW], see ¶ 0042).
As to Claim 29, Jakobsson and Leng depending on Claim 28, Jakobsson and Leng do not expressly disclose wherein the SRS resources within the resource pool comprise different types of waveforms. Sai teaches wherein the SRS resources within the resource pool comprise different types of waveforms (The Tx circuitry is configured to provide multiple waveform types, including for example pulsed CW waveforms, pulsed LFM waveforms, pulsed SFCW waveforms and pulsed FMCW waveforms, for different applications based on the power conditions (e.g., duration and amplitude of the current supply and/or voltage supply) or other power limitations (e.g., a government regulatory limitation presented by the particular application). For example, if the power supply for the disclosed multi-waveform pulsed radar system in a particular application is very limited, such as 4-20 mA loop power, then the waveform adaptively selected can be a relatively short pulse with a CW waveform inside the pulse. The pulse width of the CW radar pulse can be sub-nanosecond, typically ranging from tens to hundreds of picoseconds, corresponding to a 3-dB bandwidth of at least 2 GHz. Pulsed CW is recognized to be well suited for low power operation, because the carrier frequency for CW waveforms is fixed, rather than sweeping. The pulse width can be short (e.g., sub-nanosecond), which means less time is needed for energy supply to the signal generator and the PA. On the other hand, variable carrier frequency waveforms such as LFW, FMCW and SFCW need a longer time (compared to CW) to complete sweeping of defined frequency band (i.e., the carrier frequency is changing from one frequency to another in a continuous or in a discrete manner), see ¶ 0018).
Before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify Jakobsson and Leng with Sai to teach wherein the SRS resources within the resource pool comprise different types of waveforms. The suggestion/motivation would have been in order to achieve an adaptive pulsed multi-waveform radar system including a programmable transmitter having multiple waveform capability (see ¶ 0024).
Conclusion
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/EBONI N GILES/Examiner, Art Unit 2622
/PATRICK N EDOUARD/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2622
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