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 .
Examiner’s Remarks
Claims 11-30 are withdrawn as of May 19, 2026, without traverse.
Claims 1-10 are examined.
This application contains claims 11-30 which are drawn to an invention nonelected without traverse. A complete reply to the final rejection must include cancellation of nonelected claims 11-30, or other appropriate action (37 CFR 1.144) See MPEP § 821.01.
Applicant is reminded that upon the cancellation of claims 11-30, to a non-elected invention, the inventorship must be amended in compliance with 37 CFR 1.48(b) if one or more of the currently named inventors is no longer an inventor of at least one claim remaining in the application. Any amendment of inventorship must be accompanied by a request under 37 CFR 1.48(b) and by the fee required under 37 CFR 1.17(i).
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 10/04/2024 was filed in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Specification
The disclosure is objected to because of the following informalities:
The use of the term Wi-Fi, which is a trade name or a mark used in commerce, has been noted in this application. The term should be accompanied by the generic terminology; furthermore the term should be capitalized wherever it appears or, where appropriate, include a proper symbol indicating use in commerce such as ™, SM , or ® following the term.
Although the use of trade names and marks used in commerce (i.e., trademarks, service marks, certification marks, and collective marks) are permissible in patent applications, the proprietary nature of the marks should be respected and every effort made to prevent their use in any manner which might adversely affect their validity as commercial marks.
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Blankenship et al. (US 20180098187 A1 and Blankenship hereinafter).
Regarding Claim 1, Blankenship discloses a location server (i.e. Enhanced Serving Mobile Location Center (E-SMLC), which may also be referred to as a location server) Para [0004], comprising: one or more memories; one or more transceivers; and one or more processors communicatively coupled to the one or more memories and the one or more transceivers (see whole Figure 19; i.e. As illustrated in FIG. 19, in some embodiments, the E-SMLC 14 includes one or more processors 38 (e.g., one or more CPUs, one or more ASICs, one or more FPGAs, and/or the like), memory 40, and a network interface 42. In some embodiments, the functionality of the E-SMLC 14 described herein is implemented in software that is stored e.g., in the memory 40 and executed by the processor(s) 38.) Para [0148], the one or more processors configured to: transmit, via the one or more transceivers, to a network node, a positioning reference signal (PRS) configuration for a plurality of PRS resources to be transmitted by the network node (i.e. LPPa is the communication protocol between an eNB and the E-SMLC. The information exchange between an eNB and an E-SMLC, as specified in 3GPP TS 36.455 V13.0.0, may be used for OTDOA positioning to support data collection from eNBs and configurations to eNBs. Such configuration information includes PRS configuration index table, number of consecutive PRSs, PRS bandwidth, etc.) Para [0017], wherein the PRS configuration indicates a first set of PRS resources of the plurality of PRS resources to be transmitted (i.e. transmit a first positioning reference signal) Para [0156] on a first set of time-domain resources (i.e. for each cell portion specific PRS, the one or more configuration parameters comprise one or more time-domain parameters for the cell portion specific PRS. Further, in some embodiments, the one or more time-domain parameters comprise a number, N.sub.PRS,cellP, of consecutive downlink subframes on which the cell portion specific PRS is transmitted in a PRS occasion; a subframe offset, Δ.sub.PRS,cellP, for a first subframe of the number, N.sub.PRS,cellP, of consecutive downlink subframes on which the cell portion specific PRS is transmitted in a PRS occasion; a periodicity, T.sub.PRS, of the cell portion specific PRS; and/or a muting pattern of the cell portion specific PRS.) Para [0041] and a second set of PRS resources of the plurality of PRS resources to be transmitted (i.e. transmit a second positioning reference signal, the second positioning reference signal including a cell portion identifier associated with the TP (i.e., the second positioning reference signal can be differentiated from the first positioning reference signal as a result of different cell portion identifiers)) Para [0156] on a second set of time-domain resources (i.e. for each cell portion specific PRS, the one or more configuration parameters comprise one or more time-domain parameters for the cell portion specific PRS. Further, in some embodiments, the one or more time-domain parameters comprise a number, N.sub.PRS,cellP, of consecutive downlink subframes on which the cell portion specific PRS is transmitted in a PRS occasion; a subframe offset, Δ.sub.PRS,cellP, for a first subframe of the number, N.sub.PRS,cellP, of consecutive downlink subframes on which the cell portion specific PRS is transmitted in a PRS occasion; a periodicity, T.sub.PRS, of the cell portion specific PRS; and/or a muting pattern of the cell portion specific PRS.) Para [0041], and wherein the second set of PRS resources is configured to be transmitted towards a repeater associated with the network node (i.e. For cells with cell portions defined, a new PRS transmission can be transmitted simultaneously with the legacy PRS transmission. The new PRS is referred to herein as an ePRS. For example, antenna ports of a macro eNB transmits legacy PRS, and TPs 20 connected to the same DU 22 transmit new PRSs independently.) Para [0081] and (i.e. the DU 22 sends a Baseband (BB) representation of the ePRS for cell portion ID X to the TP 20-1 assigned to cell portion X (step 504)… the TPs 20-1 through 20-N transmit the cell-specific PRSs (step 512).) Para [0140]; and receive, via the one or more transceivers, from at least one user equipment (UE) (i.e. The UE 24 sends the RSTD measurements to the E-SMLC 14 via LPP (step 516).) Para [0141], a measurement report including measurements of the first set of PRS resources, the second set of PRS resources, or both (i.e. using the assistance information received from the E-SMLC 14, the UE 24 receives at least some of the ePRSs (i.e., one or more of the ePRSs) transmitted by the TPs 20-1 through 20-N and performs RSTD measurements on the received ePRSs (step 514). The UE 24 may also receive PRS(s) from another cell(s) and/or ePRS(s) from a cell portion(s) of another cell(s) and perform RSTD measurements on those (e)PRS(s). The UE 24 sends the RSTD measurements to the E-SMLC 14 via LPP (step 516). The E-SMLC 14 determines the position of the UE 24 based on the RSTD measurements (step 518).) Para [0141], or a position estimate of the UE determined based on the first set of PRS resources, the second set of PRS resources, or both (i.e. using the assistance information received from the E-SMLC 14, the UE 24 receives at least some of the ePRSs (i.e., one or more of the ePRSs) transmitted by the TPs 20-1 through 20-N and performs RSTD measurements on the received ePRSs (step 614). The UE 24 may also receive PRS(s) from another cell(s) and/or ePRS(s) from a cell portion(s) of another cell(s) and perform RSTD measurements on those (e)PRS(s). In this embodiment, the UE 24 determines the position of the UE 24 based on the RSTD measurements and the known positions of the TPs 20 of the respective cell portions (and, optionally, known positions of the radio access nodes of any other measured (e)PRS(s)) (step 616).) Para [0144].
Regarding Claim 2, Blankenship discloses all the limitations of claim 1 as disclosed above. Further Blankenship discloses wherein the first set of time resources and the second set of time resources are consecutive time resources (i.e. for each cell portion specific PRS, the one or more configuration parameters comprise one or more time-domain parameters for the cell portion specific PRS. Further, in some embodiments, the one or more time-domain parameters comprise a number, N.sub.PRS,cellP, of consecutive downlink subframes on which the cell portion specific PRS is transmitted in a PRS occasion; a subframe offset, Δ.sub.PRS,cellP, for a first subframe of the number, N.sub.PRS,cellP, of consecutive downlink subframes on which the cell portion specific PRS is transmitted in a PRS occasion; a periodicity, T.sub.PRS, of the cell portion specific PRS; and/or a muting pattern of the cell portion specific PRS.) Para [0041] or overlapping time resources.
Regarding Claim 3, Blankenship discloses all the limitations of claim 1 as disclosed above. Further Blankenship discloses determine whether the at least one UE is within a coverage area of the repeater (i.e. A set of geographically collocated antennas that correspond to a particular sectorization are configured as a cell. A UE (also referred to herein as a terminal) can be connected to a single cell at a given time based on associated maximum received signal power. This cell then becomes the UE's serving cell. To support operation of Coordinated Multipoint (CoMP), phantom cell, and other enhancements, non-co-located antennas are introduced, including distributed antennas, RRHs, etc. Thus, the antennas configured as a cell may not be geographically co-located. The term TP (i.e. repeater) refers to a set of co-located antennas, and a cell can correspond to one or more of such TPs. Note that a single geographical site location may contain multiple TPs in case of sectorization, with one TP corresponding to one sector.) Para [0073] based on the measurement report (i.e. the E-SMLC 14 additionally receives, from the UE 24, RSTD measurements for one or more other cells and/or one or more cell portions of one or more other cells. The RSTD measurements may be received from the UE 24 via the LPP. The E-SMLC 14 optionally determines the position of the UE 24 based on the received RSTD measurements from the UE 24 and the known positions of the TPs 20 associated with the respective cell portions (and optionally known positions of the radio access nodes originating any other the cell-specific PRSs or cell-portion-specific ePRSs received and measured by the UE 24) (step 406).) Para [0137].
Regarding Claim 4, Blankenship discloses all the limitations of claim 3 as disclosed above. Further Blankenship discloses the at least one UE is determined to be within the coverage area of the repeater based on the measurement report including measurements of the second set of PRS resources (i.e. FIG. 6 illustrates an indoor small-cell scenario with multiple TPs 20 on each floor. All TPs 20 may share the same PCI. The eNB can signal the Cell Portion ID to the E-SMLC 14, and therefore the TPs 20 can be separated geographically from a positioning perspective. For example, the coverage area of a TP 20 is associated with one Cell Portion ID. By associating the Cell Portion ID with its own (e)PRS, the corresponding TP 20 can be separated as if it were an eNB.) Para [0082] band (i.e. Essentially, cell ID information associates the UE to the serving area of a serving cell, and then additional information determines a finer granularity position.) Para [0006], or the at least one UE is determined to be outside the coverage area of the repeater based on the measurement report not including measurements of the second set of PRS resources.
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Regarding Claim 5, Blankenship discloses all the limitations of claim 1 as disclosed above. Further Blankenship discloses the network node is configured to beam sweep at least the first set of PRS resources (i.e. OTDOA is a UE-assisted method in which the UE measures the Time of Arrival (TOA) of specific Positioning Reference Signals (PRSs) from multiple eNBs and computes the relative differences. These Reference Signal Time Difference (RSTD) measurements are quantized and reported via LPP to the E-SMLC together with an accuracy assessment. Based on known positions of the eNBs and their mutual time synchronization, the E-SMLC estimates the UE position from the RSTD measurements and covariance reports using multilateration. The accuracy depends on the radio conditions of the received signals, the number of received signals, as well as the deployment, which means that it will vary spatially.) Para [0010] and (see Figure 5 below; i.e. the eNB 12 includes a number of TPs 20-1 through 20-N connected to a centralized Detection Unit (DU) 22 (i.e. as shown in the figure below, the DU transmits signals in multiple direction (beam sweeping) to locate the UE). The TPs 20-1 through 20-N operate according to a shared cell scheme and, as such, share the same cell ID, which in this example is denoted as Cell ID A. Conversely, the TPs 20-1 through 20-N are assigned or otherwise associated with different Cell Portion IDs. In this example, the TP 20-1 is associated with Cell Portion ID X, whereas the TP 20-N is associated with Cell Portion ID Y) Para [0077-0078].
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Regarding Claim 6, Blankenship discloses all the limitations of claim 1 as disclosed above. Further Blankenship discloses receive, via the one or more transceivers, from the network node, an indication that the repeater is associated with the network node (see Figure 5 above; i.e. the eNB 12 includes a number of TPs 20-1 through 20-N connected to a centralized Detection Unit (DU) 22. The TPs 20-1 through 20-N operate according to a shared cell scheme and, as such, share the same cell ID, which in this example is denoted as Cell ID A. Conversely, the TPs 20-1 through 20-N are assigned or otherwise associated with different Cell Portion IDs. In this example, the TP 20-1 is associated with Cell Portion ID X, whereas the TP 20-N is associated with Cell Portion ID Y. Note that, in some embodiments, each TP 20 is assigned a different Cell Portion ID. In other embodiments, some of the TPs 20 may share the same Cell Portion ID (e.g., TPs 20 that are geographically close to one another (e.g., on the same floor of a building) may be associated with the same Cell Portion ID). A TP 20 can include an antenna or a set of co-located antennas in a DAS, a RRH, or the like. A TP 20 can include a transceiver and an antenna system (e.g., one or more antennas) for transmitting and receiving signals. A TP 20 may also include a processor.) Para [0078]), a coverage area of the repeater (see Figure 5 above; i.e. the coverage area of a particular TP 20 is associated with one Cell Portion ID. By associating the Cell Portion ID with its own PRS (referred to herein as an ePRS), the corresponding TP 20 can be separated, for positioning purposes, as if it were an eNB.) Para [0080], a repeater associated with the UE (see Figures 5 and 6 above; i.e. A set of geographically collocated antennas that correspond to a particular sectorization are configured as a cell. A UE (also referred to herein as a terminal) can be connected to a single cell at a given time based on associated maximum received signal power. This cell then becomes the UE's serving cell. To support operation of Coordinated Multipoint (CoMP), phantom cell, and other enhancements, non-co-located antennas are introduced, including distributed antennas, RRHs, etc. Thus, the antennas configured as a cell may not be geographically co-located. The term TP (i.e. repeater) refers to a set of co-located antennas, and a cell can correspond to one or more of such TPs. Note that a single geographical site location may contain multiple TPs in case of sectorization, with one TP corresponding to one sector.) Para [0073], a coverage area associated with the UE (see Figure 6 above; i.e. The E-SMLC 14 optionally determines the position of the UE 24 based on the received RSTD measurements from the UE 24 and the known positions of the TPs 20 associated with the respective cell portions (and optionally known positions of the radio access nodes originating any other the cell-specific PRSs or cell-portion-specific ePRSs received and measured by the UE 24) (step 406).) Para [0137].
Regarding Claim 7, Blankenship discloses all the limitations of claim 6 as disclosed above. Further Blankenship discloses wherein the indication is received in an enhanced cell identifier (E-CID) Measurement Report message (i.e. If the Report Characteristics Information Element (IE) is set to “OnDemand,” the eNB shall return the result of the measurement in the Enhanced Cell ID (E-CID) MEASUREMENT INITIATION RESPONSE message including, if available, the Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access Node (E-UTRAN) Access Point Position IE in the E-CID Measurement Result IE, and the Enhanced Serving Mobile Location Center (E-SMLC) shall consider that the E-CID measurements for the UE has been terminated by the eNB.) Para [0072].
Regarding Claim 8, Blankenship discloses all the limitations of claim 7 as disclosed above. Further Blankenship discloses herein the indication is received in a Cell Portion Identifier field of the E-CID Measurement Report message (i.e. If available, the eNB shall include the Cell Portion ID IE in the E-CID MEASUREMENT INITIATION RESPONSE message. Upon reception of the Cell Portion ID IE, the E-SMLC may use the value as the cell portion for the measurement.) Para [0072].
Regarding Claim 9, Blankenship discloses all the limitations of claim 1 as disclosed above. Further Blankenship discloses transmit, via the one or more transceivers, to the UE, positioning assistance data for the plurality of PRS resources, wherein the positioning assistance data indicates the first set of PRS resources to be transmitted on the first set of time-domain resources and the second set of PRS resources to be transmitted on the second set of time-domain resources (i.e. The E-SMLC 14 sends assistance information to the UE 24 via LPP as described above (step 502). The E-SMLC 14 may send the assistance information when, for example, the E-SMLC 14 desires to know the position of the UE 24.) Para [0139] and (i.e. the UE 24 receives assistance information that enables the UE 24 to perform RSTD measurements on the cell-portion-specific PRSs (ePRSs) transmitted by the TPs 20 in a shared cell (step 200). As described above, this assistance information is received by the UE 24 from the E-SMLC 14 via LPP… the assistance information includes: a list of cell portion IDs corresponding to the ePRSs transmitted by the TPs 20 in the shared cell; and ePRS information for each cell portion ID, which may include, for each cell portion ID: an ePRS bandwidth of the respective ePRS, which is the portion of the system bandwidth in which the ePRS is transmitted; an ePRS Configuration Index for the respective ePRS, which maps to the periodicity T.sub.ePRS of the ePRS and the subframe offset Δ.sub.PRS,cellP of the ePRS; N.sub.PRS,cellP, which is the number of consecutive downlink subframes in each ePRS occasion of the respective ePRS; and/or ePRS muting information, which provides, e.g., a muting pattern for the respective ePRS. Note that the assistance information may additionally include assistance information that enables the UE 24 to receive PRSs on other cells (e.g., neighboring cell(s)) or even ePRSs on cell portions of other cells (e.g., cell portions of neighboring cell(s)).) Para [0112-0118].
Regarding Claim 10, Blankenship discloses all the limitations of claim 1 as disclosed above. Further Blankenship discloses a base station (i.e. Radio Access Node: As used herein, a “radio access node” is any node in a radio access network of a cellular communications network that operates to wirelessly transmit and/or receive signals. Some examples of a radio access node include, but are not limited to, a base station (e.g., an enhanced or evolved Node B (eNB) in a Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Long Term Evolution (LTE) network), a high-power or macro base station, a low-power base station (e.g., a micro base station, a pico base station, a home eNB, or the like), and a relay node.) Para [0065], a transmission-reception point (TRP) supported by the base station, a cell supported by the base station, a central unit (CU) of the base station, or a distributed unit (DU) of the base station (see whole Figure 5 above; i.e. the eNB 12 includes a number of TPs (i.e. transmission points) 20-1 through 20-N connected to a centralized Detection Unit (DU) 22.) Para [0078].
Pertinent Prior Art
The prior art made of record is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Blankenship et al. (US 20180098187 A1) “TRANSMITTING POSITIONING REFERENCE SIGNALS” (April 5, 2018) discloses wireless device positioning based on cell portion specific Positioning Reference Signals (PRSs) by multiple Transmit Points (TPs) in a shared cell. In some embodiments, a method of operation of a TP in a cellular communications network is provided. The TP is one of multiple of non-co-located TPs of a shared cell that has a shared cell identifier. The method of operation of the TP comprises transmitting a PRS having at least one parameter that is a function of a cell portion identifier of the TP, where the at least one parameter comprises a frequency-shift of the PRS, a portion of a system bandwidth in which the PRS is transmitted, and/or a PRS sequence used for the PRS. By transmitting cell-portion-specific PRSs, the TPs in the shared cell enable wireless device positioning based on PRSs transmitted by the non-co-located TPs.
Yu et al. (US 20210377774 A1) “SIGNAL TRANSMISSION METHOD AND APPARATUS” (December 2, 2021) discloses A neighboring cell sends downlink reference signal resource configuration information to a serving cell. The serving cell sends a downlink reference signal measurement request including downlink reference signal resource configuration information to a terminal device. The neighboring cell and the terminal device transmit a downlink reference signal based on the downlink reference signal resource configuration information. The terminal device obtains a downlink reference signal measurement result. The terminal device sends the downlink reference signal measurement result to the serving cell. The serving cell sends the downlink reference signal measurement result to the neighboring cell, or sends, to the neighboring cell, beam information that is about a beam between the neighboring cell and the terminal device and that is determined based on the downlink reference signal measurement result.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Iyonda L. Lewis whose telephone number is (571)272-4440. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday 8:00am - 4:00pm.
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/IYONDA L LEWIS/Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2647
Iyonda.Lewis@USPTO.gov
/DIANE D MIZRAHI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2647
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