DETAILED ACTION
This action is in response to the initial filing filed on February 13, 2024 Claims 1-20 havebeen examined in this application.
Information Disclosure Statement
The Information Disclosure Statement (IDS) filed on 2/13/2024 have been acknowledged.
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claims 1, 12-13, 15-16, and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Harbin et al (US 10,948,566 B1) in view of Koivisto et al (IEEE 2017).
Regarding Claim 1, Harbin teaches a system comprising [col 8, lines 1-10, and figure 10]:
a first node of a network, the network comprising nodes comprising [col 5, lines 30-45, col 7, lines 50-col 8 line 10 for nodes n and m, with figure 10, 1040]
the first node having a first node clock, a second node having a second node clock [col 5, lines 30-45, figure 10, 1050],
a third node having a third node clock, and a fourth node having a fourth node clock [col 5, lines 30-50, for having four nodes],
each node of the network comprising at least one antenna and at least one processor [figure 10 for having N nodes with antennas and figure 11 for a node having two antennas and a FPGA],
wherein the first, second, third, and fourth nodes are configured to communicate with each other during cycles having time periods [col 8, lines 30-50 for time different between direct and relays and calculating clock error],
the time periods including a first time period and subsequent time periods, wherein the first node is configured to [col 8, line 30-50, with col 9, lines 1-30]:
receive at least three transmittals, each of the at least three transmittals being from one of the second, third, and fourth nodes [col 7, lines 50-65 for having three towers (three transmittals) and two nodes with means to transmit signals between each other, with col 9, lines 30-50];
and based at least on (1) arrival times associated with at least three of the at least three transmittals and (2) information associated with any time adjustments to the at least three transmittals [col 9, lines 40-55 for having delays (effect arrival time) and time stamping data with using deliberate delays to adjust time to maintain carrier frequencies],
determine (a) relative positions of the second, third, and fourth nodes relative to a position of the first node [col 2, lines 60-67 for having asynchronous localization (positions) and col 5, line 60 to col 6, line 20].
Harbin fails to explicitly teach and (b) relative clock times of the second, third, and fourth node clocks relative to the first node clock.
Koivisto has highly efficient and accurate device positioning and tracking in fifth generation (5G) radio access networks (abstract) and teaches and (b) relative clock times of the second, third, and fourth node clocks relative to the first node clock [page 2866, abstract for reliable clock synchronization of the access link, and page 2869 for clock models for clock offset and clock skew].
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the applicant’s invention for modifying the node position techniques, as disclosed by Harbin, further including the clock calculations as taught by Koivisto for the purpose to allow for sub-meter scale positioning and tracking accuracy of moving devices (Koivisto, page 2866, abstract).
Regarding Claim 12, Harbin teaches the first node is further configured to perform operations to solve a system of linear equations to determine (a) the relative positions and (b) the relative clock times [col 10, lines 50, to col 11, line 30].
Regarding Claim 13, Harbin teaches the first node is further configured to perform the operations using at least one matrix to solve the system of the linear equations to determine (a) the relative positions and (b) the relative clock times [col 11, lines 1-30].
Regarding Claim 15, Harbin teaches the first node lacks a reliable global navigation satellite system (GNSS) input at least for a time interval spanning a duration to complete receptions of the at least three transmittals [col 1, lines 30-45].
Regarding Claim 16, Harbin teaches the first node lacks any global navigation satellite system (GNSS) input at least for a time interval a duration to complete receptions of the at least three transmittals [col 1, lines 30-45, and col 3, lines 10-20].
Regarding Claim 20, Harbin teaches method, comprising [col 8, lines 1-10, and figure 10]:
receiving, by a first node of a network comprising [col 5, lines 30-45, col 7, lines 50-col 8 line 10 for nodes n and m, with figure 10, 1040]
the first node and second, third, and fourth nodes [col 5, lines 30-45, figure 10, 1050],
at least three transmittals, each of the at least three transmittals being from one of the second, third, and fourth nodes [col 7, lines 50-65 for having three towers (three transmittals) and two nodes with means to transmit signals between each other, with col 9, lines 30-50],
the first node having a first node clock, the second node having a second node clock, the third node having a third node clock, and the fourth node having a fourth node clock [col 5, lines 30-50, for having four nodes with clocks],
each node of the network comprising at least one antenna and at least one processor [figure 10 for having N nodes with antennas and figure 11 for a node having two antennas and a FPGA],
wherein the first, second, third, and fourth nodes are configured to communicate with each other during cycles having time periods, the time periods including a first time period and subsequent time periods [col 8, line 30-50, with col 9, lines 1-30];
and based at least on (1) arrival times associated with at least three of the at least three transmittals and (2) information associated with any time adjustments to the at least three transmittals, determining, by the first node [col 9, lines 40-55 for having delays (effect arrival time) and time stamping data with using deliberate delays to adjust time to maintain carrier frequencies],
(a) relative positions of the second, third, and fourth nodes relative to a position of the first node [col 2, lines 60-67 for having asynchronous localization (positions) and col 5, line 60 to col 6, line 20].
Harbin fails to explicitly teach and (b) relative clock times of the second, third, and fourth node clocks relative to the first node clock.
Koivisto has highly efficient and accurate device positioning and tracking in fifth generation (5G) radio access networks (abstract) and teaches and (b) relative clock times of the second, third, and fourth node clocks relative to the first node clock [page 2866, abstract for reliable clock synchronization of the access link, and page 2869 for clock models for clock offset and clock skew].
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the applicant’s invention for modifying the node position techniques, as disclosed by Harbin, further including the clock calculations as taught by Koivisto for the purpose to allow for sub-meter scale positioning and tracking accuracy of moving devices (Koivisto, page 2866, abstract).
Claims 14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Harbin et al (US 10,948,566 B1) in view of Koivisto et al (IEEE 2017), as applied to Claim 1 above, and further in view Wang et al (US 2016/0054439 A1).
Regarding Claim 14, Harbin fails to explicitly teach the at least one matrix comprises a pseudo inverse matrix.
Wang has integrated satellite-terrestrial communications networks (abstract) and teaches the at least one matrix comprises a pseudo inverse matrix [page 6003, right column second and third paragraphs].
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the applicant’s invention for modifying the node position techniques, as disclosed by Harbin, further including the matrix calculations as taught by Wang for the purpose to determine geographical location or ephemeris estimation (Wang, page 6003, right column, first paragraph).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 2-11 and 17-19 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Kratz et al (US 10627474 B1) has a method at each node in each pair of nodes in a network: transmitting an outbound synchronization signal.
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/SAMARINA MAKHDOOM/
Examiner, Art Unit 3648