DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
Claim(s) 1-2, 8-12, 18-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Rao (Pub No 20250088883) further in view of Wu (Pub No 20230030759)
Regarding claim 1 and 20,
Rao teaches a first node for wireless communications, characterized in comprising:
a first receiver, receiving Q positioning reference signals respectively on Q reference signal sub-resources, Q being a positive integer greater than 1; (interpreted as (interpreted as For example, a PRS configuration including one or more resources, resource sets and/or beams may be split into different sub-PRS configurations, where each split configuration may include a subset of the resources, resource sets and/or beams, see para [0293])
wherein a first resource pool comprises a first reference signal resource, the first reference signal resource using a first configuration; (interpreted as the resources and/or beams associated with the PRS configurations, see para [0296])
the first reference signal resource comprises multiple reference signal sub-resources, and at least one of the multiple reference signal sub-resources uses a second configuration, where Resource Elements (REs) occupied by any two reference signal sub-resources among the multiple reference signal sub-resources are different; (interpreted as For example, a PRS configuration including one or more resources, resource sets and/or beams may be split into different sub-PRS configurations, where each split configuration may include a subset of the resources, resource sets and/or beams, see para [0293])
any of the Q reference signal sub-resources is one of the multiple reference signal sub-resources comprised by the first reference signal resource; the Q positioning reference signals are respectively transmitted by Q transmitters; (interpreted as (interpreted as For example, a PRS configuration including one or more resources, resource sets and/or beams may be split into different sub-PRS configurations, where each split configuration may include a subset of the resources, resource sets and/or beams, see para [0293])
the Q positioning reference signals are used for determining location information of the first node; (interpreted as the WTRU receives assistance information which includes one or more PRS configs for the WTRU, information related to location of collaborative WTRU for assisting with calculation of WTRU location (e.g., distance/angle corrections to apply when using measurements from collaborative WTRU), see para [0083])
a value of Q is used to determine the second configuration. (interpreted as (interpreted as For example, a PRS configuration including one or more resources, resource sets and/or beams may be split into different sub-PRS configurations, where each split configuration may include a subset of the resources, resource sets and/or beams, see para [0293])
However Rao does not teach the multiple PRS being transmitted/received by the same transmitter/receiver.
Wu teaches the multiple PRS being transmitted/received by the same transmitter/receiver. (interpreted as In any case, because the second UE may use both the PRSs in the unshared spectrum and the supplemental PRSs in the shared spectrum to compute the position of the first UE, the accuracy of the computed position of the first UE may be improved, see para [0046]
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the multiple PRS taught by Rao with the multiple PRS from one transmitter to one receiver taught by Wu with the motivation being to improve the accuracy of the PRS.
Regarding claim 11,
Rao teaches a second node for wireless communications, characterized in comprising:
a second transmitter, transmitting a first positioning reference signal on a first reference signal sub-resource; (interpreted as (interpreted as For example, a PRS configuration including one or more resources, resource sets and/or beams may be split into different sub-PRS configurations, where each split configuration may include a subset of the resources, resource sets and/or beams, see para [0293])
wherein a first resource pool comprises a first reference signal resource, the first reference signal resource using a first configuration; (interpreted as the resources and/or beams associated with the PRS configurations, see para [0296])
the first reference signal resource comprises multiple reference signal sub-resources, and at least one of the multiple reference signal sub-resources uses a second configuration, where REs occupied by any two reference signal sub-resources among the multiple reference signal sub-resources are different; (interpreted as For example, a PRS configuration including one or more resources, resource sets and/or beams may be split into different sub-PRS configurations, where each split configuration may include a subset of the resources, resource sets and/or beams, see para [0293])
the first reference signal sub-resource is one of Q reference signal sub-resources, Q being a positive integer greater than 1, and any of the Q reference signal sub-resources is one of the multiple reference signal sub-resources comprised by the first reference signal resource; (interpreted as (interpreted as For example, a PRS configuration including one or more resources, resource sets and/or beams may be split into different sub-PRS configurations, where each split configuration may include a subset of the resources, resource sets and/or beams, see para [0293])
the Q reference signal sub-resources are respectively used for transmitting Q positioning reference signals, with the first positioning reference signal being one of the Q positioning reference signals; (interpreted as (interpreted as For example, a PRS configuration including one or more resources, resource sets and/or beams may be split into different sub-PRS configurations, where each split configuration may include a subset of the resources, resource sets and/or beams, see para [0293])
the Q positioning reference signals are used for determining location information of a target receiver of the first positioning reference signal; (interpreted as the WTRU receives assistance information which includes one or more PRS configs for the WTRU, information related to location of collaborative WTRU for assisting with calculation of WTRU location (e.g., distance/angle corrections to apply when using measurements from collaborative WTRU), see para [0083])
a value of Q is used to determine the second configuration. (interpreted as (interpreted as For example, a PRS configuration including one or more resources, resource sets and/or beams may be split into different sub-PRS configurations, where each split configuration may include a subset of the resources, resource sets and/or beams, see para [0293])
However Rao does not teach the multiple PRS being transmitted/received by the same transmitter/receiver.
Wu teaches the multiple PRS being transmitted/received by the same transmitter/receiver. (interpreted as In any case, because the second UE may use both the PRSs in the unshared spectrum and the supplemental PRSs in the shared spectrum to compute the position of the first UE, the accuracy of the computed position of the first UE may be improved, see para [0046]
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the multiple PRS taught by Rao with the multiple PRS from one transmitter to one receiver taught by Wu with the motivation being to improve the accuracy of the PRS.
Regarding claim 2 and 12,
Rao teaches the first node according to claim 1, characterized in comprising: a second receiver, receiving first configuration information; wherein the first configuration information is used for determining the first resource pool; the first configuration information is used for determining K1 candidate resource configurations, with the first configuration being one of the K1 candidate resource configurations; any of the K1 candidate resource configurations comprises at least one of a comb size, a number of symbols, a number of frequency-domain resource blocks, a resource repetition factor or a number of REs. (interpreted as WTRU receives assistance information from network (e.g. LMF), which includes information regarding one or more PRS configurations for the WTRU, information regarding candidate PRS configurations intended for the collaborative WTRU, and information regarding one or more triggering events for initiating collaborative positioning, see para [0078]. Also see muting parameters such as repetition factor, see para [0225])
Regarding claim 8 and 18,
Rao teaches the first node according to claim 2, characterized in that at least one reference signal sub-resource among the multiple reference signal sub-resources comprised by the first resource pool uses a third configuration, the third configuration being one of the K1 candidate resource configurations, where the third configuration is different from the second configuration. (interpreted as (interpreted as For example, a PRS configuration including one or more resources, resource sets and/or beams may be split into different sub-PRS configurations, where each split configuration may include a subset of the resources, resource sets and/or beams, see para [0293])
Regarding claim 9 and 19,
Rao teaches the first node according to claim 1, characterized in comprising: a first transmitter, transmitting a first signaling; wherein the first signaling carries a first identifier, the first identifier being associated with the first reference signal resource; the Q transmitters correspond to Q second-type identifiers, respectively, and the Q second-type identifiers are respectively used for determining the Q reference signal sub-resources in the first reference signal resource. (interpreted as The different PRS configurations may be associated with a configuration ID, and/or identifiers identifying the different resources and/or resource sets and/or beams and/or TRPs and/or gNBs associated with the one or more PRS configurations, see para [0325)
Regarding claim 10,
Rao teaches the first node according to claim 1, characterized in that the first configuration comprises a first resource repetition factor, where a resource repetition factor of the first reference signal resource in time domain is equal to the first resource repetition factor in the first configuration; the second configuration comprises a second resource repetition factor, where a resource repetition factor of at least one reference signal sub-resource among the multiple reference signal sub-resources in time domain is equal to the second resource repetition factor; the second resource repetition factor in the second configuration is smaller than the first resource repetition factor in the first configuration. (interpreted as A PRS resource configuration may include or indicate one or more of the following: a PRS resource ID; a PRS sequence ID, or other IDs used to generate PRS sequence; a PRS resource element offset; a PRS resource slot offset; a PRS symbol offset; a PRS QCL information; a PRS resource set ID; a list of PRS resources in the resource set; a number of PRS symbols; a muting pattern for PRS, muting parameters such as repetition factor, see para [0225])
Claim(s) 3, 5-7, 13, 15-17 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Rao (Pub No 20250088883) further in view of Wu (Pub No 20230030759) and Khorynaev (Pub No 2022019830)
Regarding claim 3 and 13,
Rao in view of Wu teaches the first node according to claim 1, however does not teach characterized in that the first configuration comprises a first comb size, while the second configuration comprises a second comb size, where the second comb size is Q times the size of the first comb size.
Khorynaev teaches characterized in that the first configuration comprises a first comb size, while the second configuration comprises a second comb size, where the second comb size is Q times the size of the first comb size. (interpreted as DL PRS pool split into 4 different DL PRS resoruces for beams 1-4, see fig. 4. Also see The DL PRS resource pool 104 may be divided into DL PRS resource sets (shown as DL PRS resource set 106, . . . , DL PRS resource set 108 in FIG. 1, see para [0036])
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the splitting of resources for multiple PRS taught by Rao in view of Wu with the resources for multiple PRS using comb sizes as taught by Khorynaev with the motivation being to provide resources for performing position location estimate of devices.
Regarding claim 5 and 15,
Rao in view of Wu teaches the first node according to claim 1, however does not teach characterized in that the first configuration comprises a first number of symbols, while the second configuration comprises a second number of symbols, where the first number of symbols is Q times the size of the second number of symbols.
Khorynaev teaches characterized in that the first configuration comprises a first number of symbols, while the second configuration comprises a second number of symbols, where the first number of symbols is Q times the size of the second number of symbols. (interpreted as In certain embodiments, configuring the DL PRS resource pool includes configuring a DL PRS pool symbol pattern to indicate which symbols inside a slot are configured for DL PRS transmission on a given DL PRS resource. Configuring the DL PRS pool symbol pattern may include formatting a bitmap pattern indicating each allocated symbol inside of each slot available for DL PRS transmission, see para [0071]
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the splitting of resources for multiple PRS taught by Rao in view of Wu with the resources for multiple PRS using comb sizes as taught by Khorynaev with the motivation being to provide resources for performing position location estimate of devices.
Regarding claim 6 and 16,
Rao in view of Wu teaches the first node according to claim 5, however does not teach characterized in that the first number of symbols is a number of symbols occupied by the first reference signal resource in time domain; the second number of symbols is a number of symbols occupied by at least one reference signal sub-resource among the multiple reference signal sub-resources in time domain
Khorynaev teaches characterized in that the first number of symbols is a number of symbols occupied by the first reference signal resource in time domain; the second number of symbols is a number of symbols occupied by at least one reference signal sub-resource among the multiple reference signal sub-resources in time domain (interpreted as In certain embodiments, configuring the DL PRS resource pool includes configuring a DL PRS pool symbol pattern to indicate which symbols inside a slot are configured for DL PRS transmission on a given DL PRS resource. Configuring the DL PRS pool symbol pattern may include formatting a bitmap pattern indicating each allocated symbol inside of each slot available for DL PRS transmission, see para [0071]. Also see time domain para [0084])
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the splitting of resources for multiple PRS taught by Rao in view of Wu with the resources for multiple PRS using comb sizes as taught by Khorynaev with the motivation being to provide resources for performing position location estimate of devices.
Regarding claim 7 and 17,
Rao in view of Wu teaches the first node according to claim 1, however does not teach characterized in that a number of REs occupied by the first reference signal resource is Q times the size of a number of REs occupied by any reference signal sub-resource of the Q reference signal sub-resources.
Khorynaev teaches characterized in that a number of REs occupied by the first reference signal resource is Q times the size of a number of REs occupied by any reference signal sub-resource of the Q reference signal sub-resources. (interpreted as DL PRS pool split into 4 different DL PRS resoruces for beams 1-4, see fig. 4. Also see The DL PRS resource pool 104 may be divided into DL PRS resource sets (shown as DL PRS resource set 106, . . . , DL PRS resource set 108 in FIG. 1, see para [0036]. Also see The duration of the resource grid in the time domain corresponds to one slot in a radio frame. The smallest time-frequency unit in a resource grid is denoted as a resource element. Each resource grid comprises a number of resource blocks, which describe the mapping of certain physical channels to resource elements. Each resource block comprises a collection of resource elements, see para [0084])
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the splitting of resources for multiple PRS taught by Rao in view of Wu with the resources for multiple PRS using comb sizes as taught by Khorynaev with the motivation being to provide resources for performing position location estimate of devices.
Claim(s) 4, 14 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Rao (Pub No 20250088883) further in view of Wu (Pub No 20230030759) and Khorynaev (Pub No 2022019830) and Manolakos (Pub No 20200225309)
Regarding claim 4 and 14,
Rao in view of Wu and Khorynaev teaches the first node according to claim 3, however does not teach characterized in that the first comb size is a number of subcarrier(s) between any two adjacent subcarriers occupied by the first reference signal resource in frequency domain; the second comb size is a number of subcarrier(s) between any two adjacent subcarriers occupied by at least one reference signal sub-resource among the multiple reference signal sub-resources in frequency domain.
Manolakos teaches characterized in that the first comb size is a number of subcarrier(s) between any two adjacent subcarriers occupied by the first reference signal resource in frequency domain; the second comb size is a number of subcarrier(s) between any two adjacent subcarriers occupied by at least one reference signal sub-resource among the multiple reference signal sub-resources in frequency domain (interpreted as PRS resource identifier (ID), sequence ID, comb size-N, resource element offset in the frequency domain, starting slot and starting symbol, number of symbols per PRS resource (i.e., the duration of the PRS resource), and QCL information (e.g., QCL with other DL reference signals). Currently, one antenna port is supported. The comb size indicates the number of subcarriers in each symbol carrying PRS. For example, a comb-size of comb-4 means that every fourth subcarrier of a given symbol carries PRS, see para [0093])
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the comb taught by Rao in view of Wu and Khorynaev with the comb size being a number of subcarriers as taught by Manolakos with the motivation being to distribute resources among the multiple transmissions.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to BAO G NGUYEN whose telephone number is (571)272-7732. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 10pm - 6:30pm.
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/BAO G NGUYEN/Examiner, Art Unit 2461 /HUY D VU/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2461