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
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 5, 10, 15, 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Regarding claim 5, a series of equations are claimed with respect to calculation of a correction coefficient and a time of flight (TOF). However, the claim indicates a definition for each variable in the equations but instead of mapping each variable to a definition, a placeholder (black rectangle) is being used. This renders the claim indefinite as it is not clear what each variable represents. Similar rationale is applicable to claims 10, 15, and 20. The Examiner also notes that the equation for a correction coefficient appears to be included twice. Appropriate correction is required.
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) 1-3, 6-8, 11-13, 16-18 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over “Discussion on Potential Solutions for SL Positioning” (R1-2211268) to LG in view of US 20240155550 A1 to Dai; Jing et al.
Re: Claim(s) 1, 6, 11, 16
LG discloses a method of identifying a location by using a positioning reference signal (PRS) by a first user equipment (UE) performing sidelink (SL) communication, the method comprising: (Section 2 – SL positioning procedure. Figs. 2-4 – PRS transmission scheme for SL positioning depicted).
determining transmission resources of a first PRS and a second PRS (Section 5, proposal 24 – DCI indicates SL resource information);
transmitting the first PRS by using at least one of the determined transmission resources (Page 8, Fig. 3 – SL-PRS-1a);
transmitting the second PRS by using at least one of the determined transmission resources (Page 8, Fig. 3 – SL-PRS-1b);
receiving, from a second UE by which the first PRS and the second PRS are received, a third PRS (Page 8, Fig. 3 – SL-PRS-2).
LG does/do not appear to explicitly disclose receiving a first response time, and a second response time, the first response time corresponding to a difference between a time point at which the first PRS is received and a time point at which the third PRS is transmitted and the second response time corresponding to a difference between a time point at which the second PRS is received and a time point at which the third PRS is transmitted; acquiring a first round trip time (RTT) and a second RTT, the first RTT corresponding to a difference between a time point at which the first PRS is transmitted and a time point at which the third PRS is received and the second RTT corresponding to a difference between a time point at which the second PRS is transmitted and a time point at which the third PRS is received; calculating a time of flight (ToF) by using the first RTT, the second RTT, the first response time, and the second response time; and identifying the location of the first UE by using the calculated ToF, wherein the second PRS is transmitted after the first PRS is transmitted and before the third PRS is received
However, attention is directed to Dai which discloses:
receiving a first response time, and a second response time, the first response time corresponding to a difference between a time point at which the first PRS is received and a time point at which the third PRS is transmitted and the second response time corresponding to a difference between a time point at which the second PRS is received and a time point at which the third PRS is transmitted (Fig. 13 - 1334, 1336 and 0104 - At 1334, after transmitting the first PRS 1306 and the second PRS 1310 and receiving the SRS 1308, the base station 1302 may determine a first Rx-Tx time difference (e.g., {circumflex over (τ)}.sub.A,1) between the transmission of the first PRS 1306 and the reception of the SRS 1308 and a second Rx-Tx time difference (e.g., {circumflex over (τ)}.sub.A,2) between the reception of the SRS 1308 and the transmission of the second PRS 1310. At 1336, the base station may transmit the measured first Rx-Tx time difference (e.g., {circumflex over (τ)}.sub.A,1) and the second Rx-Tx time difference (e.g., {circumflex over (τ)}.sub.A,2) to the UE 1304) ;
acquiring a first round trip time (RTT) and a second RTT, the first RTT corresponding to a difference between a time point at which the first PRS is transmitted and a time point at which the third PRS is received and the second RTT corresponding to a difference between a time point at which the second PRS is transmitted and a time point at which the third PRS is received (Fig. 13 – 1338 and 0105 - At 1338, the UE 1304 may determine a double-sided RTT based on a first PRS timing associated with the reception of the first PRS 1306, an SRS timing associated with the transmission of the SRS 1308, a second PRS timing associated with the reception of the second PRS 1310, the measured first Rx-Tx time difference (e.g., {circumflex over (τ)}.sub.A,1) and the second Rx-Tx time difference (e.g., {circumflex over (τ)}.sub.A,2) received from the base station, and the received information 1314).;
calculating a time of flight (ToF) by using the first RTT, the second RTT, the first response time, and the second response time (See Id. – The Examiner notes that a double-sided RTT is analogous to a time of flight since the theoretical value of a RTT is merely twice that of a one way time of flight; thus, a ToF would be easily derivable from an RTT by anyone of ordinary skill in the art);
and identifying the location of the first UE by using the calculated ToF, wherein the second PRS is transmitted after the first PRS is transmitted and before the third PRS is received (0070 - A UE's position may be estimated based on measuring reference signals transmitted between the UE and one or more base stations and/or transmission reception points (TRPs) … a UE 404's location may be estimated based on multi-cell round trip time (multi-RTT) measurements, where multiple TRPs 402 may perform round trip time (RTT) measurements for signals transmitted to and received from the UE 404 to determine the UE 404's approximate distance with respect to each of the multiple TRPs 402 … For example, a TRP 406 may transmit at least one downlink positioning reference signal (DL-PRS) 410 to the UE 404, and may receive at least one uplink sounding reference signal (UL-SRS) 412 transmitted from the UE 404. Based at least in part on measuring an RTT 414 between the DL-PRS 410 transmitted and the UL-SRS 412 received, the TRP 406 may identify the UE 404's position (e.g., distance) with respect to the TRP 406).
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the LG invention by employing the teaching as taught by Dai to provide the ability to utilize the PRS transmission scheme of LG with the RTT calculation method of Dai in order to perform UE positioning. The motivation for the combination is given by Dai (0001 and 0003).
LG in view of Dai further discloses:
A similar sidelink positioning method with an alternative PRS transmission scheme (LG - Fig. 4) as required by claim 6;
A user equipment corresponding to the method of claim 1 comprising a transceiver and processor (Dai – see at least Fig. 19 – 1922 and 1906), as required by claim 11; and
A user equipment corresponding to the method of claim 6 comprising a transceiver and processor (Dai – see at least Fig. 19 – 1922 and 1906), as required by claim 16.
Re: Claim(s) 2, 7, 12, 17
LG in view of Dai discloses those limitations as set forth in the rejection of claim(s) 1 above.
LG further discloses wherein the transmission resources of the first PRS and the second PRS are allocated by a base station (BS) and received by downlink control information (DCI), Uu-radio resource control (RRC), or a higher-layer signal through a positioning protocol, or wherein the transmission resources of the first PRS and the second PRS are allocated by the first UE((Section 5, proposal 24 – DCI indicates SL resource information).
Re: Claim(s) 3, 8, 13, 18
LG in view of Dai discloses those limitations as set forth in the rejection of claim(s) 1 above.
LG further discloses transmitting an RTT perform request to the second UE through SL control information (SCI) while the first PRS or the second PRS is transmitted (Section 2 – 2nd paragraph, Page 10, last paragraph – 2nd SCI carries information about the SL PRS resources).
Claim(s) 4, 9, 14, 19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over LG in view of Dai as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of US 20240137899 A1 to Thomas; Robin et al.
Re: Claim(s) 4, 9, 14, 19
LG in view of Dai discloses those limitations as set forth in the rejection of claim(s) 1 above.
LG in view of Dai does/do not appear to explicitly disclose calculating a correction coefficient by using the first RTT, the second RTT, the first response time, and the second response time, wherein the ToF is calculated using the correction coefficient.
However, attention is directed to Thomas which discloses said limitation (0138-0139 and equation 1 – signal propagation time (i.e. ToF) is calculated as a function of absolute clock frequency offset error (i.e. correction coefficient)).
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the LG in view of Dai invention by employing the teaching as taught by Thomas to provide the ability to determine a ToF using a correction coefficient The motivation for the combination is given by Thomas (0002-0003).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KASHIF SIDDIQUI whose telephone number is (571)270-3188. The examiner can normally be reached on M-R 6:00 EST to 16:00 EST.
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/KASHIF SIDDIQUI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2415
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