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 .
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments dated 7/9/26 have been fully considered.
Applicant argues, in substance, that the amendments to claim 21 resolve the ambiguity identified in the Final Rejection dated 4/13/26 necessitating the rejection under 35 USC 112(b) and therefore this rejection should be withdrawn.
In light of the amendments presented, the Office agrees. The rejection to claim 21 under 35 USC 112(b) has been hereby withdrawn.
Applicant argues, in substance, that the amendments to claims 1, 8, 21, and 22, adding the limitation of “receiving… information regarding an angle formed by an orbit of a satellite and a predetermined terrestrial reference direction from a base station” is not taught by the combination of Cheng-Wu.
Under the broadest reasonable information of the claim, it should be noted that the claim requires only “information regarding an angle by an orbit of a satellite…” and does not specifically require receiving a value of an angle. Cheng discloses receiving position and speed information (see rejections below), which can be interpreted as “information regarding an angle” since an angle formed is determined based on the position of the satellite.
Nevertheless for compact prosecution the Office has updated the previous rejection to incorporate additional art (Kim) to show that it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to receive information regarding an angle of a satellite and compute a Doppler shift based on this received information with predictable results.
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, 8, 21, and 22 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being obvious by Cheng et al. (USPGPUB 20230116580) (hereinafter Cheng) in view of Wu et al. (WO 2022/082757) (hereinafter Wu) in view of Kim et al (USPN 12457571) (cited by Office as pertinent prior art in previous office action dated 4/13/26) (hereinafter Kim).
Regarding Claim 1, Cheng discloses a processing method performed by a user equipment (i.e. terminal 101), the processing method comprising:
receiving, via a telecommunications interface between user equipment and a satellite, information regarding a position and a velocity of a satellite from a base station (para 116: satellite ephemeris information which includes position and velocity)
calculating based on the information, a Doppler shift between the satellite and the UE (para 116: UE calculates the UL doppler frequency offset based on UE GNSS and satellite ephemeris); and
applying, to an uplink transmission signal, a Doppler shift correction based on the calculated Doppler shift (para 116: UE performs pre-compensation by sending the PRACH preamble on the frequency adjusted by the offset).
Cheng does not explicitly state that the UE and the satellite communicate via a Uu interface, or that the satellite ephemeris information is obtained from the satellite. In analogous art Wu discloses another NTN satellite communication system which transmits satellite ephemeris information from the satellite/base station (the Office interprets “base station” in light of the specification which discloses a satellite can be implemented as a base station, see para 106 of the instant specification) to the terminal (p. 25: “In a possible implementation manner, the ephemeris may be sent by the satellite to the terminal. For example, the satellite covering the terminal may send the ephemeris contained in the satellite to the terminal just before the terminal initiates random access, and the terminal may obtain the coverage time based on the ephemeris.” Also see p. 8 which discloses ephemeris information includes position and velocity/speed of the satellite; p. 13 “the satellite communicates with the UE through the NR Uu interface”). Cheng also discloses the satellite and UE communicate via a Uu interface (p. 13: “the satellite can be used as a base station…For example, the satellite communicates with the UE through the NR Uu interface”). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to combine Cheng with Wu to implement a UU interface and have the ephemeris information transmitted from the satellite to the UE in order to provide an efficient method of communicating over a large area with minimal interruption by utilizing NTN satellites to connect UEs with the 5g core backend.
While Cheng-Wu disclose receiving information regarding position and velocity information and computing a doppler shift between the satellite and the UE based on said information, it does not disclose receiving information regarding an angle formed by an orbit of af a satellite and a predetermined terrestrial reference direction and computing the doppler shift based on the angle information. IN analogous art, Kim discloses another Doppler shift calculation system which discloses the Doppler shift may be calculated based on a combination of one or more of a satellite elevation, location, UE location, elevation angle of the UE and the satellite and the relative speed of the satellite may be calculated as a value obtained by subtracting an angular velocity of the earth's rotation from an angular velocity of the satellite that orbits the earth (col. 37, lines 63-col. 38 line 2). It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to combine Kim with Cheng-Wu to utilize information regarding an angle formed by an orbit of a satellite and a terrestrial reference direction as well as to utilize the position and speed as used in Cheng in order for the system to effectively calculate Doppler shift based on other variables available to the system, improving reliability.
Claim 8 is rejected for similar reasons as stated above.
Regarding claims 21 and 22, they are rejected for similar reasons as stated above. Furthermore Cheng-Wu discloses transmitting ephemeris information which includes position and velocity and receiving an uplink transmission signal from the UE with the doppler shift correction having been applied (see Cheng, para 117). Furthermore in claims 22 the limitation “wherein the information is used by the UE to calculate a Doppler shift between the satellite and the UE” is considered non-patentable weight as the claim is a system claim directed to the network node, and the UE is not considered part of the claim as written.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Joseph E Avellino whose telephone number is (571)272-3905. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 7:00am-3:00pm.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
JOSEPH E. AVELLINO
Supervisory Patent Examiner
Art Unit 2478
/JOSEPH E AVELLINO/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2478
Prosecution Insights