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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 06/22/2026 has been entered.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments/remarks made in an amendment filed June 22, 2026 have been fully considered. In view of the amended claims 1, 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 11, 13, 14, 17, 19, 20 and 29 and upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection, necessitated by the amendments is made in view of different interpretation of the previously applied references and new prior art as presented in this Office action. Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1-8, 11, 13-15, 17, 19-21, 27, 29 and 41 are therefore moot.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 101
35 U.S.C. 101 reads as follows:
Whoever invents or discovers any new and useful process, machine, manufacture, or composition of matter, or any new and useful improvement thereof, may obtain a patent therefor, subject to the conditions and requirements of this title.
Claims 21, 27, 29 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to non-statutory subject matter.
In re claims 21, 27 and 29, the claims recite “a memory configured to store program instructions”. Paragraph [0456] in the specification states “the computer software product is stored in a storage medium, including several instructions to cause a computer device (which can be a personal computer, a server, or a network device, etc.) or a processor to execute all or part of the steps of the methods described in various embodiments of the application”. The definition of storage medium as defined in the specification para [0461] is open ended and reads “the computer storage medium may be any available media or data storage device that a computer can access, including but not limited to magnetic storage (such as floppy disks, hard disks, magnetic tapes, magneto-optical disks (MO), etc.), optical storage (such as CD, DVD, BD, HVD, etc.), and semiconductor memories (such as ROM, EPROM, EEPROM, non-volatile memory (NAND FLASH), solid state drive (SSD)), etc.”. The “storage medium”, under its broadest reasonable interpretation (BRI), may include an ineligible signal per se as it does not fall within one of the four statutory categories per 35 U.S.C. 101. The specification does not explicitly exclude ineligible signal embodiments.
The Examiner suggests adding the limitation ‘non-transitory’ computer readable medium to the claim and changing “storage medium” to be a “non-transitory computer readable storage medium” in the specification sections accordingly. (See Subject Matter Eligibility of Computer Readable Media, Kappos 1351 OG 212 (February 23, 2010)).
Claim Objections
Claims 1, 13, 19 and 29 are objected to because of the following informalities: “wherein the recommended MG information of the on-demand PRS comprises all of following information:
on-demand PRS or a start time of an MG corresponding to the on-demand PRS;
on-demand PRS or a duration of the MG corresponding to the on-demand PRS;
on-demand PRS or a repetition quantity of the MG corresponding to on-demand PRS;
on-demand PRS or a period of the MG corresponding to the on-demand PRS”.
Not clear why “on-demand PRS” is at the beginning of every sentence for the recommended information. The recommended information of the on-demand PRS comprises start time, duration and repetition. Remove “on-demand PRS or”.
In re claim 29, claim 29 is an apparatus claim for the terminal as it says “detecting the on-demand PRS” which is done by the terminal. So, the third para last line should read, “is configured to perform a positioning measurement” .
Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 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 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, 11, 13-15, 17, 19-21, 27 and 41 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Huawei, HiSilicon, Summary of AI 8.11.4 for on-demand PRS request, 3GPP TSG-RAN WG2 Meeting #113bis-e, R2-2104507, 12-20 April 2021 (hereinafter Huawei) in view of US 20230164612 A1 (SI et al.) (hereinafter SI).
In re claims 1 and 19, Huawei discloses a positioning method (Page 6, lines 32-35, “proposed RAN should support pre-configuration of multiple PRS configurations by LMF to UEs as a part of assistance data for positioning, where each configuration is mapped to a specific QoS and/or radio condition. UE or LMF can activate, de-activate, and re-configure a selected PRS configuration on demand, which matches to a given QoS and/or radio condition for a positioning session”), comprising: determining, by a Location Management Function, LMF, recommended Measurement Gap (MG) information of on-demand Positioning Reference Signal, PRS (Fig. 5.5.1: step 4, Page 6, section 4.3.1, lines 20-22, “gNB should provide some sets of PRS configuration to LMF and the LMF determined the on-demand PRS configuration from the sets of PRS configuration”. Page 9, lines 4-14, “UE sends the on-PRS request to LMF including the preference on PRS configuration. The PRS configuration suggestion which is in line with UE requirement can be included to reduce the waste of resource/power. and improve positioning accuracy; LMF adjust the PRS configuration based on the measurement result submitted by UE as well as the accuracy requirement”); and transmitting, by the LMF, the recommended MG information of the on-demand PRS to control an on-demand PRS measurement to be performed in a recommended MG of the on-demand PRS (Fig. 5.5.1: step 7, Page 9, line 14, “The LMF sends the updated PRS configuration back to UE”); and detecting the on-demand PRS by the terminal (Page 7, lines 21-23, “the network requests from target UEs feedback on detected reference signals”) wherein the recommended MG information of the on-demand PRS comprises all of following information: on-demand PRS or a start time of an MG corresponding to the on-demand PRS; on-demand PRS or a duration of the MG corresponding to the on-demand PRS; on-demand PRS or a repetition quantity of the MG corresponding to on-demand PRS; and on-demand PRS or a period of the MG corresponding to the on-demand PRS (Page 5, section 4.2, “lines 30-40, “The parameters to be requested for LMF-initiated PRS request can be summarized as follows: Explicit PRS configuration Periodicity, Bandwidth, Repetition ... Start time and duration”).
Huawei does not explicitly disclose sending recommended Measurement Gap (MG) information to base station for on demand PRS detection by the terminal.
SI discloses sending recommended Measurement Gap (MG) information to base station for on demand PRS detection by the terminal (Fig. 4, [0071], “when the terminal expects to perform the measurement in the measurement gap”. [0004], “the UE may send a measurement gap request to a base station (gNB) to request the base station to configure a measurement gap for the UE”. [0100], “The method 400 may be applied to a location server, and may be performed by hardware or software in the location server”. [0003], “...in order for the UE to perform measurement on a PRS outside the active BWP, the NR communications system allows the UE to use a measurement gap to perform measurement on the PRS outside the active BWP”. [0044], “the downlink positioning reference signal measurement may be a conventional measurement, or may be an on-demand measurement. Correspondingly, a downlink positioning reference signal configuration mentioned in the subsequent embodiment may be a conventional configuration or an on-demand configuration; a positioning base station participating in a positioning measurement may be a base station participating in positioning in conventional positioning, or may be a base station participating in positioning in on-demand positioning; and the location server may be a network node/device that determines a conventional downlink positioning reference signal configuration, or may be a network node/device that determines an on-demand downlink positioning reference signal configuration”. [0068], “For example, for an on-demand PRS configuration, the location server (LMF) configures an effective time of an on-demand PRS. To match the effective time of the on-demand PRS, the location server may indicate the effective time of the measurement gap to the base station, such as a start effective time of the measurement gap, effective duration of the measurement gap, and an end time of the measurement gap”. [0142], “the terminal performs measurement on the downlink positioning reference signal according to the downlink positioning reference signal sent by each positioning base station and the downlink positioning reference signal configuration information sent by the location server”. [0067], “For example, the gap period may be but is not limited to 20 ms, 40 ms, 80 ms, or 160 ms, and the gap duration may be 1.5 ms, 3 ms, 3.5 ms, 4 ms, 5.5 ms, or 6 ms”. [0115], “indicate to the base station that the terminal is to use the measurement gap to perform measurement on the downlink positioning reference signal” (recommended information for configuring measurement gap transmitted to the base station for PRS detection by the terminal)).
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Huawei with SI to provide a positioning method and apparatus to ensure PRS measurements within the measurement gap. The advantage of doing so is higher accuracy and network performance.
In re claim 2, the combination discloses the method according to claim 1, wherein SI discloses wherein the transmitting the recommended MG information of the on-demand PRS comprises: transmitting the recommended MG information of the on-demand PRS to a base station ([0068], “A start time of the measurement gap, where the start time of the measurement gap indicates that the measurement gap starts to take effect at or after a time point. For example, for an on-demand PRS configuration, the location server configures an effective time of an on-demand PRS. To match the effective time of the on-demand PRS, the location server may indicate the effective time of the measurement gap to the base station, such as a start effective time of the measurement gap, effective duration of the measurement gap, and an end time of the measurement gap”. [0071], “At least part of configuration information of the downlink positioning reference signal, where the at least part of configuration information of the downlink positioning reference signal indicates configuration information associated with the measurement gap, or configuration information when the terminal expects to perform the measurement in the measurement gap, to assist the base station in determining how to configure the measurement gap” (recommended information for configuring measurement gap transmitted to the base station)).
In re claim 3, the combination discloses the method according to claim 1, wherein Huawei discloses the method further comprising: transmitting a PRS configuration to a terminal (Fig. 5.5.2: step 8). SI also discloses (Fig. 6: S640, [0049], “In an actual application, the base station may configure the measurement gap after sending the feedback information; or configure the measurement gap after a start time of the measurement gap indicated by the measurement gap request”. [0138], “Correspondingly, that the location server delivers a PRS configuration to the terminal”. [0142], “The new downlink positioning reference signal configuration information may be sent to the terminal by using signaling LPP or the like” (transmitting PRS configuration to the terminal)).
In re claim 4, the combination discloses the method according to claim 1, wherein Huawei discloses wherein the determining the recommended MG information of the on-demand PRS, comprises: determining the recommended MG information of the on-demand PRS according to the MG that has configured for a terminal; or determining the recommended MG information of the on-demand PRS according to capability about whether a terminal supports a positioning measurement without the MG (Page 20, section 6.1, line 15, “UE capability needs to be defined for on-demand PRS and should be reported to the network”). SI also discloses (Fig. 6: S630, [0156], “Determine current downlink positioning reference signal configuration information of the terminal based on the capability information of the terminal and/or the on-demand positioning request for the terminal”. [0003], “In a New Radio (NR) communications system, using NR positioning as an example, Positioning Reference Signal (PRS) is introduced for User Equipment (UE) to perform a positioning measurement. In an actual measurement process, the UE needs to perform measurement on PRSs sent by a plurality of cells in broadcast mode. However, to ensure a high-accuracy positioning measurement, a network-side device configures a PRS with a large bandwidth, which sometimes exceeds a range of active Bandwidth Part (BWP) on which the UE is operating” (whether a measurement gap needs to be configured depends on the capability of the UE for example, if the BWP of the PRS is larger than the BWP on which UE is operating then a measurement gap needs to be configured for UE to perform measurements)).
In re claim 5, the combination discloses the method according to claim 4, wherein SI discloses wherein the method further comprising: receiving the capability reported by the terminal or a base station, about whether the terminal supports a positioning measurement without the MG, in a case that the recommended MG information of the on-demand PRS is determined according to the capability about whether the terminal supports a positioning measurement without the MG (Fig. 6: S620, [0291], “obtaining capability information of the terminal in a case that an on-demand positioning request for the terminal is received”. [0004], “When the UE expects to perform measurement on the PRS outside the active BWP or a PRS different from that in an active BWP parameter set (numerology), the UE may send a measurement gap request to a base station (gNB) to request the base station to configure a measurement gap for the UE” (terminal can support PRS measurement without MG when PRS within the active BWP). [0086], “...part of information in downlink BWP configuration information, used to indicate a range within which the terminal can perform the downlink positioning reference signal measurement within a current carrier range of the location server and/or the terminal” (capability information sent by the terminal)).
In re claim 6, the combination discloses the method according to claim 5, wherein SI discloses the method further comprising: requesting the terminal or the base station to report the capability about whether the terminal supports the positioning measurement without the MG ([0142], “The new downlink positioning reference signal configuration information may be sent to the terminal by using signaling LPP or the like”. [0163], “The feedback indication is used to indicate whether the terminal requests the measurement gap and/or a cause for whether the terminal requests the measurement gap. In some embodiments, the cause for requesting the measurement gap may be at least one of the following... a bandwidth of an active BWP is insufficient” (reporting capability). [0164], “...the location server may assume that the terminal can meet the measurement accuracy requirement based on the current PRS configuration” (Implicitly discloses that LPP signaling request to terminal to report capability and in response the terminal sends capability information)).
In re claim 7, the combination discloses the method according to claim 4, wherein SI discloses the method further comprising: requesting the terminal or a base station to report the recommended MG information of the on-demand PRS ([0058], “the base station receives the measurement gap request sent by the terminal and/or the location server”. [0068], “For example, for an on-demand PRS configuration, the location server configures an effective time of an on-demand PRS. To match the effective time of the on-demand PRS, the location server may indicate the effective time of the measurement gap to the base station, such as a start effective time of the measurement gap, effective duration of the measurement gap, and an end time of the measurement gap”).
In re claim 8, the combination discloses the method according to claim 1, wherein Huawei discloses the method further comprising: receiving a PRS configuration transmitted by a base station, wherein the PRS configuration is determined by the base station based on the recommended MG information of the on-demand PRS (Fig. 5.5.2: step 8). SI also discloses (Fig. 6: S640, [0049], “In an actual application, the base station may configure the measurement gap after sending the feedback information; or configure the measurement gap after a start time of the measurement gap indicated by the measurement gap request”. [0057], “It should be noted that, similarly to S210, when the base station sends the feedback information and/or the measurement gap configuration to the location server, the base station may send the feedback message and/or the measurement gap configuration directly or indirectly”); or, receiving a PRS candidate configuration transmitted by a base station; wherein the recommended MG information of the on-demand PRS is determined based on the PRS candidate configuration; and notifying a terminal of the PRS configuration transmitted by the base station.
In re claim 11, the combination discloses the method according to claim 1, wherein SI discloses wherein the transmitting the recommended MG information of the on-demand PRS comprises: transmitting the recommended MG information of the on-demand PRS to a serving base station of a terminal according to PRS configuration information of the terminal's serving cell and neighboring cells ([0058], “the base station receives the measurement gap request sent by the terminal and/or the location server, and can determine whether to configure the measurement gap and further feed back to the terminal and/or the base station the feedback information indicating whether the measurement gap is configured, so that the location server can finally know the configuration of the measurement gap by the base station, thereby avoiding a problem that resources may be wasted because the plurality of positioning base stations participating in the positioning (neighboring cells) still send downlink positioning reference signals according to the previous configuration with large bandwidths or high overheads, and ensuring that the downlink positioning reference signal measurement can be performed smoothly”); or wherein Huawei discloses transmitting the recommended MG information of the on-demand PRS to the terminal before notifying a terminal of the PRS (Fig. 5.5.1: step 7, Page 9, line 14, “The LMF sends the updated PRS configuration back to UE”. Page 15, item 9, lines 33-35, “The LMF sends an LPP Request Location Information message to the target UE to request the UE to measure DL-PRS transmission by the gNB’s determined at step 4 (and confirmed at step 6) according to the new DL-PRS configurations” (LMF sends updated PRS configurations to the terminal before notifying the PRS for detection by the UE)).
In re claim 20, the combination discloses the method according to claim 19, wherein SI discloses wherein before receiving the recommended MG information of the on-demand PRS, the method further comprises: providing one or a combination of following information to a network side: PRS demand information; Measurement Gap, MG, information; or capability about whether a terminal supports positioning measurement without a MG ([0139], “assuming that the downlink positioning reference signal is a PRS, the determining new downlink positioning reference signal configuration information may include: ...at least one of increasing a PRS bandwidth, increasing a PRS period (duration), reducing the PRS period, adding a frequency layer...” (PRS demand). [0158], “... receiving BWP configuration information (such as BWP frequency domain position information) of the terminal that is sent by the terminal and/or a base station; and determining, based on the BWP configuration information and the current downlink positioning reference signal configuration information, the measurement gap required by the terminal to perform measurement on the positioning service” (capability information). [0068], “To match the effective time of the on-demand PRS, the location server may indicate the effective time of the measurement gap to the base station, such as a start effective time of the measurement gap, effective duration of the measurement gap, and an end time of the measurement gap” (measurement gap information)).
In re claim 21, SI discloses a positioning apparatus ([0099], “the measurement gap configuration request methods 200 and 300 provided in the embodiments of this application may be performed by a measurement gap configuration request apparatus or a control module configured to perform the measurement gap configuration request method 200 or 300 in the measurement gap configuration request apparatus”), comprising: a memory (Fig. 14: 1405) configured to store program instructions; a processor (Fig. 14: 1404) configured to invoke the program instructions stored in the memory and wherein the combination discloses the method of claim 1 according to the program instructions ([0309], “Further, an embodiment of this application further provides a communications device, including a processor, a memory, and a program or instructions stored in the memory and capable of running on the processor. For example, when the communications device is a terminal, and the program or instructions are executed by the processor, each process of the foregoing measurement method embodiment is implemented, with the same technical effect achieved. When the communications device is a network-side device, and the program or instructions are executed by the processor, each process of the foregoing measurement gap configuration request method embodiment is implemented, with the same technical effect achieved”).
In re claim 41, the combination discloses the method according to claim 1, wherein Huawei discloses wherein the method further comprises: transmitting, by the LMF, the recommended MG information of the on-demand PRS to a terminal (Fig. 5.5.1: step 7, Page 9, line 14, “The LMF sends the updated PRS configuration back to UE”), wherein the recommended MG information of the on-demand PRS is configured to perform a positioning measurement by the terminal (Page 15, lines 39-40, “the UE determines its location based on the DL-PRS measurements obtained at step 10 and the assistance data received at step 8”). SI also discloses ([0142], “the terminal performs measurement on the downlink positioning reference signal according to the downlink positioning reference signal sent by each positioning base station and the downlink positioning reference signal configuration information sent by the location server”. [0115], “indicate to the base station that the terminal is to use the measurement gap to perform measurement on the downlink positioning reference signal”).
In re claim 14, the combination discloses the method according to claim 13, wherein SI discloses wherein before receiving the recommended MG information of the on-demand PRS, the method further comprises: receiving an information request from a Location Management Function, LMF, and transmitting one or a combination of following information to the LMF according to the information request: PRS candidate configuration; PRS configuration; Measurement Gap, MG. information; or capability about whether the terminal supports positioning measurement without a MG ([0139], “assuming that the downlink positioning reference signal is a PRS, the determining new downlink positioning reference signal configuration information may include: ...at least one of increasing a PRS bandwidth, increasing a PRS period (duration), reducing the PRS period, adding a frequency layer...” (PRS demand). [0158], “... receiving BWP configuration information (such as BWP frequency domain position information) of the terminal that is sent by the terminal and/or a base station; and determining, based on the BWP configuration information and the current downlink positioning reference signal configuration information, the measurement gap required by the terminal to perform measurement on the positioning service” (capability information). [0068], “To match the effective time of the on-demand PRS, the location server may indicate the effective time of the measurement gap to the base station, such as a start effective time of the measurement gap, effective duration of the measurement gap, and an end time of the measurement gap” (measurement gap information)).
In re claim 15, the combination discloses the method according to claim 14, wherein SI discloses wherein the transmitting the MG information to the LMF, comprises: notifying the LMF of the MG information of a terminal to be positioned before a serving cell initiates a positioning service request ([0058], “the base station receives the measurement gap request sent by the terminal and/or the location server, and can determine whether to configure the measurement gap and further feed back to the terminal and/or the base station the feedback information indicating whether the measurement gap is configured, so that the location server can finally know the configuration of the measurement gap by the base station, thereby avoiding a problem that resources may be wasted because the plurality of positioning base stations participating in the positioning (neighboring cells) still send downlink positioning reference signals according to the previous configuration with large bandwidths or high overheads, and ensuring that the downlink positioning reference signal measurement can be performed smoothly”; Huawei also discloses notifying the LMF of the MG information of a terminal to be positioned in a case that a serving cell configures the PRS. (Fig. 5.5.1: step 7, Page 9, line 14, “The LMF sends the updated PRS configuration back to UE”. Page 15, item 9, lines 33-35, “The LMF sends an LPP Request Location Information message to the target UE to request the UE to measure DL-PRS transmission by the gNB’s determined at step 4 (and confirmed at step 6) according to the new DL-PRS configurations” (serving cell configures PRS for the UE)).
In re claim 17, the combination discloses the method according to claim 13, wherein SI discloses wherein the recommended MG information of the on-demand PRS further comprises one or a combination of following: on-demand PRS or a suspension time of the MG corresponding to the on-demand PRS; a testing opportunity of on-demand PRS; or a time slot comprising on-demand PRS ([0284], “In one or more embodiments of this application, the measurement gap request includes at least one of the following content: gap confirmation information, used to indicate the base station to confirm whether the measurement gap is configurable; gap feedback information, used to indicate the base station to feed back to the terminal and/or the location server whether the measurement gap is configurable; a gap request, used to indicate to the base station that the terminal is to use the measurement gap to perform measurement on the downlink positioning reference signal; measurement frequency information, used to indicate frequency information by which the terminal performs measurement on the downlink positioning reference signal using the measurement gap; requested measurement gap configuration information; a start time of the measurement gap; an end time of the measurement gap; effective duration of the measurement gap; at least part of configuration information of the downlink positioning reference signal” (recommended MG information comprises a time slot)).
In re claim 27, SI discloses a positioning apparatus ([0099], “It should be noted that the measurement gap configuration request methods 200 and 300 provided in the embodiments of this application may be performed by a measurement gap configuration request apparatus or a control module configured to perform the measurement gap configuration request method 200 or 300 in the measurement gap configuration request apparatus”), comprising: a memory (Fig. 14: 1405) configured to store program instructions; a processor (Fig. 14: 1404) configured to invoke the program instructions stored in the memory and execute the method of claim 13 according to the program instructions ([0309], “Further, an embodiment of this application further provides a communications device, including a processor, a memory, and a program or instructions stored in the memory and capable of running on the processor. When the communications device is a network-side device, and the program or instructions are executed by the processor, each process of the foregoing measurement gap configuration request method embodiment is implemented, with the same technical effect achieved”).
In re claim 13, Huawei discloses a positioning method (Page 6, lines 32-35, “proposed RAN should support pre-configuration of multiple PRS configurations by LMF to UEs as a part of assistance data for positioning, where each configuration is mapped to a specific QoS and/or radio condition. UE or LMF can activate, de-activate, and re-configure a selected PRS configuration on demand, which matches to a given QoS and/or radio condition for a positioning session”), comprising: receiving, by a base station, recommended Measurement Gap (MG) information of on-demand Positioning Reference Signal, PRS; wherein the recommended MG information of the on-demand PRS transmitted by a LMF is configured to perform a positioning measurement by a terminal (Page 15, lines 39-40, “the UE determines its location based on the DL-PRS measurements obtained at step 10 and the assistance data received at step 8”); and transmitting, by a base station, the on-demand PRS according to the recommended MG information of the on-demand PRS (Fig. 5.5.2: step 8); wherein the recommended MG information of the on-demand PRS comprises all of following information: on-demand PRS or a start time of an MG corresponding to the on-demand PRS; on-demand PRS or a duration of the MG corresponding to the on-demand PRS; on-demand PRS or a repetition quantity of the MG corresponding to on-demand PRS; and on-demand PRS or a period of the MG corresponding to the on-demand PRS (Page 5, section 4.2, “lines 30-40, “The parameters to be requested for LMF-initiated PRS request can be summarized as follows: Explicit PRS configuration Periodicity, Bandwidth, Repetition ... Start time and duration”).
Huawei does not explicitly disclose receiving, by a base station, recommended Measurement Gap (MG) information of on-demand Positioning Reference Signal, PRS.
SI discloses receiving, by a base station, recommended Measurement Gap (MG) information of on-demand Positioning Reference Signal, PRS (Fig. 6: S640, [0049], “In an actual application, the base station may configure the measurement gap after sending the feedback information; or configure the measurement gap after a start time of the measurement gap indicated by the measurement gap request”. [0044], “the downlink positioning reference signal measurement may be a conventional measurement, or may be an on-demand measurement”. [0068], “For example, for an on-demand PRS configuration, the location server (LMF) configures an effective time of an on-demand PRS. To match the effective time of the on-demand PRS, the location server may indicate the effective time of the measurement gap to the base station, such as a start effective time of the measurement gap, effective duration of the measurement gap, and an end time of the measurement gap”. [0067], “For example, the gap period may be but is not limited to 20 ms, 40 ms, 80 ms, or 160 ms, and the gap duration may be 1.5 ms, 3 ms, 3.5 ms, 4 ms, 5.5 ms, or 6 ms”. [0115], “indicate to the base station that the terminal is to use the measurement gap to perform measurement on the downlink positioning reference signal” (receiving by the base station MG configuration for measurement by the terminal)).
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Huawei with SI to provide a positioning method and apparatus to ensure PRS measurements within the measurement gap. The advantage of doing so is higher accuracy and network performance.
Claim 29 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 20230164612 A1 (SI et al.) (hereinafter SI) in view of Huawei, HiSilicon, Summary of AI 8.11.4 for on-demand PRS request, 3GPP TSG-RAN WG2 Meeting #113bis-e, R2-2104507, 12-20 April 2021 (hereinafter Huawei).
In re claim 29, SI discloses a positioning apparatus ([0310], “The terminal 1300 includes but is not limited to components such as a radio frequency unit 1301, a network module 1302, an audio output unit 1303, an input unit 1304, a sensor 1305, a display unit 1306, a user input unit 1307, an interface unit 1308, a memory 1309, and a processor 1310”), comprising: a memory (Fig. 13:1309) configured to store program instructions ([0314], “The memory 1309 may be configured to store software programs or instructions and various data”); a processor (Fig. 13:1310) configured to invoke the program instructions stored in the memory and execute following according to the program instructions ([0316], “The processor 1310 is configured to perform any one of the measurement gap configuration request methods 200, 300, 400, 500, or 600 described in the foregoing embodiments”): receive recommended Measurement Gap (MG) information of on-demand Positioning Reference Signal, PRS ([0138], “Correspondingly, that the location server delivers a PRS configuration to the terminal”. [0142], “The new downlink positioning reference signal configuration information may be sent to the terminal by using signaling LPP or the like”); wherein the recommended MG information of the on- demand PRS is configured to perform a positioning measurement by a terminal ([0142], “the terminal performs measurement on the downlink positioning reference signal according to the downlink positioning reference signal sent by each positioning base station and the downlink positioning reference signal configuration information sent by the location server”); and receive the on-demand PRS according to the recommended MG information of the on-demand PRS (Fig. 6: S640, [0049], “In an actual application, the base station may configure the measurement gap after sending the feedback information; or configure the measurement gap after a start time of the measurement gap indicated by the measurement gap request”. [0044], “a downlink positioning reference signal configuration may be a conventional configuration or an on-demand configuration; a positioning base station participating in a positioning measurement may be a base station participating in positioning in conventional positioning, or may be a base station participating in positioning in on-demand positioning; and the location server may be a network node/device that determines a conventional downlink positioning reference signal configuration, or may be a network node/device that determines an on-demand downlink positioning reference signal configuration”. [0068], “For example, for an on-demand PRS configuration, the location server (LMF) configures an effective time of an on-demand PRS. To match the effective time of the on-demand PRS, the location server may indicate the effective time of the measurement gap to the base station, such as a start effective time of the measurement gap, effective duration of the measurement gap, and an end time of the measurement gap”. [0067], “For example, the gap period may be but is not limited to 20 ms, 40 ms, 80 ms, or 160 ms, and the gap duration may be 1.5 ms, 3 ms, 3.5 ms, 4 ms, 5.5 ms, or 6 ms”. [0115], “indicate to the base station that the terminal is to use the measurement gap to perform measurement on the downlink positioning reference signal” (recommended information for configuring measurement gap for PRS detection by the terminal)), and detecting the on-demand PRS; wherein the recommended MG information of the on-demand PRS comprises all of following information: on-demand PRS or a start time of an MG corresponding to the on-demand PRS; on-demand PRS or a duration of the MG corresponding to the on-demand PRS; on-demand PRS or a repetition quantity of the MG corresponding to on-demand PRS; and on-demand PRS or a period of the MG corresponding to the on-demand PRS.
SI does not explicitly disclose receive recommended Measurement Gap (MG) information of on-demand Positioning Reference Signal, PRS; and detecting the on-demand PRS; wherein the recommended MG information of the on-demand PRS comprises all of following information: on-demand PRS or a start time of an MG corresponding to the on-demand PRS; on-demand PRS or a duration of the MG corresponding to the on-demand PRS; on-demand PRS or a repetition quantity of the MG corresponding to on-demand PRS; and on-demand PRS or a period of the MG corresponding to the on-demand PRS.
Huawei discloses receive recommended Measurement Gap (MG) information of on-demand Positioning Reference Signal, PRS (Fig. 5.5.1: step 7, Page 9, line 14, “The LMF sends the updated PRS configuration back to UE”); wherein the recommended MG information of the on- demand PRS is configured to perform a positioning measurement by a terminal (Page 15, lines 39-40, “the UE determines its location based on the DL-PRS measurements obtained at step 10 and the assistance data received at step 8”); and receive the on-demand PRS according to the recommended MG information of the on-demand PRS (Fig. 5.5.1: step 7); and detecting the on-demand PRS (Page 7, lines 21-23, “the network requests from target UEs feedback on detected reference signals”); wherein the recommended MG information of the on-demand PRS comprises all of following information: on-demand PRS or a start time of an MG corresponding to the on-demand PRS; on-demand PRS or a duration of the MG corresponding to the on-demand PRS; on-demand PRS or a repetition quantity of the MG corresponding to on-demand PRS; and on-demand PRS or a period of the MG corresponding to the on-demand PRS (Page 5, section 4.2, “lines 30-40, “The parameters to be requested for LMF-initiated PRS request can be summarized as follows: Explicit PRS configuration Periodicity, Bandwidth, Repetition ... Start time and duration”).
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of SI with Huawei to provide a positioning method and apparatus to ensure PRS measurements within the measurement gap. The advantage of doing so is higher accuracy and network performance.
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/SWATI JAIN/Examiner, Art Unit 2649
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