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 § 103
2. 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.
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.
2a. Claims 1-6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tadayon (US 2022/0272551 A1) in view of Romain (US 2022/0011120 A1).
2b. Summary of the Cited Prior Art
Tadayon discloses a method for estimation location of signal obstructions.
Romain discloses a method for prioritizing upload data map in a wireless network.
2c. Claim Analysis
Regarding Claim 1, Tadayon discloses:
A control apparatus (Fig 7, Shadowing Map Generator (SMG); Fig 15, Control Pipeline) in a communication system (Fig 7) including the control apparatus and a mobile base station (Fig 7, gNB), the control apparatus comprising:
a processor (Fig 1C, Processing Unit 182); and a memory (Fig 1C, Memory 190) that includes instructions, which when executed, cause the processor to execute a method, said method including:
acquiring positional information (Fig 3A, UE location estimates 306; Fig 7, UE location estimates, 304) of a specific priority terminal (Fig 7, UE1 and UE2) and obstruction sensing information (see: [0008] Locations of some shadowing and reflecting obstructions may be established by employing sensing techniques such as satellite images, video image scanning, infrared imaging, RADAR, LIDAR, etc.);
generating an obstruction map (Fig 6, Shadowing Map; Fig7, Shadow Map Generation) based on the obstruction sensing information (see: [0008] Locations of some shadowing and reflecting obstructions may be established by employing sensing techniques such as satellite images, video image scanning, infrared imaging, RADAR, LIDAR, etc.);
determining whether there is a line-of-sight (Fig 3B, Steps 322-324; see: [0115] … If the sidelink communication is determined to be a LoS communication) from an antenna (Fig 1C, Antenna 188) of the mobile base station (Fig 7, gNB) for the specific priority terminal (Fig 7, UE1 and UE2) based on the positional information (Fig 3A, UE location estimates 306; Fig 7, UE location estimates, 304) and the obstruction map (Fig 6, Shadowing Map); and
controlling the mobile base station (Fig 3A, Step 308; see: [0109] Block 308 then directs the network equipment to cause the base stations 202-206 to configure communications with UEs based on the estimated locations of the signal shadowing obstructions) so that the specific priority terminal (Fig 7, UE1 and UE2) is positioned at a line-of-sight position (see: [0112] … FIG. 4B, a base station 410 may initiate handoff of a shadowed UE 412 to another base station 414, for which signal transmissions are not affected by the signal shadowing obstruction 402) from the antenna (Fig 1C, Antenna 188) in a case where communication by the specific priority terminal (Fig 7, UE1 and UE2) is not detected for a predetermined time (Fig 2, Shadowed UE 214; see: [0005] … The obstructions not only reflect the propagating signals between transmitters and receivers, but can also attenuate or completely block the signals).
Tadayon does not discloses UE priority.
However, Romain discloses:
acquiring positional information (Fig 2, see: [0074] … position signals identifying the coordinates of the connected vehicle) of a specific priority terminal (Fig 3, Priority Types and List of a terminal).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to integrate Tadayon’s method for estimation location of signal obstructions with Romain’s method for prioritizing upload data map in a wireless network with the motivation being to prioritizes updating data, Romain [0005]).
Regarding Claim 2, Tadayon does not discloses this claim.
However, Romain discloses:
wherein the specific priority terminal (Fig 3, Priority Types and List of a terminal) is a terminal for periodically performing communication (Fig 4A, Upload Data Having High Priority) at a predetermined communication time interval (see: [0052] Depending on the priority score, the update package may be sent at during a scheduled update time window over WiFi), and the predetermined time is a time based on the communication time interval (see: [0052] … during a scheduled update time window over WiFi).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to integrate Tadayon’s method for estimation location of signal obstructions with Romain’s method for prioritizing upload data map in a wireless network with the motivation being to prioritizes updating data, Romain [0005]).
Regarding Claim 3, Tadayon discloses:
wherein the determining includes determining whether there is a line-of-sight (Fig 7, SL-PRS 702 and PRS 704; see: [0128] where LoS sidelink information is used for generating UE location estimates, if either the SL-PRS 702 and/or PRS 704 is determined to be via a LoS propagation path) from the antenna (Fig 1C, Antenna 188; see: [0231] … AoA is measured or estimated relative to broadside of a receiver's antenna or antenna array) for the specific priority terminal (Fig 7, UE1 and UE2) for each parameter indicating a position (see: [0273] … another UE v′∈[AltContent: rect]N LoS-UE.v can be used for positioning determination) and a direction (see: [0233] … FIG. 20 illustrates a connectivity graph corresponding to the BS and UEs in the left diagram, labeled with range and angle information) of the antenna (Fig 1C, Antenna 188) of the mobile base station (Fig 7, gNB), and
storing (Fig 6, Store as a Shadowing Map) the determination result to a storage unit (Fig 1C, Memory 190), and the controlling includes controlling the mobile base station using a parameter (see: [0112] … FIG. 4B, a base station 410 may initiate handoff of a shadowed UE 412 to another base station 414, for which signal transmissions are not affected by the signal shadowing obstruction 402) from the antenna (Fig 1C, Antenna 188) by which the specific priority terminal (Fig 7, UE1 and UE2) arrives at a line-of-sight position (Fig 4B, line-of-sight position UE 412 and gNB 414).
Regarding Claim 4, the system claim discloses similar features as of Claim 1, and is rejected accordingly.
Regarding Claim 5, the method claim discloses similar features as of Claim 1, and is rejected accordingly.
Regarding Claim 6, the method claim discloses similar features as of Claim 1, and is rejected accordingly.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Jung-Jen Liu whose telephone number is 571-270-7643. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday to Friday, 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Kwang B. Yao can be reached on 571-272-3182. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of an application may be obtained from the Patent Application Information Retrieval (PAIR) system. Status information for published applications may be obtained from either Private PAIR or Public PAIR. Status information for unpublished applications is available through Private PAIR only. For more information about the PAIR system, see http://pair-direct.uspto.gov. Should you have questions on access to the Private PAIR system, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative or access to the automated information system, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/JUNG LIU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2473