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 § 102
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 (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) 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 the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1, 15, and 23 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) and 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Internation Patent Publication No. WO 2016/142776 to Cheng et al. (“Cheng”).
As to claim 1, Cheng discloses a method in a Base Band Unit (BBU) in a Digital Indoor System (DIS) (Fig. 1; p.1: lines 1-19), comprising: allocating, to each of a plurality of digital headends in a cell, a Positioning Reference Signal (PRS) resource in such a manner that the PRS resources allocated to the plurality of digital headends are orthogonal to each other (Fig. 1; p.3: lines 7-21, p.4: line 31 - p.5: line 1, p.9: line 19 - p.10: line 1, and p.10: line 26 - p.11: line 7); and transmitting, to each of the plurality of digital headends, a PRS to be transmitted to a terminal device on the PRS resource allocated to the digital headend (Fig. 1; p.10: line 26 - p.11: line 7 and p.13: line 15 - p.14: line 21).
As to claim 15, Cheng discloses a method in a digital headend in a cell in a Digital Indoor System (DIS) (Fig. 1; p.1: lines 1-19), comprising: receiving, from a Base Band Unit(BBU) a resource configuration for allocating a Positioning Reference Signal (PRS) resource to the digital headend, the PRS source being orthogonal to one or more other PRS resources allocated to one or more other digital headends in the cell (Fig. 1; p.3: lines 7-21, p.4: line 31 - p.5: line 1, p.9: line 19 - p.10: line 1, and p.10: line 26 - p.11: line 7); receiving, from the BBU, a PRS to be transmitted to a terminal device; and transmitting, to the terminal device, the PRS on the PRS resource (Fig. 1; p.10: line 26 - p.11: line 7 and p.13: line 15 - p.14: line 21).
As to claim 23, Cheng discloses a method in a terminal device, comprising: receiving, from at least one of a plurality of digital headends in a cell in a Digital Indoor System, DIS, configuration information, the configuration information indicating Positioning Reference Signal (PRS) resource identifiers, IDs, corresponding to respective PRS resources allocated to the plurality of digital headends (Fig. 1; p.10: line 26 - p.11: line 7 and p.13: line 15 - p.14: line 21) and time-domain locations and frequency-domain locations of the respective PRS resources (p.11: line 22 - p.12: line 5, p.13: line 23 - p.14: line 6, p.14: line 29 - p.15: line 1, and p.16: lines 1-27), the respective PRS resources allocated to the plurality of digital headends being orthogonal to each other (Fig. 1; p.3: lines 7-21, p.4: line 31 - p.5: line 1, p.9: line 19 - p.10: line 1, and p.10: line 26 - p.11: line 7); measuring a PRS from each of one or more of the plurality of digital headends on the PRS resource allocated to the digital headend; and transmitting, to at least one of the plurality of digital headends, a measurement report containing, for each of the one or more digital headends: a measurement result obtained by measuring the PRS on the PRS resource allocated to the digital headend, and the PRS resource ID corresponding to the PRS resource (p.5: lines 7-18 and p.14: lines 22-28).
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 (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) 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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claim 2 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cheng in view of U.S. Patent No. 11,979,883 to Khoryaev et al. (“Khoryaev”).
As to claim 2, Cheng discloses the method of claim 1.
Cheng does not disclose: wherein the plurality of digital headends comprise a number, L, of digital headends, and the PRS resource allocated to each of the L digital headends in frequency domain is smaller than or equal to B/L, where B denotes a maximum available bandwidth of the cell.
However, Khoryaev discloses: wherein the plurality of digital headends comprise a number, L, of digital headends, and the PRS resource allocated to each of the L digital headends in frequency domain is smaller than or equal to B/L, where B denotes a maximum available bandwidth of the cell (Col. 7: line 38 - Col. 8: line 52, "In order to optimize performance, all transmitting stations (Nprs-id) should be equally distributed across N orthogonal resources (e.g. N=NtNf orthogonal time frequency resources) allocated for transmission (note either DL PRS Resources or DL PRS Resource Sets can be mapped to orthogonal resource)").
Cheng and Khoryaev are considered to be similar to the claimed invention because they are in one or more of the same fields of: devices specially adapted for wireless communication networks, e.g. terminals, base stations, or access point devices; locating users or terminals for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management {or network equipment}; position-fixing by coordinating two or more direction or position line or distance determinations, using radio waves; and/or positioning of receiver(s) fixed by coordinating a plurality of position lines defined by path-difference measurements. As such, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Cheng to incorporate the teachings of Khoryaev to include: wherein the plurality of digital headends comprise a number, L, of digital headends, and the PRS resource allocated to each of the L digital headends in frequency domain is smaller than or equal to B/L, where B denotes a maximum available bandwidth of the cell. Doing so would "[enable] optimal planning of the deployment and PRS transmissions in dedicated positioning areas" (Khoryaev, Col. 7: lines 23-25), which would "provide high quality services consuming minimum amount of resources, therefore the procedures enabled in that wireless communication systems [sic] should be optimized and efficient" (Khoryaev, Col. 3: lines 59-62).
Claim 3 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cheng in view of Khoryaev and further in view of U.S. Patent Publication No. 2017/0048726 to Zhang et al. (“Zhang”).
As to claim 3, Cheng in view of Khoryaev discloses the method of claim 2.
Cheng in view of Khoryaev does not disclose: wherein the plurality of digital headends are connected to a convergence unit that is connected to the BBU.
However, Zhang discloses: wherein the plurality of digital headends are connected to a convergence unit that is connected to the BBU (¶0008).
Cheng, Khoryaev, and Zhang are considered to be similar to the claimed invention because they are in one or more of the same fields of: devices specially adapted for wireless communication networks, e.g. terminals, base stations, or access point devices; locating users or terminals for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management {or network equipment}; position-fixing by coordinating two or more direction or position line or distance determinations, using radio waves; and/or positioning of receiver(s) fixed by coordinating a plurality of position lines defined by path-difference measurements. As such, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Cheng in view of Khoryaev to incorporate the teachings of Zhang to include: wherein the plurality of digital headends are connected to a convergence unit that is connected to the BBU. Doing so would "[avoid] problems of relatively high system noise and relatively poor indoor signal quality that are caused by a combiner/splitter" (Zhang, ¶0009).
Claims 4, 5, 7-9, 17, and 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cheng in view of U.S. Patent No. 10,736,074 to Edge et al. (“Edge”).
As to claim 4, Cheng discloses the method of claim 1, further comprising: transmitting, to at least one of the plurality of digital headends, configuration information to be transmitted to the terminal device, the configuration information indicating: time-domain locations and frequency-domain locations of the respective PRS resources (Cheng, p.11: line 22 - p.12: line 5, p.13: line 23 - p.14: line 6, p.14: line 29 - p.15: line 1, and p.16: lines 1-27).
Cheng does not disclose: PRS resource identifiers, IDs, corresponding to the respective PRS resources allocated to the plurality of digital headends.
However, Edge discloses: PRS resource identifiers, IDs, corresponding to the respective PRS resources allocated to the plurality of digital headends (Fig. 5 and Col. 20: line 40 - Col. 21: line 8).
Cheng and Edge are considered to be similar to the claimed invention because they are in one or more of the same fields of: devices specially adapted for wireless communication networks, e.g. terminals, base stations, or access point devices; locating users or terminals for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management {or network equipment}; position-fixing by coordinating two or more direction or position line or distance determinations, using radio waves; and/or positioning of receiver(s) fixed by coordinating a plurality of position lines defined by path-difference measurements. As such, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Cheng to incorporate the teachings of Edge to include: PRS resource identifiers, IDs, corresponding to the respective PRS resources allocated to the plurality of digital headends. Doing so would "increase both measurement accuracy and the number of different base stations for which timing measurements can be obtained by a mobile device" and mitigate or overcome "errors, imprecision in location measurements and multipath effects, where a PRS signal may be reflected, refracted or scattered by intervening obstacles such as trees, walls, buildings, and traffic" (Edge, Col. 1: lines 36-47).
As to claim 5, Cheng in view of Edge discloses the method of claim 4, further comprising: receiving, from at least one of the plurality of digital headends, a measurement report containing, for each of one or more of the plurality of the digital headends: a measurement result obtained by the terminal device by measuring the PRS on the PRS resource allocated to the digital headend (Cheng, p.5: lines 7-18 and p.14: lines 22-28), and the PRS resource ID corresponding to the PRS resource (Edge, Fig. 5 and Col. 21: line 28 - Col. 22: line 22).
As to claim 7, Cheng in view of Edge discloses the method of claim 5, further comprising: transmitting a report to a positioning server (Edge, Col. 11: line 56 - Col. 12: line 14), the report containing, for each of the one or more digital headends: a measurement result obtained by the terminal device by measuring the PRS on the PRS resource allocated to the digital headend (Cheng, p.5: lines 7-18 and p.14: lines 22-28), and the PRS resource ID corresponding to the PRS resource (Edge, Fig. 5 and Col. 21: line 28 - Col. 22: line 22).
As to claim 8, Cheng in view of Edge discloses the method of claim 7, further comprising: transmitting, to the positioning server, an indication of a correspondence between respective digital headend IDs of the plurality of digital headends and the PRS resource IDs (Edge, Fig. 5 and Col. 19: line 46 - Col. 20: line 16; see also Col. 24: lines 41-46, Col. 25: lines 56-67, and Table 1).
As to claim 9, Cheng in view of Edge discloses the method of claim 5, further comprising: transmitting, to a positioning server (Edge, Col. 11: line 56 - Col. 12: line 14), a report containing, for each of the one or more of digital headends: the measurement result obtained by the terminal device by measuring the PRS on the PRS resource allocated to the digital headend, and a digital headend ID of the digital headend (Cheng, p.5: lines 7-18 and p.14: lines 22-28).
As to claim 17, Cheng discloses the method of claim 15, further comprising: receiving, from the BBU, configuration information indicating: a time-domain location and a frequency-domain location of the PRS resource allocated to each digital headend in the cell; and transmitting the configuration information to the terminal device (Cheng, p.11: line 22 - p.12: line 5, p.13: line 23 - p.14: line 6, p.14: line 29 - p.15: line 1, and p.16: lines 1-27).
Cheng does not disclose: a PRS resource identifier, ID, corresponding to the PRS resource allocated to each digital headend in the cell.
However, Edge discloses: a PRS resource identifier, ID, corresponding to the PRS resource allocated to each digital headend in the cell (Fig. 5 and Col. 20: line 40 - Col. 21: line 8).
Cheng and Edge are considered to be similar to the claimed invention because they are in one or more of the same fields of: devices specially adapted for wireless communication networks, e.g. terminals, base stations, or access point devices; locating users or terminals for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management {or network equipment}; position-fixing by coordinating two or more direction or position line or distance determinations, using radio waves; and/or positioning of receiver(s) fixed by coordinating a plurality of position lines defined by path-difference measurements. As such, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Cheng to incorporate the teachings of Edge to include: a PRS resource identifier, ID, corresponding to the PRS resource allocated to each digital headend in the cell. Doing so would "increase both measurement accuracy and the number of different base stations for which timing measurements can be obtained by a mobile device" and mitigate or overcome "errors, imprecision in location measurements and multipath effects, where a PRS signal may be reflected, refracted or scattered by intervening obstacles such as trees, walls, buildings, and traffic" (Edge, Col. 1: lines 36-47).
As to claim 18, Cheng in view of Edge discloses the method of claim 17, further comprising: receiving, from the terminal device, a measurement report containing, for each of one or more digital headends in the cell: a measurement result obtained by the terminal device by measuring the PRS on the PRS resource allocated to the digital headend (Cheng, p.5: lines 7-18 and p.14: lines 22-28), and the PRS resource ID corresponding to the PRS resource (Edge, Fig. 5 and Col. 21: line 28 - Col. 22: line 22).
Claims 6, 10, 11, and 19-22 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cheng in view of Edge and further in view of U.S. Patent No. 10,470,147 to Chae et al. (“Chae”).
As to claim 6, Cheng in view of Edge discloses the method of claim 5.
Cheng in view of Edge does not disclose: wherein the measurement report further contains a cell ID of the cell and/or frequency information associated with the cell.
However, Chae discloses: wherein the measurement report further contains a cell ID of the cell and/or frequency information associated with the cell (Table 6 and Col. 17: line 61 - Col. 18: line 32).
Cheng, Edge and Chae are considered to be similar to the claimed invention because they are in one or more of the same fields of: devices specially adapted for wireless communication networks, e.g. terminals, base stations, or access point devices; locating users or terminals for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management {or network equipment}; position-fixing by coordinating two or more direction or position line or distance determinations, using radio waves; and/or positioning of receiver(s) fixed by coordinating a plurality of position lines defined by path-difference measurements. As such, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Cheng in view of Edge to incorporate the teachings of Chae to include: wherein the measurement report further contains a cell ID of the cell and/or frequency information associated with the cell. Doing so would "increase RSTD estimation accuracy in order to improve location estimation performance in an observed time difference of arrival (OTDOA) method of estimating the location of a UE" (Chae, Col. 2: lines 1-4).
As to claim 10, Cheng in view of Edge discloses the method of claim 5.
Cheng in view of Edge does not disclose: wherein the measurement report further contains, for each of one or more further cells: a measurement result obtained by the terminal device by measuring a PRS from a network node of the further cell, and a cell ID of the further cell and/or frequency information associated with the further cell.
However, Chae discloses: wherein the measurement report further contains, for each of one or more further cells: a measurement result obtained by the terminal device by measuring a PRS from a network node of the further cell, and a cell ID of the further cell and/or frequency information associated with the further cell (Table 6 and Col. 17: line 61 - Col. 18: line 32).
Cheng, Edge and Chae are considered to be similar to the claimed invention because they are in one or more of the same fields of: devices specially adapted for wireless communication networks, e.g. terminals, base stations, or access point devices; locating users or terminals for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management {or network equipment}; position-fixing by coordinating two or more direction or position line or distance determinations, using radio waves; and/or positioning of receiver(s) fixed by coordinating a plurality of position lines defined by path-difference measurements. As such, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Cheng in view of Edge to incorporate the teachings of Chae to include: wherein the measurement report further contains, for each of one or more further cells: a measurement result obtained by the terminal device by measuring a PRS from a network node of the further cell, and a cell ID of the further cell and/or frequency information associated with the further cell. Doing so would "increase RSTD estimation accuracy in order to improve location estimation performance in an observed time difference of arrival (OTDOA) method of estimating the location of a UE" (Chae, Col. 2: lines 1-4).
As to claim 11, Cheng in view of Edge discloses the method of claim 7.
Cheng in view of Edge does not disclose: wherein the report further contains, for each of one or more further cells: a measurement result obtained by the terminal device by measuring a PRS from a network node of the further cell, and a cell ID of the further cell and/or frequency information associated with the further cell.
However, Chae discloses: wherein the report further contains, for each of one or more further cells: a measurement result obtained by the terminal device by measuring a PRS from a network node of the further cell, and a cell ID of the further cell and/or frequency information associated with the further cell (Table 6 and Col. 17: line 61 - Col. 18: line 32).
Cheng, Edge and Chae are considered to be similar to the claimed invention because they are in one or more of the same fields of: devices specially adapted for wireless communication networks, e.g. terminals, base stations, or access point devices; locating users or terminals for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management {or network equipment}; position-fixing by coordinating two or more direction or position line or distance determinations, using radio waves; and/or positioning of receiver(s) fixed by coordinating a plurality of position lines defined by path-difference measurements. As such, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Cheng in view of Edge to incorporate the teachings of Chae to include: wherein the report further contains, for each of one or more further cells: a measurement result obtained by the terminal device by measuring a PRS from a network node of the further cell, and a cell ID of the further cell and/or frequency information associated with the further cell. Doing so would "increase RSTD estimation accuracy in order to improve location estimation performance in an observed time difference of arrival (OTDOA) method of estimating the location of a UE" (Chae, Col. 2: lines 1-4).
As to claim 19, Cheng in view of Edge discloses the method of claim 18.
Cheng in view of Edge does not disclose: wherein the measurement report further contains a cell ID of the cell and/or frequency information associated with the cell.
However, Chae discloses: wherein the measurement report further contains a cell ID of the cell and/or frequency information associated with the cell (Table 6 and Col. 17: line 61 - Col. 18: line 32).
Cheng, Edge and Chae are considered to be similar to the claimed invention because they are in one or more of the same fields of: devices specially adapted for wireless communication networks, e.g. terminals, base stations, or access point devices; locating users or terminals for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management {or network equipment}; position-fixing by coordinating two or more direction or position line or distance determinations, using radio waves; and/or positioning of receiver(s) fixed by coordinating a plurality of position lines defined by path-difference measurements. As such, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Cheng in view of Edge to incorporate the teachings of Chae to include: wherein the measurement report further contains a cell ID of the cell and/or frequency information associated with the cell. Doing so would "increase RSTD estimation accuracy in order to improve location estimation performance in an observed time difference of arrival (OTDOA) method of estimating the location of a UE" (Chae, Col. 2: lines 1-4).
As to claim 20, Cheng in view of Edge discloses the method of claim 18.
Cheng in view of Edge does not disclose: wherein the measurement report further contains, for each of one or more further cells: a measurement result obtained by the terminal device by measuring a PRS from a network node of the further cell, and a cell ID of the further cell and/or frequency information associated with the further cell.
However, Chae discloses: wherein the measurement report further contains, for each of one or more further cells: a measurement result obtained by the terminal device by measuring a PRS from a network node of the further cell, and a cell ID of the further cell and/or frequency information associated with the further cell (Table 6 and Col. 17: line 61 - Col. 18: line 32).
Cheng, Edge and Chae are considered to be similar to the claimed invention because they are in one or more of the same fields of: devices specially adapted for wireless communication networks, e.g. terminals, base stations, or access point devices; locating users or terminals for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management {or network equipment}; position-fixing by coordinating two or more direction or position line or distance determinations, using radio waves; and/or positioning of receiver(s) fixed by coordinating a plurality of position lines defined by path-difference measurements. As such, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Cheng in view of Edge to incorporate the teachings of Chae to include: wherein the measurement report further contains, for each of one or more further cells: a measurement result obtained by the terminal device by measuring a PRS from a network node of the further cell, and a cell ID of the further cell and/or frequency information associated with the further cell. Doing so would "increase RSTD estimation accuracy in order to improve location estimation performance in an observed time difference of arrival (OTDOA) method of estimating the location of a UE" (Chae, Col. 2: lines 1-4).
As to claim 21, Cheng in view of Edge and further in view of Chae discloses the method of claim 20, wherein the cell and each of the one or more further cells are intra-frequency cells or inter-frequency cells (Chae, Table 6 and Col. 17: line 61 - Col. 18: line 32; see also Table 1 and Col. 14: lines 45-47).
As to claim 22, Cheng in view of Edge and further in view of Chae discloses the method of claim 20, wherein each of the one or more further cells is an indoor or outdoor cell (Chae, Table 6 and Col. 17: line 61 - Col. 18: line 32; see also Col. 4: lines 1-5. One of ordinary skill in the art would understand that a base station (eNB) and a remote radio head (RRH) would be considered an indoor or outdoor cell).
Claim 16 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cheng in view of Zhang.
As to claim 16, Cheng discloses the method of claim 15.
Cheng does not disclose: wherein the digital headend is connected to a convergence unit that is connected to the BBU, and the resource configuration and the PRS are received from the BBU via the convergence unit.
However, Zhang discloses: wherein the digital headend is connected to a convergence unit that is connected to the BBU, and the resource configuration and the PRS are received from the BBU via the convergence unit (¶0008).
Cheng and Zhang are considered to be similar to the claimed invention because they are in one or more of the same fields of: devices specially adapted for wireless communication networks, e.g. terminals, base stations, or access point devices; locating users or terminals for network management purposes, e.g. mobility management {or network equipment}; position-fixing by coordinating two or more direction or position line or distance determinations, using radio waves; and/or positioning of receiver(s) fixed by coordinating a plurality of position lines defined by path-difference measurements. As such, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified Cheng to incorporate the teachings of Zhang to include: wherein the digital headend is connected to a convergence unit that is connected to the BBU, and the resource configuration and the PRS are received from the BBU via the convergence unit. Doing so would "[avoid] problems of relatively high system noise and relatively poor indoor signal quality that are caused by a combiner/splitter" (Zhang, ¶0009).
References Cited
Cheng, H. et al. (2016). Method and apparatus of implementing otdoa in an indoor communication system (WO 2016/142776 A2). Filed 2016-02-29.
Chae, H. et al. (2019). Method for executing rstd measurement-related operation in wireless communication system (US 10,470,147 B2). Filed 2016-04-01.
Edge, S. W. et al. (2020). Systems and methods to facilitate location determination by beamforming of a positioning reference signal (US 10,736,074 B2). Filed 2018-01-10.
Khoryaev, A. et al. (2024). Downlink (dl) positioning reference signal (prs) resource configuration and measurement in new radio (nr) systems (US 11,979,883 B2). Filed 2020-08-13.
Zhang, Y. et al. (2017). Remote radio unit hub (rhub), indoor communications system, and signal transmission method (US 2017/0048726 A1). Filed 2016-10-28.
Other Pertinent References
The following prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant’s disclosure:
Choi, Hyeyoung et al. (2016). Method of obtaining rru information by bbu, and bbu (US 20160192181 A1). Filed 2014-09-02.
Cui, Jie et al. (2019). Positioning apparatus and method (US 10425911 B2). Filed 2018-08-06.
Gao, Shiwei et al. (2015). Methods and systems of wireless communication with remote radio heads (US 9014020 B2). Filed 2011-05-02.
Han, Seunghee et al. (2017). Device and method to improve horizontal and vertical positioning accuracy (US 20170374638 A1). Filed 2015-11-24.
Ji, Tingfang et al. (2016). Positioning location for remote radio heads (rrh) with same physical cell identity (pci) (US 9258718 B2). Filed 2012-02-21.
Kazmi, Muhammad et al. (2012). User equipment, a positioning node and methods therein (US 20120184302 A1). Filed 2011-10-11.
Ko, Hyunsoo et al. (2020). Nprs transmission method and device therefor (US 10680777 B2). Filed 2017-07-27.
Siomina, Iana et al. (2012). Radio network node and method for using positioning gap indication for enhancing positioning performance (US 20120252487 A1). Filed 2012-04-03.
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Conclusion
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/SAMUEL H. LEONARD/Examiner, Art Unit 2649 /YUWEN PAN/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2649