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 Interpretation
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(f):
(f) Element in Claim for a Combination. – An element in a claim for a combination may be expressed as a means or step for performing a specified function without the recital of structure, material, or acts in support thereof, and such claim shall be construed to cover the corresponding structure, material, or acts described in the specification and equivalents thereof.
The following is a quotation of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph:
An element in a claim for a combination may be expressed as a means or step for performing a specified function without the recital of structure, material, or acts in support thereof, and such claim shall be construed to cover the corresponding structure, material, or acts described in the specification and equivalents thereof.
The claims in this application are given their broadest reasonable interpretation using the plain meaning of the claim language in light of the specification as it would be understood by one of ordinary skill in the art. The broadest reasonable interpretation of a claim element (also commonly referred to as a claim limitation) is limited by the description in the specification when 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, is invoked.
Such claim limitation(s) is/are: means in claims 57, 58, 60 and 61.
As explained in MPEP § 2181, subsection I, claim limitations that meet the following three-prong test will be interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph:
(A) the claim limitation uses the term “means” or “step” or a term used as a substitute for “means” that is a generic placeholder (also called a nonce term or a non-structural term having no specific structural meaning) for performing the claimed function;
(B) the term “means” or “step” or the generic placeholder is modified by functional language, typically, but not always linked by the transition word “for” (e.g., “means for”) or another linking word or phrase, such as “configured to” or “so that”; and
(C) the term “means” or “step” or the generic placeholder is not modified by sufficient structure, material, or acts for performing the claimed function.
Use of the word “means” (or “step”) in a claim with functional language creates a rebuttable presumption that the claim limitation is to be treated in accordance with 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph. The presumption that the claim limitation is interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, is rebutted when the claim limitation recites sufficient structure, material, or acts to entirely perform the recited function.
Absence of the word “means” (or “step”) in a claim creates a rebuttable presumption that the claim limitation is not to be treated in accordance with 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph. The presumption that the claim limitation is not interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, is rebutted when the claim limitation recites function without reciting sufficient structure, material or acts to entirely perform the recited function.
Claim limitations in this application that use the word “means” (or “step”) are being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, except as otherwise indicated in an Office action. Conversely, claim limitations in this application that do not use the word “means” (or “step”) are not being interpreted under 35 U.S.C. 112(f) or pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, sixth paragraph, except as otherwise indicated in an Office action.
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 18-28, 46-56, 60-62 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 101 because the claimed invention is directed to an abstract idea without significantly more. The claim(s) recite(s) receiving, from a user equipment (UE), an indication …; and processing measurement information associated with the position estimation procedure based in part upon the indication of the expected association.
The claim recites a series of step or act. Thus, the claim is to a process, which is one of the statutory categories of invention.
The limitation of processing measurement information associated with the position estimation procedure based in part upon the indication of the expected association, as drafted, is a process that, under its broadest reasonable interpretation, covers performance of the limitation in the mind. If a claim limitation, under its broadest reasonable interpretation, covers performance of the limitation in the mind, then it falls within the “Mental Processes” grouping of abstract ideas. Accordingly, the claim recites an abstract idea.
This judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application. In particular, the claim recites "receiving, from a user equipment (UE), an indication of an expected association…" and one additional element – user equipment. The limitation "receiving an indication" is mere data gathering recited at a high level generality, and thus it is insignificant extra-solution activity. See MPEP 2106.05(g). The user equipment is recited at a high-level of generality (i.e., as a generic equipment performing a generic receiving function of gathering data) such that it amounts no more than mere instructions to apply the exception using a generic component. Accordingly, this additional element does not integrate the abstract idea into a practical application because it does not impose any meaningful limits on practicing the abstract idea. The claim is directed to an abstract idea.
The claim does not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly
more than the judicial exception. As discussed above with respect to "receiving, from a user equipment (UE), an indication of an expected association". The element amounts to obtaining data for a terminal device and is well-understood, routine, conventional activity. See MPEP 2106.05(d), subsection II. As for integration of the abstract idea into a practical application, the additional element of using a user equipment to perform receiving step amounts to no more than mere instructions to apply the exception using a generic component. Mere instructions to apply an exception using a generic computer component cannot provide an inventive concept.
Re Claim 19, the claim does not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception. With respect to "receiving, from the UE, a UE Tx TEG report for the position estimation procedure". The element amounts to obtaining data for a terminal device and is well-understood, routine, conventional activity. See MPEP 2106.05(d), subsection II. As for integration of the abstract idea into a practical application, the additional element of using a user equipment to perform receiving step amounts to no more than mere instructions to apply the exception using a generic component. Mere instructions to apply an exception using a generic computer component cannot provide an inventive concept.
Re Claim 46, the limitation of process measurement information associated with the position estimation procedure based in part upon the indication of the expected association, as drafted, is a process that, under its broadest reasonable interpretation, covers performance of the limitation in the mind. If a claim limitation, under its broadest reasonable interpretation, covers performance of the limitation in the mind, then it falls within the “Mental Processes” grouping of abstract ideas. Accordingly, the claim recites an abstract idea.
This judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application. In particular, the claim recites “at least one processor configured to: receive an indication of an expected association…" and additional elements – memory and transceiver. The limitation "receiving an indication" is mere data gathering recited at a high level generality, and thus it is insignificant extra-solution activity. See MPEP 2106.05(g). The memory, transceiver and processor are recited at a high-level of generality (i.e., as a generic equipment performing a generic receiving function of gathering data) such that it amounts no more than mere instructions to apply the exception using a generic component. Accordingly, this additional element does not integrate the abstract idea into a practical application because it does not impose any meaningful limits on practicing the abstract idea. The claim is directed to an abstract idea.
The claim does not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly
more than the judicial exception. As discussed above with respect to "receiving an indication of an expected association". The element amounts to obtaining data for a terminal device and is well-understood, routine, conventional activity. See MPEP 2106.05(d), subsection II. As for integration of the abstract idea into a practical application, the additional element of using a memory and processor to perform receiving step amounts to no more than mere instructions to apply the exception using a generic component. Mere instructions to apply an exception using a generic computer component cannot provide an inventive concept.
Re Claim 47, the claim does not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception. With respect to "receiving, via the at least one transceiver, from the UE, a UE Tx TEG report for the position estimation procedure". The element amounts to obtaining data for a terminal device and is well-understood, routine, conventional activity. See MPEP 2106.05(d), subsection II. As for integration of the abstract idea into a practical application, the additional element of using a user equipment to perform receiving step amounts to no more than mere instructions to apply the exception using a generic component. Mere instructions to apply an exception using a generic computer component cannot provide an inventive concept.
Re Claim 60, the limitation of process measurement information associated with the position estimation procedure based in part upon the indication of the expected association, as drafted, is a process that, under its broadest reasonable interpretation, covers performance of the limitation in the mind. If a claim limitation, under its broadest reasonable interpretation, covers performance of the limitation in the mind, then it falls within the “Mental Processes” grouping of abstract ideas. Accordingly, the claim recites an abstract idea.
This judicial exception is not integrated into a practical application. In particular, the claim recites “means for receiving … and means for processing …". The limitation "receiving an indication" is mere data gathering recited at a high level generality, and thus it is insignificant extra-solution activity. See MPEP 2106.05(g). The means are recited at a high-level of generality (i.e., as a generic equipment performing a generic receiving function of gathering data) such that it amounts no more than mere instructions to apply the exception using a generic component. Accordingly, this additional element does not integrate the abstract idea into a practical application because it does not impose any meaningful limits on practicing the abstract idea. The claim is directed to an abstract idea.
The claim does not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly
more than the judicial exception. As discussed above with respect to "receiving an indication of an expected association". The element amounts to obtaining data for a terminal device and is well-understood, routine, conventional activity. See MPEP 2106.05(d), subsection II. As for integration of the abstract idea into a practical application, the additional element of using means to perform receiving step amounts to no more than mere instructions to apply the exception using a generic component. Mere instructions to apply an exception using a generic computer component cannot provide an inventive concept.
Re Claim 61, the claim does not include additional elements that are sufficient to amount to significantly more than the judicial exception. With respect to "receiving, from the UE, a UE Tx TEG report for the position estimation procedure". The element amounts to obtaining data for a terminal device and is well-understood, routine, conventional activity. See MPEP 2106.05(d), subsection II. As for integration of the abstract idea into a practical application, the additional element of using means to perform receiving step amounts to no more than mere instructions to apply the exception using a generic component. Mere instructions to apply an exception using a generic computer component cannot provide an inventive concept.
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 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(s) 1-10, 12-13, 16-25, 27-38, 40-41, 44-53, 55-62 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Pan et al. (US 2024/0187169 A1) (Pan herein after) in view of Hasegawa et al. (US 2023/0388959 A1) (Hasegawa herein after).
Re Claims 1 and 29, Pan discloses a method of operating a user equipment (UE) and a user equipment (UE), comprising: a memory; at least one transceiver; and at least one processor communicatively coupled to the memory and the at least one transceiver (memory and processor [0034]), the at least one processor configured to, comprising:
determining an expected association between at least one UE transmit (Tx) timing error group (TEG) and a sounding reference signal (SRS) for a position estimation procedure (UE can Determine the Relationship Between Tx TEG and SRS Transmission According to the Usage of the SRS Transmission [0053]), the at least one UE Tx TEG indicating that transmit timing errors of the SRS are within a margin (TEG is a group of UL/DL positioning signals or DL/UL measurements that have the same timing error or have timing errors within a certain margin [0044]);
transmitting an indication of the expected association (UE reports the Tx TEG information with port information to the gNB/TRP or LMF [0053]; Tx TEG can be configured to associate with SRS port, or Tx TEG can be configured to associate with SRS resource [0055]).
Pan discloses the claimed invention except explicitly teaches transmitting, after the transmission of the indication, the SRS on one or more uplink SRS (UL-SRS) resources of at least one UL-SRS resource set during the position estimation procedure.
However, Hasegawa discloses a positioning estimation wherein detection of a delta difference from a previous TEG reporting or use of a different set of TEG(s) to perform DL-PRS reception and/or UL-PRS transmission (e.g., the WTRU may perform TEG reporting if it uses a different port, beam, or antenna panel to transmit UL-PRS and/or receive DL-PRS) ([0238]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious at the time the invention was made to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify method and system of Pan, by making use of the technique taught by Hasegawa, in order to improve the position estimation accuracy.
Both references are within the same field of telecommunication, and in particular of position estimation, the modification does not change a fundamental operating principle of Pan, nor does Pan teach away from the modification (Pan merely discloses a preferred embodiment). The combination has a reasonable expectation of success in that the modifications can be made using conventional and well known engineering and/or programming techniques, the position estimation taught by Hasegawa is not altered and continues to perform the same function as separately, and the resultant combination produces the highly predictable result of transmitting, after the transmission of the indication, the SRS on one or more uplink SRS (UL-SRS) resources of at least one UL-SRS resource set during the position estimation procedure.
Re Claims 2 and 30, the combined teachings disclose the method of claim 1 and the UE of claim 29, Pan discloses further comprising: transmitting a UE Tx TEG report for the position estimation procedure to a position estimation entity (UE reports the Tx TEG information with port information to the gNB/TRP or LMF [0053]).
Re Claims 3 and 31, the combined teachings disclose the method of claim 2 and the UE of claim 30, Hasegawa discloses wherein the SRS is transmitted on the one or more UL-SRS resources of the at least one UL-SRS resource via the at least UE Tx TEG in accordance with the expected association (detection of a delta difference from a previous TEG reporting or use of a different set of TEG(s) to perform DL-PRS reception and/or UL-PRS transmission (e.g., the WTRU may perform TEG reporting if it uses a different port, beam, or antenna panel to transmit UL-PRS and/or receive DL-PRS) [0238]).
Re Claims 4 and 32, the combined teachings disclose the method of claim 3 and the UE of claim 31, Pan discloses wherein the UE Tx TEG report includes a positive acknowledgment of the expected association (UE can report its capability on number of Tx TEGs it can support and/or relationship between ports and Tx TEG, e.g., which ports associate with which Tx TEG [0053]).
Re Claims 5 and 33, the combined teachings disclose the method of claim 3 and the UE of claim 31, Pan discloses wherein the UE Tx TEG report omits a negative acknowledgment of the expected association (UE can report its capability on number of Tx TEGs it can support and/or relationship between ports and Tx TEG, e.g., which ports associate with which Tx TEG [0053]).
Re Claims 6 and 34, the combined teachings disclose the method of claim 2 and the UE of claim 30, Pan discloses wherein the SRS is transmitted on the one or more UL-SRS resources of the at least one UL-SRS resource via one or more other UE Tx TEGs that are different than the at least UE Tx TEG in discordance with the expected association (Different UE antenna ports or antenna ports combination can be associated with different Tx TEGs. For example, if the UE has 4 antenna ports, each port can be associated with a Tx TEG, or 2 ports can be associated with a Tx TEG, and the other 2 ports can be associated with another Tx TEG, or 3 ports can be associated with a Tx TEG, the other 1 port can be associated with another Tx TEG. UE can report its capability on number of Tx TEGs it can support and/or relationship between ports and Tx TEG [0053]).
Re Claims 7 and 35, the combined teachings disclose the method of claim 6 and the UE of claim 34, Pan discloses wherein the UE Tx TEG report includes a negative acknowledgment of the expected association, or wherein the UE Tx TEG report includes an indication of the one or more other UE Tx TEGs, or a combination thereof (Different UE antenna ports or antenna ports combination can be associated with different Tx TEGs. For example, if the UE has 4 antenna ports, each port can be associated with a Tx TEG, or 2 ports can be associated with a Tx TEG, and the other 2 ports can be associated with another Tx TEG, or 3 ports can be associated with a Tx TEG, the other 1 port can be associated with another Tx TEG. UE can report its capability on number of Tx TEGs it can support and/or relationship between ports and Tx TEG [0053]).
Re Claims 8 and 36, the combined teachings disclose the method of claim 1 and the UE of claim 29, Hasegawa discloses wherein the indication of the expected association of the at least one UE Tx TEG is associated with a timestamp, a time-domain window, a number of SRS instances, or a combination thereof (WTRU may send timing information (e.g., a timestamp) on a per-path or multipath basis, for example, to indicate the relevance/freshness of additional measurements, e.g., if sending the additional measurement information [0158]).
Re Claims 9 and 37, the combined teachings disclose the method of claim 1 and the UE of claim 29, Hasegawa discloses wherein the expected association between the at least one UE Tx TEG and the SRS corresponds to a direct association, or wherein the expected association between the at least one UE Tx TEG and the SRS corresponds to an association between the at least one UE Tx TEG and spatial relationship information, with the spatial relationship information being further associated with the SRS, or wherein the expected association between the at least one UE Tx TEG and the SRS corresponds to an association between the at least one UE Tx TEG and a pathloss reference, with the pathloss reference being further associated with the SRS (WTRU may (e.g., be configured to) expect and receive a dynamic configuration of an SRS spatial relationship relating SRS for positioning (SRSp) and PRS and/or may receive an indication of which direction the transmitted SRS was used (e.g., DL-UL coordination, no reporting, and/or beam sweeping) [0254]).
Re Claims 10 and 38, the combined teachings disclose the method of claim 1 and the UE of claim 29, Hasegawa discloses wherein the expected association remains valid until: a reconfiguration of the one or more UL-SRS resources, or a radio resource control (RRC) reconfiguration, or a bandwidth part (BWP) switch, or a transition to discontinuous reception (DRX) OFF, or any combination thereof (association report may be a reconfiguration of a spatial relationship between SRSp and DL reference signals [0133]).
Re Claims 12 and 40, the combined teachings disclose the method of claim 11 and the UE of claim 39, Hasegawa discloses wherein the indication of the expected association between the at least one UE Tx TEG and the SRS is transmitted via uplink media access control element (MAC-CE) (WTRU may use a protocol (e.g., LIE positioning protocol (LPP) or RRC signaling) to send the assignment. A WTRU may, e.g., if configured by the network, send an assignment by uplink control information (UCI) or a MAC control element (MAC-CE). A WTRU may send a report, for example, using RRC signaling, MAC-CE, or UCI. A WTRU may include a report in a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) transmission or a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) transmission [0123]).
Re Claims 13 and 41, the combined teachings disclose the method of claim 11 and the UE of claim 39, Hasegawa discloses further comprising: receiving an activation of a configuration of the SRS for the position estimation procedure, wherein the indication of the expected association between the at least one UE Tx TEG and the transmission of the SRS is transmitted in response to the activation (association report may be a reconfiguration of a spatial relationship between SRSp and DL reference signals [0133]).
Re Claims 16 and 44, the combined teachings disclose the method of claim 1 and the UE of claim 29, Hasegawa discloses wherein the indication of the expected association is transmitted prior to a maximum permitted time subsequent to a triggering event associated with the position estimation procedure (The QoS requirements may include, for example, positioning accuracy requirements, the periodicity of a measurement report, and/or the latency of a positioning measurement requirement [0251]).
Re Claims 17 and 45, the combined teachings disclose the method of claim 1 and the UE of claim 29, Hasegawa discloses wherein the indication of the expected association is further transmitted in conjunction with an associated confidence level (WTRU may indicate the validity of TEG information to the network. The indication may be provided in TEG reporting [0243]).
Re Claims 18 and 46, Pan discloses a method of operating a position estimation entity and a position estimation entity, comprising: a memory; at least one transceiver; and at least one processor communicatively coupled to the memory and the at least one transceiver (memory and processor [0034]), the at least one processor configured to, comprising:
receiving, from a user equipment (UE), an indication of an expected association between at least one UE transmit (Tx) timing error group (TEG) and a sounding reference signal (SRS) for a position estimation procedure (UE reports the Tx TEG information with port information to the gNB/TRP or LMF [0053]; Tx TEG can be configured to associate with SRS port, or Tx TEG can be configured to associate with SRS resource [0055]), the at least one UE Tx TEG indicating that transmit timing errors of the SRS are within a margin (TEG is a group of UL/DL positioning signals or DL/UL measurements that have the same timing error or have timing errors within a certain margin [0044]).
Pan discloses the claimed invention except explicitly teaches processing measurement information associated with the position estimation procedure based in part upon the indication of the expected association.
However, Hasegawa discloses a positioning estimation wherein a DL and UL positioning method, a TRP (e.g., each TRP) may send a PRS to the WTRU and the WTRU may send an SRSp (e.g., in return) to the TRP (e.g., each TRP). An Rx−Tx time difference may be computed at the TRP (e.g., each TRP) and WTRU. The WTRU may receive the transmitted PRS from the TRP. The WTRU may receive multiple copies of the PRS, for example, due to the presence of multipath. A bandwidth efficient reporting method may assist the network with detection of LOS and/or NLOS paths ([0130]); WTRU may be configured to determine an association between TEGs and UL-PRS and/or DL-PRS resources. In examples, the WTRU may be indicated (e.g., via network configuration) the association between a TEG and a set of resources (e.g., DL-PRS reception resources or UL-PRS transmission resources). The WTRU may (e.g., based on the indicated association) use the same set of transmission and/or reception parameters for (e.g., corresponding to the same TEG) the set of resources for transmission and/or reception ([0235]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious at the time the invention was made to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify method and system of Pan, by making use of the technique taught by Hasegawa, in order to improve the position estimation accuracy.
Both references are within the same field of telecommunication, and in particular of position estimation, the modification does not change a fundamental operating principle of Pan, nor does Pan teach away from the modification (Pan merely discloses a preferred embodiment). The combination has a reasonable expectation of success in that the modifications can be made using conventional and well known engineering and/or programming techniques, the position estimation taught by Hasegawa is not altered and continues to perform the same function as separately, and the resultant combination produces the highly predictable result of processing measurement information associated with the position estimation procedure based in part upon the indication of the expected association.
Re Claims 19 and 47, the combined teachings disclose the method of claim 18 and the position estimation entity of claim 46, Pan discloses further comprising: receiving, via the at least one transceiver (transceiver [0034]), from the UE, a UE Tx TEG report for the position estimation procedure (UE reports the Tx TEG information with port information to the gNB/TRP or LMF [0053]).
Re Claims 20 and 48, the combined teachings disclose the method of claim 19 and the position estimation entity of claim 47, Pan discloses wherein the UE Tx TEG report includes a positive acknowledgment of the expected association to confirm transmission of the SRS in accordance with the expected association (UE can report its capability on number of Tx TEGs it can support and/or relationship between ports and Tx TEG, e.g., which ports associate with which Tx TEG [0053]).
Re Claims 21 and 49, the combined teachings disclose the method of claim 19 and the position estimation entity of claim 47, Pan discloses wherein the UE Tx TEG report omits a negative acknowledgment of the expected association to confirm transmission of the SRS in accordance with the expected association (UE can report its capability on number of Tx TEGs it can support and/or relationship between ports and Tx TEG, e.g., which ports associate with which Tx TEG [0053]).
Re Claims 22 and 50, the combined teachings disclose the method of claim 19 and the position estimation entity of claim 47, Pan discloses wherein the UE Tx TEG report includes a negative acknowledgment of the expected association to indicate transmission of the SRS in discordance with the expected association, or wherein the UE Tx TEG report includes an indication of one or more other UE Tx TEGs associated with the transmission of the SRS, or a combination thereof (Different UE antenna ports or antenna ports combination can be associated with different Tx TEGs. For example, if the UE has 4 antenna ports, each port can be associated with a Tx TEG, or 2 ports can be associated with a Tx TEG, and the other 2 ports can be associated with another Tx TEG, or 3 ports can be associated with a Tx TEG, the other 1 port can be associated with another Tx TEG. UE can report its capability on number of Tx TEGs it can support and/or relationship between ports and Tx TEG [0053]).
Re Claims 23 and 51, the combined teachings disclose the method of claim 18 and the position estimation entity of claim 46, Hasegawa discloses wherein the indication of the expected association of the at least one UE Tx TEG is associated with a timestamp, a time-domain window, a number of SRS instances, or a combination thereof (WTRU may send timing information (e.g., a timestamp) on a per-path or multipath basis, for example, to indicate the relevance/freshness of additional measurements, e.g., if sending the additional measurement information [0158]).
Re Claims 24 and 52, the combined teachings disclose the method of claim 18 and the position estimation entity of claim 46, Hasegawa discloses wherein the expected association between the at least one UE Tx TEG and the SRS corresponds to a direct association, or wherein the expected association between the at least one UE Tx TEG and the SRS corresponds to an association between the at least one UE Tx TEG and spatial relationship information, with the spatial relationship information being further associated with the SRS, or wherein the expected association between the at least one UE Tx TEG and the SRS corresponds to an association between the at least one UE Tx TEG and a pathloss reference, with the pathloss reference being further associated with the SRS (WTRU may (e.g., be configured to) expect and receive a dynamic configuration of an SRS spatial relationship relating SRS for positioning (SRSp) and PRS and/or may receive an indication of which direction the transmitted SRS was used (e.g., DL-UL coordination, no reporting, and/or beam sweeping) [0254]).
Re Claims 25 and 53, the combined teachings disclose the method of claim 18 and the position estimation entity of claim 46, Hasegawa discloses wherein the expected association remains valid until: a reconfiguration of the one or more UL-SRS resources, or a radio resource control (RRC) reconfiguration, or a bandwidth part (BWP) switch, or a transition to discontinuous reception (DRX) OFF, or any combination thereof (association report may be a reconfiguration of a spatial relationship between SRSp and DL reference signals [0133]).
Re Claims 27 and 55, the combined teachings disclose the method of claim 18 and the position estimation entity of claim 46, Hasegawa discloses wherein the indication of the expected association is received from the UE prior to a maximum permitted time subsequent to a triggering event associated with the position estimation procedure (The QoS requirements may include, for example, positioning accuracy requirements, the periodicity of a measurement report, and/or the latency of a positioning measurement requirement [0251]).
Re Claims 28 and 56, the combined teachings disclose the method of claim 18 and the position estimation entity of claim 46, Hasegawa discloses wherein the indication of the expected association is further received in conjunction with an associated confidence level (WTRU may indicate the validity of TEG information to the network. The indication may be provided in TEG reporting [0243]).
Re Claim 57, Pan discloses a user equipment (UE) (user equipment [0033]-[0034]), comprising:
means for determining an expected association between at least one UE transmit (Tx) timing error group (TEG) and a sounding reference signal (SRS) for a position estimation procedure (UE can Determine the Relationship Between Tx TEG and SRS Transmission According to the Usage of the SRS Transmission [0053]), the at least one UE Tx TEG indicating that transmit timing errors of the SRS are within a margin (TEG is a group of UL/DL positioning signals or DL/UL measurements that have the same timing error or have timing errors within a certain margin [0044]);
means for transmitting an indication of the expected association (UE reports the Tx TEG information with port information to the gNB/TRP or LMF [0053]; Tx TEG can be configured to associate with SRS port, or Tx TEG can be configured to associate with SRS resource [0055]).
Pan discloses the claimed invention except explicitly teaches means for transmitting, after the transmission of the indication, the SRS on one or more uplink SRS (UL-SRS) resources of at least one UL-SRS resource set during the position estimation procedure.
However, Hasegawa discloses a positioning estimation wherein detection of a delta difference from a previous TEG reporting or use of a different set of TEG(s) to perform DL-PRS reception and/or UL-PRS transmission (e.g., the WTRU may perform TEG reporting if it uses a different port, beam, or antenna panel to transmit UL-PRS and/or receive DL-PRS) ([0238]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious at the time the invention was made to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify method and system of Pan, by making use of the technique taught by Hasegawa, in order to improve the position estimation accuracy.
Both references are within the same field of telecommunication, and in particular of position estimation, the modification does not change a fundamental operating principle of Pan, nor does Pan teach away from the modification (Pan merely discloses a preferred embodiment). The combination has a reasonable expectation of success in that the modifications can be made using conventional and well known engineering and/or programming techniques, the position estimation taught by Hasegawa is not altered and continues to perform the same function as separately, and the resultant combination produces the highly predictable result of means for transmitting, after the transmission of the indication, the SRS on one or more uplink SRS (UL-SRS) resources of at least one UL-SRS resource set during the position estimation procedure.
Re Claim 58, the combined teachings disclose the UE of claim 57, Pan discloses further comprising: means for transmitting a UE Tx TEG report for the position estimation procedure to a position estimation entity (UE reports the Tx TEG information with port information to the gNB/TRP or LMF [0053]).
Re Claim 59, the combined teachings disclose the UE of claim 57, Hasegawa discloses wherein the indication of the expected association is further transmitted in conjunction with an associated confidence level (WTRU may indicate the validity of TEG information to the network. The indication may be provided in TEG reporting [0243]).
Re Claim 60, Pan discloses a position estimation entity (base station [0033]-[0034]), comprising:
means for receiving, from a user equipment (UE), an indication of an expected association between at least one UE transmit (Tx) timing error group (TEG) and a sounding reference signal (SRS) for a position estimation procedure, the at least one UE Tx TEG indicating that transmit timing errors of the SRS are within a margin (UE reports the Tx TEG information with port information to the gNB/TRP or LMF [0053]; Tx TEG can be configured to associate with SRS port, or Tx TEG can be configured to associate with SRS resource [0055]), the at least one UE Tx TEG indicating that transmit timing errors of the SRS are within a margin (TEG is a group of UL/DL positioning signals or DL/UL measurements that have the same timing error or have timing errors within a certain margin [0044]).
Pan discloses the claimed invention except explicitly teaches means for processing measurement information associated with the position estimation procedure based in part upon the indication of the expected association.
However, Hasegawa discloses a positioning estimation wherein a DL and UL positioning method, a TRP (e.g., each TRP) may send a PRS to the WTRU and the WTRU may send an SRSp (e.g., in return) to the TRP (e.g., each TRP). An Rx−Tx time difference may be computed at the TRP (e.g., each TRP) and WTRU. The WTRU may receive the transmitted PRS from the TRP. The WTRU may receive multiple copies of the PRS, for example, due to the presence of multipath. A bandwidth efficient reporting method may assist the network with detection of LOS and/or NLOS paths ([0130]); WTRU may be configured to determine an association between TEGs and UL-PRS and/or DL-PRS resources. In examples, the WTRU may be indicated (e.g., via network configuration) the association between a TEG and a set of resources (e.g., DL-PRS reception resources or UL-PRS transmission resources). The WTRU may (e.g., based on the indicated association) use the same set of transmission and/or reception parameters for (e.g., corresponding to the same TEG) the set of resources for transmission and/or reception ([0235]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious at the time the invention was made to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify method and system of Pan, by making use of the technique taught by Hasegawa, in order to improve the position estimation accuracy.
Both references are within the same field of telecommunication, and in particular of position estimation, the modification does not change a fundamental operating principle of Pan, nor does Pan teach away from the modification (Pan merely discloses a preferred embodiment). The combination has a reasonable expectation of success in that the modifications can be made using conventional and well known engineering and/or programming techniques, the position estimation taught by Hasegawa is not altered and continues to perform the same function as separately, and the resultant combination produces the highly predictable result of means for processing measurement information associated with the position estimation procedure based in part upon the indication of the expected association.
Re Claim 61, the combined teachings disclose the position estimation entity of claim 60, Pan discloses further comprising: means for receiving, from the UE, a UE Tx TEG report for the position estimation procedure (UE reports the Tx TEG information with port information to the gNB/TRP or LMF [0053]).
Re Claim 62, the combined teachings disclose the position estimation entity of claim 60, Hasegawa discloses wherein the indication of the expected association is further received in conjunction with an associated confidence level (WTRU may indicate the validity of TEG information to the network. The indication may be provided in TEG reporting [0243]).
Claim(s) 11, 14-15, 26, 39, 42-43, 54 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Pan et al. (US 2024/0187169 A1) (Pan herein after) and Hasegawa et al. (US 2023/0388959 A1) (Hasegawa herein after), further in view of Si et al. (US 2024/0031934 A1) (Si herein after).
Re Claims 11 and 39, the combined teachings disclose the method of claim 1 and the UE of claim 29, except wherein the SRS corresponds to an instance of a semi-persistent (SP) SRS.
However, Si disclose a positioning method comprising SRS resource configuration further includes the number of symbols of SRS resources and an initial symbol. For the aperiodic SRS, the SRS resource configuration includes a slot offset. For the semi-persistent and periodic SRSs, the SRS resource configuration includes a period and a slot offset, and the period is in slots. In addition, the SRS resource configuration further includes an SRS spatial relation SRS-SpatialRelationInfoPos. Reference signals in the spatial relation may be a Synchronization Signal and PBCH block (SSB), a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) and an SRS, and an SSB of a neighboring cell and a downlink reference signal for positioning (PRS) ([0084]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious at the time the invention was made to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify method and system of the combined teachings, by making use of the technique taught by Si, in order to improve the positioning estimation quality.
Both references are within the same field of telecommunication, and in particular of positioning estimation, the modification does not change a fundamental operating principle of the combined teachings, nor does the combined teachings teach away from the modification (the combined teachings merely discloses a preferred embodiment). The combination has a reasonable expectation of success in that the modifications can be made using conventional and well known engineering and/or programming techniques, the method and system taught by Si is not altered and continues to perform the same function as separately, and the resultant combination produces the highly predictable result of wherein the SRS corresponds to an instance of a semi-persistent (SP) SRS.
Re Claims 14 and 42, the combined teachings disclose the method of claim 1 and the UE of claim 29, except wherein the SRS corresponds to an aperiodic (AP) SRS.
However, Si disclose a positioning method comprising SRS resource configuration further includes the number of symbols of SRS resources and an initial symbol. For the aperiodic SRS, the SRS resource configuration includes a slot offset. For the semi-persistent and periodic SRSs, the SRS resource configuration includes a period and a slot offset, and the period is in slots. In addition, the SRS resource configuration further includes an SRS spatial relation SRS-SpatialRelationInfoPos. Reference signals in the spatial relation may be a Synchronization Signal and PBCH block (SSB), a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) and an SRS, and an SSB of a neighboring cell and a downlink reference signal for positioning (PRS) ([0084]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious at the time the invention was made to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify method and system of the combined teachings, by making use of the technique taught by Si, in order to improve the positioning estimation quality.
Both references are within the same field of telecommunication, and in particular of positioning estimation, the modification does not change a fundamental operating principle of the combined teachings, nor does the combined teachings teach away from the modification (the combined teachings merely discloses a preferred embodiment). The combination has a reasonable expectation of success in that the modifications can be made using conventional and well known engineering and/or programming techniques, the method and system taught by Si is not altered and continues to perform the same function as separately, and the resultant combination produces the highly predictable result of wherein the SRS corresponds to an aperiodic (AP) SRS.
Re Claims 15 and 43, the combined teachings disclose the method of claim 14 and the UE of claim 42, Pan discloses receiving a configuration of the SRS for the position estimation procedure, wherein the indication of the expected association between the at least one UE Tx TEG and the SRS is transmitted in response to the configuration (the UE reports the UE capability to the LMF, the UE can receive the SRS configuration first [0066]).
Re Claims 26 and 54, the combined teachings disclose the method of claim 18 and the position estimation entity of claim 46, except wherein the SRS corresponds to an instance of a semi-persistent (SP) SRS, or wherein the SRS corresponds to an aperiodic (AP) SRS.
However, Si disclose a positioning method comprising SRS resource configuration further includes the number of symbols of SRS resources and an initial symbol. For the aperiodic SRS, the SRS resource configuration includes a slot offset. For the semi-persistent and periodic SRSs, the SRS resource configuration includes a period and a slot offset, and the period is in slots. In addition, the SRS resource configuration further includes an SRS spatial relation SRS-SpatialRelationInfoPos. Reference signals in the spatial relation may be a Synchronization Signal and PBCH block (SSB), a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) and an SRS, and an SSB of a neighboring cell and a downlink reference signal for positioning (PRS) ([0084]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious at the time the invention was made to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify method and system of the combined teachings, by making use of the technique taught by Si, in order to improve the positioning estimation quality.
Both references are within the same field of telecommunication, and in particular of positioning estimation, the modification does not change a fundamental operating principle of the combined teachings, nor does the combined teachings teach away from the modification (the combined teachings merely discloses a preferred embodiment). The combination has a reasonable expectation of success in that the modifications can be made using conventional and well known engineering and/or programming techniques, the method and system taught by Si is not altered and continues to perform the same function as separately, and the resultant combination produces the highly predictable result of wherein the SRS corresponds to an instance of a semi-persistent (SP) SRS, or wherein the SRS corresponds to an aperiodic (AP) SRS.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Fang et al. (US 2024/0179670 A1) – positioning method and apparatus utilizing timing error group
Cha et al. (US 2023/0300777 A1) – method for transmitting and receiving signal in wireless communication include positioning reference signals
Zhou et al. (US 2022/0357420 A1) – accuracy and latency improvement for REL-17 NR positioning
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/KENNETH T LAM/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2631