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 § 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(s) 1, 3, 10-11, and 14-15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang et al. (US 2021/0058889 A1) in view of Baek et al. (US 2022/0279581 A1).
Regarding claim(s) 1 and 14, Zhang discloses:
a user equipment ("UE") apparatus (fig.1 element 104), comprising:
a transceiver (fig.3 element 354 depicts a transceiver); and
a processor (fig.3 element 359 which is a processor) coupled to the transceiver (fig.3 the transceivers which are coupled to the processor), the processor configured to cause the apparatus to:
perform positioning procedures (par.[0002] which describes positioning in a wireless communications network. Par.[0006] which describes TRP and UEs which perform positioning) over an unlicensed band (par.[0006] which describes the reception at the UE of Positioning Reference Signal (PRS) from Transmission Reception Points (TRP) over an unlicensed 5G radio band. That is, the TRP are configured to transmit to the UE over unlicensed frequency bands.) based on a configured channel access priority class ("CAPC") for positioning (par.[0017] which recites, in part, “transmitting the sequence of PRSs may include contending for channel access on the unlicensed 5G NR radio band using a category-4 LBT channel access mechanism for a highest-priority traffic class”);
receive a predetermined window size of a measurement window for positioning reference signal reception (par.[0017] which recites, in part, “In some instances, the received PRS configuration may allocate a first PRS window to the UE for PRS transmissions within a time period”), a burst configuration (par.[0023] which recites, in part, “The PRS configuration may include a bandwidth, a subframe offset, a periodicity, a duration, a muting pattern, and a muting sequence periodicity of the corresponding TRP.”), and a listen-before-talk ("LBT") occasion within the window (par.[0025] which recites, in part, “The received PRS configuration may allocate a first CET window for PRS transmissions from the UE within each of number of time periods, and may allocate one or more other CET windows for PRS transmissions from one or more wireless nodes within each of the number of time periods.”. The window being a time period for reception of the PRS from the network which comprises a LBT occasion, wherein the UE may contend for the unlicensed medium) from the location server based on an available reception opportunity to be measured and processed over the unlicensed band (fig.6a which depicts the TX-Device 602 forwarding the assistance data to RX Device 601. The TX-Device 602 being a location server, see par.[0116] wherein the assistance data comprises the PRS configuration, par.[0007]); and
perform positioning reference signal ("PRS") measurement based on the measurement window, the burst configuration, and the LBT occasion (fig.6a the location server transmits the location request and device transmits the PRSs in the window, based on the configuration and determine the RSTD and forward that information back to the network par.[0118 – 0121]).
While the disclosure of Zhang substantially discloses the claimed invention, it may not explicitly disclose:
the CAPC corresponding to different positioning service levels;
In an analogous art, the disclosure of Baek teaches:
the CAPC corresponding to different positioning service levels (par.[0357] which recites, in part, “The MCOT may be determined according to channel access priority for RTT positioning. In this case, the channel access priority may be adjusted and received from a location server/LMF and/or a serving AN or may be predefined. For example, the UE, the location server, the LMF, and/or the serving AN may lower priority for general positioning while increasing priority for positioning for emergency or urgent situations.”. That is, different positioning service levels receive different channel access priority based on the type of positioning).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the instant application to combine the teachings of Zhang for unlicensed positioning with the disclosure Baek for channel access priority. The motivation/suggestion would have been to give greater channel access to positioning purposes of a higher priority such as an emergency over traditional positioning as an emergency or other high priority positioning scenarios require faster or more readily available channel access opportunities.
Regarding claim 3, Zhang discloses:
wherein the processor is configured to cause the apparatus to perform DL-PRS burst measurements and jointly process the measurements over multiple licensed carriers, unlicensed carriers, or combination thereof (par.[0008] which recites, in part, “the method also may include receiving a location measurement request over a channel of a 5G NR access network prior to receiving the location assistance data. In some instances, the channel may be a vehicle-to everything (V2X) frequency subband of the 5G NR access network, the unlicensed 5G NR radio band, or a licensed 5G NR radio band.”, par.[0120] which recites, in part, “The receiving device 601 may receive a PRS (or a sequence of PRSs) from the second transmitting device 603 (and from one or more of the other candidate TRPs) over an unlicensed radio band, and may determine a number of reference signal time difference (RSTD) measurements based at least in part on the received PRSs.”. That is the UE may receive PRS(s) from a one or more TRP(s) over frequency/time resources in a unlicensed band, which are jointly processed (e.g. the signals from different TRP(s) are received and must be processed) in order to compute the RSTD positioning measurement).
Regarding claim 10, Baek discloses:
wherein the CAPC is defined for a positioning service based on positioning quality-of-service ("QOS") indicators, a positioning procedure, or a combination thereof (par.[0008 and 0120] which describes the CAPC associated with different positioning procedures).
Regarding claim 11, Zhang discloses:
wherein the CAPC is defined for a positioning service based on positioning quality-of-service ("QOS") indicators, a positioning procedure, or a combination thereof (as discussed above, the TRP sends the PRS(s) to the UE in a COT which is a period for the UE to receive within the COT and a window or a period wherein the UE may measure the PRS(s) which are sent from the one or more TRP).
Regarding claim 15, Zhang discloses:
a network entity (fig.3 depicts a base station 310) apparatus, comprising:
a transceiver (fig.3 depicts the transceiver 318); and
a processor (fig.3 element 375) coupled to the transceiver (fig.3 depicts the processor coupled to the transceiver), the processor configured to cause the apparatus to:
generate and transmit, to the UE, a downlink positioning reference signal ("DL-PRS") resource configuration (par.[0011] describes the PRS resource configuration); and
transmit, to the UE, a request to perform positioning measurements (fig.6a the TX Device 602 which is a network entity transmits a location request to the RX Device 601 which is a User Equipment, par.[0119]) over an unlicensed band according to the DL-PRS resource configuration (fig.6a the RX-Device 601 teaches the reception of PRS(s) based on the configuration, par.[0120] which teaches the PRS(s) sent over the unlicensed band from a one or more Transmission Reception Points), the request comprising a configured channel access priority class ("CAPC") for positioning (par.[0017] which recites, in part, “transmitting the sequence of PRSs may include contending for channel access on the unlicensed 5G NR radio band using a category-4 LBT channel access mechanism for a highest-priority traffic class”), a predetermined window size of a measurement window for positioning reference signal reception (par.[0017] which recites, in part, “In some instances, the received PRS configuration may allocate a first PRS window to the UE for PRS transmissions within a time period”), a burst configuration (par.[0023] which recites, in part, “The PRS configuration may include a bandwidth, a subframe offset, a periodicity, a duration, a muting pattern, and a muting sequence periodicity of the corresponding TRP.” The muting pattern and sequence correspond to a burst/sequence of transmissions, par.[0120] which recites, in part, “The receiving device 601 may receive a PRS (or a sequence of PRSs) from the second transmitting device 603 (and from one or more of the other candidate TRPs) over an unlicensed radio band,”, par.[0127] which recites, in part, “The transmitting device 621 may transmit a sequence of PRSs over an unlicensed radio band based on the determined schedule”), and a listen-before-talk ("LBT") occasion within the window (par.[0025] which recites, in part, “The received PRS configuration may allocate a first CET window for PRS transmissions from the UE within each of number of time periods, and may allocate one or more other CET windows for PRS transmissions from one or more wireless nodes within each of the number of time periods.”. The window being a time period for reception of the PRS from the network which comprises a LBT occasion, wherein the UE may contend for the unlicensed medium).
While the disclosure of Zhang substantially discloses the claimed invention, it may not explicitly disclose:
the CAPC corresponding to different positioning service levels;
In an analogous art, the disclosure of Baek teaches:
the CAPC corresponding to different positioning service levels (par.[0357] which recites, in part, “The MCOT may be determined according to channel access priority for RTT positioning. In this case, the channel access priority may be adjusted and received from a location server/LMF and/or a serving AN or may be predefined. For example, the UE, the location server, the LMF, and/or the serving AN may lower priority for general positioning while increasing priority for positioning for emergency or urgent situations.”. That is, different positioning service levels receive different channel access priority based on the type of positioning).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the instant application to combine the teachings of Zhang for unlicensed positioning with the disclosure Baek for channel access priority. The motivation/suggestion would have been to give greater channel access to positioning purposes of a higher priority such as an emergency over traditional positioning as an emergency or other high priority positioning scenarios require faster or more readily available channel access opportunities.
Claim(s) 2, 5-6 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang in view of Baek as applied to independent claims 1, and 14-15, in view of Li et al. (US 2023/0117493 A1).
Regarding claim 2, the disclosures of Zhang in view of Baek teach transmitting Positioning Reference Signals (PRS) from a one or more Transmission Reception Points (TRP) as discussed above, but may not disclose:
wherein the processor is configured to cause the apparatus to receive a measurement configuration for downlink positioning reference signal ("DL- PRS") bursts across multiple positioning frequency layers.
In an analogous art, the disclosure of Li teaches:
wherein the processor is configured to cause the apparatus to receive a measurement configuration for downlink positioning reference signal ("DL- PRS") bursts across multiple positioning frequency layers (par.[0052] and fig.4 step 41 the configuration information comprising frequency domain resources, “The frequency domain resources of at least two of the positioning-purpose reference signals are at different positions of one positioning frequency layer.”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the instant application to combine the teachings of Zhang and Baek, with the configuration information of Li. The motivation/suggestion would have been to allow for the network to efficiently manage and for the UE to measure the PRS resource sets.
Regarding claim 5, Zhang discloses:
which are configured in a burst-type manner, to be measured within channel occupancy time ("COT") (par.[0120 - 0121] which recites, in part, “The receiving device 601 may receive a PRS (or a sequence of PRSs) from the second transmitting device 603 (and from one or more of the other candidate TRPs) over an unlicensed radio band, and may determine a number of reference signal time difference (RSTD) measurements based at least in part on the received PRSs.” The PRS(s) signals are sent during a COT and window wherein which the TRP have the ability to occupy the channel and transmit the sequency, the UE in a reception window would receive the PRS, and perform measurement, fig.6a and par.[0016] describes the TRP performing a CCA for occupying a channel to transmit the PRS(s) to the UE in the COT wherein the UE would perform measurement upon reception of the PRS(s) in the COT).
Regarding claim 6, Zhang discloses:
wherein the DL-PRS burst measurement configuration is applicable to the reference signal time difference ("RSTD"), UE receiving-transmitting time difference, DL reference signal received power ("DL-RSRP") measurements, or a combination thereof (Fig.6a which depicts the UE performing the RSTD measurements based on the reception of the PRS(s) from the one or more TRP(s) in the wireless network).
Regarding claim 7, Baek discloses:
wherein the processor is configured to cause the apparatus to receive the DL-PRS burst measurement configuration via a dedicated long-term evolution ("LTE") positioning protocol, a positioning system information broadcast message, or a combination thereof (fig.17 and par.[0071] which discloses the LTE positioning protocol).
Regarding claim 8, Zhang discloses:
wherein the processor is configured to cause the apparatus to receive the DL-PRS burst measurement configuration at one time instance or in a periodic manner (par.[0023] which recites, in part, “The PRS configuration may include a bandwidth, a subframe offset, a periodicity, a duration, a muting pattern, and a muting sequence periodicity of the corresponding TRP.)
Claim(s) 4 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang in view of Baek as applied to independent claim 3 in view of Barbu et al. (WO 2022/233838 A1).
Regarding claim 4, the disclosures of Zhang and Baek describe each and every limitation of the independent claims, and claim 3, but may not disclose:
wherein the processor is configured to cause the apparatus to receive an updated quasi-colocation assumption configuration to perform the positioning measurements over the unlicensed band.
In an analogous art, the disclosure of Barbu teaches:
wherein the processor is configured to cause the apparatus to receive an updated quasi-colocation assumption configuration to perform the positioning measurements over the unlicensed band (par.[0046] which recites, in part, “In some example embodiments, the gNB/LMF may have a new quasi-colocation (QCL) type (i.e., QCL-Type-E), which may tell the UE that it can assume that the same RX beam will work for two PRS in different carriers, or that the TX beam is nested inside of the other one in the spatial domain. According to certain example embodiments, this may apply to both the serving gNB and the neighboring gNBs.”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the instant application to combine the teachings of Zhang and Baek, with the disclosure of Barbu for transmitting a new/updated QCL. The motivation/suggestion would have been to tell the UE that it can assume that the same RX beam will work for two PRS in different carriers, or that the TX beam is nested inside of the other one in the spatial domain.
Claim(s) 13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang in view of Baek as applied to independent claim 1 in view of Duan et al. (US 2022/0353718 A1).
Regarding claim 13, the disclosure of Zhang and Baek disclose all of the limitations of the independent claims, but do not disclose:
wherein the processor is configured to cause the apparatus to provide signal indications associated with a positioning measurement indicating whether a full measurement or partial measurement was performed.
In an analogous art, the disclosure of Duan teaches:
wherein the processor is configured to cause the apparatus to provide signal indications associated with a positioning measurement indicating whether a full measurement or partial measurement was performed (par.[0030] which recites indications of a partial and/or full measurement in the measurement reports).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the instant application to combine the teachings of Zhang and Baek for the reasons discussed above, in view of the disclosure of Duan. The motivation/suggestion would have been to provide a mechanism for indicating to a receiver of a report of which type of measurements were performed without adding significant signaling overhead to the transmission.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 9 and 12 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JAMAAL HENSON whose telephone number is (571)272-5339. The examiner can normally be reached M-Thu: 7:30 am - 6:30 pm.
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JAMAAL HENSON
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2411
/JAMAAL HENSON/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2411