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
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.
Claim(s) 1-6, 9-17, 19-30 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Yao (US 20240236923).
Regarding claim 1, Yao discloses a method at a wireless device of performing integrated radio frequency (RF) sensing and communications (fig. 2), the method comprising:
receiving a guard interval integrated sensing and communications (GI-ISAC) configuration at the wireless device from a configuring node of a wireless network (fig. 3, [0171] [0177-0189], determine configuration information for an environment reconstruction sensing signal according to the environment reconstruction sensing requirement; step 313, receive the configuration information for the environment reconstruction sensing signal sent by the network node; the configuration information for the sensing signal includes at least one of the following: a guard interval and a newly defined communication sensing integrated signal, that is, GI-ISAC), wherein the GI-ISAC configuration is indicative of a set of one or more parameters describing characteristics of a GI-ISAC waveform to be used by the wireless device for RF sensing ([0177]-[0189], the configuration information for the sensing signal includes at least one of the following parameters: a waveform, such as orthogonal frequency division multiplex (OFDM), an OFDM signal cyclic prefix (CP) can play the role of minimum guard interval, a guard interval: a time interval between a moment at which sending of a signal ends to a moment at which a latest echo signal of the signal is received; a newly defined communication sensing integrated signal, and a related sequence format and other information), wherein the set of one or more parameters describing characteristics of the GI-ISAC waveform is based at least in part on orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) communication data symbols used by the wireless network ([0177]-[0189], the configuration information for the sensing signal includes (or is based on) at least one of the following parameters, a waveform, such as orthogonal frequency division multiplex (OFDM), an OFDM signal cyclic prefix (CP) can play the role of minimum guard interval) and
performing an RF sensing function with the wireless device in accordance with the GI-ISAC configuration ([0215][0216], the sensing associated UE sends a measurement or sensing result (after performing) corresponding to the environment reconstruction measurement quantity and/or the common measurement quantity to the sensing network function/sensing network element).
Claims 12, 21, 27 are rejected similarly with claim 1 noting that Yao discloses a processor, memory and transceivers (figs. 7-9).
Regarding claims 2, 13, 22, 28, Yao discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the set of one or more parameters describing characteristics of the GI-ISAC waveform defines a guard interval (GI) pattern of the GI-ISAC waveform ([0177], one parameter is related to a guard interval, may be calculated by 2dmax/c, dmax being the maximum sensing distance (belonging to the sensing requirement), c is the light speed), wherein the GI pattern includes:
a coherent processing interval (CPI),
GI content within a CPI,
one or more GI locations within a CPI,
a duration of a GI ([0177], a time interval or duration: between a moment at which sending of a signal ends to a moment at which a latest echo signal of the signal is received, where this parameter is proportional to a maximum sensing distance), OR
any combination thereof.
It is noted that the applicant uses selective language in this claim and the examiner is only showing one of the claimed options.
Claims 3-5 and 14-16 are rejected similarly since they are not the one of the claimed options.
Regarding claims 6, 17, 23, Yao discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the GI-ISAC waveform comprises an integrated sensing and communications (ISAC) symbol ([0177-189], includes a newly defined communication sensing integrated signal, and a related sequence) comprising an OFDM data sequence ([0177-190], configuration information includes an OFDM waveform format or data sequence) or a sensing symbol.
Regarding claims 8, 19, 24, 29, Yao discloses the method of claim 1, further comprising, prior to receiving the GI-ISAC configuration, sending a capability report indicative of one or more capabilities of the wireless device for generating the GI-ISAC waveform to perform the RF sensing function ([0143-145], exchange sensing capability of the UE, determining a sensing method used according to a type of a possible sensing client, required sensing QoS, a UE sensing capability).
Regarding claims 9, 25, Yao discloses the method of claim 1, wherein performing the RF sensing function comprises transmitting an RF signal with the GI-ISAC waveform, receiving an RF signal with the GI-ISAC waveform, or both ([0215], the UE participates in the measurement, for example including at least one of sending by a base station and receiving by UE, sending by UE and receiving by a base station, spontaneous sending or receiving by UE). It is noted that the applicant uses selective language in this claim and the examiner is only showing one of the claimed options.
Regarding claims 10, , Yao discloses the method of claim 9, wherein performing the RF sensing function comprises: receiving the RF signal with the GI-ISAC waveform; performing a measurement of the received RF signal; and sending a report indicative of the measurement to the configuring node (fig. 3, step 314, [0215][0216], the UE participates in the measurement, for example including at least one of sending by a base station and receiving by UE, sending by UE and receiving by a base station, spontaneous sending or receiving by UE; the sensing associated UE sends a measurement result corresponding to the environment reconstruction measurement quantity and/or the common measurement quantity to the sensing network function/sensing network element).
Regarding claims 11, 20, 26, 30, Yao discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the wireless device comprises a user equipment (UE) or a base station (fig. 2). It is noted that the applicant uses selective language in this claim and the examiner is only showing one of the claimed options.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claim(s) 7, 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yao in view of Ma (CN 115811454, Machine translation version is used).
Regarding claims 7, 18, Yao discloses the method of claim 6,
Yao does not explicitly disclose wherein the ISAC symbol comprises the sensing symbol, the sensing symbol comprises a linear frequency-modulated (LFM) waveform or non-linear frequency-modulated (NLFM) waveform whose characteristics are dependent on a CP-OFDM configuration.
Ma discloses wherein the ISAC symbol comprises the sensing symbol, the sensing symbol comprises a linear frequency-modulated (LFM) waveform or non-linear frequency-modulated (NLFM) waveform whose characteristics are dependent on a CP-OFDM configuration (MA, [0067], sensing signal comprises but not limited to signal based on FMCW, based on the signal of the pulse, based on the signal of the low correlation sequence. Here, the triangular wave linear frequency modulation signal as an example, it is assumed that in one OFDM symbol time Tsym=1/120ms, comprising a sawtooth wave linear frequency modulation signal).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the time of effective filing to combine the teachings of integrated sensing and communication as given by Yao with the teachings of the non-linear frequency-modulated waveform given by Ma. The motivation for doing so would have been to improve the accuracy of the sensing signal collection (Ma, Abstract).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ZHENSHENG ZHANG whose telephone number is (571)270-1985. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Thursday 8:00am-6:00pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Michael Thier can be reached at 571-272-2832. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/ZHENSHENG ZHANG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2474
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