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 § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 9-11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention. Claims 9-11 recites the limitation "said CPS calibration process" in the claims. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
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.
Claim(s) 1-2, 4, 6-8 and 12-14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a1) as being anticipated by Davydov (US-20120257575-A1).
Regarding claims 1, 4, Davydov discloses a method (Fig. 3-4) and system (Fig. 2) of a single site of a radio network (site eNB 112 in Fig. 2); said system comprises Distributed Antenna System (DAS)( a distributed antenna system, Abstract) and a radio unit;
said Distributed Antenna System (DAS) comprises at least three antenna elements (three sectors 212, 214 and 216); said antenna elements being deployed in said single site apart from each other and being in connectivity with said Radio Unit with a plurality of radio frontend receivers each per antenna element;
said radio unit is configured for receiving, replicas of a radio signal transmitted by a target end terminal (eNB is in communication with UEs in its target/coverage area 200, Fig. 2 and paragraph 0019), each of said replicas (an eNodeB and one or more RRH infrastructure nodes may behave as a distributed antenna system (DAS) implementing multiple-input, multiple-output (MIMO) signal processing to implement Coordinated MultiPoint communications, paragraph 0014)(each RRH receives replica of signals from UEs) being received from an antenna element of said distributed Rx antenna; By FFT (Fast Fourier Transform)(calculating pre-coding vectors for each spatial stream for each of the infrastructure nodes 112 and 114, paragraph 0021)(MIMO and 5G OFDM system uses FFT) transforming each of said replicas into a subcarriers complex vector in said frequency domain; wherein each complex element of said complex vector represents a sub carrier of said radio signal; calculating a phase difference between corresponding subcarriers of each pair of said complex vectors (Information carried in such an information element may include the raw phases or phase differences for subcarriers or groups of subcarriers, estimates of time differences between signals coming from different infrastructure nodes 112 and 114 onto the mobile station 124, paragraph 0020) to thereby generating a Phase Difference phasors vector; and calculating, from said phase difference phasors vector a differential time of arrival to, thereby accurately position said user end terminal in accordance with said differential time of arrival measurements (In the downlink, the mobile station 124 may directly estimate the phase differences and/or the time of arrival differences between reference signals coming from different infrastructure nodes 112 and 114, paragraph 0021).
Regarding claim 2, Davydov discloses wherein said transforming comprises sampling and digitalization and conversion to frequency domain (pairs of digits for a linear function as shown in FIG. 5, or a greater set of digits for a more complex function, paragraph 0023, Fig. 5)(phase difference corresponds to subcarrier frequency).
Regarding claims 6, 12-14, Davydov discloses use of internal clock (synchronization of infrastructure nodes 112 and 114, Paragraph 0022) and receiving BCH signal (mobile station or user equipment receives pilot signals from two or more infrastructure nodes in a distributed antenna system, Abstract) in addition to the claimed feature in the rejection of claims 1 and 4 above.
Regarding claim 7, Davydov discloses wherein said positioning sensor comprises a radio receiver (sectors 212-214-216 and RRHs in Fig. 2) and a digital signal processor (see Fig. 6 and paragraphs 0025-0026).
Regarding claim 8, Davydov discloses method of claim 6 further comprising monitoring by a Centralized Cloud Positioning Server linked by a communication channel, said communication channel being wired or Wireless channel; Wherein said Cloud Positioning Server sets at pre-allocated slot time a control signaling including allocated resources for a plurality of User Terminals transmitting in said Slot , said allocation is in time and frequency said frequency being OFDMA symbol and RB’s Subcarriers in frequency for 4G/ 5G, said positioning units return said time of arrival (ToA) measurements in a short message (OFDM implies pre-allocated slot time for uplink control signaling, paragraph 0023).
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) 3, 5, 9, 11, 15-17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Davydov (US-20120257575-A1) in view of Duan (WO-2023211595-A1).
Regarding claims 3, 5, 9, 15 and 17, Davydov discloses all the claim limitations except for using three known location neighboring end terminals to calibrate a target end terminal location. However, Duan teaches use of position device (see 219 in Fig. 360) in a 5G network (The PD 319 may be used for calibration of a positioning session, such as described above with the generation of angle measurements or angle errors for known UE locations, paragraph 0054).
It would have been obvious to modify Davydov with Duan by using the SRS (a base station performing a positioning session may be configured to calculate positioning measurements from one or more reference signals (such as from a sounding reference signal (SRS) on an uplink (UL) from a UE), paragraph 0026) in order to use existing known location of UEs/PDs to refine location of a target terminal.
Regarding claim 11, Duan discloses method of claim 6 wherein for near and non-line of sight – NloS said CPS applies a finger printing algorithm coupled with artificial intelligence learning said ToA fingerprint stamp arriving from said sensors at training time, training begins with known location elements and creates data sets that enable a DL-Deep Learning inference network model for said localization in said coverage area. (the location server may implement one or more machine learning (ML) models to output information regarding objects in the device’s environment based on an input of the CIR measurements to the one or more ML models, paragraph 0109).
Regarding claim 16, Duan discloses wherein the SRS message being transmitted in response to a request from a radio base station (A base station may receive an SRS and generate the desired measurements for the supported positioning technique, paragraph 0069, paragraph 0077).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 10 is 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 HARRY K LIU whose telephone number is (571)270-1338. The examiner can normally be reached on every M-F 10 AM to 6:30 PM.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, please leave a voice message with application serial number and nature of call, a response within 24 hours can be expected during regular business days. Also, the Examiner’s supervisor Vladimir Magloire can be reached at (571)270-5144. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-270-2338.
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/HARRY K LIU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 3645 Tel: (571) 270-1338
Fax: (571) 270-2338
Email: harry.liu@uspto.gov