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 .
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed "Remarks" on 07/06/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Applicant alleges that: Regarding independent claims 1, 19, and 20, “Roy does not disclose or suggest at least the features of "“receive, ...from the sensing entity, a second configuration to perform one or more second sensing operations associated with a second sensing session during the first time period," and "perform, during the first time period, the one or more first sensing operations, the one or more second sensing operations, or both based on one or more capabilities of the sensing node to support simultaneous sensing sessions,"” and “There is simply no disclosure or suggestion in Roy that the WTRU is configured to perform sensing operations for two different sensing sessions during the same period of time”. However, Roy teaches as such depicted in FIG. 4. Referring to FIG. 4 and [0285] - [0286], the WTRU receives from the BS, BS read as sensing node, commands to activate sensing measurements in operation 408, “The WTRU may receive a configuration response from the gNB indicating and/or including one or more granted sensing configurations (408),” i.e. receiving from the sensing entity a plurality of sensing sessions to be carried out by the WTRU sensing device(s). Additionally, “the WTRU may transmit the sensing signals on the allocated resources in the activated/granted sensing configuration (410),” i.e. operation 410 may include multiple sensing signals occurring at the same time, i.e. “performing sensing operations for two different sensing sessions during the same period of time.” Multiple sensing occurrences/sessions may be occurring (at the same time period) at operation 410/510, see FIG. 4/5. Additionally, the sensing sessions are performed in association with the capabilities of the sensing node, see [0285] and [0311].
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.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by Roy et al. (US 2023/0086144 A1, hereinafter Roy).
Regarding claim 1, Roy teaches a sensing node ([0022] the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, 102d, (shown in FIG. 1) any of which may be referred to as a “station” and/or a “STA”, may be configured to transmit and/or receive wireless signals and may include (or be) a user equipment (UE), a wireless sensor, or a plurality of other listed devices), comprising: one or more memories ([Figure 1B, 130/132] and [0036] non-removable memory 130, removable memory 132); one or more transceivers ([Figure 1B, 120] and [0036] transceiver 120); and one or more processors communicatively coupled to the one or more memories and the one or more transceivers, the one or more processors, either alone or in combination ([Figure 1B, 118] and [0036] processor 118, depicted to be communicatively coupled with previously described elements), configured to: receive, via the one or more transceivers, from a sensing entity, a first configuration to perform one or more first sensing operations ([0311] depicted in FIG. 5, the WTRU may receive a configuration response from the gNB with one or more of the granted sensing configurations (508)) associated with a first sensing session during a first time period ([0311] the configuration response may include a list of time offsets. The WTRU may use the time offsets to determine when to activate the allocated resources, and the WTRU may work in requested measurement cycle/session(s) described in [0333], i.e. the association with a first sensing session and a time period); receive, via the one or more transceivers, from the sensing entity, a second configuration to perform one or more second sensing operations associated with a second sensing session during the first time period ([0312] depicted in FIG. 5, the gNB may switch the sensing configurations (516), the WTRU may activate sensing signal transmission using the new resource configuration, i.e. configuration to perform a second sensing session, and "information indicating a change from the first sensing configuration to a second sensing configuration of the plurality of sensing configurations; receiving, from the network element, fourth information indicating an acknowledgment of the change from the first sensing configuration to the second sensing configuration," i.e. the second sensing operation may be based on configurations such as time from the first sensing operation configuration, and therefore associated with the first time period as described in [0120]); and perform, during the first time period, the one or more first sensing operations, the one or more second sensing operations, or both based on one or more capabilities of the sensing node ([Figure 5, 510/520] operations 510/520 depict the transmission of a plurality of sensing operations based on the capabilities of the sensing node transmitted in 506) to support simultaneous sensing sessions ([0311] depicted in FIG. 5 the WTRU may transmit sensing signals on the allocated resources in the activated/granted sensing configuration (510), and the WTRU may make backscatter measurements (512), i.e. simultaneous sensing operations).
Regarding claim 2, Roy teaches terminate the one or more first sensing operations; and perform the one or more second sensing operations ([0312] depicted in FIG. 5 after receiving a switching request/command (e.g., an activation/reconfiguration request, a downlink MAC-CE, etc.) from the gNB to switch the sensing configurations (516), the WTRU may activate sensing signal transmission using the new resource configuration (e.g., for resolution 1) and may deactivate the current sensing signal transmissions, e.g., for the resolution K, and [0267] describes "if the observed interference exceeds a maximum threshold, then the WTRU may determine to terminate the sensing," i.e. the ability to deactivate or terminate a sensing command, it should also be noted the WTRU may indicate to the BS the command to suspend/terminate/continue a resource set configuration, as shown in FIG. 4).
Regarding claim 3, Roy teaches the one or more first sensing operations are terminated and the one or more second sensing operations are performed based on a priority of the first sensing session being lower than a priority of the second sensing session ([0234] the WTRU may determine multiple configurations, where for example one or more configurations may be able to fulfill the sensing requirements fully or at least partially. The list may be ordered, for example based on priority (e.g., WTRU’s first choice, second choice, etc.), i.e. sensing operation transmissions may be based on priority).
Regarding claim 4, Roy teaches receive, via the one or more transceivers, from the sensing entity, the priority of the first sensing session and the priority of the second sensing session ([0144] the WTRU may make such determination based on a request from higher layers, a configured sensing timing and/or responsive to a determination that sensing measurements based on the current resolution level fail to satisfy a threshold, and the priority described in claim 3 may be based on a threshold value, which may be received from the sensing entity, [0267] further describes "if the observed interference exceeds a maximum threshold, then the WTRU may determine to terminate the sensing. The value of the thresholds may be communicated to the WTRU").
Regarding claim 5, Roy teaches suspend the one or more first sensing operations; and perform the one or more second sensing operations ([0312] depicted in FIG. 5 after receiving a switching request/command (e.g., an activation/reconfiguration request, a downlink MAC-CE, etc.) from the gNB to switch the sensing configurations (516), the WTRU may activate sensing signal transmission using the new resource configuration (e.g., for resolution 1) and may deactivate the current sensing signal transmissions, e.g., for the resolution K).
Regarding claim 6, Roy teaches resume the one or more first sensing operations based on completion, termination, or suspension of the one or more second sensing operations; resume the one or more first sensing operations based on signaling from the sensing entity; or any combination thereof ([0156] the WTRU may start/continue or stop transmissions (e.g., sensing signal transmissions) using the sensing configuration in accordance with the activation indication or deactivation indication).
Regarding claim 7, Roy teaches suspend the one or more second sensing operations ([Figure 5, 516] depicts receiving from the BS an indication to suspend the first sensing operation, and because a plurality of sensing operations are possible as described in [0138], it is understood that the operation being suspended may be the second sensing operation); and perform the one or more first sensing operations ([0157] the WTRU may start/continue or stop measurements associated with a sensing signal transmission, for example when the WTRU starts/continues or stops the transmission based on receipt of an activation indication or deactivation indication, and [Figure 5, 520] shows the activation of a second sensing operation, which may be reactivate/start/continue the first sensing operation because a plurality of sensing operations are possible as described in [0138]).
Regarding claim 8, Roy teaches receive, via the one or more transceivers, an indication to suspend the one or more first sensing operations ([Figure 5, 516] depicts receiving from the BS an indication to suspend the first sensing operation).
Regarding claim 9, Roy teaches the indication is received via: radio resource control (RRC) signaling, non-access stratum (NAS) signaling, medium access control control element (MAC-CE) signaling, downlink control information (DCI) signaling, or any combination thereof ([0156] the WTRU may start/continue or stop transmissions (e.g., sensing signal transmissions) using the sensing configuration in accordance with the activation indication or deactivation indication, respectively, for example, after a configured time offset from the receipt of the activation indication or deactivation indication that may be received in a MAC-CE, i.e. a medium access control control element (MAC-CE) signaling).
Regarding claim 10, Roy teaches the one or more first sensing operations are suspended and performed according to a first periodicity, and the one or more second sensing operations are performed and suspended according to a second periodicity ([0133] the sensing configurations may indicate or include any of a number of sensing cycles, a time duration, a periodicity of sensing cycles, one or more directions of sensing, a beam width of a directional transmission, a number of repetitions, a bandwidth, a bandwidth span, a number of physical resource blocks (PRBs), a number of resource elements (REs), a density in a frequency domain, and a transmit power, i.e. sensing operations work in association with periodicity), such that the one or more first sensing operations do not overlap with the one or more second sensing operations (FIG. 5 depicts the sensing operations in accordance with the first sensing operation may be performed via backscatter measurements (512), i.e. backscatter measurements are performed to prevent overlap).
Regarding claim 11, Roy teaches perform the one or more first sensing operations in one or more first sensing frequency layers (SFLs) ([0204] a JCS configuration response may include one or more sensing configurations. Any of the sensing configurations may include one or more of the following parameters: time-frequency resources in association with higher layer signaling, and [0142] describes the WTRU may report the measurements related to the transmitted sensing signal, e.g., to upper layers, wherein transmission is not limited by frequency as described in [0025]); and perform the one or more second sensing operations in one or more second SFLs that do not overlap the one or more first SFLs (FIG. 5 depicts the sensing operations in accordance with the first sensing operation may be performed via backscatter measurements (512), i.e. backscatter measurements are performed to prevent overlap).
Regarding claim 12, Roy teaches perform the one or more first sensing operations in one or more first SFLs; and perform the one or more second sensing operations in one or more second SFLs that at least partially overlap the one or more first SFLs ([0186] Each sensing cycle involves (i) a transmission period in which the WTRU may transmit one or more sensing signals, and (ii) a measurement period in which the WTRU may make measurements (e.g., backscatter measurements) on the transmitted sensing signals. The measurement period may partially overlap with the transmission period such that the WTRU may begin making measurements of the sensing signals already transmitted prior to all of the sensing signals for such cycle being transmitted, i.e. SFLs may partially overlap).
Regarding claim 13, Roy teaches the one or more second SFLs are the same as the one or more first SFLs ([0080] describes the ability to consider technologies that provide communications and sensing functionality using the same spectrum/frequency bands and the same hardware (transmitter, receiver, etc.), i.e. the ability to have the same SFLs).
Regarding claim 14, Roy teaches a minimum time spacing between first sensing reference signals transmitted or received by the sensing node for the first sensing session and second sensing reference signals transmitted or received by the sensing node for the second sensing session ([0174] describes how a set parameter may include a periodicity of sensing cycles (e.g., minimum periodicity of sensing cycles), i.e. a minimum time spacing) satisfies a threshold, a physical layer configuration of the first sensing reference signals and the second sensing reference signals is the same, or any combination thereof ([0286] depicted in FIG. 4, after observing an average interference (over all the beams/repetitions) in a sensing cycle exceeding threshold k-1 but below threshold k, the WTRU may determine to switch the sensing to the lowest resolution level (e.g., resolution 1) (414). The WTRU may send an activation/reconfiguration request (e.g., using an UL MAC-CE) to switch the current/requested sensing configurations (416). [0272-0273] further describes how thresholds may be used in association with sensing measurements).
Regarding claim 15, Roy teaches transmit, via the one or more transceivers, the one or more capabilities to the sensing entity ([0285] referring to FIG. 4/5, the WTRU may be configured with gNB capability of different resource configurations to support signal sensing transmissions (e.g., for JCS-RS transmissions) along with a list of thresholds used to determine switching (402/502)).
Regarding claim 16, Roy teaches receive, via the one or more transceivers, from the sensing entity, a request for the one or more capabilities ([0166] the WTRU may indicate its intent or capability to make such transmissions and/or related measurements in the JCS resource request, capability signaling/message or other signaling/message).
Regarding claim 17, Roy teaches the one or more first sensing operations comprise transmitting one or more first sensing reference signals, obtaining sensing measurements of one or more second sensing reference signals, or both ([0311] FIG. 5 depicts the first sensing operation transmitting a plurality of sensing reference signals, i.e. the WTRU may transmit a plurality of sensing signals on the allocated resources in the activated/granted sensing configuration (510), and the WTRU may make a plurality of backscatter measurements (512)), and the one or more second sensing operations comprise transmitting one or more third sensing reference signals, obtaining sensing measurements of one or more fourth sensing reference signals, or both (FIG. 5 depicts the repeated process as described above for a second sensing operation comprising a plurality of sensing reference signals (522)).
Regarding claim 18, Roy teaches the sensing node is: a user equipment (UE), a transmission-reception point (TRP), a roadside unit (RSU), or a sensing reference unit (SRU) ([0022] the WTRUs 102a, 102b, 102c, 102d, (shown in FIG. 1) any of which may be referred to as a “station” and/or a “STA”, may be configured to transmit and/or receive wireless signals and may include (or be) a user equipment (UE), a wireless sensor, or a plurality of other listed devices).
Regarding claim 19, the claimed limitations of claim are rejected as the same reasons as set forth in claim 1.
Regarding claim 20, the claimed limitations of claim are rejected as the same reasons as set forth in claim 1.
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MATTHEW JAMES DWYER whose telephone number is (571)272-5121. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 6 a.m. - 3 p.m. EST.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Yuwen Pan can be reached at (571) 272-7855. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/MATTHEW JAMES DWYER/Examiner, Art Unit 2649
/GEORGE ENG/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2699
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