DETAILED ACTION
This Office action is in respond to the application filed on 18 March 2024.
Claims 1-30 are presented for examination.
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.
Claims 1-15, 27-29 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over DA et al. 2020/0408871 A1 and in view of VIVO: “Discussion on potential positioning enhancement”, 3GPP DRAFT; R1-2005381, 08 August 2020, XP051917406, hereafter as VIVO).
As to claim 1, DA discloses, substantially the invention as claimed, including a method of wireless communication performed by a user equipment (UE) (Figures 6, 7, a UE) comprising:
receiving positioning assistance data from a location server, wherein the positioning assistance data identifies one or more first positioning reference signal (PRS) resources for measurement by the UE during a positioning session between the UE and a location server (a positioning server) (Figures 6, 7, and associated paragraphs, the PRS configuration information of cell transmitted by the Positioning to the UE);
receiving post-measurement positioning assistance data from at least one sidelink device located within a threshold distance to the UE, wherein the post-measurement positioning assistance data received from the at least one sidelink device is based on measurements of one or more second PRS resources obtained by the at least one sidelink device during a positioning session of the at least one sidelink device (Figure 6, and associated paragraphs, the last step, the UE exchanges its position information with another UE); and
However, DA does not explicitly disclose the claimed element of “selectively measuring at least a subset of the one or more first PRS resources based on the post-measurement positioning assistance data received from the at least one sidelink device”. It appears DA does not allow the UE to limit the number of PRS resources to be measured and thereafter to limit its power consumption as indicated in DA’s instant paragraphs [118]-[121]. Therefore, DA needs to implement the technical features of how to limit or reduce the power consumption of the UE during a positioning procedure.
VIVO proposes that the UE prioritizes the PRS to be measured based on its approximative position as shown in section, “Priority rules for positioning measurement and report” on pages 12, 13 that is considered for DA’s UE to derive a priority rule for positioning measurements to be applied by DA’s the UE.
Accordingly, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the wireless communication art before the effective filing date of the claimed to have modified VIVO’s teachings of the priority rules for the UE with the teachings of DA’s, for the purpose of reducing or improving power and resource consumption for the UE as the same as in instant paragraph [154] and instant Figure 10.
Claims 2, 3 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over DA-VIVO as applied to claim 1 above, in view of XIAO et al. US 2022/0297310 A1.
As to claim 2, DA-VIVO does not explicitly disclose the claimed elements of “requesting, by the UE, the post-measurement positioning assistance data from the at least one sidelink device, wherein the UE indicates parameters of the post-measurement positioning assistance data to be transmitted by the at least one sidelink device” (claim 2) and “wherein: the parameters of the post-measurement positioning assistance data indicate PRS resources that are requested for inclusion in the post-measurement positioning assistance data from the at least one sidelink device” (claim 3).
XIAO discloses in figure 1 that, “requesting, by the UE (the first terminal), the post-measurement positioning assistance data from the at least one sidelink device (the second terminal), wherein the UE indicates parameters ([45]) of the post-measurement positioning assistance data to be transmitted by the at least one sidelink device” (Figures 1, 2, and associated paragraphs, [102]-[109]) and “wherein: the parameters of the post-measurement positioning assistance data indicate PRS resources ([108]) that are requested for inclusion in the post-measurement positioning assistance data from the at least one sidelink device” (Figures 1, 2, and associated paragraphs, [102]-[109]).
Accordingly, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the wireless communication art before the effective filing date of the claimed to have modified XIAO’s teachings of the UE requesting the positioning assistance data with the parameter(s) from the sidelink UE with the teachings of DA-VIVO’s, for the purpose of calculating the positioning assistance parameter(s).
As to claim 4, DA-VIVO discloses, receiving post-measurement assistance data from a plurality of sidelink devices; only post-measurement positioning assistance data received from a subset of sidelink devices of the plurality of sidelink devices is used in selectively measuring the subset of the one or more first PRS resources; and the subset of sidelink devices includes fewer sidelink devices than included in the plurality of sidelink devices (DA, [118]-[120]).
As to claim 5, DA-VIVO discloses, selecting the subset of sidelink devices based on one or more signal quality metrics obtained by the UE as a result of measuring one or more reference signals received from the plurality of sidelink devices (DA, [118]-[120]).
As to claim 6, DA-VIVO discloses, reporting the post-measurement positioning assistance data (the RSTD, RSRP, SPRS-CP measurement value) received from the at least one sidelink device to the location server (the positioning server) (DA, Figures 6, 7, and associated paragraphs).
As to claim 7, DA-VIVO discloses, transmitting a set of post-measurement positioning assistance data from the UE to the at least one sidelink device, wherein the set of post-measurement positioning assistance data is based on measurements of one or more PRS resources measured by the UE during a positioning session (DA, Figures 6, 7, and associated paragraphs, [118]-[123]).
As to claim 8, DA-VIVO discloses, prioritizing the one or more second PRS resources to determine the subset of the one or more first PRS resources that are selectively measured by the UE (VIVO, pages 12, 13 for the purpose of reducing or improving power and resource consumption for the UE).
As to claim 9, DA-VIVO discloses, wherein: the one or more second PRS resources are prioritized using signal quality metrics of the one or more second PRS resources in the post-measurement positioning AD (VIVO, pages 12, 13 for the purpose of reducing or improving power and resource consumption for the UE).
As to claim 10, DA-VIVO discloses, wherein the post-measurement positioning assistance data received from the at least one sidelink device includes: a reference signal received power (RSRP) measurement of the one or more second PRS resources obtained by the at least one sidelink device; a reference-signal-time-difference measurement (RSTD) measurement of the one or more second PRS resources obtained by the at least one sidelink device; a line-of-site (LOS) probability of the one or more second PRS resources determined by the at least one sidelink device; a Rx-Rx time difference measurement based on the one or more second PRS resources obtained by the at least one sidelink device; a Rx-Tx time difference measurement based on the one or more second PRS resources obtained by the at least one sidelink device; a reference signal received quality (RSRQ) measurement of the one or more second PRS resources obtained by the at least one sidelink device; an angle-of-arrival measurement of the one or more second PRS resources obtained by the at least one sidelink device; an identifier of a reference transmission/reception point (TRP) serving the at least one sidelink device; one or more multipath profile indicators of the one or more second PRS resources obtained by the at least one sidelink device; or any combination thereof (DA, Figures 6, 7 and associated paragraphs, [132]-[136]).
As to claim 11, DA-VIVO discloses, wherein the one or more multipath profile indicators include: a location of a virtual base station associated with the one or more second PRS resources measured by the at least one sidelink device; a delay spread of the one or more second PRS resources measured by the at least one sidelink device; a Doppler shift of the one or more second PRS resources measured by the at least one sidelink device; a Doppler spread of the one or more second PRS resources measured by the at least one sidelink device; or any combination thereof (DA, Figures 6, 7 and associated paragraphs, [118]-[123]; [132]-[136]).
As to claim 12, DA-VIVO discloses, using the positioning assistance data received from the at least one sidelink device to identify outlier candidates in measurements of the subset of the one or more first PRS resources selectively measured by the UE (VIVO, pages 12, 13 for the purpose of reducing or improving power and resource consumption for the UE).
As to claim 13, DA-VIVO discloses, using the positioning assistance data received from the at least one sidelink device to identify outlier candidates in measurements of the one or more second PRS resources obtained by the at least one sidelink device (VIVO, pages 12, 13 for the purpose of reducing or improving power and resource consumption for the UE).
As to claim 14, DA-VIVO discloses, wherein: the post-measurement positioning assistance data received from the at least one sidelink device is received from the at least one sidelink device in a prioritized order (VIVO, pages 12, 13 for the purpose of reducing or improving power and resource consumption for the UE)..
As to claim 15, DA-VIVO discloses, wherein: the post-measurement positioning assistance data received from the at least one sidelink device is received periodically from the at least one sidelink device, received semi-periodically from the at least one sidelink device, received on-demand from the at least sidelink device in response to one or more requests for post-measurement positioning assistance data by the UE, or any combination thereof (DA, Figures 6, 7 and associated paragraphs, [118]-[123]; [132]-[136]).
Claims 27-29 correspond to the UE claims of the method claims 1, 4, 5; therefore, they are rejected under the same rationale as in the method claims 1, 4, 5 as shown above.
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)(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.
Claims 16, 20, 21, 24, 30 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by ZHANG et al. US 20210160810 A1.
As to claim 16, ZHANG discloses a method of wireless communication performed by a first user equipment (UE), comprising:
measuring one or more first positioning reference signal (PRS) resources in a positioning session (a sensing window, [56], [57]) between a location server and the first UE (Figures 6, 7 and associated paragraphs, “performing the measurement based on PRSs”, [264]);
sending (sharing) post-measurement positioning assistance data to a second UE (other UE(s)), wherein the post-measurement positioning assistance data sent to the second UE is based on measurements of the one or more first PRS resources obtained during the positioning session between the location server and the first UE (Figures 6, 7 and associated paragraphs, “after measuring the measurements about the positioning, the UE can share these measurements with other UEs”, [264]).
As to claim 20, ZHANG discloses, wherein: only post-measurement positioning assistance data for measurements of the one or more first PRS resources meeting a threshold signal quality metric are included in the post-measurement positioning assistance data sent to the second UE (detection threshold(s), [186], [204], [225]).
As to claim 21, ZHANG discloses, further comprising reporting the post-measurement positioning assistance data to the location server (detection threshold(s), [186], [204], [225]-[227]).
As to claim 24, ZHANG discloses, wherein the post-measurement positioning assistance data sent to the second UE includes: a reference signal received power (RSRP) (RSRP, [260]-[266], [283], [288]-[289]) measurement of the one or more first PRS resources obtained by the first UE; a reference-signal-time-difference measurement (RSTD) (Time Unit (TU) or OTDOA, [216]-[217], [265], [291]-[294]) measurement of the one or more first PRS resources obtained by the first UE; a line-of-site (LOS) probability of the one or more first PRS resources determined by the first UE; a Rx-Rx time difference measurement based on the one or more PRS first resources obtained by the first UE; a Rx-Tx time difference measurement based on the one or more first PRS resources obtained by the first UE; a reference signal received quality (RSRQ) (RSSI, [260]-[266], [283], [288]-[289]) measurement of the one or more first PRS resources obtained by the first UE; an angle-of-arrival measurement of the one or more first PRS resources obtained by the first UE; an identifier of a reference transmission/reception point (TRP) serving the first UE; a multipath profile indicator of one or more first PRS resources obtained by the first UE; or any combination thereof (Figures 13-19, and associated paragraphs, [288]-[289]).
Claim 30 corresponds to the UE claim of the method claim 16; therefore, it is rejected under the same rationale as in the method claim 16 shown above.
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.
Claims 17-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over ZHANG as applied to claim 16 above, in view of XIAO et al. US 2022/0297310 A1.
As to claims 17-19, ZHANG does not explicitly disclose the claimed elements of “wherein: the post-measurement positioning assistance data is sent to the second UE periodically, sent to the second UE semi-periodically, sent to the second UE in response to one or more requests for post-measurement positioning assistance data received from the second UE, or any combination thereof” (claim 17); “wherein: the one or more requests for the post-measurement positioning assistance data include parameters of the post-measurement positioning assistance data that are requested to be sent to the second UE in the post-measurement positioning assistance data” (claim 18); “wherein: the parameters of the post-measurement positioning assistance data indicate PRS resources that are requested to be included in the post-measurement positioning assistance data from the at least one sidelink devices” (claim 19).
XIAO discloses in figures 1, 2 that, “wherein: the post-measurement positioning assistance data is sent to the second UE (the second terminal) periodically, sent to the second UE semi-periodically, sent to the second UE in response to one or more requests for post-measurement positioning assistance data received from the second UE, or any combination thereof” (Figures 1, 2, and associated paragraphs, [102]-[109], [29], [54]-[55], [122]-[123], [288]-[289]); “wherein: the one or more requests for the post-measurement positioning assistance data include parameters of the post-measurement positioning assistance data that are requested to be sent to the second UE in the post-measurement positioning assistance data” (Figures 1, 2, and associated paragraphs, [102]-[109], [288]-[289]); “wherein: the parameters of the post-measurement positioning assistance data indicate PRS resources ([108]) that are requested to be included in the post-measurement positioning assistance data from the at least one sidelink devices” (Figures 1, 2, and associated paragraphs, [102]-[109]; [288]-[289]).
Accordingly, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the wireless communication art before the effective filing date of the claimed to have modified XIAO’s teachings of the UE requesting the positioning assistance data with the parameter(s) from the sidelink UE with the teachings of ZHANG’s, for the purpose of calculating the positioning assistance parameter(s).
Claims 22-23 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over ZHANG as applied to claim 16 above, and in view of VIVO
As to claims 22, 23, ZHANG does not explicitly disclose the claimed elements of “prioritizing measurements of the one or more first PRS resources sent to the second UE in the post-measurement positioning assistance data” (claim 22); “wherein: the measurements are prioritized using signal quality metrics of the one or more first PRS resources measured by the first UE during the positioning session between the first UE and the location server” (claim 23).
VIVO proposes that the UE prioritizes the PRS to be measured based on its approximative position as shown in section, “Priority rules for positioning measurement and report” on pages 12, 13 that is considered for ZHANG’s UE to derive a priority rule for positioning measurements to be applied by ZHANG’s the UE.
Accordingly, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the wireless communication art before the effective filing date of the claimed to have modified VIVO’s teachings of the priority rules for the UE with the teachings of ZHANG’s, for the purpose of reducing or improving power and resource consumption for the UE as the same as in instant paragraph [154] and instant Figure 10.
Claim 25 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over ZHANG as applied to claims 16, 24 and in view of XIAO et al. US 2022/0297310 A1
As to claim 25, ZHANG does not explicitly disclose, “wherein the multipath profile indicator includes: a location of a virtual base station associated with the one or more first PRS resources; a delay spread of the one or more first PRS resources obtained by the first UE; a Doppler shift of the one or more first PRS resources obtained by the first UE; a Doppler spread of the one or more first PRS resources obtained by the first UE; or any combination thereof”.
BAO discloses in Figure 1 and [43], [115] that, “wherein the multipath profile indicator includes: a location of a virtual base station (a network node) associated with the one or more first PRS resources; a delay spread ([43]) of the one or more first PRS resources obtained by the first UE; a Doppler shift ([43]) of the one or more first PRS resources obtained by the first UE; a Doppler spread ([43]) of the one or more first PRS resources obtained by the first UE; or any combination thereof”
Accordingly, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the wireless communication art before the effective filing date of the claimed to have modified BAO’s teachings of the parameters: a delay spread, a Doppler shift, and Doppler shift with the teachings of ZHANG’s, for the purpose of improving the positioning accuracy and reducing PRS mean management overhead from both the UE and the network side (BAO, [115]).
Claim 26 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over ZHANG as applied to claim 16 and in view of DA et al. 2020/0408871 A1.
As to claim 26, ZHANG does not explicitly disclose, “receiving post-measurement positioning assistance data from the second UE, wherein the post-measurement positioning assistance data received from the second UE corresponds to measurements of one or more second PRS resources measured by the second UE during a positioning session between the second UE and the location server; and using the post-measurement positioning assistance data from the second UE in a further positioning session between the first UE and the location server”.
DA discloses in Figure 6, and associated paragraphs that, “receiving post-measurement positioning assistance data from the second UE (the UE j ), wherein the post-measurement positioning assistance data received from the second UE corresponds to measurements of one or more second PRS resources measured by the second UE during a positioning session between the second UE and the location server; and using the post-measurement positioning assistance data from the second UE in a further positioning session between the first UE (the UE i ) and the location server (the positioning server)”.
Accordingly, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the wireless communication art before the effective filing date of the claimed to have modified DA’s teachings of the UE estimating and exchanging its own positioning with the teachings of ZHANG’s, for the purpose of sharing the UE’s own positioning estimate value with other UEs (DA, [128]).
The prior art of records are: DA et al. 2020/0408871 A1; VIVO: “Discussion on potential positioning enhancement”, 3GPP DRAFT; R1-2005381, 08 August 2020, XP051917406; ZHANG et al. US 20210160810 A1; XIAO et al. US 2022/0297310 A1; XIAO et al. US 2022/0297310 A1.
Conclusion
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/HAI V NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2649