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.
Claim(s) 1-4, 8, 15-17, 20, 26-29, 31, 35, 40-43, 45 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by EDGE et al. (U.S. 2020/0154240 A1).
1, EDGE teaches a method comprising: determining, by a managing entity, a plurality of sensing access points to enable a scan of an area [par 0027, 0043, 0063With on-demand PRS transmission, UEs or other elements in a network may indicate to a controlling entity (e.g. a gNB or LMF) when downlink (DL) PRS transmission is needed for location determination. The NRPPa protocol may be used to support positioning of UE 105 using network based position methods such as ECID (e.g. when used with measurements obtained by a gNB 110 or ng-eNB 114) and/or may be used by LMF 120 to obtain location related information from gNBs 110 and/or ng-eNB 114, such as parameters defining PRS transmission from gNBs 110 and/or ng-eNB 114. The examiner interprets the access points as a gNB and TRP as described in applicant’s specification para 0018],
and providing, by the managing entity, a first request to a first sensing access point to receive at least one probing signal transmitted by a second sensing access point [par 0063, LMF control of PRS transmission by gNBs 110, which may be used to assist downlink (DL) positioning of UEs using LPP for such position methods as OTDOA, ECID, AOA, RTT and AOD which are controlled by the LMF 120. An LMF 120 would then determine changes to PRS transmission and send a message (e.g. an NRPPa message) to affected gNBs 110 to request a change to PRS transmission. The LMF 120 could determine the changes based on QoS requirements for location requests and on the capabilities of target UEs (e.g. UE 105) and gNBs 110 (e.g. if gNB capabilities are configured in the LMF 120) to support increased PRS transmission The examiner interprets the PRs as the probing signal according to the applicant specification para 0024],
wherein the request shares configuration information about the at least one probing signal transmitted by the second sensing access point to enable configuration of at least the first sensing access point for reception of the transmitted at least one probing signal [par 0063, 0064, The LMF 120 could determine the changes based on QoS requirements for location requests and on the capabilities of target UEs (e.g. UE 105) and gNBs 110 (e.g. if gNB capabilities are configured in the LMF 120) to support increased PRS transmission. The LMF 120 could control PRS transmission from gNBs 110 and/or from TPs 111 and/or TRPs within gNBs 110.At stage 1 in FIG. 2 (e.g. and in response to receiving a location request for UE 105 from another entity such as GMLC 125), the serving AMF 115 for UE 105 invokes an Nlmf_Location_DetermineLocation service operation towards the LMF 120 to request the current location of the UE 105].
2, EDGE discloses the method of claim 1, further comprising: receiving, by the managing entity, at least one scan measurement obtained from the at least one probing signal received by the first sensing access point to provide information about the area [par 0046, An LPP or NPP message sent from the LMF 120 to the UE 105 may instruct the UE 105 to do any of a variety of things, depending on desired functionality. For example, the LPP or NPP message could contain an instruction for the UE 105 to obtain measurements for GNSS (or A-GNSS), WLAN, and/or OTDOA (or some other position method). An RSTD measurement may comprise the difference in the times of arrival at the UE 105 of a signal (e.g. a PRS signal) transmitted or broadcast by one gNB 110 and a similar signal transmitted by another gNB 110. The UE 105 may send the measurements back to the LMF 120 in an LPP or NPP message (e.g. inside a 5G NAS message) via the serving gNB 110-1 (or serving ng-eNB 114) and the AMF 115].
3, EDGE reveals the method of claim 1, further comprising: providing, by the managing entity, a second request to the second sensing access point to transmit the at least one probing signal [par 0079, the LMF 120 may send an NRPPa PRS Reconfiguration Request message to each of the gNBs 110 determined at stage 4 and includes a request to restore the old PRS configuration for each gNB 110],
wherein the second request includes the configuration information to configure at least the second sensing access point to transmit the at least one probing signal [par 0080, 0081, At stage 16, each of the gNBs 110 returns a response to the LMF 120 indicating whether the old PRS configuration can be restored. At stage 17, each of the gNBs 110 begins transmitting the old PRS configuration either when the duration received in stage 5 expires or after receiving and acknowledging the request to restore the old PRS configuration at stages]
4, EDGE illustrate the method of claim 1, wherein the configuration information includes one or more of the following: a frame number, a subframe number, transmit beam direction information, a direction, a beamwidth, a beam identifier, one or more resource elements carrying the at least one probing signal, a bandwidth, a burst size, a period, and a start time indicating a transmission time of the at least one probing signal [par 0069, 0089, The request may also include a start time for each new PRS configuration and/or a duration. The new PRS configuration for each gNB 110 may use increased PRS bandwidth, a longer duration of PRS positioning occasions, PRS transmission on new frequencies, and/or a higher frequency of PRS positioning occasions and may, in some cases, be selected from a set of one or more preconfigured sets of PRS configuration parameters to support increased PRS transmission. In the case of support for directional PRS beams, the serving or camped-on gNB 110-1 may determine directional PRS beams for each gNB 110 which should be received by the target UE 105, or by any UE 105 in a set of target UEs when the gNB 110 increases PRS transmission for multiple target UEs, and may provide a new PRS configuration only for these directional PRS beams].
8, EDGE demonstrates the method of claim 1, wherein the determining comprises determining at least the first sensing access point to receive the at least one probing signal [par 0063, An LMF 120 would then determine changes to PRS transmission and send a message (e.g. an NRPPa message) to affected gNBs 110 to request a change to PRS transmission. The LMF 120 could determine the changes based on QoS requirements for location requests and on the capabilities of target UEs (e.g. UE 105) and gNBs 110 (e.g. if gNB capabilities are configured in the LMF 120) to support increased PRS transmission]
and determining at least the second sensing access point to transmit the at least one probing signal [par 0067, the LMF 120 determines gNBs 110 nearby to the location of the UE 105 (e.g. as indicated by the serving cell ID received at stage 1) to be measured by the UE 105 and a PRS configuration or a new PRS configuration for each of the gNBs 110. The LMF 120 may determine a new PRS configuration for a gNB 110 when the LMF 120 is aware of (e.g. is configured with) a normal default “old” PRS configuration for the gNB 110 and determines that an increase in PRS transmission from this gNB 110 is needed].
15, EDGE reveals a method comprising: receiving, by a first sensing access point, a first request to receive at least one probing signal transmitted by a second sensing access point to enable a scan of an area[par 0027, 0043, With on-demand PRS transmission, UEs or other elements in a network may indicate to a controlling entity (e.g. a gNB or LMF) when downlink (DL) PRS transmission is needed for location determination. The NRPPa protocol may be used to support positioning of UE 105 using network based position methods such as ECID (e.g. when used with measurements obtained by a gNB 110 or ng-eNB 114) and/or may be used by LMF 120 to obtain location related information from gNBs 110 and/or ng-eNB 114, such as parameters defining PRS transmission from gNBs 110 and/or ng-eNB 114],
wherein the request shares configuration information about the at least one probing signal transmitted by the second sensing access point [par 0063, LMF control of PRS transmission by gNBs 110, which may be used to assist downlink (DL) positioning of UEs using LPP for such position methods as OTDOA, ECID, AOA, RTT and AOD which are controlled by the LMF 120. An LMF 120 would then determine changes to PRS transmission and send a message (e.g. an NRPPa message) to affected gNBs 110 to request a change to PRS transmission. The LMF 120 could determine the changes based on QoS requirements for location requests and on the capabilities of target UEs (e.g. UE 105) and gNBs 110 (e.g. if gNB capabilities are configured in the LMF 120) to support increased PRS transmission The examiner interprets the PRs as the probing signal according to the applicant specification para 0024],
the shared configuration information enabling configuration of the first sensing access point for reception of the transmitted at least one probing signal [par 0063, The LMF 120 could determine the changes based on QoS requirements for location requests and on the capabilities of target UEs (e.g. UE 105) and gNBs 110 (e.g. if gNB capabilities are configured in the LMF 120) to support increased PRS transmission. The LMF 120 could control PRS transmission from gNBs 110 and/or from TPs 111 and/or TRPs within gNBs 110].
16, EDGE reveals the method of claim 15 further comprising: sending, by the first sensing access point, at least one scan measurement to a managing entity to provide information about the area to enable aggregation of the at least one scan measurement with other scan measurements from other sensing access points, wherein the at least one scan measurement is obtained from the at least one probing signal received by the first sensing access point [par 0068, The new PRS configuration for each gNB 110 may use increased PRS bandwidth, a longer duration of PRS positioning occasions, PRS transmission on new (e.g. more) frequencies, and/or a higher frequency of PRS positioning occasions and may, in some cases, be selected from a set of one or more preconfigured (or predefined) sets of PRS configuration parameters to support increased PRS transmission. In the case of support for directional PRS beams by gNBs 110 (where PRS transmission is directed across a narrow range of horizontal and/or vertical angles, such as angles spanning 5-20 degrees), the LMF 120 may determine directional PRS beams for each gNB 110 which should be received by the target UE 105 (or by any UE in a set of target UEs when the LMF 120 increases PRS transmission for multiple target UEs), and may provide a new PRS configuration only for these directional PRS beams].
17. EDGE creates the method of claim 15, wherein the configuration information includes one or more of the following: a frame number, a subframe number, transmit beam direction information, a direction, a beamwidth, a beam identifier, one or more resource elements carrying the at least one probing signal, a bandwidth, a burst size, a period, and a start time indicating a transmission time of the at least one probing signal[par 0069, 0089, The request may also include a start time for each new PRS configuration and/or a duration. The new PRS configuration for each gNB 110 may use increased PRS bandwidth, a longer duration of PRS positioning occasions, PRS transmission on new frequencies, and/or a higher frequency of PRS positioning occasions and may, in some cases, be selected from a set of one or more preconfigured sets of PRS configuration parameters to support increased PRS transmission. In the case of support for directional PRS beams, the serving or camped-on gNB 110-1 may determine directional PRS beams for each gNB 110 which should be received by the target UE 105, or by any UE 105 in a set of target UEs when the gNB 110 increases PRS transmission for multiple target UEs, and may provide a new PRS configuration only for these directional PRS beams].
.
20. EDGE provide the method of claim 15, wherein the at least one probing signal comprises a sensing signal and/or a position reference signal [par 0023, However, location of a mobile device can require usage of resources by a network for transmitting a downlink positioning reference signal (PRS) from network base stations and/or other transmission points (TPs) that can be measured by a mobile device to obtain location measurements. When no mobile devices need to obtain location measurements of PRSs, the transmission of these signals by the wireless network may waste power and/or may waste signaling resources which could be better used for other purposes such as sending and receiving voice and data. It may therefore be advantageous to use methods that enable PRS transmission to be responsive to whether or not PRS measurement by mobile devices is needed and to reduce or stop transmission of PRS when location measurements by mobile devices are not needed].
26, EDGE describe an apparatus comprising: at least one processor; and at least one memory including computer program code, the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor [par 0007, In one aspect, a non-transitory computer readable medium including program code stored thereon, the program code is operable to configure at least one processor in a first entity in a wireless network for supporting location of a user equipment (UE)],
cause the apparatus to at least: determine a plurality of sensing access points to enable a scan of an area; and provide a first request to a first sensing access point to receive at least one probing signal transmitted by a second sensing access point[par 0063, LMF control of PRS transmission by gNBs 110, which may be used to assist downlink (DL) positioning of UEs using LPP for such position methods as OTDOA, ECID, AOA, RTT and AOD which are controlled by the LMF 120. An LMF 120 would then determine changes to PRS transmission and send a message (e.g. an NRPPa message) to affected gNBs 110 to request a change to PRS transmission. The LMF 120 could determine the changes based on QoS requirements for location requests and on the capabilities of target UEs (e.g. UE 105) and gNBs 110 (e.g. if gNB capabilities are configured in the LMF 120) to support increased PRS transmission The examiner interprets the PRs as the probing signal according to the applicant specification para 0024],,
wherein the request shares configuration information about the at least one probing signal transmitted by the second sensing access point to enable configuration of at least the first sensing access point for reception of the transmitted at least one probing signal[par 0063, 0064, The LMF 120 could determine the changes based on QoS requirements for location requests and on the capabilities of target UEs (e.g. UE 105) and gNBs 110 (e.g. if gNB capabilities are configured in the LMF 120) to support increased PRS transmission. The LMF 120 could control PRS transmission from gNBs 110 and/or from TPs 111 and/or TRPs within gNBs 110.At stage 1 in FIG. 2 (e.g. and in response to receiving a location request for UE 105 from another entity such as GMLC 125), the serving AMF 115 for UE 105 invokes an Nlmf_Location_DetermineLocation service operation towards the LMF 120 to request the current location of the UE 105].
27, EDGE discloses the apparatus of claim 26, wherein the apparatus is further caused to receive at least one scan measurement obtained from the at least one probing signal received by the first sensing access point to provide information about the area [par 0046, An LPP or NPP message sent from the LMF 120 to the UE 105 may instruct the UE 105 to do any of a variety of things, depending on desired functionality. For example, the LPP or NPP message could contain an instruction for the UE 105 to obtain measurements for GNSS (or A-GNSS), WLAN, and/or OTDOA (or some other position method). An RSTD measurement may comprise the difference in the times of arrival at the UE 105 of a signal (e.g. a PRS signal) transmitted or broadcast by one gNB 110 and a similar signal transmitted by another gNB 110. The UE 105 may send the measurements back to the LMF 120 in an LPP or NPP message (e.g. inside a 5G NAS message) via the serving gNB 110-1 (or serving ng-eNB 114) and the AMF 115].
28, EDGE conveys the apparatus of claim 26, wherein the apparatus is further caused to provide a second request to the second sensing access point to transmit the at least one probing signal[par 0079, the LMF 120 may send an NRPPa PRS Reconfiguration Request message to each of the gNBs 110 determined at stage 4 and includes a request to restore the old PRS configuration for each gNB 110],
wherein the second request includes the configuration information to configure at least the second sensing access point to transmit the at least one probing signal[par 0080, 0081, At stage 16, each of the gNBs 110 returns a response to the LMF 120 indicating whether the old PRS configuration can be restored. At stage 17, each of the gNBs 110 begins transmitting the old PRS configuration either when the duration received in stage 5 expires or after receiving and acknowledging the request to restore the old PRS configuration at stages]
29, EDGE demonstrates the apparatus of claim 26, wherein the configuration information includes one or more of the following: a frame number, a subframe number, transmit beam direction information, a direction, a beamwidth, a beam identifier, one or more resource elements carrying the at least one probing signal, a bandwidth, a burst size, a period, and a start time indicating a transmission time of the at least one probing signal[par 0069, 0089, The request may also include a start time for each new PRS configuration and/or a duration. The new PRS configuration for each gNB 110 may use increased PRS bandwidth, a longer duration of PRS positioning occasions, PRS transmission on new frequencies, and/or a higher frequency of PRS positioning occasions and may, in some cases, be selected from a set of one or more preconfigured sets of PRS configuration parameters to support increased PRS transmission. In the case of support for directional PRS beams, the serving or camped-on gNB 110-1 may determine directional PRS beams for each gNB 110 which should be received by the target UE 105, or by any UE 105 in a set of target UEs when the gNB 110 increases PRS transmission for multiple target UEs, and may provide a new PRS configuration only for these directional PRS beams].
31. EDGE defines the apparatus of claim 26, wherein the apparatus comprises or is comprised in at least one of a managing entity, a location management function, or a sensing access point [par 0026, Increased DL PRS transmission could be simplified by restricting PRS transmission by a base station (e.g. gNB) or in a cell to only certain PRS configurations, which might be configured in a gNB and/or in an LMF using Operations and Maintenance (O&M)].
35, EDGE reveals the apparatus of claim 26, wherein the apparatus determines the configuration information based on a quality of service with respect to accuracy and/or resolution [par 0044, For example, the location measurements may include one or more of a Received Signal Strength Indication (RSSI), Round Trip signal propagation Time (RTT), Reference Signal Time Difference (RSTD), Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP), Reference Signal Received Quality (RSRQ), AOA, and/or AOD for gNBs 110, ng-eNB 114 and/or a WLAN access point (AP)].
40. EDGE discloses an apparatus comprising: at least one processor; and at least one memory including computer program code, the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor [par 0007, a non-transitory computer readable medium including program code stored thereon, the program code is operable to configure at least one processor in a first entity in a wireless network for supporting location of a user equipment (UE), includes program code to determine an increase in transmission of a positioning reference signal (PRS) at each of a plurality of transmitters, wherein the increase in transmission of PRS at each of the plurality of transmitters is coordinated to avoid interference to or from non-PRS transmission in the wireless network; program code to send a first message to the each transmitter],
cause the apparatus to at least: receive a first request to receive at least one probing signal transmitted by a second sensing access point to enable a scan of an area[par 0027, 0043, With on-demand PRS transmission, UEs or other elements in a network may indicate to a controlling entity (e.g. a gNB or LMF) when downlink (DL) PRS transmission is needed for location determination. The NRPPa protocol may be used to support positioning of UE 105 using network based position methods such as ECID (e.g. when used with measurements obtained by a gNB 110 or ng-eNB 114) and/or may be used by LMF 120 to obtain location related information from gNBs 110 and/or ng-eNB 114, such as parameters defining PRS transmission from gNBs 110 and/or ng-eNB 114],
wherein the request shares configuration information about the at least one probing signal transmitted by the second sensing access point[par 0063, LMF control of PRS transmission by gNBs 110, which may be used to assist downlink (DL) positioning of UEs using LPP for such position methods as OTDOA, ECID, AOA, RTT and AOD which are controlled by the LMF 120. An LMF 120 would then determine changes to PRS transmission and send a message (e.g. an NRPPa message) to affected gNBs 110 to request a change to PRS transmission. The LMF 120 could determine the changes based on QoS requirements for location requests and on the capabilities of target UEs (e.g. UE 105) and gNBs 110 (e.g. if gNB capabilities are configured in the LMF 120) to support increased PRS transmission The examiner interprets the PRs as the probing signal according to the applicant specification para 0024],
the shared configuration information enabling configuration of the apparatus for reception of the transmitted at least one probing signal[par 0063, 0064, The LMF 120 could determine the changes based on QoS requirements for location requests and on the capabilities of target UEs (e.g. UE 105) and gNBs 110 (e.g. if gNB capabilities are configured in the LMF 120) to support increased PRS transmission. The LMF 120 could control PRS transmission from gNBs 110 and/or from TPs 111 and/or TRPs within gNBs 110.At stage 1 in FIG. 2 (e.g. and in response to receiving a location request for UE 105 from another entity such as GMLC 125), the serving AMF 115 for UE 105 invokes an Nlmf_Location_DetermineLocation service operation towards the LMF 120 to request the current location of the UE 105].
41, EDGE demonstrates the apparatus of claim 40, wherein the apparatus is further caused to send at least one scan measurement to a managing entity to provide information about the area to enable aggregation of the at least one scan measurement with other scan measurements from other sensing access points[par 0027, 0043, With on-demand PRS transmission, UEs or other elements in a network may indicate to a controlling entity (e.g. a gNB or LMF) when downlink (DL) PRS transmission is needed for location determination. The NRPPa protocol may be used to support positioning of UE 105 using network based position methods such as ECID (e.g. when used with measurements obtained by a gNB 110 or ng-eNB 114) and/or may be used by LMF 120 to obtain location related information from gNBs 110 and/or ng-eNB 114, such as parameters defining PRS transmission from gNBs 110 and/or ng-eNB 114],
wherein the at least one scan measurement is obtained from the at least one probing signal received by the apparatus[par 0063, The LMF 120 could determine the changes based on QoS requirements for location requests and on the capabilities of target UEs (e.g. UE 105) and gNBs 110 (e.g. if gNB capabilities are configured in the LMF 120) to support increased PRS transmission. The LMF 120 could control PRS transmission from gNBs 110 and/or from TPs 111 and/or TRPs within gNBs 110].
42, EDGE displays the apparatus of claim 40, wherein the configuration information includes one or more of the following: a frame number, a subframe number, transmit beam direction information, a direction, a beamwidth, a beam identifier, one or more resource elements carrying the at least one probing signal, a bandwidth, a burst size, a period, and a start time indicating a transmission time of the at least one probing signal [par 0069, 0089, The request may also include a start time for each new PRS configuration and/or a duration. The new PRS configuration for each gNB 110 may use increased PRS bandwidth, a longer duration of PRS positioning occasions, PRS transmission on new frequencies, and/or a higher frequency of PRS positioning occasions and may, in some cases, be selected from a set of one or more preconfigured sets of PRS configuration parameters to support increased PRS transmission. In the case of support for directional PRS beams, the serving or camped-on gNB 110-1 may determine directional PRS beams for each gNB 110 which should be received by the target UE 105, or by any UE 105 in a set of target UEs when the gNB 110 increases PRS transmission for multiple target UEs, and may provide a new PRS configuration only for these directional PRS beams].
43, EDGE conveys the apparatus of claim 40, of the apparatus and the second sensing access point comprise or are comprised in at least one of a base station, a gNB, a distributed unit, a radio unit, or a transmit receive point [par 0063, The LMF 120 could control PRS transmission from gNBs 110 and/or from TPs 111 and/or TRPs within gNBs 110. Thus, one or more of gNBs 110 in FIG. 2 could each be replaced by a TP 111 or a TRP. In addition or instead, in some embodiments, LMF 120 in FIG. 2 may be replaced by an LMC 117].
45, EDGE describes the apparatus of claim 40, wherein the at least one probing signal comprises a sensing signal and/or a position reference signal[par 0023, However, location of a mobile device can require usage of resources by a network for transmitting a downlink positioning reference signal (PRS) from network base stations and/or other transmission points (TPs) that can be measured by a mobile device to obtain location measurements. When no mobile devices need to obtain location measurements of PRSs, the transmission of these signals by the wireless network may waste power and/or may waste signaling resources which could be better used for other purposes such as sending and receiving voice and data. It may therefore be advantageous to use methods that enable PRS transmission to be responsive to whether or not PRS measurement by mobile devices is needed and to reduce or stop transmission of PRS when location measurements by mobile devices are not needed].
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JASON A HARLEY whose telephone number is (571)270-5435. The examiner can normally be reached 7:30-300 6:30-8:30.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Marcus Smith can be reached at (571) 270-1096. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/JASON A HARLEY/Examiner, Art Unit 2468