Detailed Action
1. The Office Action is in response to the Applicant’s communication filed on 03/28/2024. In virtue of this communication, claims 1-30 are currently pending in this Office Action.
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
2. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Priority
3. Applicant’s claim for benefit of entering national stage 371 of application as ADS filed on 03/28/2024 under 35 U.S.C. 119(e) or under 35 U.S.C. 120, 121, 365(c), or 386(c) in accordance with 37 CFR 1.78 is acknowledged.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
4. 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.
5. The factual inquiries set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied 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.
6. Claims 1-3, 5-7, 9-15, 17-19, 21, 22 and 24-29 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tooher et al. Pub. No.: US 2022/0407663 A1 in view of Manolakos et al. Pub. No.: US 2022/0373634 A1.
Claim 1
Tooher discloses a method (fig. 1-5 for using in-carrier guard bands) of wireless communication performed by a network entity (RAN 106 or core network in fig. 1A, RAN with eNBs, MME or serving gateway in fig. 1C, RAN with gNBs, AMF, UPF, SMF, DN in fig. 1D), the method comprising:
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receiving guard band information from each of a plurality of transmission/reception points (TRPs) (indication for activated or deactivated guard bands in fig. 3-4 and see par. 0118 for indicating by a base station or eNB, i.e., TRPs), wherein the guard band information describes guard bands used by that TRP (fig. 3-4, activated guard band means being used by eNB or WTRU);
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wherein the guard band information defines at least one guard band (414 in fig. 4) between resource block (RB) sets (see PRB, as to RB, for 410, 420, 430 in fig. 4 and see par. 0104-0111) within a bandwidth part (BWP in par. 0104 & 0106 and see BWP in 502 of fig. 5A), and wherein each guard band occupies zero or more contiguous RBs of the BWP (fig. 3 depicts for indicating deactivated guard bands, i.e., zero, and see activated guard bands 1-3 in fig. 3-4).
Although Tooher does not disclose: “generating assistance data, the assistance data comprising the guard band information for each of the plurality TRPs, and sending the assistance data to at least one user equipment (UE)”, the claim limitations are considered obvious by the following rationales.
Firstly, to consider the obviousness of the claim limitation “generating assistance data, the assistance data comprising the guard band information for each of the plurality TRPs”, recall that Tooher depicts the guard band information in bitmap (fig. 3-5) and location information such as longitude and latitude, as to assistance data (par. 0069). In particular, Manolakos teaches TRPs (105s & 105a-c in fig. 14) and location server for generating assistance data (step 3 in fig. 14).
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Secondly, to address the obviousness of the claim limitation “sending the assistance data to at least one user equipment (UE)”, recall that Tooher sends WTRC guard band information in bitmap (see fig. 2-5). In particular, Manolakos teaches TRP for transmitting assistance data to UE (see step 3 in fig. 14).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify using in-carrier guard bands of Tooher by providing positioning reference signal PRS as taught in Manolakos to obtain the claimed invention as specified in the claim. Such a modification would have provided a user equipment to receive an indicator for positioning reference signal PRS so that the carrier aggregation and the use of new spectrum could have lowered the cost and obtained higher spectral efficiency as suggested in par. 0005-0006 of Manolakos.
Claim 2
Tooher, in view of Manolakos, discloses the method of claim 1, wherein receiving the guard band information comprises receiving uplink guard band information (Tooher, guard bands assumed by WTRU to be activated in fig. 3, WTRU’s transmission is uplink), (Tooher, guard band information in fig. 3-5; downlink guard band information Manolakos, PRS information in downlink radio frame), or both, and wherein generating the assistance data comprises generating uplink guard band information (Tooher, guard bands for WTRU in fig. 3 is uplink; Manolakos, PRS in formation in fig. 14; accordingly, one of ordinary skill in the art would have expected the combined prior art to perform equally well to the claim, see MPEP 2143, KSR Exemplary Rationale F-G), downlink guard band information, or both (accordingly, the combined prior art meets the claim condition as it recites the alternative limitations, See MPEP 2117 for Markush group in the claim).
Claim 3
Tooher, in view of Manolakos, discloses the method of claim 1, wherein generating the assistance data comprises:
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grouping the plurality of TRPs into one or more groups (Tooher, a group having 1-3 cells or 1-5 cells refers to cells 1-5 in par. 0184; Manolakos, see fig. 12 for grouping TRPs in groups 1-4); and
generating the guard band information for each of the one or more groups (Tooher, a group common PDCCH provide an indication for the set of guards that are activated or deactivated in par. 0119 and see par. 0184 for explaining a grouping having 1-3 cells or a group having 1-5 cells, herein cells are TRPs, Manolakos, fig. 12-14; for these reasons, one of ordinary skill in the art would have expected the combined prior art to perform equally well to the claim).
Claim 5
Tooher, in view of Manolakos, discloses the method of claim 1, further comprising sending, to each of the plurality of TRPs (Tooher, in fig. 1C-D, eNBs and gNBs communicate with core network via S1, N2, N3 respectively; Manolakos, fig. 8-14, Location server or TRPs may communicate each other), the guard band information for each of the at least one UE (Tooher, sending guard band information to UE in fig. 3-5 in view of fig. 14 of Manolakos for communicating between UE, TRPs and Core Network or Location Server; and thus, the combined prior art would have rendered the claim obvious).
Claim 6
Tooher, in view of Manolakos, discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the assistance data further comprises an indication that positioning signals within each RB set should be processed separately from positioning signals within other RB sets (Manolakos, fig. 10-11 depict resources sets for corresponding PRS referring to the respective group of TRPs), or an indication that positioning signals within each RB set should be processed jointly with positioning signals within other RB sets (Tooher, Guard bands in 410, 420, 430 in fig. 4 and consider 410-430 as RB sets in view of fig. 2-5; for these reasons, the combined prior art meets the claim requirement).
Claim 7
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Tooher, in view of Manolakos, discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the assistance data further divides the plurality of TRPs into one or more groups (Manolakos, as depicted in fig. 10-12, TRPs are divided into groups) and indicates that, for each group, the TRPs in that group perform joint channel access per RB set (Tooher, a group common PDCCH for indicating an indication for the set of guard bands in par. 0119; Manolakos, see fig. 10-16, in fig. 10, for PRS occasion 1 on PDCCH, TRP1-4 will share or jointly access PRS resources 1-2, as to a set, for transmitting PRS, i.e., assistance data; therefore, the combined prior art reads on the claim).
Claim 9
Tooher discloses a method (fig. 1-5 for using in-carrier guard bands) of wireless communication performed by a user equipment (UE) (WTRU in fig. 1-5), the method comprising:
receiving assistance data (502 in fig. 5A) from a network entity (RAN 106 or core network in fig. 1A, RAN with eNBs, MME or serving gateway in fig. 1C, RAN with gNBs, AMF, UPF, SMF, DN in fig. 1D), the assistance data comprising guard band (guard bands in 502 in fig. 5A, see guard band in fig. 2-4) information for each of a plurality of TRPs (eNBs in fig. 1C and gNB in fig. 1D), wherein the guard band (414 in fig. 4) information defines at least one guard band between resource block (RB) sets (see PRB, as to RB, for 410, 420, 430 in fig. 4 and see par. 0104-0111) within a bandwidth part (BWP) (BWP in par. 0104 & 0106 and see guard band in BWP in 502 of fig. 5A), and wherein each guard band occupies zero or more contiguous RBs of the BWP (fig. 3 depicts for indicating deactivated guard bands, i.e., zero, and see activated guard bands 1-3 in fig. 3-4).
Although Tooher does not explicitly disclose: “processing positioning reference signals (PRSs) received from each of the plurality of TRPs according to the guard band information for that TRP”, the claim limitations are considered obvious by the following rationales.
Initially, to consider the obviousness of the claim limitation “processing positioning reference signals (PRSs) received from each of the plurality of TRPs according to the guard band information for that TRP”, recall that Tooher depicts the guard band information in bitmap (fig. 3-5), sending WTRC guard band information in bitmap (see fig. 2-5) and location information such as longitude and latitude, as to assistance data (par. 0069). In particular, Manolakos teaches TRPs (105s & 105a-c in fig. 14) for transmitting assistance data to UE (see step 3 in fig. 14) and location server for generating assistance data (step 3 in fig. 14).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify using in-carrier guard bands of Tooher by providing positioning reference signal PRS as taught in Manolakos to obtain the claimed invention as specified in the claim. Such a modification would have provided a user equipment to receive an indicator for positioning reference signal PRS so that the carrier aggregation and the use of new spectrum could have lowered the cost and obtained higher spectral efficiency as suggested in par. 0005-0006 of Manolakos.
Claim 10
Tooher, in view of Manolakos, discloses the method of claim 9, wherein receiving the assistance data comprises receiving uplink guard band information (Tooher, guard bands for WTRU in fig. 3 is uplink; Manolakos, PRS in formation in fig. 14; accordingly, one of ordinary skill in the art would have expected the combined prior art to perform equally well to the claim, see MPEP 2143, KSR Exemplary Rationale F-G), downlink guard band information, or both (accordingly, the combined prior art meets the claim condition as it recites the alternative limitations, See MPEP 2117 for Markush group in the claim).
Claim 11
Tooher, in view of Manolakos, discloses the method of claim 9, wherein receiving the assistance data comprises receiving information that identifies one or more groups of TRPs (Tooher, a group having 1-3 cells or 1-5 cells refers to cells 1-5 in par. 0184; Manolakos, see fig. 12 for grouping TRPs in groups 1-4) and that comprises the guard band information for each of the one or more groups of TRPs (Tooher, a group common PDCCH provide an indication for the set of guards that are activated or deactivated in par. 0119 and see par. 0184 for explaining a grouping having 1-3 cells or a group having 1-5 cells, herein cells are TRPs, Manolakos, fig. 12-14; for these reasons, one of ordinary skill in the art would have expected the combined prior art to perform equally well to the claim).
Claim 12
Tooher, in view of Manolakos, discloses the method of claim 9, wherein receiving the assistance data comprises receiving information that identifies the plurality of TRPs (Tooher, in fig. 1C-D, eNBs and gNBs communicate with core network via S1, N2, N3 respectively; Manolakos, fig. 8-14, Location server or TRPs may communicate each other), that identifies a plurality of RBs (fig. 2-4 of Tooher), and that indicates that the plurality of RBs (PRS resources in fig. 10-16 and see 1506-1508 in fig. 15 of Manolakos) comprises the guard band information for each of the plurality of TRPs (Tooher, sending guard band information to UE in fig. 3-5 in view of fig. 14 of Manolakos for communicating between UE, TRPs and Core Network or Location Server; and thus, the combined prior art would have rendered the claim obvious).
Claim 13
Tooher, in view of Manolakos, discloses the method of claim 9, wherein receiving the assistance data comprises receiving an indication that positioning signals within each RB set should be processed separately from positioning signals within other RB sets (Manolakos, fig. 10-11 depict resources sets for corresponding PRS referring to the respective group of TRPs) or an indication that positioning signals within each RB set should be processed jointly with positioning signals within other RB sets (Tooher, Guard bands in 410, 420, 430 in fig. 4 and consider 410-430 as RB sets in view of fig. 2-5;, and wherein the method further comprises processing positioning signals within each RB according to the assistance data (Tooher, fig. 5A for processing guard band information to be activated or deactivated; Manolakos, fig. 15 for processing and performing PRS from TRPs; for these reasons, the combined prior art meets the claim requirement).
Claim 14
Tooher, in view of Manolakos, discloses the method of claim 9, wherein the assistance data further divides the plurality of TRPs into one or more groups (Tooher, a group having 1-3 cells or 1-5 cells refers to cells 1-5 in par. 0184; Manolakos, see fig. 12 for grouping TRPs in groups 1-4) and indicates that, for each group, the TRPs in that group perform joint channel access per RB set (Tooher, Guard bands in 410, 420, 430 in fig. 4 and consider 410-430 as RB sets in view of fig. 2-5, a group common PDCCH provide an indication for the set of guards that are activated or deactivated in par. 0119 and see par. 0184 for explaining a grouping having 1-3 cells or a group having 1-5 cells, herein cells are TRPs, Manolakos, fig. 12-14; for these reasons, the combined prior art would have rendered the claim obvious).
Claim 15
Tooher, in view of Manolakos, discloses the method of claim 9, wherein processing PRSs received from each of the plurality of TRPs comprises:
receiving, from a base station, information identifying RB sets in which PRSs have been transmitted (Tooher, fig. 15; Manolakos, steps 6-7 in fig. 14 for PRS from TRPs); and
processing PRS signals within the RB sets in which PRSs have been transmitted (Tooher, processing guard band in fig. 5A; Manolakos, processing PRS in fig. 14-16 would involve using resource set as depicted in fig. 10-12; accordingly, the combined prior art renders the claim obvious).
Claim 17-19 and 21-22
Claims 17-19 and 21-22 are entity (device) claims corresponding to method claims 1-3 and 5-6. All of the limitations of claims 17-19 and 21-22 are found reciting for the structures for the same scopes of the respective limitations in claims 1-3 and 5-6. Accordingly, claims 17-19 and 21-22 can be considered obvious by the same rationales applied in the rejection of claims 1-3 and 5-6 respectively set forth above.
Additionally, Tooher discloses a network entity (RAN 106 or core network in fig. 1A, RAN with eNBs, MME or serving gateway in fig. 1C, RAN with gNBs, AMF, UPF, SMF, DN in fig. 1D), comprising: a memory (RAN or AMF or UPF or DN or core network in fig. 1A, C & D would include at least a typical memory to perform the steps depicted in fig. 2-5); at least one transceiver (RAN or AMF or UPF or DN or core network in fig. 1A, C & D would include at least a typical transceiver to perform the steps depicted in fig. 2-5); and at least one processor communicatively coupled to the memory and the at least one transceiver (RAN or AMF or UPF or DN or core network in fig. 1A, C & D would include at least a typical bus or communication line between processor, memory and transceiver to perform the steps depicted in fig. 2-5).
Claim 24-29
Claims 17-19 and 21-22 are equipment claims corresponding to method claims 9-15. All of the limitations of claims 17-19 and 21-22 are found reciting for the structures for the same scopes of the respective limitations in claims 1-3 and 5-6. Accordingly, claims 17-19 and 21-22 can be considered obvious by the same rationales applied in the rejection of claims 1-3 and 5-6 respectively set forth above.
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Additionally, Tooher discloses a user equipment (UE) (WTRU in fig. 1-5 and see details of WTRU in fig. 1B), comprising: a memory (130 & 132 memory in fig. 1B); at least one transceiver (transceiver 120 in fig. 1B); and at least one processor communicatively coupled to the memory and the at least one transceiver (as depicted in fig. 1B, there is a communicatively connected between a processor 118, memory and transceiver).
7. Claims 8, 16, 23 and 30 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tooher in view of Manolakos and Lee et al. Pub. No.: US 2024/0275548 A1.
Claim 8
Although Tooher, in view of Manolakos, does not explicitly disclose: “the method of claim 1, wherein the assistance data further indicates that RB sets can be treated as sub positioning frequency layers (sub-PFLs), and comprises information that indicates an order in which the UE should process the sub-PFLs”, claim 8 is considered obvious by the following rationales.
Initially, Tooher, in view of Manolakos, discloses OFDM symbol (par. 0071 of Manolakos), PRS occasions, i.e., assistance data, for group of TRPs with resource sets for PRS (fig. 10 of Manolakos), and the user of sub-bands and guard bands (fig. 2-4 of Tooher). In fact, the sub-bands, sub-carriers can be considered as frequency layers. To advance the prosecution, further evidence for PFL is provided herein. In particular, Lee teaches the position frequency layer consisting of PRS resource set (Table 6 in par. 0219 on pg. 9, Table 7 in par. 0220 on pg. 10). Accordingly, one of ordinary skill in the art would have expected the PRS of Manolakos with sub-band and guard band of Tooher to combine with Positioning frequency layer of Lee to perform equally well to the claim. See MPEP 2143, KSR Exemplary Rationales F-G. See further evidence for using positioning frequency layers in Jiang et al. Pub. No.: US 2022/0369270 A1.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify using in-carrier guard bands of Tooher in view of Manolakos by providing positioning frequency layer as taught in Lee to obtain the claimed invention. Such a modification would have provided a user equipment UE to measure a positioning reference signal over PDCCH so that the report from UE could be reflected the resource rescheduling for designating a user with higher-data rate as suggested in par. 0003-0006 of Lee.
Claim 16
Although Tooher, in view of Manolakos, does not disclose: “the method of claim 9, wherein receiving the assistance data comprises receiving an indication that RB sets can be treated as sub positioning frequency layers (sub-PFLs) and information that indicates an order in which the UE should process the sub-PFLs, and wherein the method further comprises: receiving PRS transmissions on a subset less than all of the RB sets within the BWP; and processing the PRS transmissions according to the order in which the UE should process the sub-PFLs”, claim 16 is considered obvious by the following rationales.
Firstly, to address obviousness of the claim limitations “receiving an indication that RB sets can be treated as sub positioning frequency layers (sub-PFLs) and information that indicates an order in which the UE should process the sub-PFLs”, recall that Tooher, in view of Manolakos, discloses OFDM symbol (par. 0071 of Manolakos), PRS occasions, i.e., assistance data, for group of TRPs with resource sets for PRS (fig. 10 of Manolakos), and the user of sub-bands and guard bands (fig. 2-4 of Tooher). In fact, the sub-bands, sub-carriers can be considered as frequency layers. To advance the prosecution, further evidence for PFL is provided herein. In particular, Lee teaches the position frequency layer consisting of PRS resource set (Table 6 in par. 0219 on pg. 9, Table 7 in par. 0220 on pg. 10).
Secondly, to consider the obviousness of the claim limitations “receiving PRS transmissions on a subset less than all of the RB sets within the BWP; and processing the PRS transmissions according to the order in which the UE should process the sub-PFLs”, recall that Tooher depicts fig. 3 for guard bands between sub-bands and fig. 4 for activated or deactivated guard bands between sub-bands (consider 410, 420, 430 as BWP in fig. 4 of Tooher, if so, guard band is less than sub-bands, as to resource set within the bandwidth part). What’s more, Manolakos discloses PRS occasion, PRS resources (fig. 10) and processing PRS transmission (fig. 15-16). In particular, Lee teaches the position frequency layer consisting of PRS resource set (Table 6 in par. 0219 on pg. 9, Table 7 in par. 0220 on pg. 10). Accordingly, one of ordinary skill in the art would have expected the PRS of Manolakos with sub-band and guard band of Tooher to combine with Positioning frequency layer of Lee to perform equally well to the claim. See MPEP 2143, KSR Exemplary Rationales F-G.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify using in-carrier guard bands of Tooher in view of Manolakos by providing positioning frequency layer as taught in Lee to obtain the claimed invention. Such a modification would have provided a user equipment to measure a positioning reference signal over PDCCH so that the report from UE could be reflected the resource rescheduling for designating a user with higher-data rate as suggested in par. 0003-0006 of Lee.
Claim 23
Claim 23 is a device claim corresponding to method claim 8. All of the limitations of claim 23 are found reciting for the same scopes of the respective limitations in claim 8. Accordingly, claim 23 can be considered obvious by the same rationales applied in the claim rejection section set forth above.
Claim 30
Claim 30 is a device claim corresponding to method claim 16. All of the limitations of claim 30 are found reciting for the same scopes of the respective limitations in claim 16. Accordingly, claim 23 can be considered obvious by the same rationales applied in the claim rejection section set forth above.
Allowable Subject Matter
8. Claims 4 and 20 are 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.
Contact Information
9. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SAN HTUN whose telephone number is (571)270-3190. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Thursday 7 AM - 5 PM.
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/SAN HTUN/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2643
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