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, see remarks, filed 07/20/2026, with respect to the rejection(s) of claim(s) under 35 USC 103 have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of Yerramalli et al. (US 2024/0334535 A1).
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.
Claim(s) 1-2, 8-12, 16-17, 23-27, 31-34, 42 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Alawieh et al. (US 2020/0374656 A1) (Alawieh herein after) in view of Yerramalli et al. (US 2024/0334535 A1) (Yerramalli herein after).
Re Claims 1 and 16, Alawieh discloses a method performed by a first wireless device, and a first wireless device comprising a radio interface and processing circuitry (interface and circuitry [0278]), the method comprising:
indication that a first wireless device is a master node for a sidelink group ranging procedure (if a group of devices is identified (for example during the discovery or initial mode) to cooperate in ranging [0167]; additional (optional) field can be added to indicate if the device is capable/interested in doing ranging [0169]), wherein the master node has a capability to perform at least one of positioning and ranging calculations for one or more second wireless devices (device being first to demand ranging could be the one to take the role of a master device [0174]);
determining to initiate a sidelink group ranging procedure (the remote devices (e.g., the other transceivers 132_2, 132_3, 132_4 and 132_5 in FIG. 11) may respond with their ability to range [0171]);
transmitting a ranging request to the one or more second wireless devices (the initiator (e.g., the first transceiver 132_1) sends the ranging resource bitmap (or muting pattern), which indicates the resources that will not be used by the initiator for transmission and can hence be used. The initiator informs all the other devices (e.g., the second transceiver 132_2, third transceiver 132_3, fourth transceiver 132_4 and fifth transceiver 132_5 in FIG. 12) at which instances the reply should take place [0195]; the first transceiver (e.g., UE1) 132_1 can be configured to communicate with at least one other transceiver (e.g., a second transceiver (e.g., UE2)) of the wireless communication system 100 using a sidelink resource pool of the wireless communication system 100 [0206]);
receiving a ranging response, including timing information, from at least one of the second wireless devices (first transceiver (e.g., UE1) 132_1 can be configured to receive a second signal from the other transceiver (e.g., UE2 132_2) of the wireless communication system on a resource of the sidelink resource pool, the second signal transmitted by the other transceiver (e.g., UE2 132_2) responsive to a reception of the first signal, wherein the second signal can be transmitted by the other transceiver (e.g., UE2 132_2) using the response time multiplier m [0206]); and
calculating a range for the at least one second wireless device in accordance with the timing information (first transceiver (e.g., UE1) 132_1 can be configured to determine the distance to the other transceiver (e.g., UE2 132_2) by determining a time t.sub.p the first signal and/or the second signal travels between the first transceiver (e.g., UE1) and the other transceiver (e.g., UE2 132_2) [0207]).
Alawieh discloses the claimed invention except receiving an indication that a first wireless device is a master node for a sidelink group ranging procedure.
However, Yerramalli discloses LMF 270 sends an anchor selection update message to each of the UEs 204 indicating that UE 204-1 has been selected as the anchor UE for the joint positioning session 1100. The anchor selection update messages may be LPP messages. At 1125, the UE 204-1 performs positioning measurements for the joint positioning session 1100. For example, the joint positioning session 1100 may be a Uu-based positioning session (e.g., multi-RTT, DL-TDOA, etc.) and/or a sidelink-based positioning session (e.g., SL-RTT, SL-TDOA, etc.) ([0165]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious at the time the invention was made to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify method and system of Alawieh, by making use of the technique taught by Yerramalli, in order to improve the location estimation accuracy and efficiency.
Both references are within the same field of telecommunication, and in particular of location estimation, the modification does not change a fundamental operating principle of Alawieh, nor does Alawieh teach away from the modification (Alawieh merely discloses a preferred embodiment). The combination has a reasonable expectation of success in that the modifications can be made using conventional and well known engineering and/or programming techniques, the group location estimation taught by Yerramalli is not altered and continues to perform the same function as separately, and the resultant combination produces the highly predictable result of receiving an indication that a first wireless device is a master node for a sidelink group ranging procedure.
Re Claims 2 and 17, the combined teachings disclose the method of any one of claim 1 and the first wireless device of claim 16, Yerramalli discloses wherein the first wireless device determines to initiate a sidelink group ranging procedure in response to receiving a request for ranging measurements from one of: a network node or one of the second wireless device (location server can then select an anchor UE (or multiple anchor UEs) and inform that UE (or those UEs) that it has been selected as an anchor UE. The selected UE then performs the measurements of the downlink PRS and reports the measurements to other UEs in the group (for UE-based positioning) or to the location server (for UE-assisted positioning) [0157]).
Re Claims 8 and 23, the combined teachings disclose the method of any one of claim 1 and the first wireless device of claim 16, Yerramalli discloses wherein the ranging request is transmitted via one of: unicast, multicast, and groupcast signaling (involved UEs 204 perform a three-way messaging handshake. At stage 710, the anchor UE 204-1 transmits a PRS request (labeled “PRSrequest”) to the target UE 204-2. At stage 715, the target UE 204-2 transmits a PRS response (labeled “PRSresponse”) to the anchor UE 204-1. At stage 720, the anchor UE 204-1 transmits a PRS confirmation to the target UE 204-2. At this point, the three-way messaging handshake is complete [0139]).
Re Claims 9 and 24, the combined teachings disclose the method of any one of claim 1 and the first wireless device of claim 16 , Yerramalli discloses wherein the ranging request includes one of: a positioning reference signal (PRS), an uplink sounding reference signal (UL-SRS) for positioning, and a Channel Status Information Reference Signal (CSI-RS) (involved UEs 204 perform a three-way messaging handshake. At stage 710, the anchor UE 204-1 transmits a PRS request (labeled “PRSrequest”) to the target UE 204-2. At stage 715, the target UE 204-2 transmits a PRS response (labeled “PRSresponse”) to the anchor UE 204-1. At stage 720, the anchor UE 204-1 transmits a PRS confirmation to the target UE 204-2. At this point, the three-way messaging handshake is complete [0139]).
Re Claims 10 and 25, the combined teachings disclose the method of any one of claim 1 and the first wireless device of claim 16, Yerramalli discloses wherein the ranging response includes a Medium Access Control (MAC) control element (CE) message (MAC) (DRX configuration 800C in which a long DRX cycle is configured and a PDCCH and a DRX command MAC control element (MAC-CE) are received during an ON duration 820 of the second DRX cycle illustrated. Note that the active time beginning during ON duration 820 would normally end at time 824 due to the reception of the PDCCH at time 822 and the subsequent expiration of the DRX inactivity timer at time 824, as discussed above with reference to FIG. 8B. However, in the example of FIG. 8C, the active time is shortened to time 826 based on the time at which the DRX command MAC-CE, which instructs the UE to terminate the DRX inactivity timer and the ON duration timer, is received. [0148]).
Re Claims 11 and 26, the combined teachings disclose the method of any one of claim 1 and the first wireless device of claim 16, Alawieh discloses wherein the timing information includes at least one time measurement based on at least one of: reception of the ranging request and/or transmission of the ranging response by the at least one second wireless device (first transceiver (e.g., UE1) 132_1 can be configured to determine the distance to the other transceiver (e.g., UE2 132_2) by determining a time t.sub.p the first signal and/or the second signal travels between the first transceiver (e.g., UE1) and the other transceiver (e.g., UE2 132_2) [0207]).
Re Claims 12 and 27, the combined teachings disclose the method of any one of claim 1 and the first wireless device of claim 16, Alawieh discloses further comprising, determining a position of the at least one second wireless device in accordance with the timing information (first transceiver (e.g., UE1) 132_1 can be configured to determine the distance to the other transceiver (e.g., UE2 132_2) by determining a time t.sub.p the first signal and/or the second signal travels between the first transceiver (e.g., UE1) and the other transceiver (e.g., UE2 132_2) [0207]).
Re Claims 31 and 42, Alawieh discloses a method performed by a network node and a network node comprising a radio interface and processing circuitry, the method comprising:
indication that a first wireless device is a master node for a sidelink group ranging procedure (if a group of devices is identified (for example during the discovery or initial mode) to cooperate in ranging [0167]; additional (optional) field can be added to indicate if the device is capable/interested in doing ranging [0169]), wherein the master node has a capability to perform at least one of positioning and ranging calculations for one or more second wireless devices (device being first to demand ranging could be the one to take the role of a master device [0174]);
transmitting, to the first wireless device, a request for ranging measurements for one or more second wireless devices (the initiator (e.g., the first transceiver 132_1) sends the ranging resource bitmap (or muting pattern), which indicates the resources that will not be used by the initiator for transmission and can hence be used. The initiator informs all the other devices (e.g., the second transceiver 132_2, third transceiver 132_3, fourth transceiver 132_4 and fifth transceiver 132_5 in FIG. 12) at which instances the reply should take place [0195]; the first transceiver (e.g., UE1) 132_1 can be configured to communicate with at least one other transceiver (e.g., a second transceiver (e.g., UE2)) of the wireless communication system 100 using a sidelink resource pool of the wireless communication system 100 [0206]); and
receiving, from the first wireless device, at least one ranging measurement for the one or more second wireless devices (first transceiver (e.g., UE1) 132_1 can be configured to receive a second signal from the other transceiver (e.g., UE2 132_2) of the wireless communication system on a resource of the sidelink resource pool, the second signal transmitted by the other transceiver (e.g., UE2 132_2) responsive to a reception of the first signal, wherein the second signal can be transmitted by the other transceiver (e.g., UE2 132_2) using the response time multiplier m [0206]).
Alawieh discloses the claimed invention except transmitting an indication that a first wireless device is a master node for a sidelink group ranging procedure.
However, Yerramalli discloses LMF 270 sends an anchor selection update message to each of the UEs 204 indicating that UE 204-1 has been selected as the anchor UE for the joint positioning session 1100. The anchor selection update messages may be LPP messages. At 1125, the UE 204-1 performs positioning measurements for the joint positioning session 1100. For example, the joint positioning session 1100 may be a Uu-based positioning session (e.g., multi-RTT, DL-TDOA, etc.) and/or a sidelink-based positioning session (e.g., SL-RTT, SL-TDOA, etc.) ([0165]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious at the time the invention was made to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify method and system of Alawieh, by making use of the technique taught by Yerramalli, in order to improve the location estimation accuracy and efficiency.
Both references are within the same field of telecommunication, and in particular of UR group communication system, the modification does not change a fundamental operating principle of Alawieh, nor does Alawieh teach away from the modification (Alawieh merely discloses a preferred embodiment). The combination has a reasonable expectation of success in that the modifications can be made using conventional and well known engineering and/or programming techniques, the group location estimation taught by Yerramalli is not altered and continues to perform the same function as separately, and the resultant combination produces the highly predictable result of transmitting an indication that a first wireless device is a master node for a sidelink group ranging procedure.
Re Claim 32, the combined teachings disclose the method of claim 31, Alawieh discloses further comprising, exchanging, with the first and second wireless devices, capability information associated with the sidelink group ranging procedure (the remote devices (e.g., the other transceivers 132_2, 132_3, 132_4 and 132_5 in FIG. 11) may respond with their ability to range [0171]).
Re Claim 33, the combined teachings disclose the method of claim 32, Alawieh discloses further comprising, determining one or more groups of wireless devices in accordance with the received capability information (e.g., the other transceivers 132_2, 132_3, 132_4 and 132_5 in FIG. 11) may respond with their ability to range [0171].
Re Claim 34, the combined teachings disclose the method of any one of claim 31, Alawieh discloses further comprising, determining one or more groups of wireless devices in accordance with the received ranging measurements (a group of devices is identified (for example during the discovery or initial mode) to cooperate in ranging, then the procedure [0167]).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 4-5, 19-20, 35 objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to KENNETH T LAM whose telephone number is (571)270-1862. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8:30-5:00 PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Hannah S. Wang can be reached at (571) 272-9018. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/KENNETH T LAM/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2631
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