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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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.
Claim(s) 1-30 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cheema et al. (US 11,888,471 B2) in view of Lamba et al. (US 8,131,290 B2).
Regarding claim 1,
Cheema teaches a method of configuring information for location determination, including:
“in a positioning session between a location server and a user equipment (UE)” Cheema teaches a location management function (LMF) that communicates with a UE for positioning purposes via LPP signaling (Cheema, col. 19, 31-67) “The LMF 144 receives positioning measurements or estimates (e.g., positioning report 129) from RAN 120 and the remote unit 102 (e.g., via the AMF 143) and computes the position of the remote unit 102 (e.g., based on a measurement configuration 127)”).
“determining, with the location server, to provide the UE with assistance data regarding at least one NTN Next Generation Radio Access Network (NG-RAN) node” — Cheema teaches an LMF initiating positioning-related signaling with a UE connected to a non-terrestrial network via satellite access (Cheema, col. 14, 35-60; col. 18, 1-15; LMF initiates LPP request for E-BID/E-CID positioning to a UE and/or group of UEs; the remote unit 102 communicates in a non-terrestrial network via UL and DL signals between the remote unit and a satellite 130).
“sending assistance data from the location server to the UE, the assistance data comprising, with respect to the at least one NTN NG-RAN node: … ephemeris information … or a combination thereof” Cheema teaches that satellite ephemeris (location and velocity coordinates as a function of time, orbit information) is provided to the LMF (Cheema, col. 17, 30-36; “A satellite access node’s ephemeris such as location and velocity coordinates as a function of time, nominal, and/or actual orbit information, and the like may be provided to an LMF”). Cheema further teaches the LMF exchanging positioning information with the UE via LPP (col. 18, 1-15).
Cheema does not explicitly teach the LMF sending ephemeris information to the UE as positioning assistance data.
Lamba teaches a method of supporting positioning of mobile stations, including:
A location server (H-PDE 160) providing satellite positioning system (SPS) assistance data including GPS Ephemeris and GPS Almanac to a mobile station during a positioning session (Lamba, col. 7, 25-42: “H-PDE 160 may cache the BSA data and determine appropriate GPS Ephemeris and GPS Almanac for mobile station 110 based on the BSA data (step D). H-PDE 160 may then provide the requested GPS Ephemeris and GPS Almanac to mobile station 110 (step E)”; col. 8, 1-36; FIG. 3, steps D-E; FIG. 4, steps D-E).
Lamba further teaches that the mobile station sends a request for positioning assistance to the location server, and the location server determines appropriate assistance data and provides it to the mobile station (Lamba, col. 7, 55-67; col. 8, 1-33).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Cheema’s NTN positioning system such that the LMF sends ephemeris information regarding the NTN NG-RAN node (satellite) to the UE as positioning assistance data, as taught by Lamba. A person of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to do so because Lamba teaches that providing satellite orbital/ephemeris data to a mobile station enables the mobile station to perform positioning measurements on satellite signals (Lamba, col. 4, 14-40). Since Cheema’s NTN satellites similarly transmit reference signals for positioning (Cheema, col. 10, 1-49), providing the UE with ephemeris data for the NTN satellite would predictably enable the UE to acquire and measure those reference signals more accurately and efficiently. The combination represents applying a known technique (server-to-UE satellite assistance data delivery, as in A-GPS taught by Lamba) to a known device (NTN positioning system of Cheema) to yield the predictable result of enabling UE-assisted or UE-based positioning with NTN nodes. See KSR Int’l Co. v. Teleflex Inc., 550 U.S. 398, 417 (2007); MPEP § 2143(I)(D).
Regarding claim 13,
The combination of Cheema and Lamba teach:
“in a positioning session between a location server and a user equipment (UE): receiving assistance data, at the UE from the location server, regarding at least one NTN Next Generation Radio Access Network (NG-RAN) node” Specifically, Lamba teaches the UE receiving positioning assistance data (GPS Ephemeris, GPS Acquisition Assistance, GPS Sensitivity Assistance) from the location server (Lamba, FIG. 3, step E; FIG. 4, steps E, H; col. 8, 19-33; col. 9, 1-8).
“wherein the assistance data comprises, with respect to the at least one NTN NG-RAN node: … ephemeris information … or a combination thereof” As discussed above, the combination teaches ephemeris information being provided to the UE regarding the positioning satellite (NTN NG-RAN node in the combined system).
“performing at least one measurement of radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted by the at least one NTN NG-RAN node based at least in part on the assistance data” — Lamba explicitly teaches that the mobile station performs pseudo-range measurements on satellite signals based on the received assistance data (Lamba, col. 9, 9-18: “Mobile station 110 may provide pseudo-range measurement (PRM), pilot phase measurement, time offset measurement, and a request for location response to H-PDE 160 (step I)”; col. 4, 14-30: “Mobile station 110 may measure signals from satellites 190 … and may obtain pseudo-range measurements for the satellites and/or timing measurements for the base stations”). Cheema teaches the UE performing RSRP measurements on reference signals from the NTN satellite (Cheema, col. 19, 15-46).
The motivation to combine is the same as stated for Claim 1 above.
Regarding Claim 24,
The combination of Cheema and Lamba teach:
“A location server comprising: a transceiver; a memory; and one or more processors communicatively coupled with the transceiver and the memory” — Cheema teaches the LMF 144 as part of the mobile core network 140 (Cheema, col. 9, 3-17). As a network function, the LMF inherently comprises processing capability, memory, and communication interfaces. Lamba more explicitly teaches a location server (H-PDE 160) comprising a controller/processor 1350, memory 1352, and communication unit 1354 (Lamba, FIG. 13; col. 14, 28-42).
“wherein the one or more processors are configured to: in a positioning session between a location server and a user equipment (UE): determine to provide the UE with assistance data regarding at least one Non-Terrestrial Network (NTN) Next Generation Radio Access Network (NG-RAN) node; and send assistance data via the transceiver to the UE, the assistance data comprising, with respect to the at least one NTN NG-RAN node: … ephemeris information … or a combination thereof” — As discussed for Claim 1 above.
The motivation to combine is the same as stated for Claim 1 above.
Regarding claim 6,
Cheema in view of Lamba teaches the method of Claim 1, “wherein the location server comprises a location management function (LMF) of a fifth generation (5G) New Radio (NR) communication network” — Cheema teaches the location server is an LMF 144 in a 5G system (Cheema, col. 9, 3-30; RAN 120 compliant with 5G system specified by 3GPP, implementing NR RAT).
“and wherein sending the assistance data comprises sending the assistance data in an LTE Positioning Protocol (LPP) message” — Cheema teaches the LMF communicating with the UE via LPP signaling for positioning (Cheema, col. 18, 1-15;]: “an LMF may initiate an LTE positioning protocol (“LPP”) request and/or provide location information signaling via LPP for invocation of E-BID and/or E-CID positioning to a UE”).
Regarding claim 7,
Cheema in view of Lamba teaches the method of Claim 1, “wherein determining to provide the UE with assistance data comprises receiving, at the location server, a request for assistance data from the UE” — Lamba explicitly teaches the mobile station sending a request for positioning assistance (e.g., Request GPS Ephemeris, Request GPS Acquisition Assistance) to the H-PDE, and the H-PDE responding by providing the requested data (Lamba, col. 7, 55-67: IS-801 Position Determination Data Message including “a Request GPS Ephemeris element to request for GPS Ephemeris”; FIG. 3, step A; FIG. 4, step A). Cheema teaches the UE providing measurements/requests via LPP (Cheema, Col. 18, 1-15).
Regarding claim 8,
Cheema in view of Lamba teaches the method of Claim 1, “further comprising: prior to sending the assistance data, receiving a message at the location server, the message comprising information specific to the NG-RAN node and including, with respect to the NTN NG-RAN node:”
“a location with a time stamp” — Cheema teaches satellite coordinates (latitude, longitude, altitude) as a function of time provided to the LMF (Cheema, col. 18, 1-15): parameters may include a latitude sign, a latitude, a longitude, a direction of altitude, an altitude…may be configured as a function of time);
“the ephemeris information” — Cheema teaches satellite ephemeris provided to the LMF (Cheema, col. 17, 30-36; col. 18, 1-15);
“the beam footprint corresponding to the one or more reference signals transmitted by the NTN NG-RAN node” — Cheema teaches beam coverage area coordinates, beam footprint size, number of beams communicated from the NTN gNB to the LMF (Cheema, col. 12, 16-67; col. 22, 61-col. 23, 1-3) beam coverage area coordinates (e.g., a set of latitude and longitude corresponding to beam IDs); beam footprint size”; NG-RAN node sends NRPPa E-BID/E-CID measurement initiation response containing RSRP levels for beam IDs);
“an indication of whether a beam of the NTN NG-RAN node is earth fixed or earth moving” — Cheema explicitly teaches this (Cheema, col. 15, 1-26): earth fixed beams and/or cells or earth moving cells);
“or a combination thereof; wherein the assistance data is based at least in part on the message” — Cheema teaches the LMF using information received from the NG-RAN node to estimate UE position (Cheema, col. 17, 30-36). In the combined system per the motivation stated for Claim 1, the LMF would forward relevant information to the UE as assistance data.
Regarding claim 11,
Cheema in view of Lamba teaches the method of Claim 8, “wherein the message comprises an Enhanced Cell ID (E-CID) message, an NR Positioning Protocol annex (NRPPa) message, or both” — Cheema teaches the LMF sending NRPPa request messages to the NG-RAN node and receiving NRPPa response messages, including E-CID/E-BID measurement initiation request/response messages (Cheema, an LMF sends an NRPPa request message to a NG-RAN node… the NG-RAN node sends an NRPPa E-BID and/or E-CID measurement initiation response message; Col. 15, 37-54).
Regarding claim 12,
Cheema in view of Lamba teaches the method of Claim 8, “wherein the message further comprises delay and Doppler information of a link between the NTN NG-RAN node and a reference point, an indication of a time during which the delay and Doppler information is valid, or both” —
Cheema teaches that with the movement of LEO satellites, signal strength values change because the UE experiences different elevation angles and path gains (Cheema, Col. 19, 15-46. Cheema also teaches timestamps associated with measurements (Col. 20, 7-18). Cheema further teaches validity timers associated with parameters, where each time a new value is received the timer resets, and if expired the parameter is considered obsolete (Cheema, col. 18, 54-67: Each parameter as a function of time may be associated with a validity timer… If a validity timer expires, the associated parameter may be considered obsolete).
While Cheema teaches validity timers for time-varying parameters and Doppler effects due to satellite movement (col. 22, 15-30; Cheema does not explicitly characterize this as delay and Doppler information of a link between the NTN NG-RAN node and a reference point.
However, it would have been obvious to characterize the satellite-UE link in terms of delay and Doppler relative to a reference point, as this is a known parameterization for describing time-varying satellite links, and Cheema’s validity timer teaching maps to an indication of a time during which the delay and Doppler information is valid. See MPEP § 2144.I (combining prior art elements according to known methods).
Regarding claim 18
Cheema in view of Lamba teaches the method of Claim 13, “further comprising, prior to receiving the assistance data, sending a request for assistance data from the UE” — Lamba teaches the mobile station sending requests for GPS Ephemeris, GPS Acquisition Assistance, and GPS Sensitivity Assistance to the H-PDE prior to receiving the assistance data (Lamba, FIG. 3, step A; FIG. 4, steps A, F; col. 8, 7-29).
Regarding claim 19
Cheema teaches:
“receiving, at an NTN Next Generation Radio Access Network (NG-RAN) node, a request from a location server for information specific to the NTN NG-RAN node” — Cheema teaches the LMF sending NRPPa request messages (E-CID measurement initiation request) to the NTN gNB/satellite (Cheema, col. 14, 35-60; col. 18, 1-15);
“responsive to receiving the request, sending, from the NG-RAN node to the location server, a message comprising, with respect to the NTN NG-RAN node:”
“a location with a time stamp” — Cheema teaches satellite position parameters (latitude, longitude, altitude) configured as a function of time with associated timestamps (Cheema, col. 18, 1-15);
“ephemeris information” — Cheema teaches satellite ephemeris (location and velocity coordinates as a function of time) provided to the LMF (Cheema, , col. 17, 30-36; col. 18, 1-15);
“beam footprint information corresponding to a beam applied to one or more reference signals transmitted by the NTN NG-RAN node” — Cheema teaches beam coverage area coordinates, beam footprint size, number of beams in a cell communicated from the NTN node to the LMF (Cheema, col. 12, 16-67; col. 22, 61-col. 23, 1-3);
“an indication of whether a beam is earth fixed or earth moving” — Cheema explicitly teaches this (Cheema, col. 15, 1-26): “earth fixed beams and/or cells or earth moving cells”).
“or a combination thereof” — At minimum, Cheema teaches ephemeris, beam footprint information, and earth-fixed/earth-moving indication.
Cheema does not explicitly teach: “a polarization” or “time frequency pre-compensation applied to one or more reference signals transmitted by the NTN NG-RAN node.” However, because the claim recites “or a combination thereof,” only some of the listed items need be present. Cheema teaches at least ephemeris, beam footprint information, location with timestamp, and earth-fixed/earth-moving indication, satisfying “a combination thereof.”
Regarding claim 20
Cheema teaches the method of Claim 19, “wherein the request comprises an Enhanced Cell ID (E-CID) measurement initiation request or a Transmission Reception Point (TRP) information request” — Cheema teaches the LMF sending an NRPPa E-BID/E-CID measurement initiation request to the NG-RAN node (Cheema, col. 14, 1-49: an LMF sends an NRPPa request message to a NG-RAN node (e.g., gNB, gateway, or satellite) to perform measurements).
Regarding claim 21
Cheema teaches the method of Claim 19, “wherein the beam footprint information includes an indication of: beamwidth per frequency layer or band, beam center on ground, beam shape, beam uncertainty regions, a timestamp of beam footprint information, or a combination thereof” — Cheema teaches beam coverage area coordinates (center coordinate and radius), beam footprint size (Cheema, col. 17, 10-21 center, semi-major axis, semi-minor axis for elliptical beams; “footprint size information may include a hypothetical radius as a function of the semi-minor axis and the semi-major axis”). Cheema further teaches timestamps associated with beam information for earth-moving cells (col. 17, 56-67).
Regarding claim 22
Cheema teaches the method of Claim 19, “wherein the NTN NG-RAN node comprises a serving cell of a user equipment (UE)” — Cheema teaches the NTN gNB/satellite serving a UE via NTN access (Cheema, col. 5, 19-31: the network unit 104 serves the remote unit 102 via satellite access; col. 10, 56-67; a positioning fix of a target-UE may be based on a beam ID).
Regarding claim 23
Cheema teaches the method of Claim 19, “wherein the message comprises an E-CID message, an NR Positioning Protocol annex (NRPPa) message, or both” — Cheema teaches the NG-RAN node sending an NRPPa E-BID/E-CID measurement initiation response message to the LMF (Cheema, col. 18, 1-15).
Regarding claim 29
Cheema in view of Lamba teaches the location server of Claim 24, “wherein, to determine to provide the UE with assistance data, the one or more processors are configured to receive a request for assistance data from the UE” — Same analysis as Claim 7 above.
Regarding claim 30
Cheema in view of Lamba teaches the location server of Claim 24, “wherein the one or more processors are further configured to: prior to sending the assistance data, receive a message comprising information specific to the NG-RAN node…” — Same analysis as Claim 8 above.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1-30 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
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/DAVETTA W GOINS/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2689
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