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 .
This office action is responsive to the amendment filed 8/25/26.
Claims 1-7, 9-13, and 15-22 are pending.
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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claim(s) 1, 9-12, 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xiong, US 2024/0251276, (“Xiong”), in view of Liu et al., US 2020/0045596, (“Liu”), newly cited.
Independent Claims
Regarding claim 1, Xiong teaches “A wireless communication method, comprising:
sending, by a terminal device, a plurality of pieces of reference information to a network device according to configuration information, wherein the plurality of pieces of reference information are related to a transmission delay of the terminal device” (Fig. 2, step S204; paragraph nos. 0029, 0036, 0150 and in particular, paragraph no. 0029, “At block S201, first indication information is sent to a UE, in which the first indication information is configured to instruct the UE to report the assistance information of a target moment, and the target moment includes at least one of a current moment or a future moment”; see also, paragraph nos. 0024, 0116 which both disclose transmission delay of the UE).
Regarding the newly amended claim limitation of claim 1, Xiong does not teach but Liu teaches “receiving, by the terminal device, indication information in response to the terminal device performing a handover from a first cell to a second cell, wherein the indication information indicates whether to continue to send reference information to the second cell (Fig. 5, step 7, UE receives RRC Conn. Reconfiguration message including mobility control information; paragraph no. 0054, “Additionally, at 7, the source base station 102a may transmit a RRC connection reconfiguration message that includes mobility control information. The RRC connection reconfiguration message may be transmitted using level 3 signaling, e.g., signaling at the network level. Additionally, the RRC connection reconfiguration message may include information related to the handover to the new base station, e.g., the target base station 102b”; the mobility control information and information related to the handover serve as “indication information” since this information indicates to the UE to send synchronization/timing information to the target eNB); and
determining, by the terminal device, whether to continue sending the reference information to the second cell based on the indication information” (Fig. 5, steps 502 and 9, UE determines to synchronize to new cell and sends synchronization/timing information to target eNB (“second cell”); paragraph no. 0054, “Accordingly, the UE 104 may detach from the old cell (e.g., source base station 102 a) and synchronize to the new cell (e.g., target base station 102 b) at 502”; see also, paragraph no. 0056 which discloses sending the synchronization/timing information to the target eNB).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of this claimed invention to modify Xiong by incorporating the teachings of Liu to facilitate the handover process of the UE by synchronizing to the target base station, as suggested by Liu in paragraph no. 0056.
Regarding independent claim 20, this independent claim is a corresponding apparatus (i.e. UE) claim of the method claim 1 and recites similar subject matter. As such, the rationale behind the above rejection of claim 1 applies with equal force to this independent claim and as further amplified below to highlight the minor differences between the claims. See Fig. 6 of Xiong for the claimed structural elements of the claim.
Dependent Claims
Regarding claim 9, Xiong teaches “wherein the plurality of pieces of reference information are transmitted in a second transmission manner, and the second transmission manner is that the plurality of pieces of reference information are carried in one message” (Fig. 2, step S204).
Regarding claim 10, Xiong teaches “wherein the second transmission manner corresponds to second configuration information, and the second configuration information indicates one or more of: a quantity of the pieces of reference information carried in one message, a time window length corresponding to the plurality of pieces of reference information, time of the terminal device obtaining the reference information, a quantity of the pieces of reference information obtained within a preset time window length, content of the reference information, an accuracy of the reference information, or whether the terminal device needs to report second information” (paragraph no. 0057 discloses a first duration or a time interval which teaches “a time window length … reference information”).
Regarding claim 11, Xiong teaches “wherein the second information comprises at least one of ephemeris information corresponding to the reference information, or a generating time instant of the reference information” (either one of the current moment or a future moment disclosed in paragraph no. 0029 teaches “a generating time instant”).
Regarding claim 12, Xiong teaches “sending, by the terminal device, third information to the network device, wherein the third information comprises one or more of ephemeris information configured to generate the reference information, a correspondence between the ephemeris information and the reference information, or a generating time instant of the reference information” (paragraph no. 0029 discloses a current moment or a future moment, any one of which teaches “a generating time instant ..”).
Claim(s) 2-7 and 13 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xiong and Liu as applied to claim 1 above and further in view of Bao et al., US 2022/0065979, (“Bao”).
Regarding claims 2 and 21, Xiong teaches “wherein the plurality of pieces of reference information are transmitted in a first transmission manner” (Fig. 2, step S204) but not “and the first transmission manner is that the plurality of pieces of reference information are carried in different messages.” Xiong teaches using a single message to transmit the assistance information including the moments.
Bao teaches that assistance data may be transmitted using multiple messages, see paragraph no. 0071. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of this claimed invention to modify Xiong and Liu by incorporating the teachings of Bao to enable the UE to transmit more assistance data via the use of multiple messages, thereby increasing the bandwidth of the UE.
Regarding claims 3 and 22, Xiong teaches “wherein the first transmission manner corresponds to first configuration information, and the first configuration information indicates one or more of: sending time of the reference information, generating time of the reference information, a quantity of times the reference information being sent, content of the reference information, or an accuracy of the reference information” (see paragraph no. 0029 which discloses that the first indication information is configured to instruct the UE to report the assistance information (i.e., “sending time of the reference information”) and paragraph no. 0036 which discloses the “quantity of times …” (i.e., the UE reports two pieces of assistance information); see also, paragraph nos. 0115, 0116 which teach the claimed “content of the reference information”).
Regarding claim 4, Xiong teaches “wherein the sending time of the reference information comprises at least one of a sending period, or a total sending duration corresponding to a plurality of times of sending of the reference information” (paragraph no. 0057 teaches “a sending period” (i.e., the disclosed first duration or time interval)).
Regarding claim 5, Xiong teaches “further comprising: receiving, by the terminal device, a triggering message sent by the network device, wherein the triggering message is configured to trigger the terminal device to send the plurality of pieces of reference information” (Fig. 2, step S201).
Regarding claim 6, Xiong teaches “wherein the first configuration information is carried in the triggering message” (Fig. 2, step S201 and paragraph no. 0029).
Regarding claim 7, Xiong teaches “sending, by the terminal device, at least one of ephemeris information configured to generate the reference information or a generating time instant of the reference information to the network device” (paragraph no. 0029 discloses a current moment or a future moment; any one of these moments teaches “a generating time instant …”).
Regarding claim 13, Xiong teaches “wherein the content of the reference information comprises one or more of a first transmission delay between the terminal device and a satellite, an uplink transmission timing advance of the terminal device, or a distance between the terminal device and the satellite” (paragraph no. 0116).
Claim(s) 15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xiong in view of Ren et al., US 2025/0294500, (“Ren”) and Liu.
Regarding independent claim 15, Xiong teaches “A wireless communication method, comprising:
receiving, a network device, a plurality of pieces of reference information sent by a terminal device, wherein the plurality of pieces of reference information are sent according to configuration information, are related to a transmission delay of the terminal device (Fig. 2, step S204; paragraph nos. 0029, 0036, 0150 and in particular, paragraph no. 0029, “At block S201, first indication information is sent to a UE, in which the first indication information is configured to instruct the UE to report the assistance information of a target moment, and the target moment includes at least one of a current moment or a future moment”; see also, paragraph nos. 0024, 0116 which both disclose transmission delay of the UE); and
determining position information of the terminal device based on the plurality of pieces of reference information” (it appears that this limitation is taught implicitly in Xiong, see paragraph nos. 0024 and 0116; however, see below for an explicit teaching).
Ren teaches explicitly the limitation “determining position information of the terminal device based on the plurality of pieces of reference information” (paragraph no. 0150, “the base station 102 or the LMF 103 may transmit notification signaling to the terminal 101, and the notification signaling includes indication information for indicating the terminal 101 to perform ATA and/or AFA; the terminal 101 may perform the ATA and/or AFA operations according to the notification signaling after receiving the notification signaling and transmit time information of performing the ATA and/or AFA to the LMF 103; and the LMF 103 may determine the position of the terminal according to each positioning measurement obtained within a time range between two adjacent ATA and/or AFA performed by the terminal 101”).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of this claimed invention to modify Xiong by incorporating the teachings of Ren to enable the network to improve the determination of the position of the UE within the network.
Regarding the newly amended claim limitation of claim 15, Xiong does not teach but Liu teaches “sending indication information in response to the terminal device performing a handover from a first cell to a second cell, wherein the indication information indicates whether to continue to send reference information to the second cell” (Fig. 5, step 7, UE receives RRC Conn. Reconfiguration message including mobility control information; paragraph no. 0054, “Additionally, at 7, the source base station 102a may transmit a RRC connection reconfiguration message that includes mobility control information. The RRC connection reconfiguration message may be transmitted using level 3 signaling, e.g., signaling at the network level. Additionally, the RRC connection reconfiguration message may include information related to the handover to the new base station, e.g., the target base station 102b”; the mobility control information and information related to the handover serve as “indication information” since this information indicates to the UE to send synchronization/timing information to the target eNB).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of this claimed invention to modify Xiong and Ren by incorporating the teachings of Liu to facilitate the handover process of the UE by synchronizing to the target base station, as suggested by Liu in paragraph no. 0056.
Claim(s) 16-19 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Xiong, Ren and Liu as applied to claim 15 above, and further in view of Bao.
Regarding claim 16, Xiong teaches “wherein the plurality of pieces of reference information are transmitted in a first transmission manner” (Fig. 2, step S204) but not “and the first transmission manner is that the plurality of pieces of reference information are carried in different messages.” Xiong teaches using a single message to transmit the assistance information including the moments.
Bao teaches that assistance data may be transmitted using multiple messages, see paragraph no. 0071. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of this claimed invention to modify Xiong, Ren, and Liu by incorporating the teachings of Bao to enable the UE to transmit more assistance data via the use of multiple messages, thereby increasing the bandwidth of the UE.
Regarding claim 17, Xiong teaches “wherein the first transmission manner corresponds to first configuration information, and the first configuration information indicates one or more of: sending time of the reference information, generating time of the reference information, a quantity of times the reference information being sent, content of the reference information, or an accuracy of the reference information” (see paragraph no. 0029 which discloses that the first indication information is configured to instruct the UE to report the assistance information (i.e., “sending time of the reference information”) and paragraph no. 0036 which discloses the “quantity of times …” (i.e., the UE reports two pieces of assistance information); see also, paragraph nos. 0115, 0116 which teach the claimed “content of the reference information”).
Regarding claim 18, Xiong teaches “wherein the sending time of the reference information comprises at least one of a sending period, or a total sending duration corresponding to a plurality of times of sending of the reference information” (paragraph no. 0057 teaches “a sending period” (i.e., the disclosed first duration or time interval)).
Regarding claim 19, Xiong teaches “further comprising: receiving, by the terminal device, a triggering message sent by the network device, wherein the triggering message is configured to trigger the terminal device to send the plurality of pieces of reference information” (Fig. 2, step S201).
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1, 15, and 20 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.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
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/WON TAE C KIM/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2414
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