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 § 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)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1, 3-5, 7-11, 13-15 and 17-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Li et al (20250048482).
Regarding claim 1, Li et al disclose, a communication method, applied to a terminal device or a chip in a terminal device (UE, fig. 1-13, abstract), wherein the method comprises:
determining capability information, wherein the capability information comprises a low power capability, and the low power capability indicates that the terminal device supports low power positioning (¶ 0106-0109, the first indication indicates the positioning capability of the UE in the RRC non-connected state. For example, the first indication is at least used to indicate the positioning capability of the UE in an RRC inactive state);
sending the capability information to a location management device (LMF) (¶ 0109, 0133-0134, sending positioning capability information of the UE to a LMF); and
receiving a message in response to the capability information sent to the location management device, wherein the message indicates to the terminal device whether to stay in a current radio resource control (RRC) state (¶ 0109, 0145, 0148-0153, a returned indication is received, in which the indication instructs the UE to stay in the RRC non-connected state).
Regarding claims 3, 13, Li et al disclose in claim 1, further, Li et al disclose, wherein the low power capability comprises at least one of the following: that the terminal device supports measurement of a positioning reference signal (PRS) in an RRC inactive state, a supported positioning method, a supported PRS bandwidth, or a maximum quantity of processing resources supported in one slot (¶ 0064, 0185, 0191, the UE may measure a PRS in the RRC inactive state).
Regarding claims 4, 14, Li et al disclose in claim 1, further, Li et al disclose, wherein the method further comprises: receiving the message from an access network device, wherein the message is an RRC release message, the RRC release message is used to release the terminal device from an RRC connected state to the RRC inactive state or an RRC idle state (¶ 0047, 0053-0156, 0190 and 0208, in response to determining that the UE supports to send an uplink positioning reference signal in an RRC non-connected state, an RRC release message including an uplink positioning signal configuration is sent to the UE).
Regarding claims 5, 15, Li et al disclose, a communication method, applied to an access network device or a chip in an access network device (access devices/base station, fig. 1-13, abstract), wherein the method comprises:
receiving first information from a location management device, wherein the first information comprises at least one of the following: capability information of a terminal device or first indication information, the capability information comprises a low power capability, the low power capability indicates that the terminal device supports low power positioning, the first indication information is used to recommend that the low power positioning be performed on the terminal device, and the access network device is a serving access network device of the terminal device (¶ 0159-0165, 0187-0188, fig. 8, at step S510, a first indication is sent to an access network device, in which the first indication indicates whether a UE supports positioning in an RRC non-connected state, The LMF notifies a base station/an access network device of the positioning capability through the following message. For example, the LMF notifies, through an NRPPa message, the base station of the positioning capability of the UE in the RRC inactive state); and
sending a message to the terminal device to keep the terminal device in a radio resource control (RRC) connected state or an RRC inactive state based on the first information, or to release the terminal device from an RRC connected state to an RRC inactive state or an RRC idle state based on the first information (¶ 0053-0057, 0148-0152, fig. 3, 5, step S210, fig. 4, steps S131-S132, fig. 8, step S420).
Regarding claims 7, 17, Li et al disclose in claim 5, further, Li et al disclose, wherein the first information is carried in a positioning information request (¶ 0185, 0188-0189, the UE may measure a PRS in the RRC inactive state and positioning information request message is used for the LMF to notify the base station of the positioning capability. That is, the LMF may indicate the positioning capability when the LMF requests the uplink positioning reference signal configuration of the UE from the gNB).
Regarding claims 8, 18, Li et al disclose in claim 5, further, Li et al disclose, wherein the low power capability comprises at least one of the following: that the terminal device supports measurement of a positioning reference signal in the RRC inactive state, a supported positioning method, a supported positioning reference signal bandwidth, or a maximum quantity of processing resources supported in one slot (¶ 0064, 0185, 0188-0191, the UE may measure a PRS in the RRC inactive state and positioning information request message is used for the LMF to notify the base station of the positioning capability. That is, the LMF may indicate the positioning capability when the LMF requests the uplink positioning reference signal configuration of the UE from the gNB).
Regarding claims 9, 19, Li et al disclose in claim 5, further, Li et al disclose, further comprises at least one of the following: user equipment (UE) measurement information or UE reporting information, the UE measurement information is measurement information used by the terminal device to measure the positioning reference signal, and the UE reporting information is information used by the terminal device to report a measurement result (¶ 0042, 0064, 0185, 0188-0191, the UE may measure a PRS in the RRC inactive state and positioning information request message is used for the LMF to notify the base station of the positioning capability. That is, the LMF may indicate the positioning capability when the LMF requests the uplink positioning reference signal configuration of the UE from the gNB).
Regarding claims 10, 20, Li et al disclose in claim 5, further, Li et al disclose, wherein the releasing the terminal device from an RRC connected state to an RRC idle state or an RRC inactive state based on the first information comprises: if the low power capability is a positioning capability of the terminal device in the RRC inactive state or the RRC idle state, the message is sending an RRC release message sent to the terminal device, wherein the RRC release message is used to release the terminal device from the RRC connected state to the RRC inactive state or the RRC idle state (¶ 0047, 0053-0156, 0190 and 0208, in response to determining that the UE supports to send an uplink positioning reference signal in an RRC non-connected state, an RRC release message including an uplink positioning signal configuration is sent to the UE).
Regarding claim 11, Li et al disclose in claim 1, further, Li et al disclose, a communication apparatus, being a terminal device or a chip in a terminal device, comprising: at least one processor (a processing component 802) coupled to at least one memory (a memory 804) storing instructions and configured to execute the instructions to cause the apparatus to perform (¶ 0292):
determining capability information, wherein the capability information comprises a low power capability, and the low power capability indicates that the terminal device supports low power positioning (¶ 0106-0109, the first indication indicates the positioning capability of the UE in the RRC non-connected state. For example, the first indication is at least used to indicate the positioning capability of the UE in an RRC inactive state); and
sending the capability information to a location management device (¶ 0109, 0133-0134, sending positioning capability information of the UE to LMF); and
receiving a message in response to the capability information sent to the location management device, wherein the message indicates to the terminal device whether to stay in a current radio resource control (RRC) state (¶ 0109, 0145, 0148-0153, a returned indication is received, in which the indication instructs the UE to stay in the RRC non-connected state).
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.
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) 2, 6, 12 and 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Li et al (20250048482) in view of Kim et al (20230247721).
Li et al does not specifically disclose an SRS bandwidth.
In the same field of endeavor, Kim et al discloses, an SRS bandwidth (¶ 0157, 0271-0272 and 0425, The base station may semi-statically configure the UE with one or more SRS configuration parameters indicating at least one of following: a SRS resource configuration identifier; a number of SRS ports; time domain behavior of an SRS resource configuration (e.g., an indication of periodic, semi-persistent, or aperiodic SRS); slot, mini-slot, and/or subframe level periodicity; offset for a periodic and/or an aperiodic SRS resource; a number of OFDM symbols in an SRS resource; a starting OFDM symbol of an SRS resource; an SRS bandwidth; a frequency hopping bandwidth; a cyclic shift; and/or an SRS sequence ID). Therefore, before the effective filing date of the claim invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time the invention was made to modify the device of Li et al by specifically adding feature in order to enhance system performance to allowing a base station to semi-statically configure a user equipment (UE) with a default downlink control information (DCI) within a set of configured downlink BWPs associated with a PCell. The method allows the UE to determine which BWP is the initial active downlink BWP based on a CORESET configuration obtained using the PBCH as taught by Kim et al.
Conclusion
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/KHAWAR IQBAL/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2643
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