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
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) 1-15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Reddy et al. (US 2025/0039826 A1) (Reddy herein after) in view of Thomas et al. (US 2024/0019525 A1) (Thomas herein after)
Re Claim 1, Reddy discloses a method performed by a first user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication system, the method comprising:
receiving, from a location management function (LMF), assistance data including an ultra-wideband (UWB) anchor list (TDoA assistance data may be provided to a mobile device 105 by the location server 160 for a reference signal and one or more response or neighbor signals, relative to the reference signal ([0057]); LMF 1520 can determine a list of preferred UWB anchors (e.g., based on a coarse position estimate of the NR/UWB device(s) 1510), as indicated by arrow 1550. This list may be provided to the NR/UWB device(s) 1510 (e.g., along with a list of preferred base stations/TRPs for NR positioning) [0101]);
receiving, from a plurality of UWB anchors, a plurality of UWB messages including UWB measurements (the initiator 330 may initiate UWB ranging by sending a ranging initiation message 345 to the responder 340, to which the responder 340 may reply with a ranging response message 350, and timing measurements may be made of these messages (by the devices receiving the messages) to perform two-way ranging (TWR) [0069]; LMF 905 can then instruct any combination of the mobile devices 910 to perform ranging on (e.g., only on) a selected subset of the UWB positioning sessions with the various anchors 920 [0084]);
determining location information of the first UE based on the plurality of UWB messages (target device 205 may correspond with mobile device 105 of FIG. 1. Generally put, according to some embodiments, the hybrid cellular/UWB positioning (or simply “cellular/UWB positioning”) of a device may utilize both cellular and UWB positioning technologies to determine the location of a device that is capable of taking positioning-related measurements in both cellular and UWB technologies [0060]).
Reddy discloses the claimed invention except explicitly teaches transmitting, to the LMF, the determined location information.
However, Thomas discloses a UWB measurement for radio access technology-independent positioning method and system comprising determining location information of the first UE based on the plurality of UWB messages (the processor 605 determines one or more of absolute and relative positioning and velocity estimates for the UE device based on the UWB positioning method [0183]); and transmitting, to the LMF, the determined location information (location information may comprise absolute and relative location data, latitude points, longitude points, horizontal and vertical velocity estimates, positioning and velocity uncertainty values, positioning error, heading information, 3D location estimates including elevation information, integrity of positioning estimates and quality of positioning estimate metrics. It may also provide some relative location measurements with respect to other target-UEs 501. Additionally, the utilized positioning methods may also be signaled to the LMF 503 together with the UWB measurements as indicated in Table 5. The target-UE 501 may also provide the necessary accuracy and integrity information to the LMF 503 [0162]).
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 Reddy, by making use of the technique taught by Thomas, in order to improve the location estimation accuracy.
Both references are within the same field of telecommunication, and in particular of location estimation with UWB, the modification does not change a fundamental operating principle of Reddy, nor does Reddy teach away from the modification (Reddy 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 location estimation taught by Thomas is not altered and continues to perform the same function as separately, and the resultant combination produces the highly predictable result of determining location information of the first UE based on the plurality of UWB messages; and transmitting, to the LMF, the determined location information.
Re Claim 2, the combined teachings disclose the method of claim 1, Reddy discloses further comprising: transmitting, to the LMF, capability information associated with an ability to receive a UWB signal (obtaining, at an LMF of an NR network, information regarding UWB positioning capability of the mobile device. As noted in the embodiments described herein, the UWB positioning capability of a mobile device may be obtained at an LMF from the mobile device via communications (e.g., NR communications) from the mobile device [0112]).
Re Claim 3, the combined teachings disclose the method of claim 1, Reddy discloses further comprising: transmitting, to a second UE using a sidelink positioning protocol (SLPP), the plurality of UWB messages (Direct communication between the one or more other mobile devices 145 and mobile device 105 may comprise sidelink and/or similar Device-to-Device (D2D) communication technologies. Sidelink, which is defined by 3GPP, is a form of D2D communication under the cellular-based LTE and NR standards. UWB may be one such technology by which the positioning of a target device (e.g., mobile device 105) may be facilitated using measurements from one or more anchor devices (e.g., mobile devices 145) [0051]).
Re Claim 4, the combined teachings disclose the method of claim 3, Reddy discloses wherein the second UE is in a shadow area with respect to the plurality of UWB anchors (LMF 905 can then instruct any combination of the mobile devices 910 to perform ranging on (e.g., only on) a selected subset of the UWB positioning sessions with the various anchors 920 [0084], Figure 9).
Re Claim 5, the combined teachings disclose the method of claim 1, Reddy discloses wherein the plurality of UWB messages is received in response to a UWB message from an initiator UWB anchor (the initiator 330 may initiate UWB ranging by sending a ranging initiation message 345 to the responder 340, to which the responder 340 may reply with a ranging response message 350, and timing measurements may be made of these messages (by the devices receiving the messages) to perform two-way ranging (TWR) [0069]).
Re Claim 6, the combined teachings disclose the method of claim 1, Reddy discloses wherein at least one of the plurality of UWB anchors is included in a base station (CIE can request information from the LMF for 5G wireless entities that can be used as anchors (e.g., base stations and/or UEs) [0085]).
Re Claim 7, Reddy discloses a method performed by a second user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication system, the method comprising:
transmitting, to a first UE using a sidelink positioning protocol (SLPP) (Direct communication between the one or more other mobile devices 145 and mobile device 105 may comprise sidelink and/or similar Device-to-Device (D2D) communication technologies. Sidelink, which is defined by 3GPP, is a form of D2D communication under the cellular-based LTE and NR standards [0051]), a request message for ultra-wideband (UWB) information (the initiator 330 may initiate UWB ranging by sending a ranging initiation message 345 to the responder 340, to which the responder 340 may reply with a ranging response message 350, and timing measurements may be made of these messages (by the devices receiving the messages) to perform two-way ranging (TWR) [0069]); and
receiving, from the first UE, a plurality of UWB messages (the initiator 330 may initiate UWB ranging by sending a ranging initiation message 345 to the responder 340, to which the responder 340 may reply with a ranging response message 350, and timing measurements may be made of these messages (by the devices receiving the messages) to perform two-way ranging (TWR) [0069]), wherein the plurality of UWB messages is obtained by the first UE from a plurality of UWB anchors (LMF 905 can then instruct any combination of the mobile devices 910 to perform ranging on (e.g., only on) a selected subset of the UWB positioning sessions with the various anchors 920 [0084]).
Reddy discloses the claimed invention except explicitly teaches receiving, from the first UE, a plurality of UWB messages including UWB measurements.
However, Thomas discloses a UWB measurement for radio access technology-independent positioning method and system comprises receiving, from the first UE, a plurality of UWB messages including UWB measurements (the processor 605 determines one or more of absolute and relative positioning and velocity estimates for the UE device based on the UWB positioning method [0183]); and transmitting, to the LMF, the determined location information (location information may comprise absolute and relative location data, latitude points, longitude points, horizontal and vertical velocity estimates, positioning and velocity uncertainty values, positioning error, heading information, 3D location estimates including elevation information, integrity of positioning estimates and quality of positioning estimate metrics. It may also provide some relative location measurements with respect to other target-UEs 501. Additionally, the utilized positioning methods may also be signaled to the LMF 503 together with the UWB measurements as indicated in Table 5. The target-UE 501 may also provide the necessary accuracy and integrity information to the LMF 503 [0162]).
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 Reddy, by making use of the technique taught by Thomas, in order to improve the location estimation accuracy.
Both references are within the same field of telecommunication, and in particular of location estimation with UWB, the modification does not change a fundamental operating principle of Reddy, nor does Reddy teach away from the modification (Reddy 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 location estimation taught by Thomas is not altered and continues to perform the same function as separately, and the resultant combination produces the highly predictable result of receiving, from the first UE, a plurality of UWB messages including UWB measurements.
Re Claim 8, the combined teachings disclose the method of claim 7, Reddy discloses wherein the second UE is in a shadow area with respect to the plurality of UWB anchors (LMF 905 can then instruct any combination of the mobile devices 910 to perform ranging on (e.g., only on) a selected subset of the UWB positioning sessions with the various anchors 920 [0084], Figure 9).
Re Claim 9, Reddy discloses a first user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication system, the first UE comprising:
a transceiver (UWB transceiver [0105]); and
a controller (controller [0037]) coupled with the transceiver and configured to:
receive, from a location management function (LMF), assistance data including an ultra-wideband (UWB) anchor list (TDoA assistance data may be provided to a mobile device 105 by the location server 160 for a reference signal and one or more response or neighbor signals, relative to the reference signal ([0057]); LMF 1520 can determine a list of preferred UWB anchors (e.g., based on a coarse position estimate of the NR/UWB device(s) 1510), as indicated by arrow 1550. This list may be provided to the NR/UWB device(s) 1510 (e.g., along with a list of preferred base stations/TRPs for NR positioning) [0101]),
receive, from a plurality of UWB anchors, a plurality of UWB messages including UWB measurements (the initiator 330 may initiate UWB ranging by sending a ranging initiation message 345 to the responder 340, to which the responder 340 may reply with a ranging response message 350, and timing measurements may be made of these messages (by the devices receiving the messages) to perform two-way ranging (TWR) [0069]; LMF 905 can then instruct any combination of the mobile devices 910 to perform ranging on (e.g., only on) a selected subset of the UWB positioning sessions with the various anchors 920 [0084]),
determine location information of the first UE based on the plurality of UWB messages (target device 205 may correspond with mobile device 105 of FIG. 1. Generally put, according to some embodiments, the hybrid cellular/UWB positioning (or simply “cellular/UWB positioning”) of a device may utilize both cellular and UWB positioning technologies to determine the location of a device that is capable of taking positioning-related measurements in both cellular and UWB technologies [0060]).
Reddy discloses the claimed invention except explicitly teaches transmit, to the LMF, the determined location information.
However, Thomas discloses a UWB measurement for radio access technology-independent positioning method and system comprising determine location information of the first UE based on the plurality of UWB messages (the processor 605 determines one or more of absolute and relative positioning and velocity estimates for the UE device based on the UWB positioning method [0183]); and transmit, to the LMF, the determined location information (location information may comprise absolute and relative location data, latitude points, longitude points, horizontal and vertical velocity estimates, positioning and velocity uncertainty values, positioning error, heading information, 3D location estimates including elevation information, integrity of positioning estimates and quality of positioning estimate metrics. It may also provide some relative location measurements with respect to other target-UEs 501. Additionally, the utilized positioning methods may also be signaled to the LMF 503 together with the UWB measurements as indicated in Table 5. The target-UE 501 may also provide the necessary accuracy and integrity information to the LMF 503 [0162]).
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 Reddy, by making use of the technique taught by Thomas, in order to improve the location estimation accuracy.
Both references are within the same field of telecommunication, and in particular of location estimation with UWB, the modification does not change a fundamental operating principle of Reddy, nor does Reddy teach away from the modification (Reddy 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 location estimation taught by Thomas is not altered and continues to perform the same function as separately, and the resultant combination produces the highly predictable result of determine location information of the first UE based on the plurality of UWB messages; and transmit, to the LMF, the determined location information.
Re Claim 10, the combined teachings disclose the first UE of claim 9, Reddy discloses wherein the controller is further configured to: transmit, to the LMF, capability information associated with an ability to receive a UWB signal (obtaining, at an LMF of an NR network, information regarding UWB positioning capability of the mobile device. As noted in the embodiments described herein, the UWB positioning capability of a mobile device may be obtained at an LMF from the mobile device via communications (e.g., NR communications) from the mobile device [0112]).
Re Claim 11, the combined teachings disclose the first UE of claim 9, Reddy discloses wherein the controller is further configured to: transmit, to a second UE using a sidelink positioning protocol (SLPP), the plurality of UWB messages, wherein the second UE is in a shadow area with respect to the plurality of UWB anchors (Direct communication between the one or more other mobile devices 145 and mobile device 105 may comprise sidelink and/or similar Device-to-Device (D2D) communication technologies. Sidelink, which is defined by 3GPP, is a form of D2D communication under the cellular-based LTE and NR standards. UWB may be one such technology by which the positioning of a target device (e.g., mobile device 105) may be facilitated using measurements from one or more anchor devices (e.g., mobile devices 145) [0051]).
Re Claim 12, the combined teachings disclose the first UE of claim 9, Reddy discloses wherein the plurality of UWB messages is received in response to a UWB message from an initiator UWB anchor (LMF 905 can then instruct any combination of the mobile devices 910 to perform ranging on (e.g., only on) a selected subset of the UWB positioning sessions with the various anchors 920 [0084], Figure 9).
Re Claim 13, the combined teachings disclose the first UE of claim 9, Reddy discloses wherein at least one of the plurality of UWB anchors is included in a base station (CIE can request information from the LMF for 5G wireless entities that can be used as anchors (e.g., base stations and/or UEs) [0085]).
Re Claim 14, Reddy discloses a second user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication system, the second UE comprising:
a transceiver (UWB transceiver [0105]); and a controller (controller [0037]) coupled with the transceiver and configured to:
transmit, to a first UE using a sidelink positioning protocol (SLPP) (Direct communication between the one or more other mobile devices 145 and mobile device 105 may comprise sidelink and/or similar Device-to-Device (D2D) communication technologies. Sidelink, which is defined by 3GPP, is a form of D2D communication under the cellular-based LTE and NR standards [0051]), a request message for ultra-wideband (UWB) information (the initiator 330 may initiate UWB ranging by sending a ranging initiation message 345 to the responder 340, to which the responder 340 may reply with a ranging response message 350, and timing measurements may be made of these messages (by the devices receiving the messages) to perform two-way ranging (TWR) [0069]); and
receive, from the first UE, a plurality of UWB messages (the initiator 330 may initiate UWB ranging by sending a ranging initiation message 345 to the responder 340, to which the responder 340 may reply with a ranging response message 350, and timing measurements may be made of these messages (by the devices receiving the messages) to perform two-way ranging (TWR) [0069]), wherein the plurality of UWB messages is obtained by the first UE from a plurality of UWB anchors (LMF 905 can then instruct any combination of the mobile devices 910 to perform ranging on (e.g., only on) a selected subset of the UWB positioning sessions with the various anchors 920 [0084]).
Reddy discloses the claimed invention except explicitly teaches receive, from the first UE, a plurality of UWB messages including UWB measurements.
However, Thomas discloses a UWB measurement for radio access technology-independent positioning method and system comprises receive, from the first UE, a plurality of UWB messages including UWB measurements (the processor 605 determines one or more of absolute and relative positioning and velocity estimates for the UE device based on the UWB positioning method [0183]); and transmitting, to the LMF, the determined location information (location information may comprise absolute and relative location data, latitude points, longitude points, horizontal and vertical velocity estimates, positioning and velocity uncertainty values, positioning error, heading information, 3D location estimates including elevation information, integrity of positioning estimates and quality of positioning estimate metrics. It may also provide some relative location measurements with respect to other target-UEs 501. Additionally, the utilized positioning methods may also be signaled to the LMF 503 together with the UWB measurements as indicated in Table 5. The target-UE 501 may also provide the necessary accuracy and integrity information to the LMF 503 [0162]).
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 Reddy, by making use of the technique taught by Thomas, in order to improve the location estimation accuracy.
Both references are within the same field of telecommunication, and in particular of location estimation with UWB, the modification does not change a fundamental operating principle of Reddy, nor does Reddy teach away from the modification (Reddy 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 location estimation taught by Thomas is not altered and continues to perform the same function as separately, and the resultant combination produces the highly predictable result of receive, from the first UE, a plurality of UWB messages including UWB measurements.
Re Claim 15, the combined teachings disclose the second UE of claim 14, Reddy discloses wherein the second UE is in a shadow area with respect to the plurality of UWB anchors (LMF 905 can then instruct any combination of the mobile devices 910 to perform ranging on (e.g., only on) a selected subset of the UWB positioning sessions with the various anchors 920 [0084], Figure 9).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Takeda et al. (US 2024/0098677 A1) – Impulse radio ultra-wideband using long-term evolution positioning protocol
Henry et al. (US 2022/0070816 A1) – assigning UWB anchors for client ranging
Reddy et al. (US 2025/0254644 A1) – multiple access techniques in UWB positioning
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/KENNETH T LAM/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2631
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