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 .
Priority
Acknowledgment is made of applicant's claim for foreign priority based on an application filed on 09/15/2023. It is noted, however, that applicant has not filed a certified copy of the PCT/CN2023/119131 application as required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55 of the CN202411163801.X application.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
(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) 1-8, 11-18, and 20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Duan et al. (US 20250088252).
Regarding claim 1, Duan discloses a method, comprising:
determining or receiving, by a processor of an apparatus, a beam configuration and a reference signal (RS) configuration for a sensing of a target object (the network entity 804 may transmit the RRS transmission configuration 814 to the RF sensing node 802 to configure or modify the RRS transmission of the RF sensing node 802; [0106].
network entity may configure radar transmission (Tx) beam and/or reception beam (Rx) for an RF sensing node based on non-RF sensing and non-RF measurement; [0116]);
performing, by the processor, one or more sweepings of one or more of a plurality of receiving (Rx) beams to receive one or more RSs based on the beam configuration and the RS configuration (configuring Tx/Rx beam(s) of an RF sensing node based on non-RF sensing/measurement may be useful for bistatic RF sensing. When bistatic RF sensing is employed, the receiver (or the Rx beam(s)) of the bistatic radar system may be configured to chase the RRS (or pulse) probates from the corresponding transmitter of the bistatic radar system, which may be referred to as “pulse chasing.” For example, the receiver may use a Rx beam to rapidly scan the volume/area covered by the Tx beam; [0117]); and
performing, by the processor, the sensing of the target object based on the RSs (after receiving the RRS transmission configuration 814, the RF sensing node 802 may configure/reconfigure its RRS transmission, and the RF sensing node 802 may transmit its RRS based on the new configuration; [0107].
an RF sensing node and/or a network entity may use non-RF sensor measurements for detecting a potential target object and/or the location (or the angle) relative to the Tx/Rx beam/direction of the RF sensing node; [0116]).
Regarding claim 2, Duan discloses wherein the beam configuration indicates at least one of transmitting (Tx) and Rx beampatterns and activated Tx and Rx beams for the sweepings (the RRS may be a chirp signal that includes a frequency that varies linearly (e.g., has a frequency sweeping) over a fixed period of time (e.g., over a sweep time) by a modulating signal. For example, as shown by the diagram 700, a transmitted chirp signal 702 may have a starting frequency at 704 of a sinusoid. Then, the frequency may gradually (e.g., linearly) increase on the sinusoid until it reaches an ending (or highest) frequency at 706 of the sinusoid, and then the frequency of the signal may return to the starting frequency as shown at 708 and another chirp signal 710 may be transmitted in the same way. In other words, each chirp signal may include an increase in frequency (e.g., linearly) and a drop in frequency or vice versa (e.g., including a decrease in frequency and then an increase in frequency), such that the RF sensing node 703 may transmit chirp signals sweeping in frequency. In some examples, such chirp signal may also be referred to as a frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW); [0089]), and
the RS configuration indicates one or more time and frequency resources of the RSs (the RRS may be a chirp signal that includes a frequency that varies linearly (e.g., has a frequency sweeping) over a fixed period of time (e.g., over a sweep time) by a modulating signal[0089]).
Regarding claim 3, Duan discloses wherein the beam configuration and the RS configuration are based on sensing requirements comprising at least one of the following: a sensing scenario indicating monostatic sensing or bistatic sensing; a maximum detection angle; a distance and a velocity of interest; a radar cross section (RCS); and a timeliness of sensing (configuring Tx/Rx beam(s) of an RF sensing node based on non-RF sensing/measurement may be useful for bistatic RF sensing. Bistatic RF sensing may refer to an RF sensing technique where RRS is transmitted and received by different devices. In some examples, a device or system that performs bistatic RF sensing may be referred to as a bistatic radar. In other words, a bistatic radar may be a radar system that includes a transmitter and receiver that are separated by a distance comparable to an expected target distance. When bistatic RF sensing is employed, the receiver (or the Rx beam(s)) of the bistatic radar system may be configured to chase the RRS (or pulse) probates from the corresponding transmitter of the bistatic radar system, which may be referred to as “pulse chasing.”; [0117]).
Regarding claim 4, Duan discloses wherein the one or more Rx beams activated for the sweepings comprise only partial of the plurality of Rx beams based on a detection area of the sensing (network entity may configure radar transmission (Tx) beam and/or reception beam (Rx) for an RF sensing node based on non-RF sensing and non-RF measurement (e.g., based on using at least one non-RF sensor, such as the non-RF sensor 810). For example, the location of an object, the incident angle of an object (e.g., angle at which the radar beam hits a particular portion of the object), and/or the reflected angle of an (angle at which the reflected beam leaves the part of the object hit) may be used by a network work entity or an RF sensing node to guide the Tx/Rx beamforming for the RF sensing. In other words, an RF sensing node and/or a network entity may use non-RF sensor measurements for detecting a potential target object and/or the location (or the angle) relative to the Tx/Rx beam/direction of the RF sensing node; [0116]).
Regarding claim 5, Duan discloses wherein, during each of the sweepings, all of a plurality of antenna subarrays of the apparatus are configured to point towards a specific direction to form a narrow beam at a time (for a narrow beam based sensing (e.g., based on a narrow beam operation), there may be additional consideration(s) where the duration of the CP may be specified to cover just the size of the target to avoid inter symbol interference. Thus, if the target is smaller, a shorter CP may be specified. After the network entity or the RF sensing node has the relative location or relative angle information of the target object, the network entity or the RF sensing node may configure Tx/Rx beam(s) of the RF sensing node based on the relative location or angle information. For example, the network entity or the RF sensing node may beamform a Tx/Rx beam toward the direction of the target object; [0113-0117]).
Regarding claim 6, Duan discloses wherein, during each of the sweepings, all of a plurality of antenna subarrays of the apparatus are configured to point towards a specific direction to form a narrow beam at a time (for a wide angle beam-based sensing, the duration of the CP may be configured to cover the delay spread across the sensing area. Thus, if the sensing area is larger, a longer CP may be specified. After the network entity or the RF sensing node has the relative location or relative angle information of the target object, the network entity or the RF sensing node may configure Tx/Rx beam(s) of the RF sensing node based on the relative location or angle information. For example, the network entity or the RF sensing node may beamform a Tx/Rx beam toward the direction of the target object; [0113-0117]).
Regarding claim 7, Duan discloses wherein, during one of the sweepings, each of a plurality of antenna subarrays of the apparatus is configured to point towards a respective direction to form a plurality of wide beams at a time, and during another one of the sweepings, all of the antenna subarrays of the apparatus are configured to point towards a specific direction to form a narrow beam at a time (for a narrow beam based sensing (e.g., based on a narrow beam operation), there may be additional consideration(s) where the duration of the CP may be specified to cover just the size of the target to avoid inter symbol interference. for a wide angle beam-based sensing, the duration of the CP may be configured to cover the delay spread across the sensing area. Thus, if the sensing area is larger, a longer CP may be specified. After the network entity or the RF sensing node has the relative location or relative angle information of the target object, the network entity or the RF sensing node may configure Tx/Rx beam(s) of the RF sensing node based on the relative location or angle information. For example, the network entity or the RF sensing node may beamform a Tx/Rx beam toward the direction of the target object; [0113-0117]).
Regarding claim 8, Duan discloses reporting, by the processor, a beam identifier (ID) of a transmitting (Tx) beam with a sensing signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) above a threshold, an angle of departure (AoD) of the RSs, or an angle of arrival (AoA) of the RSs and a range between the apparatus and the target object, to another apparatus transmitting the RSs (a position of a UE may be estimated based on multiple antenna beam measurements, where a downlink angle of departure (DL-AoD) and/or uplink angle of arrival (UL-AoA) of transmissions between a UE and one or more TRPs may be used to estimate the position of the UE and/or the distance of the UE with respect to each TRP. For example, referring back to FIG. 6, with regard to the DL-AoD, the UE 404 may perform reference signal received power (RSRP) measurements for a set of DL-PRS 416 transmitted from multiple transmitting beams (e.g., DL-PRS beams) of a TRP 408, and the UE 404 may provide the DL-PRS beam measurements to a serving base station (or to the LMF associated with the base station); [0082]).
Regarding claim 11, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the reasons cited in claim 1.
Regarding claim 12, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the reasons cited in claim 2.
Regarding claim 13, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the reasons cited in claim 3.
Regarding claim 14, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the reasons cited in claim 4.
Regarding claim 15, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the reasons cited in claim 5.
Regarding claim 16, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the reasons cited in claim 6.
Regarding claim 17, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the reasons cited in claim 7.
Regarding claim 18, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the reasons cited in claim 8.
Regarding claim 20, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the reasons cited in claim 1.
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.
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) 9 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Duan et al. (US 20250088252) in view of Robinson (US 20230384415).
Regarding claim 9, Duan does not expressly disclose wherein, during the sensing of the target object, a spacing along an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbol axis within a coherent processing interval (CPI) is used to remove a static clutter.
In an analogous art, Robinson discloses wherein, during the sensing of the target object, a spacing along an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) symbol axis within a coherent processing interval (CPI) is used to remove a static clutter (The target may be situated at an unknown range from the radar and at an unknown azimuth angle within the transmit beam and moving at an unknown velocity with respect to the radar. The processing requires receiving the signal returns over one Coherent Processing Interval (CPI). This constitutes a sequence of N.sub.T uniformly spaced transmitted pulses. After a time, interval determined by the range distance of the hypothesized target from the radar, a sum of the reflected radar clutter (i.e. interference) and a target reflection (if present) is received by each element of a receive antenna array comprising N.sub.R elements. Define N=N.sub.T×N.sub.R, which denotes the number of space-time degrees of freedom. The received signals at each antenna element and over the duration of the CPI are down converted in frequency, passed through a low pass filter and sampled uniformly with a A/D converter. The sampled complex valued sequence from all receive elements and time duration of a CPI is grouped into a vector of length N elements. Such vectors are formed for all ranges of interest from the radar, with adjacent ranges separated by the width of the range resolution (∂R=c/2B) , where B is the bandwidth of the transmitted pulse and c is the speed of light in free space. The set of space-time vectors from a sequence of range cells and for the CPI is stored for future processing. The next step is the cancelation of clutter or interference in the received space-time vector in a selected range cell for the CPI, followed by correlation with a space-time steering vector indicating a particular angle-doppler signature. The interference cancellation is done by multiplying the received space-time vector by the negative-1/2 power of the optimal shrinkage estimate of the interference covariance matrix, estimated from K consecutive range cells that are in the neighborhood of the test cell; [0053]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to add the features taught by Robinson into the system of Duan in order to enable employing an approximately optimal estimate of the interference covariance matrix is used to make a decision on the presence or absence of a target (Robinson; [0005]).
Regarding claim 19, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the reasons cited in claim 9.
Claim(s) 10 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Duan et al. (US 20250088252) in view of Stefanatos et al. (US 20250151045).
Regarding claim 10, Duan does not expressly disclose determining, by the processor, one of the one or more Rx beams for tracking the target object based on a result of the sensing.
In an analogous art, Stefanatos discloses determining, by the processor, one of the one or more Rx beams for tracking the target object based on a result of the sensing (to support radar sensing, radar transmitters (e.g., such as the UEs 115) may perform tracking of targets of interest (e.g., objects 215) that are changing angular position due to mobility. For instance, an object 215-c (e.g., a vehicle) may be moving in direction 220. In such examples, the UE 115-d may perform radar sensing using a set of transmit beams 205 (e.g., including the transmit beam 205-d) to track one or more parameters, such as the direction 220, location, or velocity, of the object 215-c. The UE may perform the radar sensing by selecting specific beams 205 (e.g., sequentially, or out of order based on predicted location, velocity, etc.) and performing radar transmissions using the selected beams 205; [0105]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to add the features taught by Stefanatos into the system of Duan in order to allow a UE to transmit an uplink message indicating beam directions, beam widths, and an angular area of interest for radar sensing (Stefanatos; [0004]).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Bai et al. (US 20220141677), “COMBINED BEAM SWEEPING PROCEDURE.”
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to OUSSAMA ROUDANI whose telephone number is (571)272-4727. The examiner can normally be reached 8:30 AM - 5:00 PM.
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/OUSSAMA ROUDANI/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2413
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