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 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.
Claims 1, 2 and 3 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 20170245192 A1 (Sadri et al.) (hereinafter Sadri) in view of CN 112787695 A (FANG et al.) (hereinafter FANG).
In re claim 1, Sadri discloses a method (Fig. 7, [0164], “the method may include communicating with a vehicle along a transportation route via directional links formed by a plurality of APs along the transportation route”) comprising:
receiving vehicle information that is based at least in part on location information representing a vehicle traveling on a road link ([0031], “In some demonstrative embodiments, vehicle 102 may include a train, and transportation route 104 may include a railroad”. [0032], “In other embodiments, vehicle 102 may include any other vehicle moving along a predefined transportation route. For example, vehicle 102 may include a bus or car, and transportation route 104 may include a highway”. [0038], “In some demonstrative embodiments, system 100 may be configured to continuously provide the data connectivity along transportation route 104, for example, as vehicle 102 moves between different segments of transportation route 104”. [0042], “In some demonstrative embodiments, the plurality of APs 120 may cover a plurality of segments 110 of transportation route 104”. [0056], “an AP 120 may be configured to steer directional antenna 123 in one or more planes, e.g., a horizontal plane and/or a vertical plane, for example, based on a location of vehicle 102 relative to AP 120” (discloses a route on which a vehicle is travelling which can be many segments and connectivity is provided through various access points distributed along the route for continuous coverage obtaining the location of the vehicle)); determining one or more parameters for at least one antenna beam based on the vehicle information ([0035], “In some demonstrative embodiments, antenna 108 may be configured to communicate via a directional link to provide high-rate data connectivity to the users within vehicle 102”. [0128], “a directional antenna 323 of AP 321 may be mounted on a pole, e.g., adjacent to railroad 304, and may form a directional beam 307”), wherein the at least one antenna beam is configured to sufficiently cover the vehicle ([0129], “As shown in FIGS. 3A and 3B, directional beam 307 may include a relatively narrow beam, e.g., a pencil-shaped beam, for example, to enable directional antenna 323 to cover a long distance along railroad 304, e.g., a distance between 2-4 km, or any other distance”. [0138], “As shown in FIG. 4A, directional beam 407 may be configured to have a squared cosecant beam shape. The squared cosecant beam shape may cover a long distance in a horizontal plane along railroad 404. Accordingly, directional beam 407 may be able to maintain a directional link with train 402 for a relatively long time, for example, without switching between beam settings of antenna 423” (beam sufficiently covers the vehicle for continues communication along the route); and controlling the at least one antenna beam to track the vehicle along the road link ([0057], “In some demonstrative embodiments, an AP 120 may be configured to steer directional antenna 123 to follow movement of vehicle 102 along transportation route 104”. [0067], “the AP 120 may switch between the plurality of beam settings according to a direction of movement of vehicle 102 along transportation route 104”. [0165], “As indicated at block 704, communicating with the vehicle may include switching a directional antenna of an AP of the plurality of APs between a plurality of beam settings to steer the directional antenna towards a respective plurality of coverage areas of the transportation route” (controlling the antenna beam to track the vehicle)).
Sadri does not explicitly disclose determining one or more parameters for at least one antenna beam based on the vehicle information.
FANG discloses determining one or more parameters for at least one antenna beam based on the vehicle information (Fig. 2, Fig. 3, Fig. 8, Page 6, lines 35-38, “In the wireless communication process, in order to ensure that the terminal device can receive the wireless signal of high quality, the base station will effectively overlap the wireless signal by the beamforming technology, forming a beam with directivity, and ensuring the beam can align the terminal device”. Page 2, lines 32-38, “the network device can according to the first feedback information and the second feedback information in the beam quality information to adjust the width of the transmission beam, such as increasing the width of the transmission beam, reducing the width of the sending beam or keeping the width of the sending beam is not changed, wherein the sending beam refers to the beam sent by the network device to the terminal device, and the sending beam is a beam for communication between the network device and the terminal device”. Page 2, lines 40-42, “adaptively adjusting the width of the beam, according to the comparison result, which can ensure the effective coverage of the beam to the terminal device, avoiding the terminal device is easy to occur signal loss”. Page 4, lines 2-8, “The signal gain of the beam is improved while the beam is ensured to effectively cover the terminal device. The quality of the first beam is the reference signal receiving power RSRP of the first beam...”. Page 12, lines 22-37, “FIG. 9 is a schematic diagram of a coordinate system modeling; Firstly, it can be based on the position of the base station and the terminal device considering the three-dimensional coordinate axis, wherein the antenna array for transmitting beam in the base station is on the yoz plane, and the height of the base station is h; the terminal device is on the xoy plane, the distance between the terminal device and the base station is 1; Therefore, it can obtain the distance between the terminal device and the antenna array is supposing that the moving speed of the terminal device is v, calculating beam width based on location, speed and direction” (adjusting the beam width based on location to provide good coverage to the terminal. Quality of beam is affected with location of the terminal, equation [0083], page 13 of original)).
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Sadri with FANG to provide system and technique to provide signal coverage to moving vehicles along the route for high-speed data connections such as 5G. The advantage of doing so is to meet the high demand of customers in many applications such as V2X and autonomous vehicles for improving road safety, navigation and driving assistance and giving the same user experience as home.
In re claim 2, the combination discloses the method of claim 1, wherein FANG discloses wherein the one or more parameters of the at least one antenna beam comprises a signal strength, a beam width, an elevation angle, and an azimuth angle relative to the one or more antenna arrays (Fig. 4, Fig. 5, Page 7, lines 35-38, “the application embodiment provides a beam width control method, by comparing the beam quality feedback information of two adjacent beam scanning period, and adaptively adjusting the width of the beam according to the comparison result, ensuring the effective coverage of the beam to the terminal device, avoiding the terminal device is easy to occur signal loss” (adjusting beam width as one of the parameters)).
In re claim 3, the combination discloses the method of claim 1, wherein Sadri discloses the method further comprising determining the vehicle information based on a direction of travel and a speed of the vehicle on the road link ([0069], “AP 128 may switch from the third beam setting to the second beam setting, and from the second beam setting to the first beam setting, for example, to follow movement of vehicle 102 along transportation route 104 in a direction 113, e.g., a north direction” (switching beam settings based on received direction of movement of the vehicle). [0070], “In some demonstrative embodiments, the AP 120 may switch between the plurality of beam settings according to a velocity of vehicle 102” (switching beam settings based on received speed of the vehicle on the route). FANG also discloses (Page 13, lines 11-13, “by the terminal device actively measuring the moving speed of itself and reporting the moving speed of the base station mode, so that the base station obtains the moving speed of the terminal device”. Page 13, lines 18-19, “Optionally, the base station can through obtaining the terminal device feedback information to determine the moving direction of the terminal device”).
Claims 4, 5 and 6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 20170245192 A1 (Sadri et al.) (hereinafter Sadri) in view of CN 112787695 A (FANG et al.) (hereinafter FANG) and in further view of US 20170013521 A1 (Baldemair et al.) (hereinafter Baldemair).
In re claim 4, the combination of Sadri and FANG discloses the method of claim 1, but does not explicitly disclose the method further comprising transmitting the vehicle information from one or more antenna arrays to at least one neighboring antenna array based on a proximity between the vehicle and the at least one neighboring antenna array.
Baldemair discloses transmitting the vehicle information from one or more antenna arrays to at least one neighboring antenna array based on a proximity between the vehicle and the at least one neighboring antenna array ([0010], [0034], “The wireless communication network comprises the target access node and a serving access node serving the user equipment. The target access node 122 receives from the serving access node 120, information about a position of the user equipment 130. The target access node determines a beam direction towards the user equipment based on received information and its own position” (providing by the serving cell, vehicle information to the neighboring cell for tracking and coverage)).
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Sadri and FANG with Baldemair to provide system and technique to provide signal coverage to moving vehicles along the route for high-speed data connections such as 5G. The advantage of doing so is to meet the high demand of customers in many applications such as V2X and autonomous vehicles for improving road safety, navigation and driving assistance and giving the same user experience as home.
In re claim 5, the combination discloses the method of claim 1, but does not explicitly disclose the method further comprising directing the at least one antenna beam from one or more antenna arrays when the vehicle is in a direct line of sight of the one or more antenna arrays.
Baldemair discloses the method further comprising directing the at least one antenna beam from one or more antenna arrays when the vehicle is in a direct line of sight of the one or more antenna arrays (Fig. 4: 220, [0059], “Determining the likeliest beam direction based on the target access node 122 position and the user equipment position or the serving access node 120 beam direction can be e.g. based on Line-Of-Sight (LOS) calculations. For Ultra-Dense-Networks (UDN), the density of access node is very dense, LOS is a likely propagation condition, therefore LOS will be often present. FIG. 4 shows a scheme to determine a beam direction 220 using LOS calculation: Dir=Pos_UE−Pos_AN2 (Eq. 1)” (determining likeliest beam based on line of sight of the UE)).
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Sadri and FANG with Baldemair to provide system and technique to provide signal coverage to moving vehicles along the route for high-speed data connections such as 5G. The advantage of doing so is to meet the high demand of customers in many applications such as V2X and autonomous vehicles for improving road safety, navigation and driving assistance and giving the same user experience as home.
In re claim 6, the combination discloses the method of claim 1, but does not explicitly disclose the method further comprising providing a multipath tolerant connection from one or more antenna arrays when the vehicle is not in a direct line of sight of the one or more antenna arrays.
Baldemair discloses the method further comprising providing a multipath tolerant connection from one or more antenna arrays when the vehicle is not in a direct line of sight of the one or more antenna arrays (Fig. 4, Fig. 5: 502, [0030], “FIG. 2 shows beam directions for the first access node referred to as AN1 and being the serving access node 120, and the second access node referred to as AN2 and being the target access node 120. For example, AN1 has four beam directions, wherein Direction 1 with reference number 210 is a beam direction towards the user equipment 130”. [0059], “Determining the likeliest beam direction based on the target access node 122 position and the user equipment position or the serving access node 120 beam direction can be e.g. based on Line-Of-Sight (LOS) calculations. For Ultra-Dense-Networks (UDN), the density of access node is very dense, LOS is a likely propagation condition, therefore LOS will be often present. FIG. 4 shows a scheme to determine a beam direction 220 using LOS calculation: Dir=Pos_UE−Pos_AN2 (Eq. 1)” (discloses a scenario of multipath tolerant connection in Fig. 2, where beams are received from multiple access nodes depending on the position of the UE. It is implicit for the skilled in the art that multiple nodes are utilized for tracking a moving UE)).
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Sadri and FANG with Baldemair to provide system and technique to provide signal coverage to moving vehicles along the route for high-speed data connections such as 5G. The advantage of doing so is to meet the high demand of customers in many applications such as V2X and autonomous vehicles for improving road safety, navigation and driving assistance and giving the same user experience as home.
Claims 7, 10, 11 and 12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 20170245192 A1 (Sadri et al.) (hereinafter Sadri) in view of US 20240284291 A1 (MURAOKA et al.) (hereinafter MURAOKA) and in further view of US 20170013521 A1 (Baldemair et al.) (hereinafter Baldemair).
In re claim 7, Sadri discloses an apparatus (Fig. 1, [0163], “system 100 includes an AP manager, e.g., AP managers 132 and/or 134, an AP, e.g., AP 124, a controller, e.g., controller 136, and/or a network interface, e.g., network interface 138”) comprising: at least one processor (Fig. 1:136, [0086], “Additionally or alternatively, one or more functionalities of controller 136 may be implemented by logic, which may be executed by a machine and/or one or more processors”); and at least one memory (Fig. 8:802, [0171], “In some demonstrative embodiments, product 800 and/or machine-readable storage medium 802 may include one or more types of computer-readable storage media capable of storing data, including volatile memory, non-volatile memory...”) including computer program code for one or more programs, the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to perform ([0172], “In some demonstrative embodiments, logic 804 may include instructions, data, and/or code, which, if executed by a machine, may cause the machine to perform a method”) at least the following:
receive location information representing a vehicle on a road link ([0031], “In some demonstrative embodiments, vehicle 102 may include a train, and transportation route 104 may include a railroad”. [0032], “In other embodiments, vehicle 102 may include any other vehicle moving along a predefined transportation route. For example, vehicle 102 may include a bus or car, and transportation route 104 may include a highway”. [0042], “In some demonstrative embodiments, the plurality of APs 120 may cover a plurality of segments 110 of transportation route 104”. [0056], “an AP 120 may be configured to steer directional antenna 123 in one or more planes, e.g., a horizontal plane and/or a vertical plane, for example, based on a location of vehicle 102 relative to AP 120” (discloses a route on which a vehicle is travelling which can be many segments and connectivity is provided through various access points distributed along the route for continuous coverage obtaining the location of the vehicle);
determine a beamforming capability information of one or more antenna arrays proximate to the road link; determine vehicle trajectory information based on road geometry information of the road link and the received location information; and
transmit the vehicle trajectory information to the one or more antenna arrays.
Sadri does not disclose determine a beamforming capability information of one or more antenna arrays proximate to the road link; determine vehicle trajectory information based on road geometry information of the road link and the received location information; and transmit the vehicle trajectory information to the one or more antenna arrays.
MURAOKA discloses determine a beamforming capability information of one or more antenna arrays proximate to the road link ([0002], “a radio control apparatus (e.g., a radio base station) is configured to perform beamforming using an antenna array including a plurality of antenna elements”. [0058], “a situation in which another terminal apparatus is moving with a vehicle (e.g., a motor vehicle)”. [0062], “Here, the communication parameter is a parameter for communicating with the terminal apparatus, and represents one or both of an antenna and a beam”. [0084], “In this configuration, the base station antenna 210-1 may form a plurality of beams simultaneously using the plurality of subarrays”. [0086], “The beam control unit 213 is configured to perform the beamforming...The beam control unit 213 controls the phase and amplitude of a signal transmitted from the above selected antennas 230 to form a transmitting beam” (beamforming capability)); determine vehicle trajectory information based on road geometry information of the road link and the received location information ([0125], “The terminal information may include information representing a Global Positioning System (GPS) signal indicating the location of the terminal apparatus 100”. [0130], “In one example, the type estimation unit 640 acquires the estimated location of the terminal apparatus 100... The map information includes information on the locations and sizes of sidewalks, roadways, railroad tracks, and buildings”. [0139], “In a case in which a sidewalk and a roadway are newly built due to construction or other reasons, the type estimation unit 640 can add necessary types to the set” (acquiring road geometry and location). [0016], “predicting a future location of the terminal apparatus, estimating, based on the estimated type, a reception level of a radio signal at the future location for each communication parameter representing one or both of an antenna and a beam, and determining the communication parameter to be used for the terminal apparatus at the future location”. [0150], “The movement prediction unit 660 may learn such a movement history by machine learning to generate the third movement prediction model”); and transmit the vehicle trajectory information to the one or more antenna arrays.
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Sadri with MURAOKA to provide system and technique to provide signal coverage to moving vehicles along the route for high-speed data connections such as 5G. The advantage of doing so is to meet the high demand of customers in many applications such as V2X and autonomous vehicles for improving road safety, navigation and driving assistance and giving the same user experience as home.
Sadri and MURAOKA do not explicitly disclose transmit the vehicle trajectory information to the one or more antenna arrays.
Baldemair discloses transmit the vehicle trajectory information to the one or more antenna arrays ([0010], [0034], “The wireless communication network comprises the target access node and a serving access node serving the user equipment. The target access node 122 receives from the serving access node 120, information about a position of the user equipment 130. The target access node determines a beam direction towards the user equipment based on received information and its own position” (providing by the serving cell, vehicle information to the neighboring cell for tracking and coverage)).
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Sadri with MURAOKA and Baldemair to provide system and technique to provide signal coverage to moving vehicles along the route for high-speed data connections such as 5G. The advantage of doing so is to meet the high demand of customers in many applications such as V2X and autonomous vehicles for improving road safety, navigation and driving assistance and giving the same user experience as home.
In re claim 10, the combination discloses the apparatus of claim 7, wherein MURAOKA discloses wherein the beamforming capability information of the one or more antenna arrays is precomputed (Fig. 8, [0113], “The table 800 includes, as configuration items, a type 810, a location 820, an antenna number 830, a beam number 840, and received power information 850. The configuration items are stored in the second database 620 including the table”. [0121], “The combination of the representative communication parameter and the received power to be stored in the table 800 may be selected according to a predetermined criterion. Here, the received power may be a value selected or calculated from data measured for the same type of the terminal apparatus 100, at the same location, and for the same antenna number and beam number” (pre computed for same location and same antenna number). [0249], “...According to this configuration, it is possible to prevent the antenna number from being changed frequently. This contributes to stabilization of communication quality” (beam capability is precomputed based on factors such as location, threshold, power etc. for stable communication quality)).
In re claim 11, the combination discloses the apparatus of claim 7, wherein Baldemair discloses wherein at least one antenna beam from the one or more antenna arrays is provided when the vehicle is in a direct line of sight of the one or more antenna arrays (Fig. 4: 220, [0059], “Determining the likeliest beam direction based on the target access node 122 position and the user equipment position or the serving access node 120 beam direction can be e.g. based on Line-Of-Sight (LOS) calculations. For Ultra-Dense-Networks (UDN), the density of access node is very dense, LOS is a likely propagation condition, therefore LOS will be often present. FIG. 4 shows a scheme to determine a beam direction 220 using LOS calculation: Dir=Pos_UE−Pos_AN2 (Eq. 1)” (determining likeliest beam based on line of sight of the UE)).
In re claim 12, the combination discloses the apparatus of claim 7, wherein Baldemair discloses wherein a multipath tolerant connection from the one or more antenna arrays is provided when the vehicle is not in a direct line of sight of the one or more antenna arrays (Fig. 4, Fig. 5: 502, [0030], “FIG. 2 shows beam directions for the first access node referred to as AN1 and being the serving access node 120, and the second access node referred to as AN2 and being the target access node 120. For example, AN1 has four beam directions, wherein Direction 1 with reference number 210 is a beam direction towards the user equipment 130”. [0059], “Determining the likeliest beam direction based on the target access node 122 position and the user equipment position or the serving access node 120 beam direction can be e.g. based on Line-Of-Sight (LOS) calculations. For Ultra-Dense-Networks (UDN), the density of access node is very dense, LOS is a likely propagation condition, therefore LOS will be often present. FIG. 4 shows a scheme to determine a beam direction 220 using LOS calculation: Dir=Pos_UE−Pos_AN2 (Eq. 1)” (discloses a scenario of multipath tolerant connection in Fig. 2, where beams are received from multiple access nodes depending on the position of the UE. It is implicit for the skilled in the art that multiple nodes are utilized for tracking a moving UE)).
Claims 8 and 9 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 20170245192 A1 (Sadri et al.) (hereinafter Sadri) in view of US 20240284291 A1 (MURAOKA et al.) (hereinafter MURAOKA) in view of US 20170013521 A1 (Baldemair et al.) (hereinafter Baldemair) and in further view of US 20170311307 A1 (NEGUS et al.) (hereinafter NEGUS).
In re claim 8, the combination discloses the apparatus of claim 7, but does not explicitly disclose wherein the beamforming capability information of the one or more antenna arrays comprises a maximum width and a maximum length of at least one antenna beam emitted by the one or more antenna arrays proximate to the road link.
NEGUS discloses wherein the beamforming capability information of the one or more antenna arrays comprises a maximum width and a maximum length of at least one antenna beam emitted by the one or more antenna arrays proximate to the road link (Fig. 3A-3B, [0023], “FIG. 2C shows exemplary azimuthal and elevation adjustments utilized in aligning a line-of-sight wireless link”. [0026], “Referring now to FIG. 3A a depiction of the size of the main lobe or the 3 dB beam width of an antenna beam pattern is depicted at Radius r at a downrange Distance L where the 3 dB “spot pattern” is designated at E-3A-10 at a Distance L (E-3A-20) within the main beam pattern and designated by E-3A-30”. [0167], “In an embodiment maybe an antenna array, while in other embodiments it may be a beam former, phased array or other directional antenna system” (maximum width and length governed by equation 3B)).
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Sadri, MURAOKA, Baldemair with NEGUS to provide system and technique to provide signal coverage to moving vehicles along the route for high-speed data connections where alignment adjustments are achievable through antenna tuning using beamformer techniques. The advantage of doing so is to meet the high demand of customers in many applications such as V2X and autonomous vehicles for improving road safety, navigation and driving assistance and giving the same user experience as home.
In re claim 9, the combination discloses the apparatus of claim 8, wherein NEGUS discloses wherein the maximum width and the maximum length of the at least one antenna beam is determined based on a distance between the one or more antenna arrays and a location of the vehicle on the road link (Equation 3B discloses the maximum beamwidth and maximum beam length depends on distance from the antenna L)).
Claims 13, 14 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 20170245192 A1 (Sadri et al.) (hereinafter Sadri) in view of US 20240284291 A1 (MURAOKA et al.) (hereinafter MURAOKA).
In re claim 13, Sadri discloses a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium carrying one or more sequences of one or more instructions which, when executed by one or more processors, cause an apparatus to:
receive location information representing a vehicle on a road link ([0031], “In some demonstrative embodiments, vehicle 102 may include a train, and transportation route 104 may include a railroad”. [0032], “In other embodiments, vehicle 102 may include any other vehicle moving along a predefined transportation route. For example, vehicle 102 may include a bus or car, and transportation route 104 may include a highway”. [0038], “In some demonstrative embodiments, system 100 may be configured to continuously provide the data connectivity along transportation route 104, for example, as vehicle 102 moves between different segments of transportation route 104”. [0042], “In some demonstrative embodiments, the plurality of APs 120 may cover a plurality of segments 110 of transportation route 104”. [0056], “an AP 120 may be configured to steer directional antenna 123 in one or more planes, e.g., a horizontal plane and/or a vertical plane, for example, based on a location of vehicle 102 relative to AP 120” (discloses a route on which a vehicle is travelling which can be many segments and connectivity is provided through various access points distributed along the route for continuous coverage obtaining the location of the vehicle));
determine a beamforming capability information of one or more antenna arrays proximate to the road link;
determine vehicle information for the vehicle based on road geometry information of the road link;
determine one or more parameters for at least one antenna beam based on the vehicle information, wherein the at least one antenna beam is configured to sufficiently cover the vehicle ([0129], “As shown in FIGS. 3A and 3B, directional beam 307 may include a relatively narrow beam, e.g., a pencil-shaped beam, for example, to enable directional antenna 323 to cover a long distance along railroad 304, e.g., a distance between 2-4 km, or any other distance”. [0138], “As shown in FIG. 4A, directional beam 407 may be configured to have a squared cosecant beam shape. The squared cosecant beam shape may cover a long distance in a horizontal plane along railroad 404. Accordingly, directional beam 407 may be able to maintain a directional link with train 402 for a relatively long time, for example, without switching between beam settings of antenna 423” (beam sufficiently covers the vehicle for continues communication along the route); and
control the at least one antenna beams to track the vehicle along the road link ([0057], “In some demonstrative embodiments, an AP 120 may be configured to steer directional antenna 123 to follow movement of vehicle 102 along transportation route 104”. [0067], “the AP 120 may switch between the plurality of beam settings according to a direction of movement of vehicle 102 along transportation route 104”. [0165], “As indicated at block 704, communicating with the vehicle may include switching a directional antenna of an AP of the plurality of APs between a plurality of beam settings to steer the directional antenna towards a respective plurality of coverage areas of the transportation route” (controlling the antenna beam to track the vehicle)).
Sadri does not explicitly disclose determine a beamforming capability information of one or more antenna arrays proximate to the road link; determine vehicle information for the vehicle based on road geometry information of the road link; determine one or more parameters for at least one antenna beam based on the vehicle information.
MURAOKA discloses determining a beamforming capability information of one or more antenna arrays proximate to the road link ([0002], “a radio control apparatus (e.g., a radio base station) is configured to perform beamforming using an antenna array including a plurality of antenna elements”. [0058], “a situation in which another terminal apparatus is moving with a vehicle (e.g., a motor vehicle)”. [0062], “Here, the communication parameter is a parameter for communicating with the terminal apparatus, and represents one or both of an antenna and a beam”. [0084], “In this configuration, the base station antenna 210-1 may form a plurality of beams simultaneously using the plurality of subarrays”. [0086], “The beam control unit 213 is configured to perform the beamforming...The beam control unit 213 controls the phase and amplitude of a signal transmitted from the above selected antennas 230 to form a transmitting beam” (beamforming capability)); determine vehicle information for the vehicle based on road geometry information of the road link ([0125], “The terminal information may include information representing a Global Positioning System (GPS) signal indicating the location of the terminal apparatus 100”. [0130], “The map information includes information on the locations and sizes of sidewalks, roadways, railroad tracks, and buildings”. [0139], “In a case in which a sidewalk and a roadway are newly built due to construction or other reasons, the type estimation unit 640 can add necessary types to the set” (acquiring road geometry and location)); determine one or more parameters for at least one antenna beam based on the vehicle information (Fig. 21:2105), [0015], “The method includes estimating a location of the terminal apparatus, predicting movement of the terminal apparatus based on the estimated location, predicting a future location of the terminal apparatus, estimating a reception level of a radio signal at the future location for each communication parameter representing one or both of an antenna and a beam, determining the communication parameter to be used for the terminal apparatus at the future location, based on an estimation result of the reception level”. [0062], “Here, the communication parameter is a parameter for communicating with the terminal apparatus, and represents one or both of an antenna and a beam”. [0233], “The communication parameter suitable for the situation in which the terminal apparatus UE1 is at the location P1 may be different from the communication parameter suitable for the situation in which the terminal apparatus UE3 reaches the location P1”. [0086], “The beam control unit 213 is configured to perform the beamforming. Specifically, the beam control unit 213 controls one or more switch elements 231 to select one or more antennas 230 for transmitting a radio signal. The beam control unit 213 controls the phase and amplitude of a signal (transmission signal) transmitted from the above selected antennas 230 to form a transmitting beam”. [0239], “For example, the selection unit 670 may use the map information to perform propagation simulation by ray tracing. As described above, the map information includes information on the locations and sizes of sidewalks, roadways, railroad tracks, and buildings”).
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Sadri with MURAOKA to provide system and technique to provide signal coverage to moving vehicles along the route for high-speed data connections such as 5G. The advantage of doing so is to meet the high demand of customers in many applications such as V2X and autonomous vehicles for improving road safety, navigation and driving assistance and giving the same user experience as home.
In re claim 14, the combination discloses the computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein MURAOKA discloses wherein the one or more parameters of the at least one antenna beam comprises a signal strength, a beam width, an elevation angle, and an azimuth angle relative to the one or more antenna arrays ([0109], “The received power information 750 is information (e.g., Reference Signal Received Power (RSRP)) representing a received power (signal strength) measured at the terminal apparatus 100 when the base station apparatus 200 transmits a downlink signal using a beam formed by the combination of the antenna number 730 and the beam number 740”. [0239], “The selection unit 670 may estimate the reception level (received power or signal strength) of the radio signal at the future location Pf for each of the plurality of communication parameters based on radio propagation prediction”).
In re claim 20, the combination discloses the computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, wherein MURAOKA discloses wherein the beamforming capability information of the one or more antenna arrays is precomputed (Fig. 8, [0113], “The table 800 includes, as configuration items, a type 810, a location 820, an antenna number 830, a beam number 840, and received power information 850. The configuration items are stored in the second database 620 including the table”. [0121], “The combination of the representative communication parameter and the received power to be stored in the table 800 may be selected according to a predetermined criterion. Here, the received power may be a value selected or calculated from data measured for the same type of the terminal apparatus 100, at the same location, and for the same antenna number and beam number” (pre computed for same location and same antenna number). [0249], “...According to this configuration, it is possible to prevent the antenna number from being changed frequently. This contributes to stabilization of communication quality” (beam capability is precomputed based on factors such as location, threshold, power etc. for stable communication quality)).
Claims 15, 16 and 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 20170245192 A1 (Sadri et al.) (hereinafter Sadri) in view of US 20240284291 A1 (MURAOKA et al.) (hereinafter MURAOKA) and in further view of US 20170013521 A1 (Baldemair et al.) (hereinafter Baldemair).
In re claim 15, the combination discloses the computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, but does not explicitly disclose wherein the vehicle information is transmitted from the one or more antenna arrays to at least one neighboring antenna arrays based on a proximity between the vehicle and the at least one neighboring antenna arrays.
Baldemair discloses wherein the vehicle information is transmitted from the one or more antenna arrays to at least one neighboring antenna arrays based on a proximity between the vehicle and the at least one neighboring antenna arrays ([0010], [0034], “The wireless communication network comprises the target access node and a serving access node serving the user equipment. The target access node 122 receives from the serving access node 120, information about a position of the user equipment 130. The target access node determines a beam direction towards the user equipment based on received information and its own position” (providing by the serving cell, vehicle information to the neighboring cell for tracking and coverage)).
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Sadri and MURAOKA and Baldemair to provide system and technique to provide signal coverage to moving vehicles along the route for high-speed data connections such as 5G. The advantage of doing so is to meet the high demand of customers in many applications such as V2X and autonomous vehicles for improving road safety, navigation and driving assistance and giving the same user experience as home.
In re claim 16, the combination discloses the computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, but does not explicitly disclose wherein the at least one antenna beam is directed from the one or more antenna arrays to the vehicle when the vehicle is in direct line of sight of the one or more antenna arrays.
Baldemair discloses the method further comprising directing the at least one antenna beam from one or more antenna arrays when the vehicle is in a direct line of sight of the one or more antenna arrays (Fig. 4: 220, [0059], “Determining the likeliest beam direction based on the target access node 122 position and the user equipment position or the serving access node 120 beam direction can be e.g. based on Line-Of-Sight (LOS) calculations. For Ultra-Dense-Networks (UDN), the density of access node is very dense, LOS is a likely propagation condition, therefore LOS will be often present. FIG. 4 shows a scheme to determine a beam direction 220 using LOS calculation: Dir=Pos_UE−Pos_AN2 (Eq. 1)” (determining likeliest beam based on line of sight of the UE)).
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Sadri and MURAOKA and Baldemair to provide system and technique to provide signal coverage to moving vehicles along the route for high-speed data connections such as 5G. The advantage of doing so is to meet the high demand of customers in many applications such as V2X and autonomous vehicles for improving road safety, navigation and driving assistance and giving the same user experience as home.
In re claim 17, the combination discloses the computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, but does not explicitly disclose wherein a multipath tolerant connection is directed from the one or more antenna arrays to the vehicle when the vehicle is not in direct line of sight of the one or more antenna arrays.
Baldemair discloses the method further comprising providing a multipath tolerant connection from one or more antenna arrays when the vehicle is not in a direct line of sight of the one or more antenna arrays (Fig. 4, Fig. 5: 502, [0030], “FIG. 2 shows beam directions for the first access node referred to as AN1 and being the serving access node 120, and the second access node referred to as AN2 and being the target access node 120. For example, AN1 has four beam directions, wherein Direction 1 with reference number 210 is a beam direction towards the user equipment 130”. [0059], “Determining the likeliest beam direction based on the target access node 122 position and the user equipment position or the serving access node 120 beam direction can be e.g. based on Line-Of-Sight (LOS) calculations. For Ultra-Dense-Networks (UDN), the density of access node is very dense, LOS is a likely propagation condition, therefore LOS will be often present. FIG. 4 shows a scheme to determine a beam direction 220 using LOS calculation: Dir=Pos_UE−Pos_AN2 (Eq. 1)” (discloses a scenario of multipath tolerant connection in Fig. 2, where beams are received from multiple access nodes depending on the position of the UE. It is implicit for the skilled in the art that multiple nodes are utilized for tracking a moving UE)).
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Sadri and MURAOKA and Baldemair to provide system and technique to provide signal coverage to moving vehicles along the route for high-speed data connections such as 5G. The advantage of doing so is to meet the high demand of customers in many applications such as V2X and autonomous vehicles for improving road safety, navigation and driving assistance and giving the same user experience as home.
Claim 18 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 20170245192 A1 (Sadri et al.) (hereinafter Sadri) in view of US 20240284291 A1 (MURAOKA et al.) (hereinafter MURAOKA) and in further view of US 20210084441 A1 (Zhou et al.) (hereinafter Zhou).
In re claim 18, the combination discloses the computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, but does not explicitly disclose wherein the vehicle is selected based on the beamforming capability information of the one or more antenna arrays.
Zhou discloses wherein the vehicle is selected based on the beamforming capability information of the one or more antenna arrays (Fig. 2, Fig. 14:1415, [0080], “a base station 105 may use multiple antennas or antenna arrays to conduct beamforming operations for directional communications with a UE 115”. [0005], “A base station may support beamformed communications with multiple UEs. In some cases, each beam of the base station may serve multiple UEs, such as if the UEs are located in close proximity” (grouping UEs in proximity based on beam configuration). [0006], “The group proximity message may include information for UEs in the group, such as identifiers for the UEs, an identifier for the group, proximity metrics such as group radius, a leader UE identifier, UE positions, or any combination thereof...In some cases, by indicating the group of UEs, the base station may be able to reduce a beam measurement and report overhead”. [0017], “a beam may be selected by the base station for each UE in the group based on relative positions of respective UEs in the group”. [0043], “transmitting the beam configuration that indicates a beam sweep pattern for the group of UEs, where communicating with the group of UEs may be in accordance with the beam sweep pattern” (selecting a set of vehicles based on beamforming capability and beam configuration)).
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Sadri and MURAOKA with Zhou to provide system and technique to provide signal coverage to moving vehicles along the route where vehicle grouping can be performed based on signal coverage. The advantage of doing so is to meet the high demand of customers in many applications such as V2X and autonomous vehicles for improving road safety, navigation and driving assistance and giving the same user experience as home for high-speed data connections such as 5G.
Claim 19 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 20170245192 A1 (Sadri et al.) (hereinafter Sadri) in view of US 20240284291 A1 (MURAOKA et al.) (hereinafter MURAOKA) and in further view of US 20170311307 A1 (NEGUS et al.) (hereinafter NEGUS).
In re claim 19, the combination discloses the computer-readable storage medium of claim 13, but does not explicitly disclose wherein the beamforming capability information of the one or more antenna arrays comprises a maximum width and a maximum length of at least one antenna beam emitted by the one or more antenna arrays proximate to the road link.
NEGUS discloses wherein the beamforming capability information of the one or more antenna arrays comprises a maximum width and a maximum length of at least one antenna beam emitted by the one or more antenna arrays proximate to the road link (Fig. 3A-3B, [0023], “FIG. 2C shows exemplary azimuthal and elevation adjustments utilized in aligning a line-of-sight wireless link”. [0026], “Referring now to FIG. 3A a depiction of the size of the main lobe or the 3 dB beam width of an antenna beam pattern is depicted at Radius r at a downrange Distance L where the 3 dB “spot pattern” is designated at E-3A-10 at a Distance L (E-3A-20) within the main beam pattern and designated by E-3A-30”. [0167], “In an embodiment maybe an antenna array, while in other embodiments it may be a beam former, phased array or other directional antenna system” (maximum width and length governed by equation 3B)).
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Sadri, MURAOKA and NEGUS to provide system and technique to provide signal coverage to moving vehicles along the route for high-speed data connections where alignment adjustments are achievable through antenna tuning using beamformer techniques. The advantage of doing so is to meet the high demand of customers in many applications such as V2X and autonomous vehicles for improving road safety, navigation and driving assistance and giving the same user experience as home.
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/SWATI JAIN/Examiner, Art Unit 2649
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