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.
Claim(s) 22-41 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 20220279581 A1 (BAEK et al.) (hereinafter BAEK) in view of CN 114762402 A (GAO et al.) (hereinafter GAO) in view of WO 2017062902 A1 (PREVATT) and in further view of
In re claims 22 and 32, Baek discloses a method implemented in a wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) (Fig. 28, [0033], “According to an aspect of the present disclosure, a method of a user equipment (UE) in a wireless communication system includes receiving positioning reference signal (PRS) configuration information...”) and the wireless transmit/receive unit (WTRU) comprising circuitry including any of a processor, a transmitter, a receiver and a memory, the circuitry ([0432], “The first wireless device 100 (WTRU) may include one or more processors 102 and one or more memories 104 and additionally further include one or more transceivers 106 and/or one or more antennas 108. The processor(s) 102 may control the memory 104 and/or the transceiver(s) 106 and may be configured to implement the descriptions, functions, procedures, proposals, methods, and/or operational flowcharts disclosed in this document”) being configured to: receive configuration information indicating (i) a set of positioning reference signal (PRS) resources ([0034], “The PRS configuration information may include resource patterns of the first PRS and the second PRS and a number of symbols of the first PRS and the second PRS”), (ii) a time window to be used for phase measurement with the set of PRS resources ([0141], “For example, the transition period may be 10 us in FR1, and 5 us in FR2. For example, a search window in which the receiving UE detects the S-PSS may be 80 ms and/or 160 ms”. [0166], “For example, the UE may select resources within a selection window on its own by a sensing and resource (re)selection procedure”), (iii) a starting frame number of the time window (Table 1, Fig. 6, [0112], “Referring to FIG. 6, a radio frame may be used for UL transmission and DL transmission in NR. A radio frame is 10 ms in length, and may be defined by two 5-ms half-frames. An HF may include five 1-ms subframes. A subframe may be divided into one or more slots, and the number of slots in an SF may be determined according to a subcarrier spacing (SCS). Each slot may include 12 or 14 OFDM(A) symbols according to a cyclic prefix (CP)”), (iv) a duration of the time window and (v) a periodicity of the time window; receive a first plurality of PRS in the set of PRS resources from a reference transmit and receive point (TRP); receive a second plurality of PRS in the set of PRS resources from another TRP; determine a phase difference measurement based on a first PRS of the first plurality of PRS and a second PRS of the second plurality of PRS, wherein the first PRS and the second PRS are received in the time window; determine a reference signal time difference (RSTD) measurement based on the first PRS and a third PRS of the second plurality of PRS; and transmit reporting information indicating the phase difference measurement and the RSTD measurement, whereby the phase difference measurement and the RSTD measurement are reported for the same reference TRP.
BAEK does not explicitly disclose a time window to be used for phase measurement with the set of PRS resources, a duration of the time window and (v) a periodicity of the time window.
GAO discloses a time window to be used for phase measurement with the set of PRS resources, a duration of the time window and (v) a periodicity of the time window (Page 2, lines 12-17, “the terminal device measures one or more PRS in the first-time window to obtain one or more measurement results; wherein the information for indicating the measurement of the PRS time window indicates the starting time of the first time window, and/or the duration of the first time window”).
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 BAEK and GAO to provide a phase-based positioning method wherein based on received reference signals and angle of arrival, location of UE is calculated. The advantage of doing so is that the location accuracy can be improved by selecting only the receiver sites with improved reception. The system throughput is not impacted by over-selection of receiver sites in order to improve accuracy.
system for utilizing machine learning model to find the best radio station to tune into when the vehicle is moving to different areas and the signal becomes weak. The advantage of doing so is convenience to the driver to not manually search a similar channel while driving, less distraction and safety.
In re claims 23 and 33, the combination discloses the WTRU of claim 22 and the method of claim 32, wherein PREVATT discloses wherein the phase difference measurement is indicated in degrees ([0478], “Each LTE sector has an antenna azimuth (horizontal) main lobe beam width of about 120 degrees. The elevation (vertical) main lobe beam width is only about 10 - 20 degrees” (it is common knowledge for a person skilled in the art that phase difference measurement may be in degrees)).
In re claims 24 and 34, the combination discloses the WTRU of claim 22 and the method of claim 32, wherein BAEK discloses wherein being configured to determine the phase difference measurement comprises being configured to determine a phase difference between the first PRS received from the reference TRP and the second PRS received from the other TRP (Fig. 20b, “different base stations”, [0268], “Referring to FIG. 20(b), the corresponding RTT may correspond to double-range measurement between two devices. Positioning estimation from corresponding information may be performed, and a multilateration scheme may be used. d1, d2, and d3 may be determined based on the measured RTT, and a target device location may be determined as an intersection of circumferences centered at BS1, BS2, and BS3 (or TRP) and having d 1, d 2, and d 3 as radii, respectively”).
In re claims 25 and 35, the combination discloses the WTRU of claim 22 and the method of claim 32, wherein PREVATT discloses wherein the phase difference measurement is for a first path of a plurality of paths ([0005], “Although cellular wireless communication systems provide excellent data coverage in urban and most indoor environments, the position accuracy of these systems is limited by self-interference, multipath and non-line-of-sight propagation”. [0099], “amplitude and a phase of a sinusoidal signal of frequency f n after it propagates through the multi-path channel”).
In re claims 26 and 36, the combination discloses the WTRU of claim 25 and the method of claim 35, wherein Licul discloses wherein each path of the plurality of paths introduces a delayed version of a transmitted PRS ([0011], “In the time domain, line-of-sight or direct signals and multipath reflection component signals which are delayed with respect to the direct signals can be discriminated. For example, by applying an appropriate time-window, the delayed or late arriving multipath components can be eliminated”).
In re claims 27 and 37, the combination discloses the WTRU of claim 22 and the method of claim 32, wherein BAEK discloses wherein the reporting information indicates the reference TRP ([0286], “...measures a time difference up to transmission of a DL-PRS to the UE in response to the UL-PRS, that is, a TRTD, and reports the measured TRTD to the UE”).
In re claims 28 and 38, the combination discloses the WTRU of claim 22 and the method of claim 32, wherein BAEK discloses wherein the reporting information indicates a phase difference uncertainty associated with the phase difference measurement ([0244], “Accuracy and/or uncertainty may be involved in each TOA measurement, and thus the estimated UE location may be known as a specific range according to the measurement uncertainty”).
In re claims 29 and 39, the combination discloses the WTRU of claim 28 and the method of claim 38, wherein PREVATT discloses wherein the phase difference uncertainty is indicated in degrees ([0353], “The Cell ID + RTT track-locate method accuracy is impacted by the multipath (RTT measurements) and the eNB (base station) antenna beamwidth. Base stations antennas beamwidths are between 33 and 65 degrees” (it is common knowledge for a person skilled in the art that phase difference measurement may be in degrees)).
In re claims 30 and 40, the combination discloses the WTRU of claim 22 and the method of claim 32, wherein BAEK discloses wherein the third PRS is received in the time window ([0141], “For example, a search window in which the receiving UE detects the S-PSS may be 80 ms and/or 160 ms”. [0280], “This may refer to a DL transmission burst including a set of signal(s) and/or channel(s), which are limited within a (time) window and are related to a duty cycle. In an LTE-based system, the discovery burst may refer to transmission(s) initiated by a BS, may include a PSS, a SSS, and a cell-specific RS (CRS), and may further include a non-zero power CSI-RS”).
In re claims 31 and 41, the combination discloses the WTRU of claim 22 and the method of claim 32, wherein GAO discloses wherein the third PRS is received outside of the time window (Page 12, lines 13-16, “Referring to FIG. 7c, the terminal device in FIG. 7c does not measure one or more PRS in the first time window, then the terminal device may extend the duration of the first time window (as shown in phantom in FIG. 7c) until one or more PRS is measured”).
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/SWATI JAIN/Examiner, Art Unit 2649
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