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 § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
Claims 27, 34-41 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claim 27 recites the limitation "…the TRP information request or the TRP information response" in lines 1-2. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Claim 38 recites the limitation "… the TRP information response" in line 2. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Claim 34 recites the limitation "… the gathered sensing capability information or sensing environment information" in lines 9-10. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
Claims 35-41 are rejected for claiming dependency from above rejected claim 34.
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.
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.
Claims 22-24, 29-33 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Roy et al (USPN 20230086144) in view of Dai et al (USPN 20230141170).
Regarding claim 22, Roy discloses
an apparatus comprising at least on processor and at least one memory including computer program code, the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to at least perform: (WTRU, FIG. 1B #102, comprising processor, FIG. 1B #118, and memory, FIG. 1B #130 #132, comprising computer instructions, the processor executing computer instructions to perform [0036, 0037, 0479], FIGs. 2-4
receiving a request for providing at least one of sensing environment information (WTRU receiving request from higher layer application to perform mono-static/environment sensing [0136, 0137, 0093-0095, 0118], FIGs. 2-5
wherein the sensing environment information is indicative of one or more properties of a radio environment of the apparatus (mono-static/environment sensing being indicative of RF environment around WTRU [0094, 0095, 0118, 0141], FIG. 6
gathering, based at least in part on the request, at least one of the sensing capability information or sensing environment information (WTRU sends JCS resource request including sensing parameter sets to a gNB, additionally WTRU may perform measurements/gather associated with mono-static sensing [0166-0168, 0141, 0144], FIGs. 2-5
providing at least one of the gathered sensing capability information or sensing environment information towards a central entity of a mobile communication network (WTRU sends sensing capability information to gNB [0166-0168, 0262-0265, 0371-0376, 0384], FIG. 3
Roy does not expressly disclose receiving a request for providing at least one of sensing capability information; wherein the sensing capability information is indicative of one or more capabilities related to at least one transceiver of the apparatus; gathering, based at least in part on the request, at least one of the sensing capability information; receiving an assignment for one or more sensing operations
Dai discloses receiving a request for providing at least one of sensing capability information (UE receives request from base station to provide capability information associated with sensing operations [0053-0055]
wherein the sensing capability information is indicative of one or more capabilities related to at least one transceiver of the apparatus (capability information includes sensing mode, waveform, range, bandwidth, power control, hardware/antenna constraints [0004, 0005, 0056, 0057]
gathering, based at least in part on the request, at least one of the sensing capability information (UE determines capability including a subset of capabilities, FIG. 3 #315-350, [0055, 0071, 0072
receiving an assignment for one or more sensing operations (UE receives configuration information/assignment for sensing operations [0068]
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to implement “receiving a request for providing at least one of sensing capability information; wherein the sensing capability information is indicative of one or more capabilities related to at least one transceiver of the apparatus; gathering, based at least in part on the request, at least one of the sensing capability information; receiving an assignment for one or more sensing operations” as taught by Dai into Roy’s system with the motivation to enable a base station to configure a UE to perform sensing based on the UE’s capability to avoid wasting RF resources (Dai, paragraph [0051])
Regarding claim 23, Roy discloses “wherein the gathering of the sensing capability information further comprises at least one of: determining at least one beam configuration” sensing scheme per beam width/direction [0133, 0193]
Regarding claim 24, Roy discloses “wherein the gathering of the sensing environment information further comprises at least one of: determining at least one interference level of the apparatus” measured interference level by WTRU [0271-0273]
Regarding claim 29, Roy discloses “wherein the request comprises, at least a part of it, at least one of the following fields associated with the sensing capability information: a respective beamwidth per beam emittable by the apparatus” beam width [0176, 0193]
Roy does not expressly disclose “wherein the request comprises, at least a part of it, at least one of the following fields associated with the sensing capability information: bandwidths supported by the apparatus”
Dai discloses supported sensing bandwidth [0065, 0066, 0083-0085]
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to implement “wherein the request comprises, at least a part of it, at least one of the following fields associated with the sensing capability information: bandwidths supported by the apparatus” as taught by Dai into Roy’s system with the motivation to enable a base station to configure a UE to perform sensing based on the UE’s capability to avoid wasting RF resources (Dai, paragraph [0051])
Regarding claim 30 Roy discloses “wherein the request comprises, at least a part of it, at least one of the following fields associated with the sensing environment information: one or more interference levels” measured/observed interference relative to multiple thresholds [0272, 0273]
Regarding claim 31, Roy discloses “performing, one or more sensing operations; and providing information indicative of one or more results of at least one performed sensing operation of the one or more sensing operations” performing measurement/sensing operations and providing results of sensing operations to gNB [0371-0376, 0384]
Roy does not expressly disclose “performing, based on the received assignment, the one or more sensing operations
Dai discloses UE performing sensing operations as configured/assigned by base station [0068]
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to implement “performing, based on the received assignment, the one or more sensing operations” as taught by Dai into Roy’s system with the motivation to enable a base station to configure a UE to perform sensing based on the UE’s capability to avoid wasting RF resources (Dai, paragraph [0051])
Regarding claim 32, Roy discloses “wherein a respective assignment comprises at least one of a probing sensing operation” WTRU transmits sensing signal/probing sensing to collect measurements such as backscatter [0261, 0286], FIGs. 2-5
Regarding claim 33, Roy discloses “wherein the apparatus is a user equipment, UE, supporting sensing” apparatus being WTRU that supports sensing [0036, 0117]
Claims 34, 39-41 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cheng et al (USPN 20230370820) in view of Dai et al (USPN 20230141170).
Regarding claim 34, Cheng discloses
an apparatus comprising at least one processor and at least one memory including computer program code, the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to at least perform: (SnMF node/server comprising processor, FIG. 11 #1140, memory comprising computer code, FIG. 11 #1130 #1135, the processor configure to execute computer code to perform [0005, 0116, 0208, 0214, 0215]
sending a request for providing at least one of sending capability information or sensing environment information (SnMF sends request for sensing capability of UE [0135], FIG. 4
wherein the sensing capability information is indicative of one or more capabilities related to at least one transceiver of a sending device (sensing capability information including whether UE support RF sensing and particular sensing configurations/modes [0137]
wherein the sensing environment information is indicative of one or more properties of a radio environment of the sensing device (sensing environment information includes interference, health monitoring/heartbeat detection/tracking, location detection/tracking, automotive radar/light detection and ranging [0113, 0107-0110, 0243]
obtaining at least one of the gathered sensing capability information or sensing environment information that were provided towards the apparatus (SnMF receives/obtains UE capability to perform sensing objects within a detectable range [0137]
providing the determined assignment; wherein the assignment is determined based, at least in part, on the at least one of the gathered sensing capability information or sensing environment information (SnMF transmits a request for sensing results which base station in turn transmits sensing configuration indicating one or more parameter values that UE to use to perform sensing within of objects within a detectable range of UE [0138]
Cheng does not expressly disclose determining an assignment of one or more sensing operations for the sensing device
Dai discloses determining an assignment of one or more sensing operations for the sensing device (determining sensing operation based in part on UE’s capability information for configuration [0068, 0093-0095]
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to implement “determining an assignment of one or more sensing operations for the sensing device” as taught by Dai into Cheng’s system with the motivation to enable a base station to configure a UE to perform sensing based on the UE’s capability to avoid wasting RF resources (Dai, paragraph [0051])
Regarding claim 39, Cheng discloses “determining one or more sensing devices enabled to provide, at least partially jointly, at least one of one or more range estimates, angular estimates, speed estimates or object's shape estimates.” location/tracking, range tracking, speed [0107, 0111]
Regarding claim 40, Cheng discloses “obtaining information indicative of one or more results of at least one sensing operation performed by at least one sensing device” sensing report indicates sensing results obtained by UE [0021, 0116, 0117]
Regarding claim 41, Cheng discloses “wherein the apparatus is a central entity of a mobile communication network” apparatus being SnMF deployed in core network [0059, 0123]
Claims 25, 26 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Roy in view of Dai as applied to claim 22, and in further view of Abedini et al (USPN 20230058859).
Regarding claim 25, combined system of Roy and Dai does not expressly disclose “wherein the request is or is part of a Transmission Reception Point, TRP, information request or an environment update request”
Abedini discloses network entities exchange request/response via TRP information message [0029, 0052-0055], FIGs. 5-7
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to implement “wherein the request is or is part of a Transmission Reception Point, TRP, information request or an environment update request” as taught by Abedini into combined system of Roy and Dai with the motivation to utilized a standardized TRP information request/response construct to carry sensing information for widespread adoption.
Regarding claim 26, Dai discloses Dai discloses UE receives request from base station to provide capability information associated with sensing operations and UE provides capability information [0004, 0005, 0056, 0057, 0053-0055]
Combined system of Roy and Dai does not expressly disclose “wherein at least one of the gathered sensing capability information or sensing environment information is provided via a Transmission Reception Point, TRP, information response”
Abedini discloses network entities exchange request/response via TRP information message [0029, 0052-0055], FIGs. 5-7
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to implement ““wherein at least one of the gathered sensing capability information or sensing environment information is provided via a Transmission Reception Point, TRP, information response” as taught by Abedini into combined system of Roy and Dai with the motivation to utilized a standardized TRP information request/response construct to carry sensing information for widespread adoption.
Claims 36, 37 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cheng in view of Dai as applied to claim 34, and in further view of Abedini et al (USPN 20230058859).
Regarding claim 36, combined system of Cheng and Dai does not expressly disclose “wherein the request is or is part of a Transmission Reception Point, TRP, information request or an environment update request”
Abedini discloses network entities exchange request/response via TRP information message [0029, 0052-0055], FIGs. 5-7
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to implement “wherein the request is or is part of a Transmission Reception Point, TRP, information request or an environment update request” as taught by Abedini into combined system of Cheng and Dai with the motivation to utilized a standardized TRP information request/response construct to carry sensing information for widespread adoption.
Regarding claim 37, Dai discloses Dai discloses UE receives request from base station to provide capability information associated with sensing operations and UE provides capability information [0004, 0005, 0056, 0057, 0053-0055]
Combined system of Cheng and Dai does not expressly disclose “wherein at least one of the gathered sensing capability information or sensing environment information is provided via a Transmission Reception Point, TRP, information response”
Abedini discloses network entities exchange request/response via TRP information message [0029, 0052-0055], FIGs. 5-7
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to implement ““wherein at least one of the gathered sensing capability information or sensing environment information is provided via a Transmission Reception Point, TRP, information response” as taught by Abedini into combined system of Cheng and Dai with the motivation to utilized a standardized TRP information request/response construct to carry sensing information for widespread adoption.
Claim 35 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cheng in view of Dai as applied to claim 34, and in further view of Balasubramanian et al (USPN 20230007503).
Regarding claim 35, combined system of Cheng and Dai does not expressly disclose “merging at least one of a plurality of pieces of sensing capability information or sensing environment information obtained from a plurality of sensing devices, wherein the assignment for a respective sensing device is determined further based on the merged at least one of one or more pieces of sensing capability information or sensing environment information.”
Balasubramanian discloses sensing capability information from multiple UEs being merged and sensing measurement request/task being transmitted to individual UEs based on merged sensing capability information report [0103-0108], FIG. 4
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to implement merging at least one of a plurality of pieces of sensing capability information or sensing environment information obtained from a plurality of sensing devices, wherein the assignment for a respective sensing device is determined further based on the merged at least one of one or more pieces of sensing capability information or sensing environment information” as taught by Balasubramanian into combined system of Cheng and Dai with the motivation to task sensing operations to UEs that fit the UEs’ capabilities (Balasubramanian, paragraph [0103-0108], FIG. 4)
Claim 27 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Roy in view of Dai as applied to claim 22, and in further view of Balasubramanian et al (USPN 20230007503).
Regarding claims 27, combined system of Roy and Dai does not expressly disclose “wherein at least one of the TRP information request or the TRP information response is received or sent via ad-hoc messaging”
Balasubramanian discloses capability request and response transmitted via sidelink/ad hoc
[0103-0108], FIG. 4
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to implement wherein at least one of the TRP information request or the TRP information response is received or sent via ad-hoc messaging” as taught by Balasubramanian into combined system of Cheng and Dai with the motivation to task sensing operations to UEs that fit the UEs’ capabilities (Balasubramanian, paragraph [0103-0108], FIG. 4)
Claim 28 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Roy in view of Dai as applied to claim 22, and in further view of Yang (USPN 20220322347).
Regarding claim 28, combined system of Roy and Dai does not expressly disclose “determining whether the apparatus supports the gathering of at least one of the sensing capability information or sensing environment information or not; and in response to determining that the apparatus docs not support the gathering of at least one of the sensing capability information or sensing environment information, providing a failure information.”
Yang discloses UE determines if it supports sensing environment capability information indicated by base station and sends rejection message to network if it does not support [0003, 0105-0111]
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to implement determining whether the apparatus supports the gathering of at least one of the sensing capability information or sensing environment information or not; and in response to determining that the apparatus docs not support the gathering of at least one of the sensing capability information or sensing environment information, providing a failure information” as taught by Yang into combined system of Cheng and Dai with the motivation to indicate to network if UE’s capabilities are more limited so RF resources are not wasted
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 38 would be allowable if rewritten to overcome the rejection(s) under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), 2nd paragraph, set forth in this Office action and to include all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Tadayon et al (USPN 20240069183) FIG. 5
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/THAI NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2469
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