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
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 1-3, 8-9, 11-17, and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over LI et al. (US 20240353523, hereinafter, “LI”) in view of Chong et al. (US 20240236935, hereinafter, “Chong”).
Claim 1. LI teaches: A network entity, comprising: - See Fig. 5, ¶ [0182], (“the computing node is the sensing function in the core network”)
at least one memory; - See Fig. 15, ¶ [0650], (memory 1503) and at least one processor coupled with the at least one memory and configured to cause the network entity to: - See Fig. 15, ¶ [0650], (processor 1501 and a memory 1503)
receive a sensing service request, which includes a sensing area indication indicating a sensing area – in ¶ [0180], (“obtaining, by the computing node, first information, where the first information includes: positioning sensing demand information…”);¶ [0203], (“the positioning sensing demand information may include…¶ [0204] a sensing area”) and quality of service (QoS) requirements, - in ¶ [0203], (“the positioning sensing demand information may include…¶ [0204] a sensing area…quality of service (QoS) information (may include…sensing resolution requirements…”) to perform a sensing operation; - in ¶ [0217], (“According to the above sensing area, the sensing node that performs sensing measurement in the sensing area can be determined accordingly”) and
identify, based on the sensing area indication, – in ¶ [0180], (“obtaining, by the computing node, first information, where the first information includes: positioning sensing demand information…and [0181] determining, by the computing node, the sensing node according to the first information.”); ¶ [0203], (“the positioning sensing demand information may include…¶ [0204] a sensing area”) the QoS requirements - in ¶ [0203], (“the positioning sensing demand information may include…¶ [0204] a sensing area…quality of service (QoS) information (may include…sensing resolution requirements…”) and cell-related information, – in ¶ [0182], (“sensing nodes (for example, terminals, base stations, sensing devices, small cells, and the like) that can participate in positioning sensing services…¶ [0183], (the first information may further include state information of the sensing node. [0184] The state information may include…[0185]…position information…”, The state information of the sensing node (eq. cell) is equated to the cell-related information.) at least one cell – in ¶ [0181], (“determining, by the computing node, the sensing node according to the first information”); ¶ [0182], (“sensing nodes (for example, terminals, base stations, sensing devices, small cells”, This identifies a cell as a sensing node.) for performing the sensing operation. - in ¶ [0217], (“According to the above sensing area, the sensing node that performs sensing measurement in the sensing area can be determined accordingly…”)
Li does not explicitly teach:
receive a sensing service request, which includes a sensing area indication indicating a sensing area and quality of service (QoS) requirements, to perform a sensing operation;
However, Chong teaches:
receive a sensing service request, which includes a sensing area indication indicating a sensing area and quality of service (QoS) requirements, to perform a sensing operation; - in ¶ [0017], (“receiving, by a sensing control function network element, a first sensing service request message, where the first sensing service request message is used for requesting for performing sensing for a service for a first user equipment”); ¶ [0167], (“the first sensing service request message includes…¶ [0176] quality of service requirement information of sensing service.”)
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified LI with Chong to include receive a sensing service request, as taught by Chong. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification to specify the request message, as suggested by Chong, the following problems still exist in the sensing service scenario…Problem 1: Which network element (AMF or SCF) processes a sensing service request? - ¶ [0130 - 0131]
Claim 2. Combination of Li and Chong teaches The network entity of Claim 1, - refer to the indicated claim for reference(s).
Li teaches:
wherein the sensing area indication indicates information to describe the sensing area to be sensed. - in ¶ [0204], (“a sensing area (for example, geographical coordinates of the sensing area, length, width, height and distance of the sensing area…”)
Claim 3. Combination of Li and Chong teaches The network entity of Claim 1, - refer to the indicated claim for reference(s).
Li teaches:
wherein the sensing area indication includes at least a location of the sensing area and a range of the sensing area. - in ¶ [0204], (“a sensing area (for example, geographical coordinates of the sensing area, length, width, height and distance of the sensing area…and can indicate the movement speed range of the to-be-sensed target”)
Claim 8. Combination of Li and Chong teaches The network entity of Claim 1, - refer to the indicated claim for reference(s).
LI teaches:
wherein the cell-related information is stored in the network entity, - in ¶ [0190], (“receiving, by the computing node, third information from the first network-side device”) and
wherein the cell-related information includes cell identities of one or more cells - in ¶ [0193], (“the third information further includes at least one of the following: [0194] the identifier of the first device, the position information of the first device…the number of the first devices”) and positions of the one or more cells. - in ¶ [0193], (“third information further includes…[0194] identifier of the first device, the position information of the first device…the number of the first devices”); ¶ [0192], (“the first device may be a terminal, a small cell)”)
Claim 9. Combination of Li and Chong teaches The network entity of Claim 1, - refer to the indicated claim for reference(s).
LI further teaches:
wherein the indication includes a cell identity (ID) of the at least one cell and expected radio resources for performing the sensing operation. - in ¶ [0220], (“the first signal sent by the sensing node is determined through the configuration parameter information….[0221] The configuration parameter information may include…[0231] a time resource…where time resources are divided into two types”)
Chong further teaches:
wherein the at least one processor is further configured to cause the network entity to: - in ¶ [0075], (“network-side device is provided, including a processor”) transmit an indication to an AMF, - See Fig. 9, ¶ [0459], (“Step 901: The sensing control function network element transmits a first request message to a first network element”); ¶ [0468], (“the first network element includes…AMF network element.”) wherein the indication includes a cell identity (ID) of the at least one cell and expected radio resources for performing the sensing operation. - See Fig. 9, ¶ [0459], (“Step 901: The sensing control function network element transmits a first request message to a first network element”); ¶ [0472], (“The identification information of the candidate sensing device includes identification information of one or more candidate sensing devices.”)
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified LI with Chong to include transmit an indication to an AMF, as taught by Chong. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification to improve sensing accuracy, as suggested by Chong, the following problems still exist in the sensing service scenario…Problem 1: Which network element (AMF or SCF) processes a sensing service request? - ¶ [0130 - 0131]
Claim 11. Combination of Li and Chong teaches The network entity of Claim 1, - refer to the indicated claim for reference(s).
Li teaches:
wherein the at least one processor is further configured to cause the network entity to: - in ¶ [0068], (“computing node may include…sensing network function/sensing network element in the core network”) transmit an indication to at least one base station (BS) in the at least one cell to trigger the sensing operation in the at least one cell. – in ¶ [0235], (“the core network can send a sensing start indication to at least one base station and one collaborative sensing group in the sensing area…each sensing node starts to perform sensing measurement on the to-be-sensed target based on the sensing start indication.”)
Claim 12. Combination of Li and Chong teaches The network entity of Claim 11, - refer to the indicated claim for reference(s).
Li teaches:
wherein the sensing operation includes at least one of: sensing signal transmission,
sensing signal reception, sensing signal pre-processing, or sensing data transmission. – in ¶ [0235], (“…each sensing node starts to perform sensing measurement on the to-be-sensed target based on the sensing start indication”); ¶ [0278], (“The sensing node may be specifically any device capable of sending and receiving wireless sensing signals such as a first network-side device (for example, a base station)”)
Claim 13. Combination of Li and Chong teaches The network entity of Claim 1, - refer to the indicated claim for reference(s).
Li teaches:
wherein the network entity is a sensing function (SF). - See Fig. 5, ¶ [0182], (“the computing node is the sensing function in the core network”)
Claim 14. Combination of Li and Chong teaches The network entity of Claim 1, - refer to the indicated claim for reference(s).
Chong further teaches:
wherein the network entity is an access and mobility management function (AMF). – in ¶ [0281], (“the first network element includes an access and mobility management function AMF network element or a sensing control function SCF network element.”, AMF or SCF can perform the same functions)
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified LI with Chong to include the network entity is an AMF, as taught by Chong. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification to improve sensing accuracy, as suggested by Chong, the following problems still exist in the sensing service scenario…Problem 1: Which network element (AMF or SCF) processes a sensing service request? - ¶ [0130 - 0131]
Claims 15-17 are rejected under the same rationale as Claims 1-3 since they recite nearly identical limitations.
Claim 20 is rejected under the same rationale as Claim 12 since they recite nearly identical limitations.
Claims 4-5, 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over LI et al. (US 20240353523, hereinafter, “LI”) in view of Chong et al. (US 20240236935, hereinafter, “Chong”), and further in view of WU et al. (US 20240397474, hereinafter, “WU”).
Claim 4. Combination of Li and Chong teaches The network entity of Claim 1, - refer to the indicated claim for reference(s).
LI does not explicitly teach:
wherein the at least one processor is further configured to cause the network entity to: transmit, to an access and mobility management function (AMF), a request message to request the cell-related information, wherein the request message includes: a location of the sensing area; a number of candidate cells associated with the sensing area; and receive, from the AMF, the cell-related information, wherein the cell-related information includes: a cell identity (ID) of each cell of the number of candidate cells; and a distance between each cell of the number of candidate cells and the location of the sensing area.
However, Chong teaches:
wherein the at least one processor is further configured to cause the network entity to: - in ¶ [0075], (“network-side device is provided, including a processor”) transmit, to an access and mobility management function (AMF), - See Fig. 9, ¶ [0459], (“Step 901: The sensing control function network element transmits a first request message to a first network element”); ¶ [0468], (“first network element includes an access and mobility management function AMF”) a request message to request the cell-related information, - See Fig. 9, ¶ [0459], (“Step 901: The sensing control function network element transmits a first request message to a first network element, where the first request message is used for requesting to acquire identification information of a sensing device in a sensing serving area corresponding to the first user equipment.”)
wherein the request message includes: a location of the sensing area; a number of candidate cells associated with the sensing area; - in ¶ [0463], (“the first request message includes…the third sensing serving area information”) and
receive, from the AMF, the cell-related information, wherein the cell-related information includes: - in ¶ [0470], (“Step 902: The sensing control function network element receives a first request response message transmitted by the first network element, and acquires identification information of a candidate sensing device in the sensing serving area…”)
a cell identity (ID) of each cell – in ¶ [0476], (“the AMF determines a UE ID list and/or an RAN ID list within the AOI. The AMF transmits the UE ID list and/or the RAN ID list within the AOI to the SCF”) of the number of candidate cells; and a distance between each cell of the number of candidate cells and the location of the sensing area. - in ¶ [0470], (“Step 902: The sensing control function network element receives a first request response message transmitted by the first network element, and acquires identification information of a candidate sensing device in the sensing serving area”); ¶ [0472], (“The identification information of the candidate sensing device includes identification information of one or more candidate sensing devices.”)
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified LI with Chong to include request message to request the cell-related information, as taught by Chong. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification to improve sensing accuracy, as suggested by Chong, the following problems still exist in the sensing service scenario…Problem 1: Which network element (AMF or SCF) processes a sensing service request? - ¶ [0130 - 0131]
Combination of Li and Chong does not explicitly teach:
wherein the request message includes: a location of the sensing area; and a number of candidate cells associated with the sensing area; and
receive, from the AMF, the cell-related information, wherein the cell-related information includes: a cell identity (ID) of each cell of the number of candidate cells; and a distance between each cell of the number of candidate cells and the location of the sensing area.
However, WU teaches:
wherein the request message includes: a location of the sensing area; and a number of candidate cells associated with the sensing area; - in ¶ [0043], (“The first network element may be…a sensing function (SF)…The second network element may be…(AMF).”); ¶ [0099 - 0102], (“the range information includes…an area identified by latitude and longitude; or an area identified by a cell collection.”); ¶ [0106], (“The cell collection identification may indicate a cell collection. [0107] The cell collection may include one or more cells.”); ¶ [0117], (“the second network element receives the range information from a first network element”) and
receive, from the AMF, the cell-related information, wherein the cell-related information includes: a cell identity (ID) of each cell of the number of candidate cells; and a distance between each cell of the number of candidate cells and the location of the sensing area. - See Fig, 4, ¶ [0067], (“The location information of the user of the sensing service may include: the longitude and latitude of the user of the sensing service, a cell where the user of the sensing service is located…or a cell collection where the user of the sensing service is located. The cell collection may include the cell where the user of the sensing service is located and neighbor cells of the cell where the user of the sensing service is located, etc.”)
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified LI and Chong with WU to include request message includes a number of candidate cells associated with the sensing area and receive a distance between each cell of the number of candidate cells and the location of the sensing area, as taught by WU. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification to improve sensing accuracy, as suggested by WU, effectively avoiding problems of poor sensing quality, such as poor accuracy of sensing results, a failure of sensing, caused by a too small execution range. - ¶ [0061]
Claim 5. Combination of Li, Chong, and WU teaches The network entity of Claim 4, - refer to the indicated claim for reference(s).
Li teaches:
wherein the at least one processor is further configured to cause the network entity to: identify the at least one cell – in ¶ [0181], (“determining, by the computing node, the sensing node according to the first information.”); ¶ [0182], (“sensing nodes (for example, terminals, base stations, sensing devices, small cells”, This identifies a cell as a sensing node.) for from the number of candidate cells – in ¶ [0182], (“there are often a large number of sensing nodes (for example, terminals, base stations, sensing devices, small cells, and the like) that can participate in positioning sensing services.”) based on the sensing area indication, – in ¶ [0180], (“obtaining, by the computing node, first information, where the first information includes: positioning sensing demand information…and [0181] determining, by the computing node, the sensing node according to the first information.”) the QoS requirements, - in ¶ [0203], (“the positioning sensing demand information may include…¶ [0204] a sensing area…quality of service (QoS) information (may include…sensing resolution requirements…”) and the cell-related information. – in ¶ [0180], (“obtaining, by the computing node, first information, where the first information includes: positioning sensing demand information…”)
Claim 18 is rejected under the same rationale as Claim 4 since they recite nearly identical limitations.
Claims 6-7 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over LI et al. (US 20240353523, hereinafter, “LI”) in view of Chong et al. (US 20240236935, hereinafter, “Chong”), and further in view of ZHU et al. (US 20240259765, hereinafter, “ZHU”) and WU et al. (US 20240397474, hereinafter, “WU”).
Claim 6. Combination of Li and Chong teaches The network entity of Claim 1, - refer to the indicated claim for reference(s).
Combination of Li and Chong does not explicitly teach:
wherein the at least one processor is further configured to cause the network entity to: transmit, to a location management function (LMF), a request message to request the cell-related information, wherein the request message includes:
a location of the sensing area; and
a number of candidate cells associated with the sensing area; and
receive, from the LMF, the cell-related information, wherein the cell-related information includes:
a cell identity (ID) of each cell of the number of candidate cells; and
a distance between each cell of the number of candidate cells and the location of the sensing area.
However, ZHU teaches:
wherein the at least one processor is further configured to cause the network entity to: - See Fig. 5, ¶ [0069], (“the apparatus is a sensing network element, the processing unit may be a processor”) transmit, to a location management function (LMF), a request message to request the cell-related information, wherein the request message includes: - in ¶ [0217], (“The positioning request message sent by the sensing network element to the second network element may be used to trigger the second network element to execute the positioning process…the second network element may be an LMF network element.”)
a location of the sensing area; and a number of candidate cells associated with the sensing area; - in ¶ [0218], (“the positioning request message includes the location information of the first area and/or information about the sensing area corresponding to the first sensing data”) and
receive, from the LMF, the cell-related information, - in ¶ [0221], (“The second network element may…send location information of the terminal devices to the sensing network element.”) wherein the cell-related information includes: - in ¶ [0194], (“it is assumed that the location information of the first area is represented by a cell identity (cell identity)…)
a cell identity (ID) of each cell of the number of candidate cells; and a distance between each cell of the number of candidate cells and the location of the sensing area. - in ¶ [0194], (“it is assumed that the location information of the first area is represented by a cell identity (cell identity)…it is assumed that a cell corresponding to the first area is a cell #1, and the cell #1 belongs to a tracking area #1…a terminal device #1, a terminal device #2, and a terminal device #3 are located in the tracking area #1.”)
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified LI and Chong with ZHU to include request message to request the cell-related information, as taught by ZHU. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification to improve sensing accuracy, as suggested by ZHU, determine whether the first terminal device is located in the first area, to improve determining accuracy. - ¶ [0012]
Combination of Li, Chong, and ZHU does not explicitly teach:
wherein the at least one processor is further configured to cause the network entity to: transmit, to a location management function (LMF), a request message to request the cell-related information, wherein the request message includes: a location of the sensing area; and a number of candidate cells associated with the sensing area; and
receive, from the LMF, the cell-related information, wherein the cell-related information includes: a cell identity (ID) of each cell of the number of candidate cells; and a distance between each cell of the number of candidate cells and the location of the sensing area.
However, WU teaches:
wherein the at least one processor is further configured to cause the network entity to: transmit, to a location management function (LMF), a request message to request the cell-related information, wherein the request message includes:
a location of the sensing area; and a number of candidate cells associated with the sensing area; - in ¶ [0117], (“After the second network element receives the range information from a first network element”); ¶ [0099 - 0102], (“the range information includes at least one of…an area identified by latitude and longitude; or an area identified by a cell collection.”); ¶ [0106], (“The cell collection identification may indicate a cell collection. [0107] The cell collection may include one or more cells.”); ¶ [0043], (“The first network element may be…a sensing function (SF)…”) and
receive, from the LMF, the cell-related information, wherein the cell-related information includes: a cell identity (ID) of each cell of the number of candidate cells; and a distance between each cell of the number of candidate cells and the location of the sensing area. - See Fig, 4, ¶ [0067], (“The location information of the user of the sensing service may include: the longitude and latitude of the user of the sensing service, a cell where the user of the sensing service is located…or a cell collection where the user of the sensing service is located. The cell collection may include the cell where the user of the sensing service is located and neighbor cells of the cell where the user of the sensing service is located”)
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified LI, Chong, and ZHU with WU to include request message includes a number of candidate cells associated with the sensing area and receive a distance between each cell of the number of candidate cells and the location of the sensing area, as taught by WU. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification to improve sensing accuracy, as suggested by WU, effectively avoiding problems of poor sensing quality, such as poor accuracy of sensing results, a failure of sensing, caused by a too small execution range. - ¶ [0061]
Claim 7. Combination of Li, Chong, ZHU, and WU teaches The network entity of Claim 6, - refer to the indicated claim for reference(s).
Li teaches:
wherein the at least one processor is further configured to cause the network entity to: identify the at least one cell – in ¶ [0180], (“obtaining, by the computing node, first information, where the first information includes: positioning sensing demand information…and [0181] determining, by the computing node, the sensing node according to the first information.”) from the number of candidate cells – in ¶ [0182], (“there are often a large number of sensing nodes (for example, terminals, base stations, sensing devices, small cells, and the like) that can participate in positioning sensing services.”) based on the sensing area indication, – in ¶ [0180], (“obtaining, by the computing node, first information, where the first information includes: positioning sensing demand information…[0181] determining, by the computing node, the sensing node according to the first information.”) the QoS requirements, - in ¶ [0203], (“the positioning sensing demand information may include…¶ [0204] a sensing area…quality of service (QoS) information (may include…sensing resolution requirements…”) and the cell-related information. – in ¶ [0180], (“obtaining, by the computing node, first information, where the first information includes: positioning sensing demand information…and [0181] determining, by the computing node, the sensing node according to the first information”)
Claims 10, 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over LI et al. (US 20240353523, hereinafter, “LI”) in view of Chong et al. (US 20240236935, hereinafter, “Chong”), and further in view of ZHU et al. (US 20240259765, hereinafter, “ZHU”).
Claim 10. Combination of Li and Chong teaches The network entity of Claim 1, - refer to the indicated claim for reference(s).
LI does not explicitly teach:
wherein the at least one processor is further configured to cause the network entity to: analyze the sensing data to generate a sensing result, and transmit the sensing result to an application function (AF).
However, Chong teaches:
wherein the at least one processor is further configured to cause the network entity to: analyze the sensing data to generate a sensing result, - in ¶ [0128], (“Step 7: The SCF network element calculates sensing data according to the sensing data report and obtains a sensing result.”) and transmit the sensing result to an application function (AF). – See Fig. 2, ¶ [0129], (“Step 8: The SCF network element transmits the sensing data report or a sensing result report to the AF.”)
Combination of Li and Chong does not explicitly teach:
receive sensing data from at least one base station (BS) in the at least one cell via a user plane function (UPF) or a network data analytics function (NWDAF),
However, ZHU teaches:
receive sensing data from at least one base station (BS) in the at least one cell via a user plane function (UPF) or a network data analytics function (NWDAF), - in ¶ [0204], (“the first access network device may send the first sensing data to the sensing network element by using a UPF network element.”); ¶ [0094], (“The access network device may also be understood as a base station”)
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified LI and Chong with ZHU to include receive sensing data from a base station in the cell via a UPF, as taught by ZHU. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification to improve sensing accuracy, as suggested by ZHU, determine whether the first terminal device is located in the first area, to improve determining accuracy. - ¶ [0012]
Claim 19 is rejected under the same rationale as Claim 10 since they recite nearly identical limitations.
Conclusion
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/SHIMA WASEL/Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2475
/KHALED M KASSIM/supervisory patent examiner, Art Unit 2475
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