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 .
Status of Claims
The following is a non-final, first action on the merits, in response to application filed September 03, 2024. The preliminary amended claims 1-3, 5, 8-10, 12-15, 21-23, 25-29 and 31, are currently pending. Claims 4, 6-7, 11, 16-20, 24, 30 and 32-33, have been canceled.
Priority
Certified copy of priority document CN 202210248152.8 dated March 14, 2022, is acknowledged which papers have been placed of record in the file.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statements (IDSs) submitted on 9/03/2024, is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
Claim(s) 1-3, 5, 8-10, 12-15, 21-22, 31, is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Manolakos et al (hereinafter Manolakos) (US 2021/0297206).
Regarding claim 1, 14, 31, Manolakos discloses an electronic apparatus (method) for wireless communications, comprising:
at least one processor (processing system 410 may include one or more microprocessors, fig. 4); and
at least one memory (memory 414 providing means for storing (including means for retrieving, means for maintaining, etc.) data and software instructions for executing programmed functionality, para. 0093) including computer program code, where the at least one memory and the computer program code are configured, with the at least one processor, to cause the electronic apparatus to:
generate a first signal, which is used to indicate whether a first communication device is within a coverage range of a base station (V-UEs 160 utilizing sidelink communications may be within the geographic coverage area 110 of a base station 102, the target UE can initiate a location request to each assisting UE over a sidelink established with the assisting UE, and the assisting UEs receive location requests and forward the same to a network, e.g., a serving base station, the network assigns to each of the assisting UEs a time/frequency resource for a ranging signal, e.g., a positioning reference signal (PRS) for positioning purposes (paras. 0058, 0115, 0116, 0118) and/or whether the first communication device has performed network side positioning; and
transmit the first signal to one or more second communication devices, wherein, the first signal is used by the second communication device for positioning calculation (the SPS receiver 406 requests information and operations as appropriate from the other systems, and performs the calculations necessary to determine the UE's 400 position using measurements obtained by any suitable SPS algorithm) (paras. 0090, 0092). Manolakos differs in showing that a first signal is used to indicate whether a first communication device is within a coverage range of a base station and/or whether the first communication device has performed network side positioning.
Manolakos however discloses one or more of a group of V-UEs 160 utilizing sidelink communications may be within the geographic coverage area 110 of a base station 102. Other V-UEs 160 in such a group may be outside the geographic coverage area 110 of a base station 102 or be otherwise unable to receive transmissions from a base station 102. Further yet the groups of V-UEs 160 (fig. 1) communicating via sidelink (162) communications may utilize a one-to-many (1:M) system in which each V-UE 160 transmits to every other V-UE 160 in the group. In some cases, a base station 102 facilitates the scheduling of resources for sidelink communications (para. 0058). Additionally, Manolakos presents techniques for sidelink-assisted positioning. In a first scenario for sidelink-assisted positioning, the assisting UEs (e.g., assisting UEs 1102 and 1106) may have cellular coverage (i.e., cellular connectivity to a base station), and the target UE (e.g., target UE 1104) may not have coverage (i.e., not have cellular connectivity to a base station). Alternatively, the target UE may have coverage, but it may be very poor, such that the UE still cannot receive transmissions from the base station. The two scenarios are described in paras. 0127, 0128. A person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have readily conceived given the condition to indicate whether a first communication device is within a coverage range of a base station and/or whether the first communication device has performed network side positioning implied by Manolakos expressed above.
Regarding claims 2, 15, Manolakos discloses in case of the first signal indicating that the first communication device is within the coverage range of the base station and/or the first communication device has performed network side positioning (see claim 1 analyzed above covering the limitation),
transmit first positioning information acquired by the first communication device based on the network side positioning in a subframe associated with the first signal (the SPS receiver (406) requests information and operations as appropriate from the other systems, and performs the calculations necessary to determine the UE's 400 position using measurements obtained by any suitable SPS algorithm) (paras. 0090, 0092). The time resources (e.g., symbols, slots, subframes, repetitions, etc.) assigned to SL-PRS transmissions may be derived based on a common/deterministic function. As a first option, the time domain resources for SL-PRS transmissions may be derived based on a deterministic function of the subchannel of the PSCCH or PSSCH associated with the location request (para. 0131).
Regarding claim 3, Manolakos discloses to transmit the first signal and/or the first positioning information via multicast or broadcast; and/or transmit the first positioning information through a physical sidelink shared channel (para. 0076).
Regarding claim 5, Manolakos discloses transmit the first signal through a first signaling which is a physical layer control signaling or a high- layer signaling, wherein the first signaling is one of a sidelink control indicator, a radio resource control signaling and MAC CE, wherein the first signal is a bit field in the first signaling, and the bit field comprises at least one bit (various sidelink physical channels can be transmitted on the resource elements of a slot of a radio frame. A sidelink physical channel corresponds to a set of resource elements carrying information originating from higher layers. The following sidelink physical channels are defined for NR sidelinks: a physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH), a physical sidelink broadcast channel (PSBCH), a physical sidelink control channel (PSCCH), and a physical sidelink feedback channel (PSFCH). These channels are described in 3GPP Technical Specification (TS) 38.211. Additionally or alternatively, a MAC control element (CE) (e.g., defined over sidelink 330) may be used to monitor the status of the unicast connection on sidelink 330 and maintain the connection) (paras. 0086, 0101, 0102),.
Regarding claims 8, 21, Manolakos discloses wherein the first signal is a synchronization signal or a channel reference signal, and the first signal indicates that the first communication device is within the coverage range of the base station and/or the first communication device has performed network side positioning in a case that the first signal meets one or more of: the first signal occupying specific time resources; the first signal occupying specific frequency resources; and the first signal adopting a specific sequence (a sidelink physical signal corresponds to a set of resource elements used by the physical layer. Sidelink physical signals are defined for NR sidelinks, such as, ……. channel state information reference signals (CSI-RS), phase-tracking reference signals (PT-RS), sidelink primary synchronization signals (S-PSS), and sidelink secondary synchronization signals (S-SSS), example locations of which are labeled “R” in fig. 5. These signals are described in 3GPP TS 38.211. In addition, a UE can transmit positioning reference signals (PRS), tracking reference signals (TRS), or the like for positioning purposes. Fig 7 shows three-phase protocol occurs periodically, such as every one second, …. identifiers (IDs) of the sequences to be transmitted by the antenna(s) in the second phase 720, and the time/frequency resources on which the sequences will be transmitted in the second phase 720 (paras. 0102, 0107).
Regarding claims 9, 22, Manolakos discloses transmit a first positioning reference signal for positioning measurement to the second communication device, wherein the second communication device generates a first positioning measurement result based on the first positioning reference signal (a UE can transmit positioning reference signals (PRS), tracking reference signals (TRS), or the like for positioning purposes. The receiver …. sending a ranging signal to the transmitter that includes the calculated ToA, the transmitter calculates the ToA of the response signal and uses both estimated ToAs to estimate the distance between the transmitter and receiver) (paras. 0102, 0105)
Regarding claims 10, 12, Manolakos discloses receive, from the second communication device, a second positioning reference signal for positioning measurement, and generate second positioning information based on the second positioning reference signal (during each phase, the transmitter may also receive signals from other V-UEs/RSUs that contain the same type of information as the transmitter transmitted. In that way, both transmitters and receivers can estimate the distances between itself and other V-UEs/RSUs) (para. 0109); and
transmit the second positioning information to the second communication device (the transmitter transmits the first, second, and third phase signals on the resources allocated by the base station 802. In the second mode 820 (labeled “Mode 2”), the involved UEs 804 and 806 autonomously select sidelink resources to use for transmission of the three-phase ranging signals. A V-UE can only use the first mode if it has cellular coverage, and can use the second mode regardless of whether or not it has cellular coverage. Note that although FIG. 8 illustrates two V-UEs, as will be appreciated, they need not be V-UEs, and may instead be any other type of UE capable of sidelink communication) (para. 0110).
Regarding claim 13, Manolakos discloses wherein the first communication device and the second communication device are user equipment in Vehicle to everything (example wireless communication system 600 in which a V-UE 604 is exchanging ranging signals with an RSU 610 and another V-UE 606, according to aspects of the disclosure. As illustrated in FIG. 6, a wideband (e.g., FR1) ranging signal (e.g., a Zadoff Chu sequence) is transmitted by both end points (e.g., V-UE 604 and RSU 610 and V-UE 604 and V-UE 606). Although fig. 6 illustrates two V-UEs, as will be appreciated, they need not be V-UEs, and may instead be any other type of UE capable of sidelink communication (paras. 0105, 0109).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 23, 25-29, objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including 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.
Foreign Reference(s):
EP 4358455 to Zheng et al, discloses "dedicated information used to indicate a transmission parameter and/or positioning information of the SL PRS;" "a MAC CE used to indicate a transmission parameter and/or positioning information of the SL PRS;" "second SCI used to indicate a transmission parameter and/or positioning information of the SL PRS;" "RRC signaling used to indicate a transmission parameter and/or positioning information of the SL PRS; and" Side link location reference signal transmission for wireless communication.
CN 119678598 A to PAN, YU et al, discloses "Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to side-uplink positioning for wireless communications."
"Side-uplink positioning reference signal transmission for wireless communications" " Sidelink positioning reference signal transmission for wireless communications "
"Receiving a periodic sidelink positioning reference signal SL-PRS by using a user equipment.”
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to QUTBUDDIN GHULAMALI whose telephone number is (571) 272-3014. The examiner can normally be reached 7:30am to 4:00pm.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Chieh Fan can be reached at 571 272 3042. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/QUTBUDDIN GHULAMALI/
Primary Examiner,
Art Unit 2632.
Prosecution Insights