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 .
Election/Restrictions
Claim 21-28 are withdrawn from further consideration pursuant to 37 CFR 1.142(b) as being drawn to a nonelected invention, there being no allowable generic or linking claim. Election was made without traverse in the reply filed on 7/23/2026.
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) 1-4, 6, 13-20, 29 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Modarres Razavi et al. Pub. No. US 20170150436 A1 in view of Haustein et al. Pub. No, US 20230247504 A1
Regarding Claim 1, Modarres Razavi teaches a method of operating a user equipment (UE) (Para 19, a method performed by a wireless communications device for positioning of the wireless communications device in a wireless communications network), comprising:
receiving assistance data for positioning (Para 64, The location server may assist the UE with information related to how to select the cells in order to obtain better positioning accuracy by OTDOA i.e., receiving assistance data for positioning. In other words, the location server may indicate to the UE the mechanism to select the reference cell, e.g. based on the observed conditions at the UE at the time of RSTD computations) that includes indications (Para 66, information relating to the cell selection process for positioning may also be referred to as a cell selection information, a cell selection policy, a cell selection strategy, a cell selection strategy policy or a Selection Strategy Information (SSI) i.e., indication) of at least a first candidate of wireless nodes for positioning of the UE and a second candidate of wireless nodes for positioning of the UE (Fig. 3 and Para 66, SSI for the neighbor cells is an indication that the UE shall select a certain number of neighbor cells with the TOA above or below certain threshold i.e., a first candidate of wireless nodes for positioning of the UE and a second candidate of wireless nodes for positioning of the UE) , the first candidate of wireless nodes for positioning of the UE associated with a first area identifier (ID) and the second candidate of wireless nodes for positioning of the UE associated with a second area ID (Para 89 and also see Para 119, The selection strategy can indicate to the wireless communications device 360 to select neighbor cells 320, 330, 340 based on its current serving cell 320, 330, 340. The information related to the cell selection process can indicate to the wireless communications device 360 to select the cell 320, 330, 340 based on a signal strength condition. This enables the wireless communications device 360 to consider the muting pattern and the physical cell identity (PCI) information of the cells as an indication of hearability of certain cells, and hence the SSI can indicate that the wireless communications device 360 shall select the reference cell based on a cell with a hearability condition better than some threshold i.e., the first candidate group of wireless nodes for positioning of the UE associated with a first area identifier (ID) and the second candidate of wireless nodes for positioning of the UE associated with a second area ID)
establishing a connection with a wireless node associated with the first area ID and the second area ID (Para 82 and 83 and Fig. 4 Step 404 and 405, The wireless communications device 360 obtains information related to a cell selection process for selecting a cell 320, 330, 340 to be used for computing a position of the wireless communications device 360 and then the wireless communications device 360 measures a measure of a signal associated with the cell 320, 330, 340 to be selected i.e., establishing a connection with a wireless node associated with the first area ID and the second area ID);
selecting at least one of the first area ID and the second area ID based on one or more selection parameters (Para 84 and Fig. 4 Step 406, The wireless communications device 360 selects the cell 320, 330, 340 to be used for computing the position of the wireless communications device 360 based on the information related to the cell selection process i.e., selecting at least one of the first area ID and the second area ID based on one or more selection parameters); and
performing a position estimation procedure associated with reference signals for positioning (RS-Ps) with two or more wireless nodes associated with the selected at least one area ID (Para 85 and fig. 4 Step 407, The wireless communications device 360 computes a difference of the measures based on the selected cell 320, 330, 340 i.e., performing a position estimation procedure associated with reference signals for positioning (RS-Ps) with two or more wireless nodes associated with the selected at least one area ID).
Modarres Razavi teaches SSI for the neighbor cells is an indication that the UE shall select a certain number of neighbor cells with the TOA above or below certain threshold which can be read as a first candidate group of wireless nodes for positioning of the UE and a second candidate group of wireless nodes for positioning of the UE but its not specifically define group of access node.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Haustein disclose that configuration instructions may indicate a designated access node and/or a group of access nodes of the wireless communication network 800 to which the network node is requested to connect. The network node 80 may be configured for connecting to the designated access node or at least one of the group of access nodes when performing the action i.e., a first candidate group of wireless nodes for positioning of the UE and a second candidate group of wireless nodes for positioning of the UE but its not specifically define group of access node (Para 135).
Therefore, it would have been obvious for one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the method of Modarres Razavi with the method of Haustein so that the given UE can select a different gNB which still has functioning backhaul connection thus service running on the UE could suffer less from delays and jitters or even packet loss or reconnection delays (See Haustein Para 61).
Regarding Claim 2, Modarres Razavi teaches wherein the selected at least one area ID comprises only one of the first area ID and the second area ID (Para 90).
Regarding Claim 3, Modarres Razavi teaches wherein the selected at least one area ID comprises both the first area ID and the second area ID (Para 90).
Regarding Claim 4, Modarres Razavi teaches wherein the position estimation procedure comprises measurement windows, the measurement windows comprising a first set of measurement windows associated with the first area ID and a second set of measurement windows associated with the second area ID (Para 86).
Regarding Claim 6, Modarres Razavi teaches wherein the one or more selection parameters comprise: a group size configuration parameter, or a positioning reference set (PRS) resource configuration parameter, or a group size detection parameter, or a PRS detection parameter, or a handover parameter, or a historical measurement parameter, or a signal quality parameter, any combination thereof (Para 91).
Regarding Claim 13, Modarres Razavi teaches wherein, during a handoff between a source wireless node and a target wireless node associated with another area ID, the UE: measures the two or more wireless nodes associated with the selected at least one area ID and two or more wireless nodes associated with the another area ID, or switches from the selected at least one area ID to a common area ID that is associated with both the source wireless node and the target wireless node, or any combination thereof.
Regarding Claim 14, Modarres Razavi teaches wherein the selecting is based on historical radio resource management (RRM) measurements or historical PRS measurements.
Regarding Claim 15, Modarres Razavi teaches wherein the one or more selection parameters comprise the signal quality parameter (Para 64).
Regarding Claim 16, Modarres Razavi teaches further comprising: transmitting a request to be associated with the selected at least one area ID, wherein the positioning estimation procedure is configured based at least in part upon the request (Para 86).
Regarding Claim 1, Modarres Razavi teaches wherein the request indicates multiple area IDs with different priorities (Para 89).
Regarding Claim 18, Modarres Razavi teaches further comprising: transmitting a report comprising measurement information associated with the position estimation procedure; and receiving, in response to the report, a request to switch to one or more different area IDs for a remainder of the position estimation procedure or to alternate between two or more area IDs (Para 93 and 127).
Regarding Claim 19, Modarres Razavi teaches further comprising: receiving an indication of an association between the first candidate group of wireless nodes configured for the first area ID and the second candidate group of wireless nodes configured for the second area, or receiving priority information associated with the first area ID and the second area ID, or a combination thereof (Para 96).
Regarding Claim 20, Modarres Razavi teaches wherein the wireless node corresponds to a serving network component of the UE and the RS-Ps comprise downlink positioning reference signal (PRS), uplink PRS, or both, or wherein the wireless node corresponds to a sidelink UE and the RS-Ps comprise sidelink PRS (Para 102).
Regarding Claim 29, it has been rejected for the same reasons as claim 1 and further teaches a user equipment (UE) (Fig. 10 Unit 360), comprising: a memory (fig. 10 Unit 1090); at least one transceiver (UE inherently should have transceiver); and at least one processor communicatively coupled to the memory and the at least one transceiver (Fig. 10 and Para 218).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 5 in combination of 7, 8 or 9 or 11, 12 are 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.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: The prior art reference fail to teach the limitation of “wherein respective candidate groups of wireless nodes for positioning of the UE associated with at least the first area ID and the second area ID are measured alternately in accordance with a round robin protocol across the measurement windows; and wherein the selecting selects a respective area ID configured with a larger candidate group of wireless nodes; or wherein the selecting selects a respective area ID configured with a higher number of configured PRS resources or configured PRS resource sets; or wherein the selecting selects a respective area ID associated with a higher number of detected wireless nodes; or wherein the selecting selects a respective area ID associated with a higher number of detected PRS resources or detected PRS resource sets. These limitation in combination of other elements are neither found nor disclosed in prior art as a whole.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
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Ishii Pub. No. US 20180063815 A1 - WIRELESS TELECOMMUNICATIONS METHODS AND APPARATUS USING SYSTEM INFORMATION VALUE TAG
EP 2797347 A1 - POSITIONING METHOD, POSITIONING SERVER, TERMINAL, AND BASE STATION
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NIZAR N. SIVJI
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2647
/NIZAR N SIVJI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2647
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