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 § 102
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 the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Liu et al. (US 2020/0045750).
Regarding claims 1 and 9, Liu discloses a method and a terminal in a communication system, the terminal comprising: a transceiver, and a processor coupled to the transceiver, the method comprising:
determining whether a conflict condition is satisfied or whether a conflict occurs based on resources related to a first signal and resources related to a reference signal for positioning (paragraph 76, lines 1-4: “At 502, the UE 505 selects (e.g., controller/processor 359, etc.) one of a plurality of RS collision protocols based on one or more parameters, each of the plurality of RS collision protocols characterizing a manner by which the UE handles an overlap on at least one downlink resource of an RS of a first RS type scheduled in accordance with a first transmission schedule and an RS of a second RS type scheduled in accordance with a second transmission schedule”; claim 3: “the first RS type and/or the second RS type correspond to a Positioning Reference Signal (PRS)”)); and
communicating, based on a result of the determination, at least one of the first signal or the reference signal for positioning (paragraph 76, lines 10-13: “At 504, the UE 505 selectively monitors (e.g., antenna(s) 352, receiver(s) 354, and/or RX processor 356) the at least one overlapped downlink resource in accordance with the selected RS collision protocol. In an example, at 504, the UE 505 may monitor for the RSs of the first and second RS types on the same RAT (e.g., 5G, NR, etc.) or on different RATs (e.g., 5G and NR)”).
Regarding claims 2 and 10, Liu discloses that the resources related to the first signal comprise at least one of:
resources for communicating the first signal; configured resources for communicating the first signal; resources where the UE receives information that activates or schedules or triggers communication of the first signal; or resources where the UE determines a presence of the communication of the first signal, and wherein the resources related to the reference signal for positioning comprise at least one of the following: resources for the reference signal transmission for positioning; or configured resources for transmitting the reference signal for positioning (paragraph 76, lines 1-4: “At 502, the UE 505 selects (e.g., controller/processor 359, etc.) one of a plurality of RS collision protocols based on one or more parameters, each of the plurality of RS collision protocols characterizing a manner by which the UE handles an overlap on at least one downlink resource of an RS of a first RS type scheduled in accordance with a first transmission schedule and an RS of a second RS type scheduled in accordance with a second transmission schedule”).
Regarding claims 3 and 11, Liu discloses that the resources related to the first signal comprise at least one of the following: at least one of: a control resource set (CORESET), a search space of a cell-specific physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) or a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH); a valid random access occasion (RO); a valid physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) occasion (PO); or valid PUSCH resources in configured grant small data transmission (paragraph 96: “the base station transmits the NPRS with the shared in-band carrier frequency on the overlapped downlink resource, and the UE in turn monitors the NPRS with the shared in-band carrier frequency on the overlapped downlink resource.”).
Regarding claims 4 and 12, Liu discloses that the conflict condition comprises at least one of the following: a first condition including the resources related to the reference signal for positioning overlap with the resources related to the first signal, or a gap between the resources related to the reference signal for positioning and the resources related to the first signal satisfies a first predetermined relationship; a second condition including the gap between the resources related to the reference signal for positioning and the resources related to the first signal satisfies a second predetermined relationship; or a third condition including the resources related to the first signal is later than or not earlier than a position by offsetting a second threshold before the resources related to the reference signal for positioning (paragraph 76, lines 1-4: “At 502, the UE 505 selects (e.g., controller/processor 359, etc.) one of a plurality of RS collision protocols based on one or more parameters, each of the plurality of RS collision protocols characterizing a manner by which the UE handles an overlap on at least one downlink resource of an RS of a first RS type scheduled in accordance with a first transmission schedule and an RS of a second RS type scheduled in accordance with a second transmission schedule”).
Regarding claims 5 and 13, Liu discloses that the first predetermined relationship is that the gap between the resources related to the reference signal for positioning and the resources related to the first signal is less than a third threshold; and wherein the second predetermined relationship is that the gap between the resources related to the reference signal for positioning and the resources related to the first signal is not greater than a first threshold (claim 9: “puncturing both the RS of the first RS type and the RS of the second RS type from the first and second transmission schedules, respectively, on the at least one overlapped and muted downlink resource if the first RS collision protocol prioritizes the at least one muting pattern above the first transmission schedule of the first RS type, or puncturing the RS of the second RS type from the second transmission schedule on the at least one overlapped and muted downlink resource while measuring the RS of the first RS type on the at least one overlapped and muted downlink resource if the first RS collision protocol does not prioritize the at least one muting pattern above the first transmission schedule of the first RS type”).
Regarding claim 6, Liu discloses that communicating the at least one of the first signal or the reference signal for positioning comprises at least one of the following: communicating the first signal in case of determining that a conflict occurs or the conflict condition is satisfied; dropping or determining not to transmit the reference signal for positioning in case of determining that the first condition is satisfied or a conflict occurs according to at least one of the first condition, or the third condition is not satisfied or no conflict occurs according to the third condition; or transmitting the reference signal for positioning in case of determining that the second condition or the third condition is satisfied, or a conflict occurs according to the second condition or the third condition (claim 9: “puncturing both the RS of the first RS type and the RS of the second RS type from the first and second transmission schedules, respectively, on the at least one overlapped and muted downlink resource if the first RS collision protocol prioritizes the at least one muting pattern above the first transmission schedule of the first RS type, or puncturing the RS of the second RS type from the second transmission schedule on the at least one overlapped and muted downlink resource while measuring the RS of the first RS type on the at least one overlapped and muted downlink resource if the first RS collision protocol does not prioritize the at least one muting pattern above the first transmission schedule of the first RS type”)..
Regarding claim 7, Liu discloses that dropping or determining not to transmit the reference signal for positioning comprises: dropping or determining not to transmit the reference signal for positioning on the resources where the conflict occurs or on the resource where the conflict condition is satisfied (claim 10: “the selectively monitoring measures neither RS of the first RS type nor the RS of the second RS type on the at least one overlapped downlink resource in accordance with the second RS collision protocol, or wherein the selectively monitoring measures an RS from a neighbor base station on the at least one overlapped downlink resource while muting the measurements of the RS of the first RS type and the RS of the second RS type on the at least one overlapped downlink resource in accordance with either the first RS collision protocol or the second RS collision protocol.”).
Regarding claim 8, Liu discloses that the resources related to the first signal comprises at least one of the following: a starting position or an ending position of at least one of the time domain resources or frequency domain resources for communicating the first signal, or an starting position or an ending position of the at least one of time domain resources or frequency domain resources for communicating the first signal plus or minus at least one of a first time gap or a first frequency domain gap, and wherein the resources related to the reference signal for positioning comprises a starting position or an ending position of at least one of time domain resources or frequency domain resources for the reference signal for positioning, or a starting position or an ending position of the at least one of time domain resources or frequency domain resources for the reference signal for positioning plus or minus at least one of a second time gap or a second frequency domain gap (claim 10: “the selectively monitoring measures neither RS of the first RS type nor the RS of the second RS type on the at least one overlapped downlink resource in accordance with the second RS collision protocol, or wherein the selectively monitoring measures an RS from a neighbor base station on the at least one overlapped downlink resource while muting the measurements of the RS of the first RS type and the RS of the second RS type on the at least one overlapped downlink resource in accordance with either the first RS collision protocol or the second RS collision protocol.”).
Regarding claims 14 and 15, Liu discloses a method performed by a base station in a communication system, the base station comprising a transceiver and a processor coupled to the transceiver, the method comprising:
transmitting configuration information related to positioning (paragraph 76, lines 1-4: “At 502, the UE 505 selects (e.g., controller/processor 359, etc.) one of a plurality of RS collision protocols based on one or more parameters, each of the plurality of RS collision protocols characterizing a manner by which the UE handles an overlap on at least one downlink resource of an RS of a first RS type scheduled in accordance with a first transmission schedule and an RS of a second RS type scheduled in accordance with a second transmission schedule”; claim 3: “the first RS type and/or the second RS type correspond to a Positioning Reference Signal (PRS)”)); and
communicating at least one of a first signal or a reference signal for positioning associated with the configuration information in case that a conflict condition is satisfied or a conflict occurs, wherein the conflict condition or the conflict is related to resources related to the first signal and resources related to the reference signal for positioning (paragraph 76, lines 10-13: “At 504, the UE 505 selectively monitors (e.g., antenna(s) 352, receiver(s) 354, and/or RX processor 356) the at least one overlapped downlink resource in accordance with the selected RS collision protocol. In an example, at 504, the UE 505 may monitor for the RSs of the first and second RS types on the same RAT (e.g., 5G, NR, etc.) or on different RATs (e.g., 5G and NR)”).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Manolakos et al. (US 2021/0028900) discloses based at least in part on determining that a collision condition is satisfied, that a tracking reference signal is not transmitted in one or more PRBs for which the collision condition is satisfied.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SAM BHATTACHARYA whose telephone number is (571)272-7917. The examiner can normally be reached weekdays, 9-5:30.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Matthew D. Anderson can be reached at (571) 272-4177. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/SAM BHATTACHARYA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2646
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