Prosecution Insights
Last updated: October 02, 2026
Application No. 18/875,329

RESOURCE ALLOCATION FOR SENSING SERVICES

Non-Final OA §103
Filed
Dec 16, 2024
Priority
Sep 01, 2022 — GR 20220100719 +1 more
Examiner
WU, JIANYE
Art Unit
Tech Center
Assignee
Qualcomm Incorporated
OA Round
1 (Non-Final)
82%
Grant Probability
Favorable
1-2
OA Rounds
1y 2m
Est. Remaining
97%
With Interview

Examiner Intelligence

Grants 82% — above average
82%
Career Allowance Rate
713 granted / 870 resolved
+22.0% vs TC avg
Moderate +15% lift
Without
With
+14.7%
Interview Lift
resolved cases with interview
Typical timeline
2y 11m
Avg Prosecution
36 currently pending
Career history
914
Total Applications
across all art units

Statute-Specific Performance

§101
5.9%
-34.1% vs TC avg
§103
57.6%
+17.6% vs TC avg
§102
8.0%
-32.0% vs TC avg
§112
20.0%
-20.0% vs TC avg
Black line = Tech Center average estimate • Based on career data from 870 resolved cases

Office Action

§103
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 1-4, 6-19 and 21-30 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over D1 (US 20220256519 A1) in view of Zorgui (US 20220104111 A1). For claim 1, D1 discloses a UE for wireless communication (FIG. 3 shows a UE in view of “[0391] … The embodiment of the UE 116 illustrated in FIG. 3 is for illustration only, and the UEs 111-115 and 117-119 of FIG. 1 could have the same or similar configuration. However, UEs come in a wide variety of configurations, and FIG. 3 does not limit the scope of the present disclosure to any particular implementation of a UE.”), comprising: a memory; and one or more processors, coupled to the memory (FIG. 3 shows a memory 311, a processor 307 coupled to 311), configured to: transmit, to a network node, a first request associated with establishing a sensing service, the first request including information indicating one or more requested sensing session parameters associated with the sensing service (“[0009] … a user equipment includes a processor and a transceiver operatively coupled to the processor, the transceiver configured to indicate, to a base station, a request for allocation of radar sensing resources, … wherein the indication of the request for allocation of radar sensing resources is one of: an explicit sensing request for one or more of a sensing time, a sensing frequency allocation, or a sensing sequence length; …”; or [0439] “A request for sensing resources can correspond to various sensing resource settings. For example, the UE request can correspond to time domain resources for sensing, such as a time/slot pattern for sensing and communication …”); and receive, from the network node and based at least in part on the first request, the resource allocation indicating one or more resources for the sensing service (“[0009] … a user equipment includes a processor and a transceiver operatively coupled to the processor, the transceiver configured to indicate, to a base station, a request for allocation of radar sensing resources, … wherein the indication of the request for allocation of radar sensing resources is one of: an explicit sensing request for one or more of a sensing time, a sensing frequency allocation, or a sensing sequence length;”). D1 is silent but Zorgui, in the same field of endeavor of wireless communication, discloses a resource allocation for a virtual communication session (“[0007] … … receiving a first radio frequency (RF) sensing request, from a first entity, for scanning an environment to detect an at least a first object, initiating a first RF sensing session in the environment in response to the first RF sensing request, receiving a second RF sensing request, from a second entity, for scanning the environment to detect at least a second object during the first RF sensing session, wherein the first RF sensing session is ongoing, accommodating the second RF sensing request using output from the first ongoing RF sensing session, detecting the first and second objects in the environment during the first sensing session, transmitting information about the detected first object to the first entity and transmitting information about the detected second object to the second entity.”; note that a sensing session is a virtue communication session). OOSA would have motivated to apply the teaching of Zorqui above to the sensing session by D1 to yield a predictable result of allocating resources for the sensing service. Therefore, it would have been to OOSA before the effective filing date of the application to combine D1 and Zorqui for the benefit of allocating resources for the sensing service ([0009] of D1). For claim 12, D1 discloses a network node for wireless communication (FIG. 2 shows a BS in view of “[0052] FIG. 2 illustrates example components of BS 110a and UE 120a (e.g., in wireless communication network 100 of FIG. 1), which may be used to implement aspects of the present disclosure. comprising: a memory; and one or more processors, coupled to the memory (FIG. 2 shows a memory 290, a processor 288 coupled to 290), configured to: receive a first request associated with establishing a sensing service with a user equipment (UE) (“[0009] … a user equipment includes a processor and a transceiver operatively coupled to the processor, the transceiver configured to indicate, to a base station, a request for allocation of radar sensing resources, …), the first request including information indicating one or more requested sensing session parameters associated with the sensing service (“[0009] … wherein the indication of the request for allocation of radar sensing resources is one of: an explicit sensing request for one or more of a sensing time, a sensing frequency allocation, or a sensing sequence length; …”; or [0439] “A request for sensing resources can correspond to various sensing resource settings. For example, the UE request can correspond to time domain resources for sensing, such as a time/slot pattern for sensing and communication …”); and transmit, based at least in part on the first request, a resource allocation with the UE (FIGs. 9-13 and the associated text, such as “[0416] … In step 902, as one example, resources for radar sensing, i.e., the second set can be configured in such a way that those resources do not overlap with the first set configures in step 901.”), the resource allocation indicating one or more resources for the sensing service (FIGs. 9-13 and the associated text, such as “[0416] … The UE performs communication in the first set and radar sensing in the second set of time resources in step 903.”). D1 is silent but Zorgui, in the same field of endeavor of wireless communication, discloses a resource allocation for a virtual communication session (“[0007] … … receiving a first radio frequency (RF) sensing request, from a first entity, for scanning an environment to detect an at least a first object, initiating a first RF sensing session in the environment in response to the first RF sensing request, receiving a second RF sensing request, from a second entity, for scanning the environment to detect at least a second object during the first RF sensing session, wherein the first RF sensing session is ongoing, accommodating the second RF sensing request using output from the first ongoing RF sensing session, detecting the first and second objects in the environment during the first sensing session, transmitting information about the detected first object to the first entity and transmitting information about the detected second object to the second entity.”; note that a sensing session is a virtue communication session). OOSA would have motivated to apply the teaching of Zorqui above to the sensing session by D1 to yield a predictable result of allocating resources for the sensing service. Therefore, it would have been to OOSA before the effective filing date of the application to combine D1 and Zorqui for the benefit of allocating resources for the sensing service ([0009] of D1). Claim 24 is rejected because it is a claim of a method that is performed by the UE of claim 1 and has the same subject matter. Claim 29 is rejected because it is a claim of a method that is performed by the network node of claim 12 and has the same subject matter. As to claims 2 and 13, D1 in view of Zorqui discloses claims 1 and 12, D1 further discloses: wherein the one or more requested sensing session parameters include at least one of: a priority parameter (FIGs. 4-13 and the associated text, such as “[0009] … the UCI transmitted as a configured grant UCI (CG-UCI) on a configured grant PUSCH (CG-PUSCH), or a request field in a UCI corresponding to the sensing request …” and “[0295] If a PUSCH with a priority index 0 and SRS configured by SRS-Resource are transmitted in the same slot on a serving cell, the UE may only be configured to transmit SRS after the transmission of the PUSCH and the corresponding DM-RS.”), a sensing type parameter, a range parameter, a range resolution parameter, a velocity parameter, a velocity resolution parameter, an azimuth field of view parameter, an angular resolution parameter, a maximum number of detected targets, an update rate parameter a data rate parameter, ora latency parameter (FIGs. 4-13 and the associated text, such as “[0448] … The UE is configured with a set of possible radar sensing type categories in step 1202. … [0449] In step 1201, the radar sensing activity states can include active sensing, idle/inactive/stand-by sensing, and so on. In step 1202, the radar sensing type categories can include target/max sensing range, target/min sensing resolution for location/speed, sensing Tx power, and so on.”). As to claims 3 and 25, D1 in view of Zorqui discloses claims 1 and 24, D1 further discloses: wherein the one or more processors are further configured to: determine that the one or more resources are not sufficient for the sensing service (FIGs. 9-13 and the associated text, such as “[0429] In a second approach, overlapping time/frequency resources can be allocated for radar sensing and DL/UL/SL communication. For example, both time-domain and frequency-domain resources for radar sensing can be partially or fully overlapping with corresponding resources for communication”); and transmit, to the network node, a second request associated with establishing the sensing service; and receiving (claim 25 only), from the network node and based at least in part on the second request, an adjusted resource allocation for the virtual communication session, the adjusted resource allocation indicating one or more other resources for the sensing service (FIG. 11 and the associated text, such as “[0428] In one embodiment, the second frequency configuration of step 1102 can be made based on the first frequency configuration of step 1101. That is, the frequency resource for sensing can be indicated to the UE in terms of serving cell or BWP configuration made for communication in step 1101. …”), the second request including information indicating one or more adjusted sensing session parameters associated with the sensing service (FIG. 11 and the associated text, such as “[0428] In one embodiment, the second frequency configuration of step 1102 can be made based on the first frequency configuration of step 1101. That is, the frequency resource for sensing can be indicated to the UE in terms of serving cell or BWP configuration made for communication in step 1101. …”). As to claims 4 and 19, D1 in view of Zorqui discloses claims 3 and 18, D1 further discloses: wherein the one or more processors are further configured to: receive/transmit, from the network node/to UE and based at least in part on the second request, an adjusted resource allocation for the virtual communication session, the adjusted resource allocation indicating one or more other resources for the sensing service (FIGs. 9-13 and the associated text, such as “[0428] In one embodiment, the second frequency configuration of step 1102 can be made based on the first frequency configuration of step 1101. …”). As to claims 6 and 26, D1 in view of Zorqui discloses claims 1 and 24, D1 further discloses: wherein the one or more processors are further configured to: determine, based at least in part on the one or more resources, one or more granted sensing session parameters; and transmit one or more sensing signals using the one or more resources (FIGs. 9-13 and the associated text, such as FIG. 10 in view of “[0419] … The UE determines a subset of time resources within the TDD DL/UL time pattern (e.g., “reserved” resources) for radar sensing in step 1002. The UE performs radar sensing in the determined subset of time resources, and performs communication in the remainder of the time pattern (i.e., in the received time pattern except for the determined subset of time resources) in step 1003.”; note that performing UL communication suggests transmit sensing signal). As to claim 7, D1 in view of Zorqui discloses claim 6, D1 further discloses: wherein the one or more granted sensing session parameters match the one or more requested sensing session parameters (“[0009] … a request for allocation of radar sensing resources, … wherein the indication of the request for allocation of radar sensing resources is one of: an explicit sensing request for one or more of a sensing time, a sensing frequency allocation, or a sensing sequence length; … an uplink control information (UCI) having a type corresponding to a sensing request, the UCI transmitted on a dynamic physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH), the UCI transmitted as a configured grant UCI (CG-UCI) on a configured grant PUSCH (CG-PUSCH), or a request field in a UCI corresponding to the sensing request. …”). As to claim 8, D1 in view of Zorqui discloses claim 6, D1 further discloses: wherein the one or more granted sensing session parameters are different from the one or more requested sensing session parameters (“[0009] … a request for allocation of radar sensing resources, … wherein the indication of the request for allocation of radar sensing resources is one of: an explicit sensing request for one or more of a sensing time, a sensing frequency allocation, or a sensing sequence length; … an uplink control information (UCI) having a type corresponding to a sensing request, the UCI transmitted on a dynamic physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH), the UCI transmitted as a configured grant UCI (CG-UCI) on a configured grant PUSCH (CG-PUSCH), or a request field in a UCI corresponding to the sensing request. …” and “[0348] if srs-PowerControlAdjustmentStates indicates a same power control adjustment state for SRS transmissions and PUSCH transmissions, the update of the power control adjustment state for SRS transmission occasion i occurs at the beginning of each SRS resource in the SRS resource set q.sub.s; otherwise, the update of the power control adjustment state SRS transmission occasion i occurs at the beginning of the first transmitted SRS resource in the SRS resource set q.sub.s. …”). As to claims 9 and 27, D1 in view of Zorqui discloses claims 1 and 24, D1 further discloses: wherein the one or more processors are further configured to: determine the information indicating the one or more requested sensing session parameters based at least in part on information mapping at least one of the one or more requested sensing session parameters to one or more communication session parameters (FIGs. 9-13 and the associated text, such as FIG. 10 in view of “[0419] … The UE determines a subset of time resources within the TDD DL/UL time pattern (e.g., “reserved” resources) for radar sensing in step 1002. The UE performs radar sensing in the determined subset of time resources, and performs communication in the remainder of the time pattern (i.e., in the received time pattern except for the determined subset of time resources) in step 1003.”). As to claims 10 and 15, D1 in view of Zorqui discloses claims 9 and 14, D1 further discloses: wherein the information indicating the one or more requested sensing session parameters comprises at least one of: a bandwidth parameter, a sub-carrier spacing parameter, a guard band parameter, a coherent processing interval parameter, a burst duration parameter, a burst spacing parameter, an update interval parameter, a transmission start time parameter, a beam direction parameter, a beam width parameter, or a transmission power parameter (FIGs. 4-13 and the associated text, such as “[0209] … sensing operation can be integrated into the frame structure and bandwidth configuration. … [0248] … n TDD networks with the same UL/DL slot configuration, and in the absence of atmospheric ducting, a guard period is used to avoid the interference between UL and DL transmissions in different cells. … [0402] … Herein, numerology can refer to a sub-carrier spacing and/or cyclic prefix duration for OFDM signal generation. …”, [0407] … The radar transmission interference to the wireless communication signal reception can depend on the radar Tx power, the radar bandwidth, the radar Tx power spectral density, and the wireless communication system bandwidth that is interfered by the radar transmission….”). As to claims 11 and 21, D1 in view of Zorqui discloses claims 1 and 12, D1 further discloses: wherein the sensing service is a monostatic sensing service (“[0405] … FIG. 6 shows the high level architecture for the common monostatic radar, i.e., the transmitter and receiver are co-located (e.g., using a common antenna) or nearly co-located (using separate but adjacent antennas). Monostatic radars are generally assumed coherent, i.e., the transmitter and receiver are synchronized via a common time reference.”). As to claims 14 and 29, D1 in view of Zorqui discloses claims 12 and 28, D1 further discloses: wherein the one or more processors are further configured to: determine the resource allocation based at least in part on information mapping at least one of the one or more requested sensing session parameters to communication session parameters (“[0450] … In such a case, a value of such request field can be mapped to a corresponding set of radar sensing resources based on a predetermined/(pre-)configured linkage. For example, a value of such request field can trigger configuration or transmission/reception of one or multiple SRS/SL CSI-RS/SL SRS resource(s) or resource set(s).”). As to claims 16 and 30, D1 in view of Zorqui discloses claims 14 and 28, D1 further discloses: wherein the one or more processors, to determine the resource allocation, are configured to: determine the resource allocation further based at least in part on at least one of: available resources, or network policy information received from a core network entity (“[0006] … sense resources within a configured resource pool for availability before using the resources for radar sensing”, or “[0253] … The backhaul messages are sent from individual aggressor gNBs to individual victim gNB, where the signaling is transparent to the core network. …”). As to claim 17, D1 in view of Zorqui discloses claim 12, D1 further discloses: wherein the one or more processors are further configured to: determine the resource allocation based at least in part on at least one of the one or more requested sensing session parameters (“[0009] … wherein the indication of the request for allocation of radar sensing resources is one of: an explicit sensing request for one or more of a sensing time, a sensing frequency allocation, or a sensing sequence length; …”; or [0439] “A request for sensing resources can correspond to various sensing resource settings. For example, the UE request can correspond to time domain resources for sensing, such as a time/slot pattern for sensing and communication …”). As to claim 18, D1 in view of Zorqui discloses claim 12, D1 further discloses: wherein the one or more processors are further configured to: receive, from the UE, a second request associated with establishing the sensing service, the second request including information indicating one or more adjusted sensing session parameters associated with the sensing service (“[0009] … a request for allocation of radar sensing resources, … wherein the indication of the request for allocation of radar sensing resources is one of: an explicit sensing request for one or more of a sensing time, a sensing frequency allocation, or a sensing sequence length; … an uplink control information (UCI) having a type corresponding to a sensing request, the UCI transmitted on a dynamic physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH), the UCI transmitted as a configured grant UCI (CG-UCI) on a configured grant PUSCH (CG-PUSCH), or a request field in a UCI corresponding to the sensing request. …” and “[0348] if srs-PowerControlAdjustmentStates indicates a same power control adjustment state for SRS transmissions and PUSCH transmissions, the update of the power control adjustment state for SRS transmission occasion i occurs at the beginning of each SRS resource in the SRS resource set q.sub.s; otherwise, the update of the power control adjustment state SRS transmission occasion i occurs at the beginning of the first transmitted SRS resource in the SRS resource set q.sub.s. …”).. As to claim 22, D1 in view of Zorqui discloses claim 12, D1 further discloses: wherein the first request is received from the UE (FIGs. 9-13 and the associated text, such as FIG. 11 in view of “[0427] A UE receives a first frequency configuration for one or more serving cell(s) or BWP(s) for communication in step 1101. …”). As to claim 23, D1 in view of Zorqui discloses claim 12, D1 further discloses: wherein the first request is received from a core network entity (FIGs. 9-13 and the associated text, such as FIG. 11 in view of “[0427] A UE receives a first frequency configuration for one or more serving cell(s) or BWP(s) for communication in step 1101. …” and “[0253] … The backhaul messages are sent from individual aggressor gNBs to individual victim gNB, where the signaling is transparent to the core network. …”). Claims 5 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over D1 in view of (US 20220256519 A1), further in view of Zorgui (US 20220104111 A1), further in view of Shionoza (US 6038214 A). As to claims 5 and 20, D1 in view of Zorqui discloses claims 3 and 18, D1 further discloses: wherein the one or more processors are further configured to: determine (claim 20 only) that a time threshold has been satisfied by a period of time during which the UE has attempted to establish the sensing service, or that an attempt threshold has been satisfied by a number of attempts to establish the sensing service (claim 20 only); and D1 in view of Zorqui is silent but Shionoza, in the same field of endeavor of wireless communication, discloses receive/transmit, from the network node/to UE, information indicating rejection of the sensing service (c5/l53-c6/l4, “Conversely, when it has been determined that there is no communication session which would permit preemption of the resource therefrom, the process proceeds to Step S9 which sends rejection, i.e., non-acceptance of the demand, back to the demander. The process then returns to Step S1 so that the process as described is repeated starting from Step S1. The described Steps in the process may be executed sequentially on all the nodes involved in the communication session”). OOSA would have been motivated to apply the teaching of Shionoza above to the sensing sessions by D1 in view of Zorqui to yield a predictable result of establishing sensing service session. Therefore, it would have been obvious to OOSA before the effective filing date of the application to combine D1 in view of Zorqui with Shionoza for the benefit of establishing sensing service session ([0439] of D1). Conclusion Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JIANYE WU whose telephone number is (571)270-1665. The examiner can normally be reached M-TH 8am-6pm. 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, Yemane Mesfin can be reached at (571) 272-3927. 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. /JIANYE WU/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2462
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Prosecution Timeline

Dec 16, 2024
Application Filed
Sep 24, 2026
Non-Final Rejection mailed — §103 (current)

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Prosecution Projections

1-2
Expected OA Rounds
82%
Grant Probability
97%
With Interview (+14.7%)
2y 11m (~1y 2m remaining)
Median Time to Grant
Low
PTA Risk
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