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.
Claim(s) 1-4, and 23-26 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Jan et al. (CN 117178605 A) in view of Mazher et al. (WO2024173057A1).
Regarding claim 1, Jan et al. teach A user equipment (UE) (Jan [0009] a user equipment (UE)), comprising:
one or more memories (Jan [0009] a user equipment (UE) includes: a memory);
one or more transceivers (Jan [0009] a user equipment (UE) includes: a memory , a transceiver); and
one or more processors communicatively coupled to the one or more memories and the one or more transceivers (Jan [0009] a processor coupled to the memory and the transceiver.), the one or more processors, either alone or in combination, configured to:
obtain one or more positioning measurements of a first tracking reference signal (TRS) transmitted in a first TRS occasion (Jan [0009] have one or more Tracking Reference Signal (TRS)/Channel State Information Reference Signal (CSI-RS) configuration parameters configured by the base station before the next paging opportunity (PO)),), wherein the first TRS occasion is a TRS occasion of a first TRS configuration (Jan [0051] Figure 8 shows an example of a TRS/CSI-RS with a shorter period)) or a second TRS configuration (Ian [0051] Figure 9 shows an example of a TRS/CSI-RS with a longer period), wherein the first TRS occasion is greater than a minimum limit and less than a maximum limit before a next paging occasion (PO) (Jan [0051] one TRS/CSI-RS resource in the paging cycle between the first PO and the next PO) .
Jan et al. do not teach
perform an over-the-top (OTT) positioning operation, an OTT crowdsourcing operation, or any combination thereof, based on the first TRS occasion.
In a similar endeavor, Mazher et al. teach
perform an over-the-top (OTT) positioning operation ([0032] Various aspects relate generally to over-the-top (OTT) positioning. Some aspects more specifically relate to obtaining and reporting positioning measurements of OTT cellular signals (e.g., tracking reference signals (TRS)) using multiple hypotheses), an OTT crowdsourcing operation, or any combination thereof, based on the first TRS occasion.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the examined application to have modified Jan et al. by incorporating Mezher et al. OTT to arrive at the invention.
The motivation of doing so would have utilized the TRS measurements for determining the UE position.
Regarding claim 2, the combination of Jan et al. and Mezher et al. teaches The UE of claim 1, wherein the first TRS configuration is a TRS radio resource control (TRSRRC) configuration when the UE is in a connected mode (Jan [0094] the TRS/CSI-RS resources configured for a connected mode UE).
Regarding claim 3, the combination of Jan et al. and Mezher et al. teaches The UE of claim 1, wherein the second TRS configuration is a TRS system information block (TRSSIB) configuration when the UE is in an idle mode (Jan [0038] System Information Block (SIB) signaling would provide TRS/CSI-RS timing configuration for idle/inactive UEs).
Regarding claim 4, the combination of Jan et al. and Mezher et al. teaches The UE of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors, either alone or in combination, are further configured to:
select the first TRS occasion from a plurality of TRS occasions based at least in part on which one of the plurality of TRS occasions is a closest TRS occasion to the next PO (Jan [0058] selecting the TRS/CSI-RS closest to the next PO).
Claims 9-11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Jan et al. (CN 117178605 A) in view of Mazher et al. (WO 2024173057A1). and in further view of Huang et al. (US 20230231687 A1).
Regarding claim 9, the combination of Jan et al. and Mezher et al. teaches The UE of claim 1, but does not teach
wherein the one or more processors, either alone or in combination, are further configured to:
obtain a plurality of TRS frequency domain (FD) buffer samples based on the one or more positioning measurements.
In a similar endeavor, Huang et al. teach
obtain a plurality of TRS frequency domain (FD) buffer samples based on the one or more positioning measurements (Huang [0006] an association relationship between PRSs on at least two frequencies. The terminal device measures the PRSs having the association relationship, Huang [0027] combine a plurality of measurement results after obtaining the plurality of measurement results corresponding to the plurality of PRSs, to obtain a frequency diversity gain and improve positioning precision, Huang [0166] a PRS 11 on a frequency 1, a PRS 31 on a frequency 2, and a PRS 51 on a frequency 3 have an association relationship, Huang [0188] the PRS 11, the PRS 31, and the PRS 51 have an association relationship. ... the terminal device measures the PRSs having the association relationship),
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the examined application to have modified the combination of Jan et al. and Mezher et al. al. by incorporating Huang et al. positioning measurements at different frequencies to arrive at the invention
The motivation of doing so would have improved the positioning precision.
Regarding claim 10, the combination of Jan et al., Mezher et al., and Huang et al. teaches The UE of claim 9, wherein the plurality of TRS FD buffer samples are used as crowdsourcing information to estimate a position of a base station relative to the UE (Huang [0003] the positioning management device determines positioning information of the terminal device based on the measurement result, Huang [0027] combine a plurality of measurement results after obtaining the plurality of measurement results corresponding to the plurality of PRSs, to obtain a frequency diversity gain and improve positioning precision).
The motivation of doing so would have improved the positioning precision.
Regarding claim 11, the combination of Jan et al. and Mezher et al. teaches The UE of claim 10, wherein the one or more processors, either alone or in combination, are further configured to:
determine a position of the UE based on the position of the base station relative to the UE and base station antenna (BSA) information of the base station (Mezher [0051] With transmit beamforming, the network node determines where a given target device (e.g., a UE) is located (relative to the transmitting network node, Mezher [0111] A location estimate may further be defined relative to some other known location).
The motivation of doing so would have utilized the relative position information to the base station with similar information for other base station to determine the absolute position
Regarding claim 23, Jan et al. teach A method of positioning performed at a user equipment (UE), comprising:
obtain one or more positioning measurements of a first tracking reference signal (TRS) transmitted in a first TRS occasion (Jan [0009] have one or more Tracking Reference Signal (TRS)/Channel State Information Reference Signal (CSI-RS) configuration parameters configured by the base station before the next paging opportunity (PO)),), wherein the first TRS occasion is a TRS occasion of a first TRS configuration (Jan [0051] Figure 8 shows an example of a TRS/CSI-RS with a shorter period)) or a second TRS configuration (Ian [0051] Figure 9 shows an example of a TRS/CSI-RS with a longer period according ), wherein the first TRS occasion is greater than a minimum limit and less than a maximum limit before a next paging occasion (PO) (Jan [0051] one TRS/CSI-RS resource in the paging cycle between the first PO and the next PO) .
Jan et al. do not teach
perform an over-the-top (OTT) positioning operation, an OTT crowdsourcing operation, or any combination thereof, based on the first TRS occasion.
In a similar endeavor, Mazher et al. teach
perform an over-the-top (OTT) positioning operation ([0032] Various aspects relate generally to over-the-top (OTT) positioning. Some aspects more specifically relate to obtaining and reporting positioning measurements of OTT cellular signals (e.g., tracking reference signals (TRS)) using multiple hypotheses), an OTT crowdsourcing operation, or any combination thereof, based on the first TRS occasion.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the examined application to have modified Jan et al. by incorporating Mezher et al. OTT to arrive at the invention.
The motivation of doing so would have utilized the TRS measurements for determining the UE position.
Regarding claim 24, the combination of Jan et al. and Mezher et al. teaches The method of claim 23, wherein the first TRS configuration is a TRS radio resource control (TRSRRC) configuration when the UE is in a connected mode (Jan [0094] the TRS/CSI-RS resources configured for a connected mode UE)..
Regarding claim 25, the combination of Jan et al. and Mezher et al. teaches The method of claim 23, wherein the second TRS configuration is a TRS system information block (TRSSIB) configuration when the UE is in an idle mode (Jan [0038] System Information Block (SIB) signaling would provide TRS/CSI-RS timing configuration for idle/inactive UEs).
Regarding claim 26, the combination of Jan et al. and Mezher et al. teaches The method of claim 23, further comprising:
selecting the first TRS occasion from a plurality of TRS occasions based at least in part on which one of the plurality of TRS occasions is a closest TRS occasion to the next PO (Jan [0058] selecting the TRS/CSI-RS closest to the next PO).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 5-8 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: .
Regarding claim 5, the combination of Jan et al. and Mezher et al. teaches The UE of claim 4, but does not teach
wherein the one or more processors configured to select the first TRS occasion for performing the OTT positioning operation comprise the one or more processors, either alone or in combination, configured to:
determine whether a selection of the closest TRS occasion causes dithering of a position fix for a long discontinuous reception (DRX) cycle; and
select another TRS occasion as the first TRS occasion for obtaining the one or more positioning measurements based on a determination that the selection of the closest TRS occasion causes dithering of the position fix for the long DRX cycle.
Regarding claim 6, the combination of Jan et al. and Mezher et al. does not teach The UE of claim 5, wherein the one or more processors configured to select the first TRS occasion for obtaining the one or more positioning measurements comprise the one or more processors, either alone or in combination, configured to:
select the closest TRS occasion as the first TRS occasion for obtaining the one or more positioning measurements based on a determination that the selection of the closest TRS occasion does not cause dithering of the position fix for the long DRX cycle.
Regarding claim 7, the combination of Jan et al. and Mezher et al. does not teach The UE of claim 5, wherein the one or more processors configured to select the first TRS occasion for obtaining the one or more positioning measurements comprise the one or more processors, either alone or in combination, configured to:
determine whether a capture window of the closest TRS occasion is less than the minimum limit or greater than the maximum limit; and
select another TRS occasion as the first TRS occasion based on a determination that the capture window of the closest TRS occasion is less than the minimum limit or greater than the maximum limit.
Regarding claim 8, the combination of Jan et al. and Mezher et al. does not teach The UE of claim 7, wherein the one or more processors configured to select the first TRS occasion comprise the one or more processors, either alone or in combination, configured to:
select the closest TRS occasion as the first TRS occasion based on a determination that the capture window of the closest TRS occasion is less than the minimum limit or greater than the maximum limit.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SAID M ELNOUBI whose telephone number is (571)272-9732. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 9:30AM to 6:00PM ET.
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/SAID M ELNOUBI/ Examiner, Art Unit 2644
