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 § 112
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of 35 U.S.C. 112(a):
(a) IN GENERAL.—The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor or joint inventor of carrying out the invention.
The following is a quotation of the first paragraph of pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112:
The specification shall contain a written description of the invention, and of the manner and process of making and using it, in such full, clear, concise, and exact terms as to enable any person skilled in the art to which it pertains, or with which it is most nearly connected, to make and use the same, and shall set forth the best mode contemplated by the inventor of carrying out his invention.
1. Claims 1, 19 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(a) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), first paragraph, as failing to comply with the written description requirement. The claim(s) contains subject matter which was not described in the specification in such a way as to reasonably convey to one skilled in the relevant art that the inventor or a joint inventor, or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the inventor(s), at the time the application was filed, had possession of the claimed invention.
Claims 1, 19 and 20 recite a terminal, a positioning reference signal (PRS) transmission method, comprising mapping … and the mapping information comprises at least one of the following: a relationship between an SL-PRS bandwidth and a PSSCH resource bandwidth; occupied symbol information of an SL-PRS in a PSSCH resource; or a time division multiplexing (TDM) mode for SL-PRS and PSSCH.
The Examiner notes applicants disclosure does not even mention the mapping information comprises at least one of the following: a relationship between an SL-PRS bandwidth and a PSSCH resource bandwidth; occupied symbol information of an SL-PRS in a PSSCH resource; or a time division multiplexing (TDM) mode for SL-PRS and PSSCH.
The Examiner notes applicants figure 2 and corresponding paragraphs as published at 0074-0078 recite the mapping information comprises at least one of the following: a relationship between an SL-PRS bandwidth and a PSSCH resource bandwidth; occupied symbol information of an SL-PRS in a PSSCH resource; AND a time division multiplexing (TDM) mode for SL-PRS and PSSCH.
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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
2. Claims 1-4, 12-14 and 19-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tang et al (2020/0359367) in view of Hoang et al (2024/0056997).
Regarding claims 1 and 20. Tang teaches a positioning reference signal (PRS) transmission method, comprising:
mapping, by a first terminal based on first mapping information, a sidelink SL-PRS to a physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH) resource for transmission (0045 – correspondence between the PSCCH and the positioning reference signal (PRS), 0047 – the time position and/or frequency position of performing the information transmission on the PSSCH indicates the relevant attribute of the positioning reference signal, 0051 – the positioning reference signal occupies a larger bandwidth than the PSSCH. OR the positioning reference signal occupies a full bandwidth of the PSSCH), wherein the first mapping information comprises at least one of the following:
a relationship between an SL-PRS bandwidth and a PSSCH resource bandwidth (0045 – correspondence between the PSCCH and the positioning reference signal (PRS), 0047 – the time position and/or frequency position of performing the information transmission on the PSSCH indicates the relevant attribute of the positioning reference signal, 0051 – the positioning reference signal occupies a larger bandwidth than the PSSCH. OR the positioning reference signal occupies a full bandwidth of the PSSCH); occupied symbol information of an SL-PRS in a PSSCH resource (0048 – there is a one-to-one correspondence between the time position of the positioning reference signal and the time position of performing the information transmission on the PSSCH), OR
Tang does not explicitly teach multiplexing.
Hoang teaches TDM multiplexing (0004, 0149) wherein the SL-PRS may be TDM multiplexed with PSCCH for positioning purposes (0180-0181). For example, the UE may use a first SL-PRS type (i.e., the SL-PRS using DMRS of PSSCH and/or PSCCH) if the positioning service requires low positioning accuracy. Alternatively, the UE may use the second SL-PRS type (i.e., SL-PRS using a new RS designed for positioning) if the positioning service requires high positioning accuracy. The SL-PRS may be transmitted within a PSSCH resource and its associated PSCCH may indicate the presence of the SL-PRS in the scheduled PSSCH (0184-0188).
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify Tang to use TDM multiplexing as taught by Hoang in order to provide different types of sidelink positioning. For example, use DMRS of PSSCH when the first and second UE are in coverage and use another SL-PRS type (e.g,. the second SL-PRS type) if one of the UEs is out of network coverage and/or use the first SL-PRS type (i.e., the SL-PRS using DMRS of PSSCH) if the positioning service requires low positioning accuracy.
Regarding claim 19. Tang teaches a positioning reference signal (PRS) transmission method, comprising: performing, by a second terminal, measurement on a sidelink SL-PRS based on first mapping information (abstract – by means of direct communication between a user device and another user device, mutual positioning between the user devices is achieved); wherein the first mapping information is used to indicate a mapping rule for mapping an SL-PRS to a PSSCH resource (0045 – correspondence between the PSCCH and the positioning reference signal (PRS), 0047 – the time position and/or frequency position of performing the information transmission on the PSSCH indicates the relevant attribute of the positioning reference signal, 0051 – the positioning reference signal occupies a larger bandwidth than the PSSCH. OR the positioning reference signal occupies a full bandwidth of the PSSCH), and the first mapping information comprises at least one of the following:
a relationship between an SL-PRS bandwidth and a PSSCH resource bandwidth (0045 – correspondence between the PSCCH and the positioning reference signal (PRS), 0047 – the time position and/or frequency position of performing the information transmission on the PSSCH indicates the relevant attribute of the positioning reference signal, 0051 – the positioning reference signal occupies a larger bandwidth than the PSSCH. OR the positioning reference signal occupies a full bandwidth of the PSSCH); occupied symbol information of an SL-PRS in a PSSCH resource (0048 – there is a one-to-one correspondence between the time position of the positioning reference signal and the time position of performing the information transmission on the PSSCH); OR
Tang does not explicitly teach multiplexing.
Hoang teaches TDM multiplexing (0004, 0149) wherein the SL-PRS may be TDM multiplexed with PSCCH for positioning purposes (0180-0181). For example, the UE may use a first SL-PRS type (i.e., the SL-PRS using DMRS of PSSCH and/or PSCCH) if the positioning service requires low positioning accuracy. Alternatively, the UE may use the second SL-PRS type (i.e., SL-PRS using a new RS designed for positioning) if the positioning service requires high positioning accuracy. The SL-PRS may be transmitted within a PSSCH resource and its associated PSCCH may indicate the presence of the SL-PRS in the scheduled PSSCH (0184-0188).
Hoang teaches performing measurement on the SL-PRS based on mapping (0165-0166, 0170, 0175, 0187).
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify Tang to use TDM multiplexing as taught by Hoang in order to provide different types of sidelink positioning. For example, use DMRS of PSSCH when the first and second UE are in coverage and use another SL-PRS type (e.g,. the second SL-PRS type) if one of the UEs is out of network coverage and/or use the first SL-PRS type (i.e., the SL-PRS using DMRS of PSSCH) if the positioning service requires low positioning accuracy.
Regarding claim 2. Tang teaches determining, by the first terminal based on a first mode, whether to transmit the SL-PRS on the PSSCH resource; wherein the first mode comprises at least one of the following: an indication of scheduling indication information for scheduling a PSSCH (0023 – scheduling assignment, 0047 – time position and/or frequency position, 0048 – one-to-one correspondence between the positioning reference signal and PSSCH, 0051 – bandwidth scheduling); or an indication of resource pool configuration information; wherein the resource pool configuration information is configured by a network, indicated by the network, configured by a terminal, indicated by the terminal, or indicated by a higher layer.
Hoang teaches resource pools (0002-0004, 0165, 0183, 0185, 0192-0197, 0200-0202).
Regarding claim 3. Tang teaches determining, by the first terminal, the first mapping information according to a first rule and/or first information; wherein the first information comprises at least one of the following: the number of PSCCH symbols; the number of PSSCH symbols; a starting symbol of the PSSCH;
a demodulation reference signal (DMRS) pattern (0056, 0058, 0085, 0104, 0106, 0125, 0127, see claim 10 and 11); an SL-PRS pattern; or a physical sidelink feedback channel (PSFCH) period; wherein the first rule is indicated by the scheduling indication information for scheduling a PSSCH or indicated by the resource pool configuration information, or the first rule is a predefined SL-PRS mapping rule.
Hoang teaches DMRS pattern (0004, 0180-0181, 0184, 0290, 0293, 0295, 0299).
Regarding claim 4. Tang teaches wherein the relationship between the SL-
PRS bandwidth and the PSSCH resource bandwidth comprises: the SL-PRS bandwidth is the same as the PSSCH resource bandwidth (0051 – the positioning reference signal occupies a larger bandwidth than the PSSCH. OR the positioning reference signal occupies a full bandwidth of the PSSCH).
Regarding claim 12. Tang does not teach wherein a configuration granularity of the resource pool configuration information comprises at least one of the following:
per resource pool; per channel busy ratio (CBR); or per channel occupancy ratio (CR).
Hoang teaches per resource pool (0193, 0229, 0293, 0329, 0232) or per channel busy ratio (CBR) (0165, 0235, 0242, 0255, 0269, 0276-0277, 0296) or per channel occupancy ratio (CR) (0165, 0235, 0242, 0255, 0269, 0276-0277, 0296).
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify Tang to use CBR or CR as taught by Hoag in order to enable the UE to send the SL-PRS transmission pattern and reporting configuration to the set of UEs (0165) OR the UE may use SL-PRS transmission-based method if all the UEs are within the coverage cell which reduces the amount of SL-PRS transmissions (0276) OR the UE may determine th positioning synchronization type based on a CBR of the resource pool and/or CR of the UE (0296).
Regarding claim 13. Tang does not teach but Hoang teaches wherein the first information comprises a SL-PRS pre-configuration information, the SL-PRS pre-configuration information comprises the SL-PRS pattern (0018 – UE uses SCI to indicate a SL-PRS pattern, 0198-0201 – UE uses SCI to indicate a SL PRS patter which helps one UE avoid SL-PRS transmission of another UE by performing sensing (e.g., decoding SCI).
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify Tang to use SCI to indicate the SL-PRS pattern as taught by Hoang to help one UE avoid SL-PRS transmission of another UE.
Regarding claim 14. Tang does not teach but Hoang teaches wherein the SL-PRS pattern comprises multiple patterns in the pre-configuration information, and a specific pattern adopted for transmitting the SL-PRS is determined according to the first rule or sidelink control information (SCI) scheduling information (0018 – UE uses SCI to indicate a SL-PRS pattern, 0198-0201 – UE uses SCI to indicate a SL PRS patter which helps one UE avoid SL-PRS transmission of another UE by performing sensing (e.g., decoding SCI).
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify Tang to use SCI to indicate the SL-PRS pattern as taught by Hoang to help one UE avoid SL-PRS transmission of another UE.
3. Claims 11 and 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tang in view of Hoang further in view of Zheng et al (2024/0179667).
Regarding claim 11. Tang in view of Hoang do not teach wherein the TDM mode for SL-PRS and PSSCH comprises: TDM at a symbol level.
Zheng teaches PSSCH carries the SL PRS and the SL PRS and PSSCH are multiplexed. Specifically, when the PSSCH DMRS and the SL PRS are multiplexed, positioning may be directly performed using the PSSCH DMRS or my using the PSSCH DMRS and the SL PRS (0133) thereby ensuring positioning accuracy (0105).
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify Tang in view of Hoang to multiplex the PSSCH DMRS and the SL PRS as taught by Zheng in order to provide for more accurate positioning in the sidelink.
Regarding claim 15. Tang in view of Hoang do not teach but Zheng teaches wherein "the relationship between the SL-PRS bandwidth and the PSSCH resource bandwidth" is combined with "the occupied symbol information of the SL-PRS in the PSSCH resource" to determine time-frequency allocation for the SL-PRS (abstract, 0020, 0133).
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify Tang in view of Hoang to multiplex (e.g, combine) the relationship between SL-PRS and PSSCH as taught by Zheng thereby facilitating transmission of the SL PRS in a case where no base station participates in scheduling and also facilitating positioning of the sidelink based on the SL PRS (Zheng at 0020).
4. Claims 17 and 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tang in view of Hoang further in view of Nam et al (2023/0091628).
Regarding claim 17. Tang in view of Hoang do not teach but Nam teaches wherein a symbol position of an actually transmitted PSSCH is different from a symbol position of the SL-PRS (0092, figure 3 wherein PSSCH is located before (e.g., different) from the SL-PRS burst) thus achieving higher resolution (0074).
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill before the effective filing date to modify Tang in view of Hoang to use different symbol locations for SL-PRS and PSSCH as taught by Nam thus achieving higher resolution (0074).
Regarding claim 18. Tang in view of Hoang do not teach but Nam teaches wherein an actually transmitted 2nd-stage SCI is located before the SL-PRS transmission (0092, figure 3 wherein SCI-2 (e.g,. 2ng-stage SCI) is located before the SL-PRS transmission thus achieving higher resolution (0074).
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill before the effective filing date to modify Tang in view of Hoang to use different symbol locations for SL-PRS and PSSCH as taught by Nam thus achieving higher resolution (0074).
Allowable Subject Matter
5. Claims 5-10 and 16 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. Prior art of record Tang in view of Hoang teach mapping, by a first terminal based on first mapping information, a sidelink SL-PRS to a physical sidelink shared channel (PSSCH) resource for transmission wherein the first mapping information comprises at least one of the following: a relationship between an SL-PRS bandwidth and a PSSCH resource bandwidth; occupied symbol information of an SL-PRS in a PSSCH resource, OR a time division multiplexing (TDM) mode for SL-PRS and PSSCH.
Tang in view of Hoang do not teach wherein the occupied symbol information of the SL-PRS in the PSSCH resource comprises at least one of the following: at least one of an occupied symbol position, the number of occupied symbols, and a starting occupied symbol of the SL-PRS in PSSCH resource; or an SL-PRS pattern, wherein the SL-PRS pattern is used to indicate at least two of the number of occupied symbols, an occupied symbol position, and a comb (comb) value of the SL-PRS.
Tang in view of Hoang do not teach wherein the determining, by the first
terminal, the first mapping information based on the first information comprises: determining the first mapping information based on the scheduling indication
information and pre-configured first information, wherein the first terminal determines the bandwidth and slot position of the SL-PRS according to sidelink control information (SCI), and determines the SL-PRS pattern or SL-PRS symbol information according to the pre-configured first information, so as to determine specific mapping from the SL-PRS to the PSSCH.
Conclusion
5. The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
---(2023/052126) Nam et al teaches where the symbol position of an actually transmitted PSSCH is different from a symbol position of the SL-PRS … wherein an actually transmitted 2nd-stage SCI is located before the SL-PRS transmission (0036-0037, figure 5 wherein SCI-2 is located before the SL-PRS) to produce more accurate positioning information and UEs may experience a greater likelihood for successful communication, greater system throughput, higher data rates (0038).
6. Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to BARRY W TAYLOR whose telephone number is (571)272-7509. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Thursday: 7-5.
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/BARRY W TAYLOR/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2646
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