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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on October 14, 2024 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Drawings
The drawings were received on October 14, 2024. These drawings are acceptable.
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) 1-2, 8-10, and 13-18, and is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yao et al. (hereinafter “Yao”, US 2025/0330857) in view of Ma et al. (hereinafter “Ma”, US 2023/0337161).
Regarding claims 1, and 17, Yao discloses a communication method, and a communication apparatus, comprising:
performing, by a terminal device, global navigation satellite system (GNSS) measurement to obtain a GNSS location of the terminal device, wherein the terminal device is in a connected state (i.e., performing a GNSS measurement based on the received second GNSS measurement parameter for acquiring a valid GNSS new position fix, wherein the UE remains in RRC_Connected mode as shown in step S24 of Fig. 2, and as described in paragraphs 0043-0044).
Yao, however, does not expressly disclose transmitting, by the terminal device, first information to a network device, wherein the first information is used to indicate that the GNSS location is valid.
In a similar endeavor, Ma discloses gradual frequency adjustment for dual loop frequency control in non-terrestrial network. Ma also discloses transmitting, by the terminal device, first information to a network device, wherein the first information is used to indicate that the GNSS location is valid (i.e., transmitting by the UE to the NTN node in MAC-CE, an RRC message within a time period prior to the GNSS location update (e.g., a number of milliseconds, subframes, or frames before the GNSS location update) as described in paragraphs 0064-0066, and 0094).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art to modify the teachings of the cited references, and arrive at the present invention.
The motivation/suggestion for doing so would have been to enable the network to have a better control and adjust the timing accordingly.
With further regard to claim 17, Ma also discloses communications apparatus UE 12 as shown in Fig. 2), comprising a memory (i.e., memory 282), a transceiver (i.e., transmit processor 264, and receive processor 258), and a processor (i.e., controller/processor 280), wherein the memory is configured to store a program (i.e., the memory 282 includes code and/or program code as described in paragraph 0054), the processor transmits data and receives data through the transceiver, and the processor is configured to invoke the program in the memory to cause the communications apparatus to execute the method of claim 1.
Regarding claims 2, 10, and 18, Yao and Ma disclose all limitations recited within claims as described above. Ma also discloses wherein the first information is carried in a radio resource control (RRC) message, a medium access control control element (MAC CE), or a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH), or the first information is indicated through a random access procedure (i.e., transmitting by the UE to the NTN node in MAC-CE, an RRC message within a time period prior to the GNSS location update (e.g., a number of milliseconds, subframes, or frames before the GNSS location update) as described in paragraph 0094).
Regarding claims 8 and 16, Yao and Ma disclose all limitations recited within claims as described above. Ma also discloses wherein the network device is a network device in a non-terrestrial network (NTN) (i.e., NTN node as shown in Fig. 4).
Regarding claim 9, Yao discloses a communications apparatus (i.e., network node 110), comprising a memory (i.e., memory 242), a transceiver (i.e., transmit processor 220 and receive processor 238), and a processor (i.e., controller/processor 240), wherein the memory is configured to store a program (i.e., the memory 242 includes code and/or program code as described in paragraph 0054), the processor transmits data and receives data through the transceiver, and the processor is configured to invoke the program in the memory to cause the communications apparatus to execute the method comprising:
the GNSS location is obtained by performing GNSS measurement when the terminal device is in a connected state (i.e., performing a GNSS measurement based on the received second GNSS measurement parameter for acquiring a valid GNSS new position fix, wherein the UE remains in RRC_Connected mode as shown in step S24 of Fig. 2, and as described in paragraphs 0043-0044).
Yao, however, does not expressly disclose receiving, by a network device, first information transmitted by a terminal device, wherein the first information is used to indicate that a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) location of the terminal device is valid.
In a similar endeavor, Ma discloses gradual frequency adjustment for dual loop frequency control in non-terrestrial network. Ma also discloses receiving, by a network device, first information transmitted by a terminal device, wherein the first information is used to indicate that a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) location of the terminal device is valid (i.e., transmitting by the UE to the NTN node in MAC-CE, an RRC message within a time period prior to the GNSS location update (e.g., a number of milliseconds, subframes, or frames before the GNSS location update) as described in paragraphs 0064-0066, and 0094).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art to modify the teachings of the cited references, and arrive at the present invention.
The motivation/suggestion for doing so would have been to enable the network to have a better control and adjust the timing accordingly.
Regarding claim 13, Yao and Ma disclose all limitations recited within claims as described above. Ma also discloses wherein the method further comprises: transmitting, by the network device, third information to the terminal device, wherein the third information is used for the terminal device to perform time domain resource compensation and/or frequency domain resource compensation (i.e., transmitting by the NTN node a message 730-1 indicating that closed-loop frequency and/or timing control is suspended or adjusted as shown in Fig. 7).
Regarding claim 14, Yao and Ma disclose all limitations recited within claims as described above. Ma also discloses wherein the transmitting, by the network device, third information to the terminal device comprises: transmitting, by the network device based on a reception status of uplink transmission performed by the terminal device, the third information to the terminal device (i.e., the message 730-1 is transmitted by the NTN node based on a reception of the message 710 as shown in Fig. 7).
Regarding claim 15, Yao and Ma disclose all limitations recited within claims as described above. Ma also discloses wherein the transmitting, by the network device based on a reception status of uplink transmission performed by the terminal device, the third information to the terminal device comprises: in a case that a time domain offset of the uplink transmission is greater than or equal to a first threshold and/or a frequency domain offset of the uplink transmission is greater than or equal to a second threshold, transmitting, by the network device, the third information to the terminal device (i.e., the NTN node adjust closed-loop timing advance commands that are transmitted to the UE to offset a change in the total timing advance applied by the UE and/or adjust closed-loop FPC commands that transmitted to the UE to offset a change in the total frequency pre-compensation applied by the UE as described in paragraphs 0075).
Claim(s) 3-7, 11-12, and 19-20 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yao in view of Ma and further in view of Khan et al. (hereinafter “Khan”, US 2026/0153630).
Regarding claims 3, 11, and 19, Yao and Ma disclose all limitations recited within claims as described above, but do not expressly disclose features of these claims.
In a similar endeavor, Khan discloses global navigation satellite system data validity in non-terrestrial networks. Khan also discloses wherein the method further comprises: transmitting, by the terminal device, second information to the network device, wherein the second information comprises validity time of the GNSS location (i.e., transmitting by the UE first information associated with a validity of the GNSS data and/or a time-to-first-fix as described in paragraphs 0068-0068, 0101, 0141).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art to modify the teachings of the cited references, and arrive at the present invention.
The motivation/suggestion for doing so would have been to improve the measurement reliability.
Regarding claims 4, 12, and 20, Yao, Ma, and Khan disclose all limitations recited within claims as described above. Khan also discloses wherein the second information is carried in a radio resource control (RRC) message (i.e., UE shares information about validity duration of GNSS as described in paragraphs 0140-0143).
Regarding claim 5, Yao and Ma disclose all limitations recited within claims as described above, but do not expressly disclose features of these claims.
In a similar endeavor, Khan discloses global navigation satellite system data validity in non-terrestrial networks. Khan also discloses wherein the terminal device maintains a timer, and the timer is used to determine remaining validity time of the GNSS location (i.e., the UE determines whether the GNSS data will remain valid during a connection and share the validity duration as described in paragraphs 0140-0142); and the method further comprises: restarting, by the terminal device, the timer in a case that third information transmitted by the network device is received, wherein the third information is used for the terminal device to perform time domain resource compensation and/or frequency domain resource compensation (i.e., reset or restart the validity timer when the GNSS data is reference and the validity timer is associated with at least one of UE position, time reference information and frequency reference information as described in paragraphs 0249-0252).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art to modify the teachings of the cited references, and arrive at the present invention.
The motivation/suggestion for doing so would have been to improve the measurement reliability.
Regarding claim 6, Yao, Ma, and Khan disclose all limitations recited within claims as described above. Khan also discloses wherein duration of the timer is determined by the terminal device or configured by the network device (i.e., UE shares information about validity duration of GNSS as described in paragraph 0141).
Regarding claim 7, Yao, Ma, and Khan disclose all limitations recited within claims as described above. Ma also discloses wherein the method further comprises: receiving, by the terminal device, the third information transmitted by the network device; and determining, by the terminal device based on the third information, a time domain resource and/or a frequency domain resource to be used for uplink transmission (i.e., transmitting by the NTN node a message 730-1 indicating that closed-loop frequency and/or timing control is suspended or adjusted as shown in Fig. 7).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to WAYNE CAI whose telephone number is (571)272-7798. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Thursday, 7:00 AM-5:00 PM.
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, KATHY WANG-HURST can be reached on (571)270-5371. 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.
/Wayne H Cai/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2644
Prosecution Insights