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 Objections
Claim 15 objected to because of the following informalities: “adapted to”. In claim 15, the Examiner has noted the use of the clauses “to be” and “adapted to” and “adaptable to.” Examples of such claim language raise a question as to the limiting effect of the language in a claim. The claim scope is not limited by claim language that suggests or makes optional but does not require steps to be performed, or by claim language that does not limit a claim to a particular structure. Notably, limitations recited after the phrases will be considered optional to the functionality of the claimed system. It is suggested to positively and concretely define the functionality of the claimed invention (language such as “the processor is configured to perform function A”). Appropriate correction is required.
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or non-obviousness.
Claims 1- 4, 6, 10, 15, 21 – 23, and 25 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kim (Korean Publication No. KR 20190120069 A using English machine translation) in view of Agiwal (Australian Publication No. AU 2014299437 A2) and in further view of Bangolae (U.S. Publication No. US 20220070876 A1).
Regarding claim 1,
Kim teaches obtaining information related to a positioning reference signal (PRS) configuration, (
"The objective of the present disclosure is to provide a specific method for flexibly setting wireless resources used for transmitting positioning reference signals for each cell when performing positioning in a next-generation wireless network." [Paragraph 6])
wherein the information related to the PRS configuration includes at least one of information related to an ID of a PRS resource, information related to an ID of a PRS sequence, information related to a starting slot of the PRS resource, or information related to a starting symbol of the PRS resource; (
"In the frequency domain, as shown in Fig. 12, a total of 6 cells, including 5 adjacent cells, can be orthogonally assigned in the frequency domain using a frequency reuse factor (6). In this case, the frequency domain position of the positioning reference signal (PRS) resource element (RE) basically uses the physical cell ID (PCI) as the offset value." [Paragraph 11])
Kim does not explicitly disclose transmitting a direct communication request (DCR) message including information related to a service related to sidelink (SL) positioning; and receiving a direct communication accept (DCA) message related to the DCR message.
In a similar field of endeavor, Agiwal teaches transmitting a direct communication request (DCR) message (
Fig 34, and
"Referring to FIG. 34, UE A initiates direct communication establishment with UE B and transmits a direct communication request message including its UE ID to UE B in operation 3401." [Page 46, lines 36 - 38])
Agiwal also teaches receiving a direct communication accept (DCA) message related to the DCR message. (
Fig. 34, and "If UE B accepts the direct communication request from UE A, UE B transmits a direct communication response message including its UE ID to UE A, in operation 3403" [Page 47, lines 4 - 6],
i.e. "direct communication response message" can be viewed as analogous to "DCA".)
Therefore, as Kim teaches a device obtaining a PRS with contents including relevant information, and Agiwal teaches a direct communication message and a response / acceptance message, to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would be obvious to combine Kim’s PRS transmission and contents with Agiwal’s direct communication messages. The motivation to combine is to have a method where a PRS with relevant information is obtained and a direct communication acceptance is transmitted in response.
Agiwal does not teach including information related to a service related to sidelink (SL) positioning.
Bangolae teaches including information related to a service related to sidelink (SL) positioning (
"UE should provide adjusted sidelink BSR [Buffer Status Report] information to update resource allocation for transmission." [Paragraph 36],
i.e. "BSR" can be viewed as analogous to "DCR", and "sidelink BSR information" may include information such as sidelink positioning.)
Therefore, it would be obvious to combine Kim’s PRS transmission and contents with Agiwal’s direct communication messages, and with Bangolae’s method of transmitting information related to sidelink positioning. The motivation to combine PRS transmission with direct communication messages having information related to sidelink positioning in order to ensure efficient operation of remote and autonomous driven vehicles, both in or out of coverage, while supporting advanced V2X use cases. Bangolae at [0022].
Regarding claim 2, Kim-Agiwal-Bangolae teaches all the limitations and motivations of claim 1.
Agiwal also teaches the information related to the service includes information for requesting participation in the service related to the SL positioning (
"Upon receipt of the D2D BSR [Buffer Status Report], the eNB allocates resources for D2D transmission and transmits a grant for D2D transmission on a PDCCH or EPDCCH in a DL subframe corresponding to a UL subframe reserved for D2D communication." [Page 28, lines 33- 36],
i.e. "BSR" can be viewed as analogous to the "information related to the service," and "grant" can be viewed as analogous to the request for participation.)
Regarding claim 3, Kim-Agiwal-Bangolae teaches all the limitations and motivations of claim 1.
Agiwal also teaches the information related to the service includes information representing the service related to the SL positioning (
"In addition, the computer-readable recording medium may be distributed over the computer systems connected over the network, and computer-readable codes may be stored and executed in a distributed manner. As is apparent from the foregoing description, upon accessing the Wi-Fi 20 communication network, the electronic device may receive a variety of service information from an operator or a venue providing the Wi-Fi communication network, making it possible for the operator to provide a variety of service information to the users, contributing to the improvement of the advertising efficiency." [Page 59, lines 15 - 24],
i.e. The device and may be adapted such that information representing the service may transmitted over the network.")
Regarding claim 4, Kim-Agiwal-Bangolae teaches all the limitations and motivations of claim 4.
Agiwal also teaches the information related to the service includes a destination ID mapping to the service related to the SL positioning
("The D2D BSR may also include a destination ID." [Page 9, line 17 - 22])
Regarding claim 6, Kim-Agiwal-Bangolae teaches all the limitations and motivations of claim 1.
Bangolae also teaches the information related to the service includes information related to a mode related to the SL positioning (
"Network/gNB has sidelink buffer status report (BSR) information for all the pending data that were to be using mode-1 and may allocate resources accordingly for mode-1. UE should provide adjusted sidelink BSR information to update resource allocation for transmission." [Paragraph 36],
i.e. information regarding mode as related to the SL positioning is transmitted.)
Regarding claim 10, Kim-Agiwal-Bangolae teaches all the limitations and motivations of claim 1.
Agiwal also teaches receiving, from a third device, request information requesting a positioning report related to the SL position or a measurement report related to the SL position; and transmitting, to the third device, the positioning report or the measurement report. (
"If the measurement report, the BSR, the resource request, and the like are for direct communication between the UEs of the UE pair, the UE transmits the measurement report, the BSR, the resource request, and the like to the eNB using the UE pair ID together with a UE index." [Page 41, lines 5-7])
Regarding claim 15, Kim-Agiwal-Bangolae teaches all the limitations of claim 15 in claim 1, in method mode rather than apparatus mode. Kim also discloses an apparatus (“Embodiments of the present invention relate to a method for performing positioning in a next generation wireless network and an apparatus thereof.” [Abstract]). Therefore, claim 15 is rejected for the same reasons as claim 1.
Regarding claim 21, Kim-Agiwal-Bangolae teaches all the limitations and motivations of claim 15. Kim-Agiwal-Bangolae also teaches all the limitations of claim 21 in claim 2, in method mode rather than apparatus mode. Kim also discloses an apparatus (“Embodiments of the present invention relate to a method for performing positioning in a next generation wireless network and an apparatus thereof.” [Abstract]). Therefore, claim 21 is rejected for the same reasons as claims 2 and 15.
Regarding claim 22, Kim-Agiwal-Bangolae teaches all the limitations and motivations of claim 15. Kim-Agiwal-Bangolae also teaches all the limitations of claim 22 in claim 3, in method mode rather than apparatus mode. Kim also discloses an apparatus (“Embodiments of the present invention relate to a method for performing positioning in a next generation wireless network and an apparatus thereof.” [Abstract]). Therefore, claim 22 is rejected for the same reasons as claims 3 and 15.
Regarding claim 23, Kim-Agiwal-Bangolae teaches all the limitations and motivations of claim 15. Kim-Agiwal-Bangolae also teaches all the limitations of claim 23 in claim 4, in method mode rather than apparatus mode. Kim also discloses an apparatus (“Embodiments of the present invention relate to a method for performing positioning in a next generation wireless network and an apparatus thereof.” [Abstract]). Therefore, claim 23 is rejected for the same reasons as claims 4 and 15.
Regarding claim 25, Kim-Agiwal-Bangolae teaches all the limitations and motivations of claim 15. Kim-Agiwal-Bangolae also teaches all the limitations of claim 25 in claim 6, in method mode rather than apparatus mode. Kim also discloses an apparatus (“Embodiments of the present invention relate to a method for performing positioning in a next generation wireless network and an apparatus thereof.” [Abstract]). Therefore, claim 23 is rejected for the same reasons as claims 6 and 15.
Claims 5, 8-9, 11-14, and 24 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kim-Agiwal-Bangolae further in view of Fischer (U.S. Publication No. US 12326507 B2).
Regarding claim 5, Kim-Agiwal-Bangolae teaches all the limitations and motivations of claim 1.
Kim-Agiwal-Bangolae do not explicitly disclose the information related to the service includes information related to a method of the SL positioning.
Fischer teaches the information related to the service includes information related to a method of the SL positioning (
"An LPP message sent from the LMF 120 to the UE 105 may instruct the UE 105 to do any of a variety of things depending on desired functionality. For example, the LPP message could contain an instruction for the UE 105 to obtain measurements for GNSS (or A-GNSS), WLAN, E-CID, and/or OTDOA (or some other position method)." [Paragraph 41]
i.e. information related to a method of SL positioning may be included in a transmitted message.)
Therefore, as Kim-Agiwal-Bangolae teach the method of transmitting PRS and direct communication messages related to the service’s sidelink information, and as Fischer teaches including information related to the method of SL positioning, to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would be obvious to combine Kim-Agiwal-Bangolae’s method with Fischer’s additional information. The motivation to combine is to have a pertinent information related to the service communicated in the direct communication messages sent between devices in the network such that V2X communication may be performed.
Regarding claim 8, Kim-Agiwal-Bangolae teaches all the limitations and motivations of claim 1.
Kim-Agiwal-Bangolae do not explicitly disclose transmitting a request message for requesting assistant data for the SL positioning, wherein the request message includes the information related to the PRS configuration.
Fischer teaches transmitting a request message for requesting assistant data for the SL positioning, wherein the request message includes the information related to the PRS configuration (
"For example, the UE 105 may be configured to request assistance data from the LMF 120 for UE assisted or UE based positioning using one or more of the positioning methods and may include additional parameters for indicating preferences for DL-PRS. The additional parameters may describe, for example, a desired PRS configuration…" [Paragraph 73])
Therefore, as Kim-Agiwal-Bangolae teach the method of transmitting PRS and direct communication messages related to the service’s sidelink information, and as Fischer teaches transmitting an assistance data request including PRS configuration, to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would be obvious to combine Kim-Agiwal-Bangolae’s method with Fischer’s additional information. The motivation to combine is to have a pertinent information related to the service communicated in the direct communication messages sent between devices in the network such that V2X communication may be performed.
Regarding claim 9, Kim-Agiwal-Bangolae teaches all the limitations and motivations of claim 1.
Kim-Agiwal-Bangolae do not explicitly disclose receiving, from the second device, assistant data for the SL positioning, wherein the assistant data includes information for a set of resources configured for the second device
Fischer teaches receiving, from the second device, assistant data for the SL positioning, wherein the assistant data includes information for a set of resources configured for the second device (
"Each PRS resource of a PRS resource set may be transmitted on a different beam and as such, a PRS resource, or simply resource can also be referred to as a beam… [Paragraph 68]
For example, the UE 105 may be configured to request assistance data from the LMF 120 for UE assisted or UE based positioning using one or more of the positioning methods and may include additional parameters for indicating preferences for DL-PRS. The additional parameters may describe, for example,…a preferred PRS beam direction…" [Paragraph 73])
Therefore, as Kim-Agiwal-Bangolae teach the method of transmitting PRS and direct communication messages related to the service’s sidelink information, and as Fischer teaches receiving assistance data containing a set of resource, to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would be obvious to combine Kim-Agiwal-Bangolae’s method with Fischer’s additional information. The motivation to combine is to have a pertinent information related to the service communicated in the direct communication messages sent between devices in the network such that V2X communication may be performed.
Regarding claim 11, Kim-Agiwal-Bangolae teaches all the limitations and motivations of claim 10.
Kim-Agiwal-Bangolae does not teach the measurement report includes entity information related to measurement related to the SL position.
Fischer teaches the measurement report includes entity information related to measurement related to the SL position. (
"The MO-LR Request may also include (e.g. in an embedded LPP Provide Location Information message) RSRP measurements (e.g., per beam) of DL signals received by the UE (e.g., an E-CID Location Measurement Report) to assist an LMF 120 in determining nearby gNBs and/or beam directions for DL-PRS." [Paragraph 75])
Therefore, as Kim-Agiwal-Bangolae teach receiving and transmitting a measurement report, and as Fischer teaches including entity information related to measurement related to SL positioning in the measurement report, to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would be obvious to combine Kim-Agiwal-Bangolae’s method with Fischer’s additional information. The motivation to combine is to have a pertinent information related to the service communicated in the measurement repost sent between devices in the network such that V2X communication may be performed.
Regarding claim 12, Kim-Agiwal-Bangolae teaches all the limitations and motivations of claim 1.
Agiwal also teaches a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) or a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) (
"If Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH) resources are available for transmission of the D2D BSR, the resources for the D2D BSR may be obtained using a general method such as transmitting a scheduling request to the eNB." [Page 9, lines 24 - 26])
Kim-Agiwal-Bangolae do not explicitly disclose transmitting, to a base station or a location management function (LMF), request information for calculating a location of the first device
Fischer teaches transmitting, to a base station or a location management function (LMF), request information for calculating a location of the first device via a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) or a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH); and receiving, from the base station or the LMF, information related to the location of the first device (
"…at stage 4. the AMF 115 invokes the Nlmf_Location_DetermineLocation service operation towards the LMF 120. The service operation may indicate one or more of: (i) a request for assistance data; (ii) a request for on demand DL-PRS; (iii) an MO-LR request…"[Paragraph 76]
"Based on the request in stage 4, the LMF 120 may then be configured to determine, at stage 5, a new DL-PRS configuration (or configurations) for nearby gNBs (e.g. based on a preferred number of gNBs indicated at stage 2)…The directional DL-PRS beams may be selected by the LMF 120 according to a known approximate location for the target UE 105, e.g. as given by the coverage area of the serving or camped-on cell for the UE 105 and/or the RSRP/ECID measurements provided by the UE 105 at stage 2…" [Paragraph 77]
"At stage 6., the LMF 120 is configured to send an NRPPa PRS Configuration Request message to each of the gNBs 110a-c determined at stage 5 including the requested DL-PRS transmission characteristics defining the new DL-PRS configuration(s) determined for that gNB…" [Paragraph 78],
"At stage 10., when the assistance data with the new DL-PRS configuration has been transferred to the UE 105, the LMF 120 returns an Nlmf_Location_DetermineLocation Response towards the AMF 115…" [Paragraph 79],
i.e. LMF receives information for calculating location information and makes available the determined location of the device sending the received information.)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the method suggested by Kim-Agiwal-Bangolae with Fischer’s LMF calculating the location of the device sending the request information and sending the determined location. The motivation to combine is to have a have a method where request information is transmitted via PUCCH, the information used by the LMF to calculate the location of the device sending the request information, and the LMF sending the determined location.
Regarding claim 13, Kim-Agiwal-Bangolae-Fischer teaches all the limitations and motivations of claim 12.
Fischer also teaches transmitting, to a third device, a scheduling request (SR) for requesting a resource (
"A PRS resource set is identified by a PRS resource set ID and may be associated with a particular TRP (identified by a cell ID) transmitted by an antenna panel of a base station." [Paragraph 68])
Regarding claim 14, Kim-Agiwal-Bangolae teaches all the limitations and motivations of claim 14 in claim 1, in method mode rather than device mode.
Kim-Agiwal-Bangalore do not explicitly disclose at least one transceiver; at least one processor; and at least one memory connected to the at least one processor and storing instructions that, based on being executed by the at least one processor, cause the first device to perform operations.
Fischer teaches at least one transceiver ("a transceiver interface 214 for a transceiver 215 (that includes a wireless transceiver 240 and/or a wired transceiver 250)" [Paragraph 44]); at least one processor ("processor 210" [Paragraph 44]); and at least one memory connected to the at least one processor and storing instructions that, based on being executed by the at least one processor, cause the first device to perform operations ("memory 211 including software (SW) 212" [Paragraph 44]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the method for performing wireless communication by a first device as suggested by Kim-Agiwal-Bangolae with the transceiver, processor and memory of Fischer. The motivation would be to implement the invention on hardware.
Regarding claim 24, Kim-Agiwal-Bangolae-Fischer teach all the limitations of claim 24 in claim 5, in method mode rather than apparatus mode. Kim also discloses an apparatus (“Embodiments of the present invention relate to a method for performing positioning in a next generation wireless network and an apparatus thereof.” [Abstract]). Therefore, claim 24 is rejected for the same reasons as claims 5 and 15.
Claim 7 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Kim-Agiwal-Bangolae in view of Pan (Korean Publication No. KR 20210059613 A using English machine translation).
Regarding claim 7, Kim-Agiwal-Bangolae teaches all the limitations and motivations of claim 1.
Agiwal also teaches (
Fig. 34, and "If UE B accepts the direct communication request from UE A, UE B transmits a direct communication response message including its UE ID to UE A, in operation 3403"[Page 47, lines 4 - 6],
i.e. "direct communication response message" can be viewed as analogous to "DCA.”)
Kim-Agiwal-Bangolae do not explicitly disclose establishing…a PC5 connection.
In a similar field of endeavor, Pan teaches establishing…a PC5 connection with the second device (
"A PC5 unicast link between two UEs allows V2X communication between one or more peer V2X service pairs in these UEs." [Paragraph 74])
Therefore, as Pan teaches a PC5 connection established between the two devices, and as Kim-Agiwal-Bangolae teaches a direct communication response message (i.e. DCA) establishing acceptance of communication between two UEs, to one of ordinary skill in the art prior to the effective filing date of the claimed invention, it would be obvious to combine Pan’s method of establishing a PC5 connection with Kim-Agiwal-Bangolae DCA message. The motivation to combine is to have a system where a DCA is sent to establish communication between two devices, and that connection being a PC5 connection.
Conclusion
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/FATIHA KAMAL/Examiner, Art Unit 2647
/Alison Slater/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2647
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