DETAILED ACTION
Notice of 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, 2, 6, 9, 10, 14, 17 and 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Luo et al. (US 2009/0135803 A1) in view of Longman et al. (US 2020/0355815 A1).
Consider claims 1, 9 and 17:
Luo discloses a signal sending method (see Fig. 5 and paragraphs 0061-0064, where Luo describes a Node B 110 which transmits reference signals to all cells, the reference signals are generated by Processor 540 using program codes stored in Memory 542; see Fig. 5 and see paragraph 0006, where Luo describes that the reference signals may be used for signal strength measurement), comprising:
transmitting a plurality of reference signals (see Fig. 5 and paragraph 0061, where Luo describes that the Node B 110 transmits a plurality of reference signals to all cells through antennas),
wherein each of the plurality of reference signals is generated based on a sequence having an initial value (see Fig. 3 and paragraph 0055, where Luo describes that each reference signal rg,l(n) is generated based on a Pseudo-random Sequence pg(n), with n=0, 1, …N-1; see paragraphs 0046-0048, where Luo describes a Gold sequence c(n) which is used to generate the Pseudo-random Sequence pg(n), and the Gold sequence c(n) may be generated based on an initial value of Cinit),
the initial values of the sequences of the plurality of reference signals are the same (see paragraph 0048, where Luo describes that the initial value Cinit for the plurality of Pseudo-random Sequence pg(n) may be determined based on index ‘g’),
and a time domain interval between any two adjacent reference signals in the plurality of reference signals is less than one radio frame (see Fig. 2 and paragraphs 0029-0031, where Luo describes that any two adjacent reference signals are located in a time slot in one radio frame of 10 milli-seconds); and
receiving a signal corresponding to at least one of the plurality of reference signals (see Fig. 5 and paragraphs 0063-0064, where Luo describes that the Node B 110 receives an uplink signal generated by a Reference Signal Processor 570 which processes the reference signals).
As discussed above, Luo discloses: receiving a signal corresponding to at least one of the plurality of reference signals. However, Luo does not specifically disclose: the received signal is an echo signal.
Longman teaches: a received signal is an echo signal (see Fig. 2 and paragraph 0003, where Longman describes a reference signal which is transmitted from a radar system, and an echo signal is received at the radar system in response to reflection of the transmitted reference signal from an object).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to include: the received signal is an echo signal, as taught by Longman to modify the method of Luo in order to extend a range of a radar system, as discussed by Longman (see paragraph 0003).
Consider claims 2, 10 and 18:
Luo in view of Longman discloses the invention according to claims 1, 9 and 17 above. Luo discloses: the sequences of the plurality of reference signals are pseudo-random sequences (see Fig. 3 and paragraph 0055, where Luo describes that each reference signal rg,l(n) is generated based on a Pseudo-random Sequence pg(n), with n=0, 1, …N-1), and an initial value of a pseudo-random sequence of each of the plurality of reference signals is determined based on a physical layer cell identity (see paragraphs 0046-0048, where Luo describes that the initial value Cinit for the plurality of Pseudo-random Sequence pg(n) may be determined based on index ‘g’; see paragraph 0035, where Luo describes that the index ‘g’ is an index of a cell ID group).
Consider claims 6 and 14:
Luo in view of Longman discloses the invention according to claims 1 and 9 above. Luo discloses: the reference signal is a channel state information-reference signal (see paragraph 0006, where Luo describes that the reference signals may be used for channel estimation, signal strength measurement and signal quality measurement).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3-5, 7, 8, 11-13, 15, 16, 19 and 20 are objected to as being dependent upon rejected base claims, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claims and any intervening claims.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to LIHONG YU whose telephone number is (571)270-5147. The examiner can normally be reached 10:00 am-6:00 pm EST Monday-Friday.
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/LIHONG YU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2631
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