DETAILED ACTION
This communication is in regards to applicant' s reply filed under 37 C.F.R §1.111 in response to a non-final office action. Claim 34 is amended; No claims are cancelled; No claims are added. Claims 25 - 46 are currently pending and subject to examination.
Response to Arguments
In light of the Applicant’s amendments in claim 34 to remedy the informalities pointed out in the previous office action and the fact that claim 44 does not recite the same objected informality, the objection applied to claims 34 and 44 is hereby withdrawn. Applicant's arguments filed in the remarks dated 03/15/2025 with respect to the art rejection have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Applicant’s Arguments:
Applicant argues that the office action concedes that Saily lacks disclosure of “receiving a first information indicating a first association between a first beam and the first TA value and a second association between a second beam and the second TA value”; and receiving a second information indicating a third association between a configured uplink grant and the first beam” and argues that missing in the analysis in the Office Action is any mention or suggestion that Stern Berkowitz disclose or suggests the information contains any association between first beam and the first TA value, between the second beam and the second TA value, and between the configured uplink grant and the first beam. Moreover, the explanation in the Office Action fails to show that the first information contains both the association between first beam and the first TA value and the association between the second beam and the second TA value. Such associations could be transmitted in separate informations, so the feature is not inherently present in Stern-Berkowitz.
Examiner’s Response:
Examiner respectfully disagrees with this argument as the claims are given their broadest reasonable interpretation in light of the specification, however, limitations from the specification are not read into the claims. See In re Van Geuns, 988 F.2d 1181, 26 USPQ2d 1057 (Fed. Cir. 1993).
Applicant’s claim is directed to a UE maintaining multiple timing advance (TA) values for a “serving cell”.
Saily discloses in [0033] that a 5G centralized unit with two 5G distributed units and a 5G-UE may form a network where the 5G-UE transmits an uplink signal, or uplink beacon to the distributed units and centralized processing may be performed with the upper protocol layer functions being placed in the centralized unit, the upper layers of the protocol stack, while the distributed units operate the lower layers of the 5G radio interface and where the protocol stack can be split between the centralized unit and the distributed units in low, PHY, or high, RLC or PDCP, protocol layer.
Saily further discloses in [0034] that together a CU, underlying DUs, and RRHs form a logical eNB, or, in 5G terms, a gNB and in [0038] that multi-connectivity allows a user equipment to connect to multiple cells such as mmWave and lower frequencies in order to create a more robust connection and to enable services requiring ultra-reliable low latency communications (URLLC).
Saily discloses in [0075 – 0078] that a UE is configured to transmit uplink beacon signals in RRC_CONNECTED_INACTIVE state, where these beacons are orthogonal among different UEs and may be transmitted with cell-specific uplink timing shift to enable the estimation of uplink timing advance in network side where the beacon signals are received by Distributed Units connected to a Central Unit and two types of measurements are extracted in the Distributed Units and then passed to a Central Unit are link quality measurements; and estimates for the uplink timing advance, where the Central Unit maintains a set of candidate links per UE, representing the preferred choices for a multi-connectivity session and also cell-specific uplink timing advance values per UE. Saily further discloses in [0080] that the network sends a command to the UE to resume multi-connectivity to indicated cells, where this message comprises cell-specific timing advance value(s) to be applied for subsequent UL transmissions.
Therefore, Saily reasonably reads on a “a serving cell” comprising multiple TRP’s maintaining multiple uplink timing advances, where the set of candidate links per UE could be interpreted as transmission beams in a 5G system.
Saily further discloses in [0115] that the UE is aware of the radio resources from multiple Distributed Units connecting to a same or different Central Units and the incoming beacon from the UE to multiple Distributed Units is available in the Central Units and in [0118] that a connection request message may include cell-specific uplink timing advance values for each of the at least two network nodes and receiving the at least one connection message may include receiving a first connection message from a first network node comprising a command to connect to the first network node, and receiving a second connection message from a second network node comprising a command to connect to the second network node, where each of the one or more network nodes may be connected to a centralized network node.
Thus, Saily also reasonably reads on a “UE maintaining multiple timing advance (TA) values for a “serving cell”, where the multiple TA values include a first TA value and a second TA value; and receiving a first information indicating a first association between a first TRP and the first TA value and a second association between a second TRP and the second TA value.
Stern-Berkowitz in turn discloses in [0024] that a BS may be a next generation NodeB (gNB), a new radio (NR) NodeB, a site controller, an access point (AP), a wireless router, a transmission/reception point (TRP), and the like and in [0025] that the base station may include three transceivers, one for each sector of the cell and employ multiple-input multiple output (MIMO) technology and may utilize multiple transceivers for each sector of the cell, where beamforming may be used to transmit and/or receive signals in desired spatial directions (see [0064] also).
Stern-Berkowitz discloses in [0090] that timing advances (TAs) may be applied in order to account for signals arriving at an eNB at different times due to cell size, where a TA may be used to transmit earlier or later in order to account for the distance the WTRU is from the eNB and enable transmissions from the WTRU to better align with those of other WTRUs at the eNB receiver and in [0091] that a WTRU may apply one or more/all received TA commands to adjust its UL timing, where a TA command may provide a TA value or a TA adjustment.
Stern-Berkowitz discloses in [0096] that an eNB, cell, serving cell, and component carrier (CC) may be used interchangeably and/or substituted for each other and still be consistent with examples and embodiments described and in [0106] that a WTRU may have and/or maintain a TAT for a or each timing advance group (TAG), where a TAG may be or may include a group of serving cells that use the same timing reference, the same timing reference cell and/or the same TA value. A TAG may be or may include a group of serving cells with configured UL. The timing reference, timing reference cell, and/or TA may apply to cells with configured UL. A primary TAG (pTAG) may be a TAG that includes a PCell or a PSCell. A secondary TAG (sTAG) may be a TAG that does not include a PCell and/or does not include a PSCell.
Therefore, since beamforming is used to transmit and/or receive signals in desired spatial directions and the WTRU may have and/or maintain a TAT for a or each timing advance group (TAG), it would have been obvious to a person or ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention that the combination of Stern-Berkowitz and Saily reasonably reads on respective TAs being associated with respective beams.
Stern-Berkowitz discloses in [0109 - 0115] that when a MAC entity determines that a TAT expires, or when a MAC entity considers a TAT to have expired, the MAC entity may perform at least one TAT expiry action, including but not limited to:
Flushing one or more/all HARQ buffers for one or more/all serving cells, which may, for example, belong to or be associated with the TAG for which the TAT expired; Flushing one or more/all HARQ buffers for one or more/all serving cells, which may include flushing for example one or more/all HARQ buffers for all serving cells that are associated with the MAC entity (for example, when the TAG may be a pTAG; Releasing and/or notifying radio resource control (RRC) to release the physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) and/or sounding reference signal (SRS), for one or more/all serving cells, for example one or more/all serving cells that belong to the TAG for which the TAT may have expired; Releasing and/or notifying RRC to release PUCCH and/or SRS, for one or more/all serving cells where the one or more/all serving cells may be all serving cells that are associated with the MAC entity, for example, when the TAG for which the TAT may have expired may be a pTAG); Clearing one or more/all of the DL assignments and/or one or more/all UL grants where the assignments and/or grants may be for the MAC entity, for example when the TAG for which the TAT may have expired may be a pTAG.
Therefore, the combination of Stern-Berkowitz and Saily also reasonably reads on clearing the configured uplink grant and flushing a Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) buffer associated with the serving cell if all of the multiple TA values are invalid.
Applicant’s Arguments:
Applicant argues that Stern-Berkowitz is also cited for allegedly teaching the claimed step of clearing the configured uplink grant and flushing a Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) buffer associated with the serving cell if all of the multiple TA values are invalid. However, Stern-Berkowitz only teaches serving cells that belong to a single TAG, and thus only have a single TA value. There are no serving cells in Stern-Berkowitz that have more than one TA value. Stern- Berkowitz actually teaches just the opposite that a given serving cell has only one TA value. Specifically, Stern-Berkowitz states explicitly in paragraph [0106] that, “A TAG may be or may include a group of serving cells (e.g., of a WTRU) that use the same timing reference, the same timing reference cell and/or the same TA value” (emphasis added). There is NO disclosure of a serving cell that has at least two different timing references in the cited paragraphs [0106] and [0107]. Thus, it is impossible to say that Stern-Berkowitz provides any teaching regarding flushing a HARQ buffer associated with the serving cell if all of the multiple TA values are invalid.
Examiner’s Response:
Examiner respectfully disagrees with this argument as the claims are given their broadest reasonable interpretation in light of the specification, however, limitations from the specification are not read into the claims. See In re Van Geuns, 988 F.2d 1181, 26 USPQ2d 1057 (Fed. Cir. 1993).
Applicant’s specification as filed discloses in ¶ [0044] that While FIGS. 3, 4 and 5 illustrate a UE in one “serving cell”, the UE need not be limited to one “serving cell”. It is possible for the UE to have multiple “serving cells”, and the “serving cells” may be associated with the same or different gNodeBs and the Applicant’s specification further discloses in ¶ [0037] that a “cell,” could be composed of one or multiple associated TRPs, i.e., the coverage of the cell is a superset of the coverage of all the individual TRP(s) associated with the cell. One cell could be controlled by one BS. A cell can be referred to as a TRP group (TRPG).
Stern-Berkowitz discloses in [0024] that a BS may be a next generation NodeB (gNB), a new radio (NR) NodeB, a site controller, an access point (AP), a wireless router, a transmission/reception point (TRP), and the like and in [0025] that the base station may include three transceivers, one for each sector of the cell and employ multiple-input multiple output (MIMO) technology and may utilize multiple transceivers for each sector of the cell, where beamforming may be used to transmit and/or receive signals in desired spatial directions (see [0064] also).
Stern-Berkowitz discloses in [0090] that timing advances (TAs) may be applied in order to account for signals arriving at an eNB at different times due to cell size, where a TA may be used to transmit earlier or later in order to account for the distance the WTRU is from the eNB and enable transmissions from the WTRU to better align with those of other WTRUs at the eNB receiver and in [0091] that a WTRU may apply one or more/all received TA commands to adjust its UL timing, where a TA command may provide a TA value or a TA adjustment.
Stern-Berkowitz discloses in [0096] that an eNB, cell, serving cell, and component carrier (CC) may be used interchangeably and/or substituted for each other and still be consistent with examples and embodiments described and in [0106] that a WTRU may have and/or maintain a TAT for a or each timing advance group (TAG), where a TAG may be or may include a group of serving cells that use the same timing reference, the same timing reference cell and/or the same TA value. A TAG may be or may include a group of serving cells with configured UL. The timing reference, timing reference cell, and/or TA may apply to cells with configured UL. A primary TAG (pTAG) may be a TAG that includes a PCell or a PSCell. A secondary TAG (sTAG) may be a TAG that does not include a PCell and/or does not include a PSCell.
Therefore, since beamforming is used to transmit and/or receive signals in desired spatial directions, it would have been obvious to a person or ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention that the combination of Stern-Berkowitz and Saily reasonably reads on respective TAs being associated with respective beams.
Stern-Berkowitz discloses in [0109 - 0115] that when a MAC entity determines that a TAT expires, or when a MAC entity considers a TAT to have expired, the MAC entity may perform at least one TAT expiry action, including but not limited to:
Flushing one or more/all HARQ buffers for one or more/all serving cells, which may, for example, belong to or be associated with the TAG for which the TAT expired; Flushing one or more/all HARQ buffers for one or more/all serving cells, which may include flushing for example one or more/all HARQ buffers for all serving cells that are associated with the MAC entity (for example, when the TAG may be a pTAG; Releasing and/or notifying radio resource control (RRC) to release the physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) and/or sounding reference signal (SRS), for one or more/all serving cells, for example one or more/all serving cells that belong to the TAG for which the TAT may have expired; Releasing and/or notifying RRC to release PUCCH and/or SRS, for one or more/all serving cells where the one or more/all serving cells may be all serving cells that are associated with the MAC entity, for example, when the TAG for which the TAT may have expired may be a pTAG); Clearing one or more/all of the DL assignments and/or one or more/all UL grants where the assignments and/or grants may be for the MAC entity, for example when the TAG for which the TAT may have expired may be a pTAG.
Therefore, the combination of Stern-Berkowitz and Saily also reasonably reads on clearing the configured uplink grant and flushing a Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) buffer associated with the serving cell if all of the multiple TA values are invalid.
Applicant’s Arguments:
Applicant argues that the cited “motivation” on page 6 of the Office Action for why persons of ordinary skill in the art would look to Stern-Berkowitz (“in order to flush a HARQ buffer that corresponded to an invalid TA value”) is improper. It is improper because it has no relevance to the step of receiving the first or the second informations noted above. Belden Inc. v. Berk-Tek LLC, 805 F.3d 1064, 1073 (Fed. Cir. 2015) (“[O]bviousness concerns whether a skilled artisan not only could have made but would have been motivated to make the combinations or modifications of prior art to arrive at the claimed invention.”) (emphasis added). Here, there is no viable “why” provided that would explain the alleged combination of references. Accordingly, the §103 rejection cannot stand.
Examiner’s Response:
Examiner respectfully disagrees with this argument as the test for obviousness is not whether the features of a secondary reference may be bodily incorporated into the structure of the primary reference; nor is it that the claimed invention must be expressly suggested in any one or all of the references. Rather, the test is what the combined teachings of the references would have suggested to those of ordinary skill in the art. See In re Keller, 642 F.2d 413, 208 USPQ 871 (CCPA 1981) and in response to applicant’s argument that there is no teaching, suggestion, or motivation to combine the references, the examiner recognizes that obviousness may be established by combining or modifying the teachings of the prior art to produce the claimed invention where there is some teaching, suggestion, or motivation to do so found either in the references themselves or in the knowledge generally available to one of ordinary skill in the art. See In re Fine, 837 F.2d 1071, 5 USPQ2d 1596 (Fed. Cir. 1988), In re Jones, 958 F.2d 347, 21 USPQ2d 1941 (Fed. Cir. 1992), and KSR International Co. v. Teleflex, Inc., 550 U.S. 398, 82 USPQ2d 1385 (2007).
Stern-Berkowitz discloses in [0109 - 0115] that when a MAC entity determines that a TAT expires, or when a MAC entity considers a TAT to have expired, the MAC entity may perform at least one TAT expiry action, including but not limited to:
Flushing one or more/all HARQ buffers for one or more/all serving cells, which may, for example, belong to or be associated with the TAG for which the TAT expired; Flushing one or more/all HARQ buffers for one or more/all serving cells, which may include flushing for example one or more/all HARQ buffers for all serving cells that are associated with the MAC entity (for example, when the TAG may be a pTAG; Releasing and/or notifying radio resource control (RRC) to release the physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) and/or sounding reference signal (SRS), for one or more/all serving cells, for example one or more/all serving cells that belong to the TAG for which the TAT may have expired; Releasing and/or notifying RRC to release PUCCH and/or SRS, for one or more/all serving cells where the one or more/all serving cells may be all serving cells that are associated with the MAC entity, for example, when the TAG for which the TAT may have expired may be a pTAG); Clearing one or more/all of the DL assignments and/or one or more/all UL grants where the assignments and/or grants may be for the MAC entity, for example when the TAG for which the TAT may have expired may be a pTAG.
Therefore, the combination of Stern-Berkowitz and Saily also reasonably reads on clearing the configured uplink grant and flushing a Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) buffer associated with the serving cell if all of the multiple TA values are invalid.
Applicant’s Arguments:
Applicant argues that the Zhang reference is cited on pages 6-7 of the Office Action for disclosure of the feature that clearing the configured uplink grant and refraining from flushing the HARQ buffer if the first TA value is invalid and the second TA value is valid. But the cited motivation is again deficient. The alleged reason for the reliance on Zhang is to maintain the HARQ buffer that corresponds to the valid TA value (p. 7). This is circular logic because this is merely the result of the claimed step being performed. Thus, the “motivation” is merely that the reason to provide the method step is so that the step is provided. That is impermissible hindsight analysis under U.S. law. Belden, 805 F.3d at 1073.
Examiner’s Response:
Examiner respectfully disagrees with this argument as the test for obviousness is not whether the features of a secondary reference may be bodily incorporated into the structure of the primary reference; nor is it that the claimed invention must be expressly suggested in any one or all of the references. Rather, the test is what the combined teachings of the references would have suggested to those of ordinary skill in the art. See In re Keller, 642 F.2d 413, 208 USPQ 871 (CCPA 1981) and in response to applicant’s argument that there is no teaching, suggestion, or motivation to combine the references, the examiner recognizes that obviousness may be established by combining or modifying the teachings of the prior art to produce the claimed invention where there is some teaching, suggestion, or motivation to do so found either in the references themselves or in the knowledge generally available to one of ordinary skill in the art. See In re Fine, 837 F.2d 1071, 5 USPQ2d 1596 (Fed. Cir. 1988), In re Jones, 958 F.2d 347, 21 USPQ2d 1941 (Fed. Cir. 1992), and KSR International Co. v. Teleflex, Inc., 550 U.S. 398, 82 USPQ2d 1385 (2007).
Zhang discloses in [0078 - 0079] that a UE includes a maintaining module, configured to: when the measurement module detects that the cell identifier in the TA set corresponds to the beam index information in the another TA set and the TAT in the another TA set has not expired, determine a cell corresponding to the beam index information, and maintain a hybrid automatic repeat request HARQ buffer area and a sounding reference symbol SRS resource that correspond to the cell; and a release module, configured to: when the measurement module detects that the cell identifier in the TA set corresponds to the beam index information in the another TA set and the TAT in the another TA set has expired, determine a cell corresponding to the beam index information, and release a HARQ buffer area and an SRS resource that correspond to the cell.
Zhang discloses in FIG. 1 and [0277] that a cell may comprise an eNodeB with three millimeter wave cellular communication evolved NodeBs to serve a UE and in [0280] that the base station uses different reference signal sequences for different initial beams or broadcasts the initial beam index information of the initial beam on different initial beams and the user equipment may uniquely determine a particular initial beam according to the initial beam index information and the characteristic information of the initial beam.
Zhang discloses in [0437] that there may be different TA for beams used by the user equipment, and the TA may be for a same millimeter wave base station or may be for different millimeter wave base stations, where beams indicated by beam index information in one TA set may belong to a same cell, or may belong to different cells. Therefore, a cell identifier of a cell associated with each beam may further be identified in the TA set.
Zhang discloses in [0441] that after user equipment detects that a TAT has expired, if it is detected that a beam 3 associated with the cell 1 is further in a TA set 2 and a TAT in the TA set 2 has not expired, the user equipment maintains a HARQ buffer area and an SRS resource that correspond to the cell and does not send an SRS or a HARQ ACK/NACK on the beam 1; if it is detected that a beam 3 associated with the cell 1 is in TA set 2 and a TAT in the TA set 2 has expired, the user equipment releases a HARQ buffer area and an SRS resource that correspond to the cell.
Therefore, the motivation is taken from the actual text of the Zhang disclosure and this argument in un-persuasive.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The text of those sections of Title 35, U.S. Code not included in this action can be found in a prior Office action.
Claims 26 – 45 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Saily et al. (US 20180110082 A1) in view of Stern-Berkowitz et al. (US 20190191429 A1) and Zhang et al. (US 20170195998 A1).
Regarding claim 26, Saily et al. discloses a method (Saily et al., FIG. 5) of a user equipment (UE) (Saily et al., FIG. 3, 5G-UE 206, in relation to FIG. 1, UE 110), comprising:
maintaining multiple timing advance (TA) values (Saily et al., [0038] multi-connectivity allows a user equipment to connect to multiple cells such as mmWave and lower frequencies in order to create a more robust connection and to enable services requiring ultra-reliable low latency communications (URLLC) in relation to [0075] a UE is configured to transmit uplink beacon signals in RRC_CONNECTED_INACTIVE state with cell-specific uplink timing shift to enable the estimation of uplink timing advance in network side) for a serving cell (Saily et al., FIG. 3, 5G-CU 304, in relation to FIG. 1, 5G-CU 191; [0076] the beacon signals are received by Distributed Units with each DU being connected to a Central Unit in relation to [0078] the Central Unit maintains a set of candidate links per UE, representing the preferred choices for a multi-connectivity session and also cell-specific uplink timing advance values per UE),
wherein the multiple TA values include a first TA value and a second TA value (Saily et al., [0115] the UE is aware of the radio resources from multiple DUs connecting to same/different CUs and the incoming beacon from UE to multiple DUs is available in the CU in relation to [0118] the UE transmits an uplink signal that may include a cell-specific timing shift, where the at least one connection message may include cell-specific uplink timing advance values for each of the at least two network nodes);
receiving a first information indicating a first association with a first node and a second association with a second node (Saily et al., [0080] the network sends a command to the UE to resume multi-connectivity to indicated cells, where this message comprises cell-specific timing advance value(s) to be applied for subsequent UL transmissions in relation to [0118] receiving the at least one connection message may include receiving a first connection message from a first network node comprising a command to connect to the first network node, and receiving a second connection message from a second network node comprising a command to connect to the second network node, where each of the one or more network nodes may be connected to a centralized network node);
Saily et al. does not expressly disclose the first information indicating a first association between a first beam and the first TA value and a second association between a second beam and the second TA value; receiving a second information indicating a third association between a configured uplink grant and the first beam; clearing the configured uplink grant and flushing a Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) buffer associated with the serving cell if all of the multiple TA values are invalid; and clearing the configured uplink grant and refraining from flushing the HARQ buffer if the first TA value is invalid and the second TA value is valid.
Stern-Berkowitz et al., for example from an analogous field of endeavor (Stern-Berkowitz et al., [0090] that timing advances (TAs) may be applied in order to account for signals arriving at an eNB at different times due to cell size in relation to [0091] a WTRU may receive TA commands, for example, from a cell or an eNB with which the WTRU may communicate) discloses first information indicating a first association between a first beam and the first TA value and a second association between a second beam and the second TA value (Stern-Berkowitz et al., [0024] beamforming may be used to transmit and/or receive signals in desired spatial directions in relation to [0091] a WTRU may apply one or more received TA commands to adjust its UL timing, where a TA command may provide a TA value or a TA adjustment and [0106 - 0107] a WTRU or a MAC entity of a WTRU may have and/or maintain at least one time alignment timer (TAT), where the WTRU may have and/or maintain a TAT for a or each timing advance group (TAG) and the TAT may be used to control how long a MAC entity considers the serving cells associated with the TAG to be uplink time aligned);
receiving a second information indicating a third association between a configured uplink grant and the first beam (Stern-Berkowitz et al., [0109] when a TAT expires or a MAC entity determines that a TAT expires, or when a MAC entity considers a TAT to have expired, the MAC entity may perform at least one TAT expiry action in relation to [0307] a flag or indicator, a transmission stop or suspend flag or indicator, may indicate that at least some UL transmissions may not be performed, where one or more UL transmissions may be associated with a TTI and/or a TAG);
clearing the configured uplink grant and flushing a Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) buffer associated with the serving cell if all of the multiple TA values are invalid (Stern-Berkowitz et al., [0110] flushing one or more or all HARQ buffers for one or more or all serving cells, which may belong to or be associated with the TAG for which the TAT expired); and clearing the configured uplink grant (Stern-Berkowitz et al., [0112] releasing and/or notifying radio resource control (RRC) to release the physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) and/or sounding reference signal (SRS), for one or more or all serving cells that belong to the TAG for which the TAT may have expired).
Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine first information indicating a first association between a first beam and the first TA value and a second association between a second beam and the second TA value; receiving a second information indicating a third association between a configured uplink grant and the first beam; clearing the configured uplink grant and flushing a Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) buffer associated with the serving cell if all of the multiple TA values are invalid; and clearing the configured uplink grant as taught by Stern-Berkowitz et al. with the system of Saily et al. - in order to flush a HARQ buffer that correspond to an invalid TA value (Stern-Berkowitz et al., [0112]).
Although Stern-Berkowitz et al., discloses flushing HARQ buffers associated with the TAG for which the TAT expired; Saily et al. - Stern-Berkowitz et al. do not expressly disclose refraining from flushing the HARQ buffer if the first TA value is invalid and the second TA value is valid.
Zhang et al., for example, from an analogous field of endeavor (Zhang et al., [0439] when the time alignment timer (TAT) in the TA set received by the receiving module has expired, detect whether the cell identifier in the TA set corresponds to beam index information in another TA set and whether a TAT in the another TA set has not expired) discloses refraining from flushing the HARQ buffer if the first TA value is invalid and the second TA value is valid (Zhang et al., [0442] after user equipment detects that a TAT has expired, if it is detected that a beam 3 associated with the cell 1 is further in a TA set 2 and a TAT in the TA set 2 has not expired, the user equipment maintains a HARQ buffer area and an SRS resource that correspond to the cell and does not send an SRS or a HARQ ACK/NACK on the beam 1).
Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine refraining from flushing the HARQ buffer if the first TA value is invalid and the second TA value is valid as taught by Zhang et al. with the combined system of Saily et al. - Stern-Berkowitz et al. in order to maintains a HARQ buffer that correspond to the valid TA value (Zhang et al., [0442]).
Regarding claims 27, 37, Saily et al. - Stern-Berkowitz et al. - Zhang et al. disclose refraining from flushing the HARQ buffer if at least one of the multiple TA values remains valid (Zhang et al., [0442] if it is detected that a beam 3 associated with the cell 1 is further in a TA set 2 and a TAT in the TA set 2 has not expired, the user equipment maintains a HARQ buffer area and an SRS resource that correspond to the cell and does not send an SRS or a HARQ ACK/NACK on the beam 1). The motivation is the same as in claim 26.
Regarding claims 28, 38, Saily et al. - Stern-Berkowitz et al. - Zhang et al. disclose clearing a configured downlink assignment associated with the serving cell if all of the multiple TA values are invalid (Stern-Berkowitz et al., [0114] clearing one or more or any of the DL assignments and/or one or more or any UL grants where the assignments and/or grants may be for the MAC entity for which the TAT may have expired). The motivation is the same as in claim 26.
Regarding claims 29, 39, Saily et al. - Stern-Berkowitz et al. - Zhang et al. disclose determining validity of each of the multiple TA values by a status of a timer associated with the TA value invalid (Stern-Berkowitz et al., [0106] the WTRU may have and/or maintain a TAT for a or each timing advance group (TAG)). The motivation is the same as in claim 26.
Regarding claims 30, 40, Saily et al. - Stern-Berkowitz et al. - Zhang et al. disclose each of the multiple TA values is associated with a different TRP or a different beam of the serving cell (Saily et al., [0115] the UE is aware of the radio resources from multiple DUs connecting to same/different CUs and the incoming beacon from UE to multiple DUs is available in the CU).
Regarding claims 31, 41, Saily et al. - Stern-Berkowitz et al. - Zhang et al. disclose the first TA value is utilized for transmitting on the first beam (Zhang et al., [0332] generating one TA set according to each group obtained by the determining module, where the TA set includes a TA set identifier, beam index information of each beam in the group, and a cell identifier and a time alignment timer TAT that correspond to each beam in the group) and the second TA value is used for transmitting on the second beam TRP (Zhang et al., [0438] the TA set includes a TA set identifier, beam index information of each beam in the group, and a cell identifier and a time alignment timer TAT that correspond to each beam in the group, and the beam includes at least one of the initial beam or the alternative beam). The motivation is the same as in claim 26.
Regarding claims 32, 42, Saily et al. - Stern-Berkowitz et al. - Zhang et al. disclose receiving a configuration for uplink (UL) control signaling associated with the serving cell (Saily et al., [0118] receiving the at least one connection message may include receiving a first connection message from a first network node comprising a command to connect to the first network node, and receiving a second connection message from a second network node comprising a command to connect to the second network node, where each of the one or more network nodes may be connected to a centralized network node); releasing the configuration if all of the multiple TA values are invalid (Stern-Berkowitz et al., [0110] flushing one or more or all HARQ buffers for one or more or all serving cells, which may belong to or be associated with the TAG for which the TAT expired); and refraining from releasing the configuration if the first TA value is invalid and the second TA value is valid (Zhang et al., [0439] when the time alignment timer (TAT) in the TA set received by the receiving module has expired, detect whether the cell identifier in the TA set corresponds to beam index information in another TA set and whether a TAT in the another TA set has not expired). The motivation is the same as in claim 26.
Regarding claims 33, 43, Saily et al. - Stern-Berkowitz et al. - Zhang et al. disclose refraining from releasing the configuration if at least one of the multiple TA values remains valid (Zhang et al., [0442] if it is detected that a beam 3 associated with the cell 1 is further in a TA set 2 and a TAT in the TA set 2 has not expired, the user equipment maintains a HARQ buffer area and an SRS resource that correspond to the cell and does not send an SRS or a HARQ ACK/NACK on the beam 1). The motivation is the same as in claim 26.
Regarding claims 34, 44, Saily et al. - Stern-Berkowitz et al. - Zhang et al. disclose the UL control signaling includes a scheduling request (Zhang et al., [0379] the sending module is configured to send SPS resource information to the user equipment, where the SPS resource information is used to indicate resource information and beam index information that are allocated by the base station for the user equipment), periodic UL reference signal, aperiodic UL reference signal, periodic channel quality report, and/or aperiodic channel quality report (Zhang et al., [0396] a sending module is configured to send an RRM measurement report, where the RRM measurement report is obtained after the user equipment performs RRM measurement on the initial beam that is indicated by the initial beam index information). The motivation is the same as in claim 26.
Regarding claims 35, 45, Saily et al. - Stern-Berkowitz et al. - Zhang et al. disclose validity of the second TA value is maintained if the first TA value becomes invalid (Zhang et al., [0439] when the TAT in the TA set received by the receiving module has expired, detect whether the cell identifier in the TA set corresponds to beam index information in another TA set and whether a TAT in the another TA set has not expired), and validity of the first TA value is maintained if the second TA value becomes invalid (Zhang et al., [0442] if it is detected that a beam 3 associated with the cell 1 is further in a TA set 2 and a TAT in the TA set 2 has not expired, the user equipment maintains a HARQ buffer area and an SRS resource that correspond to the cell and does not send an SRS or a HARQ ACK/NACK on the beam 1). The motivation is the same as in claim 26.
Regarding claim 36, Saily et al. discloses a communication device (Saily et al., FIG. 3, 5G-UE 206, in relation to FIG. 1, UE 110) comprising: a control circuit (Saily et al., FIG. 1, control module 140-1); a processor installed in the control circuit (Saily et al., FIG. 1, processor 120); a memory installed in the control circuit (Saily et al., FIG. 1, memory 125) and coupled to the processor; and wherein the processor is configured to execute a program code stored in the memory (Saily et al., [0022] the one or more memories include computer program code executed by the one or more processors) to perform the steps of:
maintaining multiple timing advance (TA) values (Saily et al., [0038] multi-connectivity allows a user equipment to connect to multiple cells such as mmWave and lower frequencies in order to create a more robust connection and to enable services requiring ultra-reliable low latency communications (URLLC) in relation to [0075] a UE is configured to transmit uplink beacon signals in RRC_CONNECTED_INACTIVE state with cell-specific uplink timing shift to enable the estimation of uplink timing advance in network side) for a serving cell (Saily et al., FIG. 3, 5G-CU 304, in relation to FIG. 1, 5G-CU 191; [0076] the beacon signals are received by Distributed Units with each DU being connected to a Central Unit in relation to [0078] the Central Unit maintains a set of candidate links per UE, representing the preferred choices for a multi-connectivity session and also cell-specific uplink timing advance values per UE),
wherein the multiple TA values include a first TA value and a second TA value (Saily et al., [0115] the UE is aware of the radio resources from multiple DUs connecting to same/different CUs and the incoming beacon from UE to multiple DUs is available in the CU in relation to [0118] the UE transmits an uplink signal that may include a cell-specific timing shift, where the at least one connection message may include cell-specific uplink timing advance values for each of the at least two network nodes);
receiving a first information indicating a first association with a first node and a second association with a second node (Saily et al., [0080] the network sends a command to the UE to resume multi-connectivity to indicated cells, where this message comprises cell-specific timing advance value(s) to be applied for subsequent UL transmissions in relation to [0118] receiving the at least one connection message may include receiving a first connection message from a first network node comprising a command to connect to the first network node, and receiving a second connection message from a second network node comprising a command to connect to the second network node, where each of the one or more network nodes may be connected to a centralized network node);
Saily et al. does not expressly disclose the first information indicating a first association between a first beam and the first TA value and a second association between a second beam and the second TA value; receiving a second information indicating a third association between a configured uplink grant and the first beam; clearing the configured uplink grant and flushing a Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) buffer associated with the serving cell if all of the multiple TA values are invalid; and clearing the configured uplink grant and refraining from flushing the HARQ buffer if the first TA value is invalid and the second TA value is valid.
Stern-Berkowitz et al., for example from an analogous field of endeavor (Stern-Berkowitz et al., [0090] that timing advances (TAs) may be applied in order to account for signals arriving at an eNB at different times due to cell size in relation to [0091] a WTRU may receive TA commands, for example, from a cell or an eNB with which the WTRU may communicate) discloses first information indicating a first association between a first beam and the first TA value and a second association between a second beam and the second TA value (Stern-Berkowitz et al., [0024] beamforming may be used to transmit and/or receive signals in desired spatial directions in relation to [0091] a WTRU may apply one or more received TA commands to adjust its UL timing, where a TA command may provide a TA value or a TA adjustment and [0106 - 0107] a WTRU or a MAC entity of a WTRU may have and/or maintain at least one time alignment timer (TAT), where the WTRU may have and/or maintain a TAT for a or each timing advance group (TAG) and the TAT may be used to control how long a MAC entity considers the serving cells associated with the TAG to be uplink time aligned);
receiving a second information indicating a third association between a configured uplink grant and the first (Stern-Berkowitz et al., [0109] when a TAT expires or a MAC entity determines that a TAT expires, or when a MAC entity considers a TAT to have expired, the MAC entity may perform at least one TAT expiry action in relation to [0307] a flag or indicator, a transmission stop or suspend flag or indicator, may indicate that at least some UL transmissions may not be performed, where one or more UL transmissions may be associated with a TTI and/or a TAG);
clearing the configured uplink grant and flushing a Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) buffer associated with the serving cell if all of the multiple TA values are invalid (Stern-Berkowitz et al., [0110] flushing one or more or all HARQ buffers for one or more or all serving cells, which may belong to or be associated with the TAG for which the TAT expired); and clearing the configured uplink grant (Stern-Berkowitz et al., [0112] releasing and/or notifying radio resource control (RRC) to release the physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) and/or sounding reference signal (SRS), for one or more or all serving cells that belong to the TAG for which the TAT may have expired).
Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine first information indicating a first association between a first beam and the first TA value and a second association between a second beam and the second TA value; receiving a second information indicating a third association between a configured uplink grant and the first beam; clearing the configured uplink grant and flushing a Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request (HARQ) buffer associated with the serving cell if all of the multiple TA values are invalid; and clearing the configured uplink grant as taught by Stern-Berkowitz et al. with the system of Saily et al. - in order to flush a HARQ buffer that correspond to an invalid TA value (Stern-Berkowitz et al., [0112]).
Although Stern-Berkowitz et al., discloses flushing HARQ buffers associated with the TAG for which the TAT expired; Saily et al. - Stern-Berkowitz et al. do not expressly disclose refraining from flushing the HARQ buffer if the first TA value is invalid and the second TA value is valid.
Zhang et al., for example, from an analogous field of endeavor (Zhang et al., [0439] when the time alignment timer (TAT) in the TA set received by the receiving module has expired, detect whether the cell identifier in the TA set corresponds to beam index information in another TA set and whether a TAT in the another TA set has not expired) discloses refraining from flushing the HARQ buffer if the first TA value is invalid and the second TA value is valid (Zhang et al., [0442] after user equipment detects that a TAT has expired, if it is detected that a beam 3 associated with the cell 1 is further in a TA set 2 and a TAT in the TA set 2 has not expired, the user equipment maintains a HARQ buffer area and an SRS resource that correspond to the cell and does not send an SRS or a HARQ ACK/NACK on the beam 1).
Thus, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine refraining from flushing the HARQ buffer if the first TA value is invalid and the second TA value is valid as taught by Zhang et al. with the combined system of Saily et al. - Stern-Berkowitz et al. in order to maintains a HARQ buffer that correspond to the valid TA value (Zhang et al., [0442]).
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
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/L.P./Examiner, Art Unit 2416
/NOEL R BEHARRY/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2416