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 .
DETAILED ACTION
a. A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 11/04/2025 has been entered.
Claims 11-30 in the present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, are being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
- claims 11, 22 , and 23 are amended
- claims 15, and 27-29 are canceled
b. This is a first action on the merits based on Applicant’s claims submitted on 11/04/2025.
Response to Arguments
Regarding Independent claims 11, 22, and 23 previously rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103, Applicant's arguments, see “As described below, the cited references, whether considered separately or in combination, fail to teach at least the above-referenced limitation of amended independent claim 11. The same is true regarding amended independent claims 22 and 23, which each recite a similar limitation as the above-referenced limitation of amended independent claim 11.” on page 10, filed on 11/04/2025, with respect to Bienas et al. US Pub 2014/0126460 (hereinafter “Bienas”), in view of Yiu of et al. US Pub 2019/0044689, claiming provisional application 62564787 priority 2017-09-28 (hereinafter “Yiu”), and further in view of LG NPL “RACH procedure”, 3GPP R1-1715846, Sept. 18-21, 2017 (hereinafter “LG”), have been fully considered but are moot, over the limitations of “the RACH resource being specified after receiving the RRC signaling”. Said limitations are newly added to the amended Claims 11, 22, and 23 and have been addressed in instant office action, as shown in section 35 USC 103 rejection below, with newly identified prior art teaching from newly found reference Amuru et al. US Patent 105422562, claiming foreign application priority 2017-05-05 (hereinafter “Amuru”), in combination with previously applied references Bienas, Yiu, and LG, thus rendering said Applicant’s arguments moot.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 08/21/2025 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
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 of this title, 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.
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 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.
Claims 11-14, 16-26, and 30 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bienas et al. US Pub 2014/0126460 (hereinafter “Bienas”), in view of Yiu of et al. US Pub 2019/0044689, claiming provisional application 62564787 priority 2017-09-28 (hereinafter “Yiu”), and further in view of LG NPL “RACH procedure”, 3GPP R1-1715846, Sept. 18-21, 2017 (hereinafter “LG”) and of Amuru et al. US Patent 105422562, claiming foreign application priority 2017-05-05 (hereinafter “Amuru”).
Regarding claim 11 (Currently Amended)
Bienas discloses a terminal (e.g. “UE 202” in Fig. 2A; “terminal 300” in Fig. 3) comprising:
a receiver (“receiver 308” in Fig. 3) that receives, from a base station apparatus (“Base Station 204” in Fig. 2A), Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling (“The base station 406 may provide information about the allocated radio network resources by transmitting a response 506 (e.g. a RRC Connection Setup message) to the terminal 404” [0128]) including information on one or more frequency positions of one or more Random Access Channel (RACH) resources and information on a number of the one or more RACH resources in a frequency direction (“the RACH occasion may be a position in frequency and/or time at which the UE 202 may send an UL transmission to the base station 204. The position in frequency and/or time of these RACH occasions may be configured by the mobile radio network and broadcasted by the base station 204 to the UE 202 within the system information.” [0035]);
a processor (“controller 306” in Fig. 3) that identifies, based on the RRC signaling (i.e. “RRC Connection Setup message”), a RACH resource for transmitting a random access preamble (“The base station 406 may allocate radio network resources to the terminal 404 based on the forwarded request 414. In other words, the base station 406 may select radio network resources for the terminal 404. For example, the base station 406 may allocate a time slot (e.g. a timing alignment value and/or a timing advance value) and/or a frequency sub-band and/or an access code (e.g. RACH preamble) to the terminal 404. The base station 406 may provide information about the allocated radio network resources by transmitting a response 416 (e.g. a RRC Connection Setup message) to the relay device 402 using the cellular network connection (e.g. LTE network connection) established between the relay device 402 and the base station 406.” [0108]; Fig. 2A); and
a transmitter (“transmitter 304” in Fig. 3) that transmits the random access preamble to the base station apparatus (“The UE 202 may transmit the preamble to base station 204 in the next available RACH occasion at 208.” [0035]; Fig. 2A),
Bienas does not specifically teach wherein, for the one or more RACH resources in each BWP, one or more indexes are numbered in the frequency direction based on the number of the one or more RACH resources in the frequency direction; wherein the information indicating the association is included in the RRC signaling including, for each BWP, the information on the one or more frequency positions of the one or more RACH resources and the information on the number of the one or more RACH resources in the frequency direction.
In an analogous art, Yiu discloses wherein, for the one or more RACH resources in each BWP (“An initial active DL BWP is defined by a location and number of contiguous PRBs, a subcarrier spacing and a cyclic prefix.” [0100]), one or more indexes (i.e. numerology; “Generally, each BWP is associated with a specific numerology, i.e., subcarrier spacing (SCS) and cyclic prefix (CP) type. A network can configure multiple BWPs to a UE via Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling, which may overlap in frequency.” [0027]) are numbered in the frequency direction based on the number of the one or more RACH resources in the frequency direction (“The implicit indication can be indicated in the PBCH as a frequency position of the CORESET with respect to a synchronization signal (SS) block, which could imply that the initial BWP is the BWP that encloses the CORESET and SS block.” [0107]),
wherein the information is included in the RRC signaling ("A network can configure multiple BWPs to a UE via Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling, which may overlap in frequency.” [0027] and furthermore “The bwp-Id is an identifier for this bandwidth part. The RRC configuration can use the bwp-Id to associate with a particular bandwidth part.” [0162]) including, for each BWP, the information (i.e. “implicit indication” [0107]) on the one or more frequency positions of the one or more RACH resources and the information on the number of the one or more RACH resources (e.g. “SS block”) in the frequency direction (“The implicit indication can be indicated in the PBCH as a frequency position of the CORESET with respect to a synchronization signal (SS) block, which could imply that the initial BWP is the BWP that encloses the CORESET and SS block.” [0107]).
Before the effective filling date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify Bienas’ principle of the RRC signaling from the BS to the UE, to include Yiu’s method for allocating and use of bandwidth parts, in order to maximize resources utilization and efficiency (Yiu [0004-0006]).
Bienas and Yiu do not specifically teach wherein the receiver receives, for each BWP of a plurality of BWPs, information indicating association between a RACH resource and a synchronization signal block,
wherein indexes of the synchronization signal blocks, the indexes being received by the receiver, are mapped in an increasing order to the RACH resources located in the frequency direction based on the information indicating the association, and
wherein the processor extracts a subset of the one or more RACH resources based on one index of the indexes of the synchronization signal blocks, and the processor selects, from the extracted subset of the one or more RACH resources, a RACH resource that is specified by the base station apparatus, as the RACH resource for transmitting the random access preamble.
In an analogous art, LG discloses wherein the receiver receives, for each BWP of a plurality of BWPs (“The frequency position of RACH resources is signaled in terms of UL initial BWP and the resource allocation information for PRACH transmission within the BWP” Fig. 2, Section 2.1), information indicating association between a RACH resource and a synchronization signal block (“Association of RACH resource and SS block index. Having the RACH resource information as described above, associated SS block index per RACH resource should be provided. Easiest way is to signal the associated SS block index per RACH resource. However, in order to reduce over-the-air signalling, SS blocks are proposed to be mapped on the RACH resources with predefined rules.” On page 4, section 2.1),
wherein indexes of the synchronization signal blocks, the indexes being received by the receiver, are mapped in an increasing order (i.e. “in a sequential manner”) to the RACH resources (“Association of RACH resource and SS block index. Having the RACH resource information as described above, associated SS block index per RACH resource should be provided. Easiest way is to signal the associated SS block index per RACH resource. However, in order to reduce over-the-air signalling, SS blocks are proposed to be mapped on the RACH resources with predefined rules.” On page 4, section 2.1) located in the frequency direction (“The frequency position of RACH resources is signaled in terms of UL initial BWP and the resource allocation information for PRACH transmission within the BWP.” On page 4, section 2.1) based on the information indicating the association (“Having the RACH resource information as described above, associated SS block index per RACH resource should be provided. Easiest way is to signal the associated SS block index per RACH resource. However, in order to reduce over-the-air signalling, SS blocks are proposed to be mapped on the RACH resources with predefined rules.
We propose the mapping rules of SS blocks to RACH resources as follows:
Proposal: SS blocks are to be mapped to RACH resource group in time domain in a sequential manner. Actual transmitted SS blocks are mapped to RACH resource group.” On page 4, section 2.1), and
wherein the processor extracts a subset of the one or more RACH resources based on one index of the indexes of the synchronization signal blocks (“Association of RACH resources and SS block index”, on page 4, section 2.1) , and the processor applies, from the extracted subset (i.e. “RACH resource group”) of the one or more RACH resources (“Actual transmitted SS blocks are mapped to RACH resource group.” On page 4, section 2.1) , a RACH resource that is specified by the base station apparatus (i.e. “network”) as the RACH resource for transmitting the random access preamble (“Mapping of PRACH preamble per RACH resource”, on page 3, section 2.1).
Before the effective filling date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify Bienas’ principle of the RRC signaling from the BS to the UE including the information on RACH resources for each BWP, as modified by Yiu, to include LG’s RACH procedure which when applied to the UE as disclosed by Bienas, enable RACH resources to be efficiently allocated in an NR system.
Bienas, Yiu, and LG do not specifically teach the RACH resource being specified after receiving the RRC signaling.
In an analogous art, Amuru discloses wherein the processor extracts a subset of the one or more RACH resources, and the RACH resource being specified after receiving the RRC signaling (“transmitting, to the UE, configuration information for contention-free random access, wherein the configuration information includes information for indicating a subset of RACH resources for the contention-free random access associated with each of one or more channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) resources used for radio resource management (RRM) measurement, wherein the configuration information is transmitted based on a radio resource control (RRC) signaling, and wherein the one or more CSI-RS resources are configured as a UE-specific.” {Claim 7 test]).
Before the effective filling date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify Bienas’ principle of the RRC signaling from the BS to the UE including the information on RACH resources for each BWP, as modified by Yiu and LG, to include Amuru’s method for managing a random access channel (RACH) configuration in the wireless communication system, in order to enable RACH resources to be efficiently allocated in an NR system. Thus, a person of ordinary skill would have appreciated the ability to incorporate Amuru’s method for managing a random access channel (RACH) configuration in the wireless communication system into Bienas’ principle of the RRC signaling from the BS to the UE since the claimed invention is merely a combination of old elements, and in the combination each element merely would have performed the same function as it did separately, and one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the results of the combination were predictable.
Examiner’s Notes: in an analogous art, Chen (US Pub 2020/0252969) also discloses the RACH resource being specified after receiving the RRC signaling (“The common RACH resource may include preamble codes, time-domain resources and/or frequency-domain resources carried in a system message or an RRC message issued by the network device for the random access process.” [0071]; also [0034]; [0058])
Regarding claim 12
Bienas, as modified by Yiu, LG, and Amuru, previously discloses the terminal according to claim 11,
LG further discloses wherein the information on the one or more frequency positions of the one or more RACH resources indicates a frequency position of a RACH resource that is a reference (“If the information on the RACH slots is clearly provided, RACH resources within each RACH slots are implicitly obtained from the combination of PRACH preamble format and PRACH msg.1 subcarrier spacing. In order to exactly inform the RACH resource location within a slot, network should also provide slot type information, for example, signalling of starting symbol index of RACH resource as shown in the Figure 2. The slot type signalling can be per RACH slot, but due to signalling overheads, it is more preferable to apply over all RACH slots.” Fig. 2, Section 2.1).
Regarding claim 13
Bienas, as modified by Yiu, LG, and Amuru, previously discloses the terminal according to claim 11,
LG further discloses wherein the processor calculates a Random Access Radio Network Temporary Identifier (RA-RNTI) based on a frequency position of the RACH resource in the BWP, the random access preamble being mapped to the RACH resource (“RA-RNTI in LTE is calculated as, RA-RNTI = 1+T_id+10*F_id, where, T_id is subframe number and F_id is frequency position of RACH resource in TDD system. In NR, RA-RNTI for reception of RAR should be determined. It can be calculated m similar way as LTE and the way of deciding the value of T_id becomes more complex, which can be slot level resolution, symbol group index or symbol number index. In an extreme case, up to 12 of RA-RNTIs are calculated in a slot if T_id resolution is symbol level. With introducing RACH resource group, T_id for RA-RNTI is in terms of RACH resource group size in time, like as a function of slot index and starting symbol index within the slot.
Proposal: RA-RNTI is shared among RACTI resources within RACH resource group, for example,
- RA-RNTT is calculated in a similar manner as in LTE, with some modifications on T_id as
* T_id is unique value among RACII resource group
* T_idcan be a function of slot index and starting symbol index within the slot” Section 2.1), and
wherein the receiver receives a response to the random access preamble based on the RA-RNTI (“If gNB successfully receives the PRACH preamble from a UE, gNB transmits RAR (Random Access Response, message 2). In LTE, UE monitors RAR within the RAR window and tries to search PDCCH masked with RA-RNTI.” Section 2.1).
Regarding claim 14
Bienas, as modified by Yiu, LG, and Amuru, previously discloses the terminal according to claim 11,
LG further discloses wherein the processor (as taught by Bienas) calculates a Random Access Radio Network Temporary identifier (RA-RNTI) based on an index in the frequency direction of the RACH resource to which the random access preamble is mapped (“If gNB successfully receives the PRACH preamble from a UE, gNB transmits RAR (Random Access Response, message 2). In LTE, UE monitors RAR within the RAR window and tries to search PDCCH masked with RA-RNTI. RA-RNTI in LTE is calculated as, RA-RNTI = 1+T_id+10*F_id, where, T_id is subframe number and F_id is frequency position of RACH resource in TDD system. In NR, RA-RNTI for reception of RAR should be determined. It can be calculated in similar way as LTE and the way of deciding the value of T_id becomes more complex, which can be slot level resolution, symbol group index or symbol number index. In an extreme case, up to 12 of RA-RNTIs are calculated in a slot if T_id resolution is symbol level. With introducing RACH resource group, T_id for RA-RNTI is in terms of RACH resource group size in time, like as a function of slot index and starting symbol index within the slot.” 2.1 - RA-RNTI), and
wherein the receiver (as taught by Bienas) receives a response to the random access preamble based on the RA-RNTI (“gNB transmits RAR (Random Access Response, message 2). In LTE, UE monitors RAR within the RAR window and tries to search PDCCH masked with RA-RNTI.” 2.1 - RA-RNTI).
Regarding claim 16
Bienas, as modified by Yiu, LG, and Amuru, previously discloses the terminal according to claim 11,
Yiu further discloses wherein the RRC signaling includes information on a frequency position and a bandwidth of each of a plurality of BWP (“The implicit indication can be indicated in the PBCH as a frequency position of the CORESET with respect to a synchronization signal (SS) block, which could imply that the initial BWP is the BWP that encloses the CORESET and SS block.” [0107]), and
wherein the processor (as taught by Bienas) identifies a frequency position and a bandwidth of a BWP for transmitting the random access preamble based on the RRC signaling (“The IE 700 includes fields under BWP-UplinkCommon as pucch-ConfigCommon, pusch-ConfigCommon, rach-ConfigCommon and generic parameters. The pucch-ConfigCommon includes cell specific parameters for the PUCCH. The pusch-ConficCommon includes cell specific parameters for the PUCCH. The rach-ConfigCommon includes configuration of cell specific random access parameters which the UE uses for contention based and contention free random access as well as for contention based beam failure recovery. The NW configures SSB-based RA (and hence RACH-ConfigCommon) only for UL BWPs if the linked DL BWPs allows the UE to acquire the SSB associated to the serving cell.” [0163]).
Regarding claim 17
Bienas, as modified by Yiu, LG, and Amuru, previously discloses the terminal according to claim 11,
Yiu further discloses wherein the receiver receives the RRC signaling corresponding to each of a plurality of BWPs (“There are various types or states of BWPs used for UE 401 operation. These types include initial BWP, default BWP and active BWP as shown below in FIG. 5. BWPs can also be activated (active) and/or deactivated (deactive). Signaling, such as RRC signaling, can be used to alter the states of BWPs.” [0094]) including a first BWP for initial access (“The one or more processors are configured to generate a bandwidth part (BWP) configuration for a user equipment (UE) device, where the BWP configuration includes an initial BWP for the UE device;”[Abstract]), and
wherein the processor determines a BWP for transmitting the random access preamble from the plurality of BWPs (“The bwp-Id is an identifier for this bandwidth part. The RRC configuration can use the bwp-Id to associate with a particular bandwidth part. The BWP ID=0 is associated with the initial BWP. The network (NW) may trigger the UE to switch UL or DL BWP using a DCI field. The four code points in that DCI field can map to the RRC-configured BWP-ID as follows: For up to 3 configured BWPs (in addition to the initial BWP) the DCI code point is equivalent to the BWP ID (initial=0, first dedicated=1, . . . ).” [0162] and furthermore “The UE 401 transitions 516 from the initial BWP 502 to the active BWP 504 when radio resource control (RRC) indicates the UE 401 is in a connected mode with data. This is the RRC connected mode with data.” [0142]) based on the first BWP (i.e. “initial BWP”).
Regarding claim 18
Bienas, as modified by Yiu, LG, and Amuru, previously discloses the terminal according to claim 17,
Yiu further discloses wherein the BWP for transmitting the random access preamble is the first BWP for the initial access (“The one or more processors are configured to generate a bandwidth part (BWP) configuration for a user equipment (UE) device, where the BWP configuration includes an initial BWP for the UE device;”[Abstract]).
Regarding claim 19
Bienas, as modified by Yiu, LG, and Amuru, previously discloses the terminal according to claim 11,
Yiu further discloses wherein the receiver receives the RRC signaling corresponds to each of a plurality of BWPs including a first BWP for initial access (“In one example, an indication or signal is used to indicate that initial BWP if different from BW. The indication can be an explicit indication in the physical broadcast channel (PBCH) or in the remaining minimum system information (RMSI). The indication can be an implicit indication by, for example, using a common control resource set (CORSET) configuration for RMSI, which is indicated in the PBCH. The implicit indication can be indicated in the PBCH as a frequency position of the CORESET with respect to a synchronization signal (SS) block, which could imply that the initial BWP is the BWP that encloses the CORESET and SS block.” [0107]), and
wherein, by the RRC signaling, one or more BWPs are configured, each having a bandwidth that is the same as that of the first BWP (“For a first option (Option A) to perform the RRM measurement for a neighboring cell, All SS blocks of intra-frequency cells are located in the same center frequency (e.g., the initial BWP). In this option, the UE 401 can perform measurement of all cells using the same center frequency.” [0129]).
Regarding claim 20
Bienas, as modified by Yiu, LG, and Amuru, previously discloses the terminal according to claim 11,
Yiu further discloses wherein the receiver receives the RRC signaling corresponds to each of a plurality of BWPs including a first BWP for initial access (“In one example, an indication or signal is used to indicate that initial BWP if different from BW. The indication can be an explicit indication in the physical broadcast channel (PBCH) or in the remaining minimum system information (RMSI). The indication can be an implicit indication by, for example, using a common control resource set (CORSET) configuration for RMSI, which is indicated in the PBCH. The implicit indication can be indicated in the PBCH as a frequency position of the CORESET with respect to a synchronization signal (SS) block, which could imply that the initial BWP is the BWP that encloses the CORESET and SS block.” [0107]), and
wherein, by the RRC signaling, one or more BWPs are configured, each having a bandwidth that differs from that of the first BWP (“In one example, an indication or signal is used to indicate that initial BWP if different from BW. The indication can be an explicit indication in the physical broadcast channel (PBCH) or in the remaining minimum system information (RMSI). The indication can be an implicit indication by, for example, using a common control resource set (CORSET) configuration for RMSI, which is indicated in the PBCH. The implicit indication can be indicated in the PBCH as a frequency position of the CORESET with respect to a synchronization signal (SS) block, which could imply that the initial BWP is the BWP that encloses the CORESET and SS block.” [0107]).
Regarding claim 21
Bienas, as modified by Yiu, LG, and Amuru, previously discloses the terminal according to claim 11,
Yiu further discloses wherein the receiver receives the RRC signaling corresponds to each of a plurality of BWPs including a first BWP for initial access (“In one example, an indication or signal is used to indicate that initial BWP if different from BW. The indication can be an explicit indication in the physical broadcast channel (PBCH) or in the remaining minimum system information (RMSI). The indication can be an implicit indication by, for example, using a common control resource set (CORSET) configuration for RMSI, which is indicated in the PBCH. The implicit indication can be indicated in the PBCH as a frequency position of the CORESET with respect to a synchronization signal (SS) block, which could imply that the initial BWP is the BWP that encloses the CORESET and SS block.” [0107]), and
wherein, by the RRC signaling, one or more BWPs are configured, each having a bandwidth including the first BWP (“Generally, each BWP is associated with a specific numerology, i.e., subcarrier spacing (SCS) and cyclic prefix (CP) type. A network can configure multiple BWPs to a UE via Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling, which may overlap in frequency.” [0027]).
Regarding claim 22 (Currently Amended)
A method by a terminal, the method comprising:
receiving, from a base station apparatus, Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling including, for each Bandwidth Part (BWP), information on one or more frequency positions of one or more Random Access Channel (RACH) resources and information on a number of the one or more RACH resources in a frequency direction;
identifying, based on the RRC signaling, a RACH resource for transmitting a random access preamble; and
transmitting the random access preamble to the base station apparatus,
wherein, for the one or more RACH resources in each BWP, one or more indexes are numbered in the frequency direction based on the number of the one or more RACH resources in the frequency direction,
wherein the receiving receives, for each BWP of a plurality of BWPs, information indicating association between a RACH resource and a synchronization signal block,
wherein the information indicating the association is included in the RRC signaling including, for each BWP, the information on the one or more frequency positions of the one or more RACH resources and the information on the number of the one or more RACH resources in the frequency direction, and
wherein indexes of the synchronization signal blocks, the indexes being received by the receiving, are mapped to an increasing order of the RACH resources located in the frequency direction based on the information indicating the association, and
wherein the terminal extracts a subset of the one or more RACH resources based on one index of the indexes of the synchronization signal blocks, and the terminal applies, from the extracted subset of the one or more RACH resources, a RACH resource that is specified by the base station apparatus, the RACH resource being specified after receiving the RRC signaling, as the RACH resource for transmitting the random access preamble.
The scope and subject matter of method claim 22 is drawn to the method of using the corresponding apparatus claimed in claim 11. Therefore method claim 22 corresponds to apparatus claim 11 and is rejected for the same reasons of obviousness as used in claim 11 rejection above.
Regarding claim 23 (Currently Amended)
Bienas discloses a base station apparatus (“Base Station 204” in Fig. 2A) comprising:
a transmitter (“In FIG. 1, each base station 106a, 106b, and 106c may be configured to transmit a downlink (DL) signal at a particular power to cover a particular geographical area.” [0022]. For one skilled in the art, the “transmit a downlink signal” activity implies the existence of a transmitter.) that transmits Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling including, for each Bandwidth Part (BWP), information on one or more frequency positions of one or more Random Access Channel (RACH) resources and information on a number of the one or more RACH resources in a frequency direction (as afore-mentioned in claim 11 discussion); and
a receiver that receives (“The base station 406 may receive a connection request 412 from the terminal 404 within a message (e.g. a forwarded request 414) received from the relay device 402.” [0116]. For one skilled in the art, the “receive a connection request” activity implies the existence of a receiver.), from a terminal, a random access preamble that is transmitted in a RACH resource identified by the terminal based on the RRC signaling (as afore-mentioned in claim 11 discussion),
wherein, for the one or more RACH resources in each BWP, one or more indexes are numbered in the frequency direction based on the number of the one or more RACH resources in the frequency direction,
wherein the transmitter transmits, for each BWP of a plurality of BWPs, information indicating association between a RACH resource and a synchronization signal block,
wherein the information indicating the association is included in the RRC signaling including, for each BWP, the information on the one or more frequency positions of the one or more RACH resources and the information on the number of the one or more RACH resources in the frequency direction, and
wherein indexes of the synchronization signal blocks, the indexes being transmitted by the transmitter, are mapped to an increasing order of the RACH resources located in the frequency direction based on the information indicating the association, and
wherein the terminal extracts a subset of the one or more RACH resources based on one index of the indexes of the synchronization signal blocks, and the terminal applies, from the extracted subset of the one or more RACH resources, a RACH resource that is specified by the base station apparatus, the RACH resource being specified after receiving the RRC signaling, as the RACH resource for transmitting the random access preamble (as afore-mentioned in claim 11 discussion).
The scope and subject matter of method claim 23 is similar to the scope and subject matter of the method as claimed in claim 22. Therefore method claim 23 corresponds to method claim 22 and is rejected for the same reasons of obviousness as used in claim 22 rejection above.
Regarding claim 24
The terminal according to claim 12, wherein the processor calculates a Random Access Radio Network Temporary Identifier (RA-RNTI) based on a frequency position of the RACH resource in the BWP, the random access preamble
being mapped to the RACH resource, and
wherein the receiver receives a response to the random access preamble based on the RA-RNTI.
The scope and subject matter of apparatus claim 24 is similar to the scope and subject matter of the apparatus as claimed in claim 13. Therefore apparatus claim 24 corresponds to apparatus claim 13 and is rejected for the same reasons of obviousness as used in claim 13 rejection above.
Regarding claim 25
The terminal according to claim 12,
wherein the processor calculates a Random Access Radio Network Temporary Identifier (RA-RNTI) based on an index in the frequency direction of the RACH resource to which the random access preamble is mapped, and
wherein the receiver receives a response to the random access preamble based on the RA-RNTI.
The scope and subject matter of apparatus claim 25 is similar to the scope and subject matter of the apparatus as claimed in claim 14. Therefore apparatus claim 25 corresponds to apparatus claim 14 and is rejected for the same reasons of obviousness as used in claim 14 rejection above.
Regarding claim 26
The terminal according to claim 13,
wherein the processor calculates the RA-RNTI based on an index in the frequency direction of the RACH resource to which the random access preamble is mapped, and
wherein the receiver receives a response to the random access preamble based on the RA-RNTI.
The scope and subject matter of apparatus claim 26 is similar to the scope and subject matter of the apparatus as claimed in claim 14. Therefore apparatus claim 26 corresponds to apparatus claim 14 and is rejected for the same reasons of obviousness as used in claim 14 rejection above.
Regarding claim 30
The terminal according to claim 12, wherein the RRC signaling includes information on a frequency position and a bandwidth of each of a plurality of BWP, and
wherein the processor identifies a frequency position and a bandwidth of a BWP for transmitting the random access preamble based on the RRC signaling.
The scope and subject matter of apparatus claim 30 is similar to the scope and subject matter of the apparatus as claimed in claim 16. Therefore apparatus claim 30 corresponds to apparatus claim 16 and is rejected for the same reasons of obviousness as used in claim 16 rejection above.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CHUONG M NGUYEN whose telephone number is (571)272-8184. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 10:00am - 6:30pm.
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/CHUONG M NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2411