DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Priorities and Examiner Remarks
This application claims priority from provisional application 62962892 (filed 01/17/2020).
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 10/27/2025 has been entered.
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 set forth in Graham v. John Deere Co., 383 U.S. 1, 148 USPQ 459 (1966), that are applied 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 nonobviousness.
Claims 31-50 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over CHENG, YU-HSIN (US 20190379506 A1, hereinafter CHENG), in view of YANG et al. (WO 2019154066 A1, hereinafter YANG, NOTE: corresponding application US20210051667A1 is currently used below for translation and citation purposes).
Regarding claim 31, CHENG teaches a method of wireless communication performed by a user equipment (UE), comprising (in general, see para. 46-57 and fig. 1, 3, and 4):
receiving a first synchronization signal block (SSB) from a first remote radio head (RRH) in a serving cell (CHENG, see at least para. 50, “...The TRP information may help a UE to identify the correspondence between multiple TRPs and DL RS resources. In some implementations, the DL RS resources may be Quasi Co-Location (QCL) associated RS resources, such as Synchronization Signal Blocks (SSBs), CSI-RSs, and Phase-Tracking Reference Signals (PT-RSs). With the TRP information, the UE may know from which base station/TRP the transmitted DL RSs are received...”),
wherein the first SSB includes a first physical cell identity (PCI) index for identifying the first RRH and includes a first SSB identification (ID) (CHENG, see at least para. 51 along with fig. 3, “…the TRP information may include indices of DL RSs (e.g., CSI-RS indices or SSB indices) for representing the DL beams of the TRPs. In some implementations, the TRP information may include multiple TRP IDs and/or Physical Cell Identities (PCIs) which represent different TRPs. In some other implementations, the TRP information may include a TRP mapping table which contains multiple TRP indices and DL RS resource indices...”),
wherein the first PCI index and the first SSB ID are encoded in a same field of the first SSB (CHENG, see at least para. 51 along para. 57 and fig. 3, “…As discussed above, a UE may know the correspondence/relationship between a TRP and a CSI-RS resource/SSB based on the TRP information. In some implementations, if the TRP information includes (or represented as) a TRP mapping table, the number of rows in the TRP mapping table may correspond to the number of available TRPs for the UE,...”, note that “...Different DL RS resource indices in the same row may be associated with different DL RSs transmitted from the same TRP...”);
receiving a second SSB from a second RRH in the serving cell (CHENG, see at least para. 50, “...The TRP information may help a UE to identify the correspondence between multiple TRPs and DL RS resources. In some implementations, the DL RS resources may be Quasi Co-Location (QCL) associated RS resources, such as Synchronization Signal Blocks (SSBs), CSI-RSs, and Phase-Tracking Reference Signals (PT-RSs). With the TRP information, the UE may know from which base station/TRP the transmitted DL RSs are received...”),
wherein the second SSB includes a second PCI index for identifying the second RRH and includes a second SSB ID (CHENG, see at least para. 51 along with fig. 3, “…the TRP information may include indices of DL RSs (e.g., CSI-RS indices or SSB indices) for representing the DL beams of the TRPs. In some implementations, the TRP information may include multiple TRP IDs and/or Physical Cell Identities (PCIs) which represent different TRPs. In some other implementations, the TRP information may include a TRP mapping table which contains multiple TRP indices and DL RS resource indices...”),
wherein the second PCI index and the second SSB ID are encoded in a same field of the second SSB (CHENG, see at least para. 51 along para. 57 and fig. 3, “…As discussed above, a UE may know the correspondence/relationship between a TRP and a CSI-RS resource/SSB based on the TRP information. In some implementations, if the TRP information includes (or represented as) a TRP mapping table, the number of rows in the TRP mapping table may correspond to the number of available TRPs for the UE,...”, note that “...Different DL RS resource indices in the same row may be associated with different DL RSs transmitted from the same TRP...”, also note that fig. 3 has multiple TRPs);
receiving a control message from the first RRH; and configuring a downlink transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state for the UE responsive to the control message (CHENG, see at least para. 52 along with para. 51, e.g. “…the BS may activate multiple TCI states at the UE through RRC signaling(s), MAC CE(s), or Downlink Control Information (DCI) for PDCCH…”).
CHENG does not explicitly teach transmitting a signal quality report regarding a signal quality of the first SSB; receiving, based at least in part on the signal quality of the first SSB, a control message from the first RRH; [and configuring a downlink transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state for the UE responsive to the control message].
YANG teaches transmitting a signal quality report regarding a signal quality of the first SSB; receiving, based at least in part on the signal quality of the first SSB, a control message from the first RRH; [and configuring a downlink transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state for the UE responsive to the control message] (YANG, in general, see sections including, but not limited to, paragraphs 148-164, in particular, see at least para. 158, “...the terminal performs a beam measurement on the SSB configured by the base station, that is, measuring the quality of the beam where the SSB is located (such as RSRP), and reports the measurement result to the base station through a beam report. The report includes an index of the optimal one or more SSBs and corresponding qualities thereof. According to the beam report, the base station indicates to the terminal the beam for receiving the downlink data channel. In addition, the base station sends a reconfiguration, reactivation, or re-indication command, the function of this command includes configuring the TCI state of CORESET with identification 0 (for example, QCL indication). The TCI state is indicated by the index of the SSB that has a QCL relationship with the CORESET with identification 0 determined by the base station. At this time, the terminal uses reconfiguration/reactivation/re-indication command of the base station to determine the TCI state of the CORESET with identification 0...”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to a person having ordinary skill in the art to incorporate YANG into the method of CHENG for improving the reliability and accuracy of data transmission.
Regarding claim 32, CHENG in view of YANG teaches claim 31.
CHENG further teaches wherein the first SSB is a source reference signal in a quasi-colocation (QCL) relationship established by the downlink TCI state, and wherein the QCL relationship is being one of QCL Type-A, QCL Type-B, QCL Type-C, and QCL Type-D. (CHENG, see at least para. 51, e.g. “…If an entry of the TRP mapping table includes multiple DL RS indices, and all of the DL RSs are Quasi Co-Located (QCL-ed) in the spatial domain (e.g. with a QCL type D or a new QCL type for multi-TRP transmission),...”).
Regarding claim 33, CHENG in view of YANG teaches claim 31.
CHENG further teaches configuring a spatial relation for the UE responsive to the control message, wherein the first SSB serves as a source reference signal for the spatial relation. (CHENG, see at least para. 106 along with para. 61, e.g. “…UE receives a MAC CE including multiple spatial relation information indicators (e.g., SSB indices or CRIs) from the BS…”)
Regarding claim 34, CHENG in view of YANG teaches claim 31.
CHENG further teaches configuring an uplink TCI state for the UE responsive to the control message, wherein the first SSB serves as a source reference signal for the uplink TCI state (CHENG, see at least para. 52 and 61, e.g. “...the BS may activate multiple TCI states at the UE through RRC signaling(s), MAC CE(s), or Downlink Control Information (DCI) for PDCCH and Physical Downlink Shared Channel (PDSCH). Each TCI state may contain spatial domain information...”, note that “...a BS may indicate to a UE, e.g., through a MAC CE message, that multiple UL beams for PUCCH transmission are activated...”).
Regarding claim 35, CHENG in view of YANG teaches claim 33.
CHENG further teaches wherein the control message is a medium access control element (MAC-CE) message that contains a resource ID field including the first PCI index and the first SSB ID. (CHENG, see at least para. 106 of fig. 6 and fig. 5B along with para. 51-52, e.g. “…shown in FIG. 6, the field of spatial relation information indicators [S7 S6 S5 S4 S3 S2 S1 S0] of the MAC CE 602 is represented as [0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1], which means that a MAC CE 602 may activate both of the PUCCH spatial relation info#0 (which is corresponding to the bit S0) and the PUCCH spatial relation info#6 (which is corresponding to the bit S6),…”)
Regarding claim 36, CHENG in view of YANG teaches claim 33.
CHENG further teaches wherein the control message is a Radio Resource Control (RRC) message that includes a spatial relation field including a first SSB index associated with the first PCI index and a second SSB index associated with the second PCI index. (CHENG, see at least para. 105 along fig. 5B and para. 50-52, e.g. “…the PUCCH-Config 504 may further contain spatial relation information (e.g., spatialRelationlnfo) which includes the SSB#0 (which corresponds to the bit S0 in FIG. 6), the SSB#1 (which corresponds to the bit S1 in FIG. 6), the SSB#2 (which corresponds to the bit S2 in FIG. 6), the SSB#3 (which corresponds to the bit S3 in FIG. 6),…”)
Regarding claim 47, CHENG in view of YANG teaches claim 31.
CHENG further teaches configuring, based at least in part on the control message, a spatial relation between a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) message and a beam on which the first SSB is received. (CHENG, see at least para. 106 along fig. 6 and fig. 5B, e.g. “…shown in FIG. 6, the field of spatial relation information indicators [S7 S6 S5 S4 S3 S2 S1 S0] of the MAC CE 602 is represented as [0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1], which means that a MAC CE 602 may activate both of the PUCCH spatial relation info#0 (which is corresponding to the bit S0) and the PUCCH spatial relation info#6 (which is corresponding to the bit S6),…”)
Regarding claim 48, CHENG in view of YANG teaches claim 47.
CHENG further teaches transmitting the PUCCH message using a spatial filter used to receive the first SSB. (CHENG, see at least para. 108 along fig. 6 and fig. 5B, e.g. “…the UE may choose the spatial filter for receiving the SSB#0 as the spatial filter for transmitting the PUCCH resource#10…”)
Regarding claim 49, CHENG in view of YANG teaches claim 31.
CHENG does not explicitly teach wherein the signal quality of the first SSB is a reference signal received power (RSRP) value.
YANG teaches wherein the signal quality of the first SSB is a reference signal received power (RSRP) value (YANG, see at least para. 158, “...the terminal performs a beam measurement on the SSB configured by the base station, that is, measuring the quality of the beam where the SSB is located (such as RSRP), and reports the measurement result to the base station through a beam report...”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to a person having ordinary skill in the art to incorporate YANG into the method of CHENG for improving the reliability and accuracy of data transmission.
Regarding claim 50, CHENG in view of YANG teaches claim 31.
CHENG further teaches using the first SSB as a source reference signal in a beam management relationship based at least in part on the control message. (CHENG, see at least para. 51 and 61, e.g. “...the TRP information may include indices of DL RSs (e.g., CSI-RS indices or SSB indices) for representing the DL beams of the TRPs...”, note that “...a BS may indicate to a UE, e.g., through a MAC CE message, that multiple UL beams for PUCCH transmission are activated...”).
Regarding claims 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, and 46, these claims are rejected for the same reasoning as claims 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 47, 48, 49, and 50, respectively, except each of these claims is in apparatus claim format.
To be more specific, CHENG in view of YANG also teaches a same or similar apparatus with processors and memory (CHENG, see at least fig. 18), which are well known in the art and commonly used for providing and enabling robust and reliable data communication hardware and software.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 10/27/2025 have been fully considered. Regarding newly added independent claims 31 and 37, since applicant's amendment necessitated new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action, previous Office action's rejections are moot. Accordingly, corresponding dependent claims have also been rejected in this Office action.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to YEE F LAM whose telephone number is (571)270-7577. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8am-5pm.
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/YEE F LAM/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2465