DETAILED ACTION
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Response filed 5/22/2026 is acknowledged.
No claims have been amended, cancelled, or added.
Claim 7, 9, 10, and 19 were previously cancelled.
Claims 1-6, 8, 11-18, and 20-23 remain pending.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claims 1, 2, 4-6, 11, 12, 14-17, 20, and 21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being obvious over Cirik et al. (US20200213067A1; supported by Provisional Application 62/787592), hereafter Cirik, in view of Lee et al. (US20210360549A1).
Regarding claim 1,
Cirik (Title: Simultaneous Bandwidth Parts Switching) discloses a method (Fig. 24-28) comprising decoding a radio resource control (RRC) message including an indication to switch operation of a user equipment (UE) from a first bandwidth part (BWP) to a second BWP (Fig. 24; receive RRC configuration for 1st & 2nd cells, initiate/trigger BWP switching for the 2nd cell; Fig. 28, steps 2810-2820; change of active BWP), wherein switching operation from the first BWP to a second BWP imposes a change to at least one predetermined parameter of the first BWP (Fig. 28, step 2820) and causing a switch to the second BWP during an allowed interruption duration to at least one active serving cell (Fig. 28, steps 2840-2850; paragraph 194; RRC processing during time duration of change of 2nd cell), wherein the allowed interruption duration is determined based at least in part on the RRC message including the indication and on the change to the at least one predetermined parameter of the first BWP (Fig. 28, steps 2830-2850; see also Fig. 16-27 and associated paragraphs).
Cirik does not expressly disclose a first and second frequency range of the first and second BWPs that partially overlap or do not overlap, or AGC settling time based on a SSB-based measurement timing configuration (SMTC) periodicity and a number of one or more SSBs needed for AGC settling.
Lee discloses analogous art (Title: Transmitting and Receiving Signal in Wireless Communication System; paragraph 71; BWP switching) including a first and second frequency range of the first and second BWPs that partially overlap or do not overlap (paragraph 17, 137, 171, 190; partially overlapping TTIs) and including AGC settling time based on a SSB-based measurement timing configuration (SMTC) periodicity and a number of one or more SSBs needed for AGC settling (paragraph 239; changing position of sync signals in consideration of AGC settling period based on SSB configuration).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the time of effective filing to modify Cirik by a first and second frequency range of the first and second BWPs that partially overlap or do not overlap, and AGC settling time based on a SSB-based measurement timing configuration (SMTC) periodicity and a number of one or more SSBs needed for AGC settling, as shown by Lee, thereby stabilizing interference when performing BWP switching having different timings.
Regarding claims 11, 14, and 21,
Cirik discloses a user equipment (UE) device (Fig. 3, wireless device 110) comprising one or more baseband processors (Fig. 3, processor 314) and memory storing instructions (Fig. 3, memory 315 storing instructions 316) which, when executed by the one or more processors cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising decoding a radio resource control (RRC) message including an indication to switch operation of a user equipment (UE) from a first bandwidth part (BWP) to a second BWP (Fig. 24; receive RRC configuration for 1st & 2nd cells, initiate/trigger BWP switching for the 2nd cell; Fig. 28, steps 2810-2820; indication to change/alter active BWP), wherein switching operation from the first BWP to a second BWP imposes a change to at least one predetermined parameter of the first BWP (Fig. 28, steps 2840-2850; paragraph 194; RRC processing during time duration of change of 2nd cell) and causing a switch to the second BWP during an allowed interruption duration to at least one active serving cell (Fig. 28, steps 2840-2850; paragraph 194; RRC processing during time duration of change of 2nd cell), wherein the allowed interruption duration is determined based at least in part on the RRC message including the indication and on the change/altering to the at least one predetermined parameter of the first BWP (Fig. 28, steps 2830-2850; see also Fig. 16-27 and associated paragraphs).
Cirik does not expressly disclose a first and second frequency range of the first and second BWPs that partially overlap or do not overlap, or AGC settling time based on a SSB-based measurement timing configuration (SMTC) periodicity and a number of one or more SSBs needed for AGC settling.
Lee discloses analogous art (Title: Transmitting and Receiving Signal in Wireless Communication System; paragraph 71; BWP switching) including a first and second frequency range of the first and second BWPs that partially overlap or do not overlap (paragraph 17, 137, 171, 190; partially overlapping TTIs) and including AGC settling time based on a SSB-based measurement timing configuration (SMTC) periodicity and a number of one or more SSBs needed for AGC settling (paragraph 239; changing position of sync signals in consideration of AGC settling period based on SSB configuration).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the time of effective filing to modify Cirik by a first and second frequency range of the first and second BWPs that partially overlap or do not overlap, and AGC settling time based on a SSB-based measurement timing configuration (SMTC) periodicity and a number of one or more SSBs needed for AGC settling, as shown by Lee, thereby stabilizing interference when performing BWP switching having different timings.
Regarding claims 16 and 20,
Cirik discloses an access node (AN) (Fig. 3, base stations 120A-B) comprising a transceiver (Fig. 3, interfaces 320A-B), one or more processors (Fig. 3, processor 321A-B) and memory storing instructions (Fig. 3, memory 322, instructions 323A-B) which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising generating a radio resource control (RRC) message including an indication to switch operation from a first bandwidth part (BWP) to a second BWP (Fig. 24; receive RRC configuration for 1st & 2nd cells, initiate/trigger BWP switching for the 2nd cell; Fig. 28, steps 2810-2820; indication to change active BWP), wherein switching operation from the first BWP to a second BWP imposes a change to at least one predetermined parameter of the first BWP (Fig. 28, steps 2840-2850; RRC processing during time duration) and transmitting the RRC message, wherein the RRC message causes interruption to at least one active serving cell other than the AN (Fig. 28, steps 2840-2850; paragraph 194; RRC processing during time duration of change of 2nd cell) according to an allowed interruption duration determined based at least in part on the RRC message including the indication and on the change to the at least one predetermined parameter of the first BWP (Fig. 28, steps 2830-2850; see also Fig. 16-27 and associated paragraphs).
Cirik does not expressly disclose a first and second frequency range of the first and second BWPs that partially overlap or do not overlap, or AGC settling time based on a SSB-based measurement timing configuration (SMTC) periodicity and a number of one or more SSBs needed for AGC settling.
Lee discloses analogous art (Title: Transmitting and Receiving Signal in Wireless Communication System; paragraph 71; BWP switching) including a first and second frequency range of the first and second BWPs that partially overlap or do not overlap (paragraph 17, 137, 171, 190; partially overlapping TTIs) and including AGC settling time based on a SSB-based measurement timing configuration (SMTC) periodicity and a number of one or more SSBs needed for AGC settling (paragraph 239; changing position of sync signals in consideration of AGC settling period based on SSB configuration).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the time of effective filing to modify Cirik by a first and second frequency range of the first and second BWPs that partially overlap or do not overlap, and AGC settling time based on a SSB-based measurement timing configuration (SMTC) periodicity and a number of one or more SSBs needed for AGC settling, as shown by Lee, thereby stabilizing interference when performing BWP switching having different timings.
Regarding claim 2, 12, and 17,
The combination of Cirik and Lee discloses the allowed interruption duration as a sum of TRRCprocessingDelay comprises a length of the RRC procedure delay and TbwpswitchDelayRRC comprises a length of an RRC-based BWP switch delay (Fig. 18-28; paragraph 345, 474-489; Fig. 22 shows total switching delay as sum of RRC processing delay and BWP switching delay).
Regarding claim 4,
The combination of Cirik and Lee discloses the indication to switch operation from the first BWP to the second BWP imposes a change to the at least one parameter from a predetermined list of parameters (paragraph 191, 196, 227, 256; changes to active BWP of one or more higher layer common/dedicated parameters of logical channels, etc.).
Regarding claim 5, 6, and 15,
The combination of Cirik and Lee discloses causing the interruption to the at least one serving cell comprises refraining from receiving downlink signals from the at least one serving cell or refraining from transmitting uplink signals to the at least one serving cell (Fig. 28, step 2850; delaying change of 1st active BWP until change of 2nd active BWP is completed; paragraph 331-344, 393-400; not monitoring/transmitting on PDCCH/PUCCH of deactivated BWP).
Claims 3, 13, and 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cirik and Lee and further in view of Siomina et al. (US20220140975A1), hereafter Siomina.
Regarding claim 3, 13, and 18,
The combination of Cirik and Lee does not expressly disclose the allowed interruption duration begins after the last slot containing the RRC message.
Siomina discloses the allowed interruption duration begins after the last slot containing the RRC message (paragraph 178, 185; interruption on PSCell and activated SCells during switching including the last slot where SRS transmission is configured via RRC).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the time of effective filing to modify the combination of Cirik, Cui, and Huang by beginning the allowed interruption duration after the last slot containing the RRC message, as shown by Siomina, thereby providing for efficient switching for aligned cells.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 8, 22, and 23 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 5/22/2026 have been fully considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection relies on the newly-cited Lee reference for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
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/GREGORY B SEFCHECK/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2477
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