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. Claims 1-21 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 3-7, 15, and 18 are amended
- claim 14 is canceled
- claim 21 is new
b. This is a non final action on the merits based on Applicant’s claims submitted on 05/26/2026.
Response to Arguments
Regarding Independent claims 1, 15, and 20 previously rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 102(a)(2), Applicant's first arguments, see “First, Bergstrom does not disclose, teach, or suggest at least "select a first feature specific RACH resource or a second feature specific RACH resource based on priorities assigned to the first feature and the second feature" as claimed. (Emphasis added.) In contrast, Bergstrom selects a PRACH resource according to a selection scheme that can be randomized, based on a probability, or based on a PRACH resource next in time” on page 10, filed on 05/26/2026, with respect to U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2023/0388971 to Bergström et al., have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the previous rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground of rejection is made in view of Taherzadeh et al. US Pub 2021/0298084 (hereinafter “Taherzadeh”). See section Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103 below for complete details.
Regarding Independent claims 1, 15, and 20 previously rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 102(a)(2), Applicant's second arguments, see “Second, Bergstrom does not disclose, teach or suggest at least "determine whether a first condition for the first feature and a second condition for the second features are satisfied" as claimed. In contrast, Bergstrom describes one condition such as an RSRP threshold that can be applied to choose between PRACH occasions with 2-step RA or 4-step RA” on page 11, filed on 05/26/2026, with respect to U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2023/0388971 to Bergstrom et al., have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the previous rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground of rejection is made in view of You et al. US Pub 2022/0053557, claiming domestic priority 2020-04-29 (hereinafter “You”). See section Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103 below for complete details.
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 1-2, 5-9, 11-13, and 15-21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bergstrom, in view of Taherzadeh et al. US Pub 2021/0298084 (hereinafter “Taherzadeh”), and further in view of You et al. US Pub 2022/0053557, claiming domestic priority 2020-04-29 (hereinafter “You”).
Regarding claim 1
Bergstrom discloses a user equipment (UE) (“FIG. 21 is a schematic block diagram of a wireless communication device 712 (e.g., a UE)” [0317]; Fig. 21), comprising:
a transceiver (“transceiver 2106” in Fig. 21; [0317]) configured to enable wireless communication with a base station; and
a processor (“processor 2102” in Fig. 21; [0317]) communicatively coupled to the transceiver and configured to:
determine a first feature and a second feature to be indicated at an initial access of the UE to the base station (i.e. pre-defined PRACH configuration) using feature specific Random Access Channel (RACH) resources (“the plurality of PRACH resources are defined by a PRACH configuration, and the information that indicates the mappings between the plurality of PRACH resources and the plurality of sets of features comprises, for the PRACH configuration, information that indicates a mapping of different subsets of the plurality of PRACH resources defined by the PRACH configuration to different sets of features” [0037]), wherein the first and second features are different ones of a plurality of features (e.g. “RedCap”, “Small Data (SDT)”, “coverage enhancement (CovEnh)”, “slicing” [Table 1]) to be indicated at the initial access of the UE to the base station (“the information that indicates the mappings between the plurality of PRACH resources and the plurality of sets of features comprises, for a PRACH resource from among the plurality of PRACH resources, information that indicates a mapping of a first set of PRACH preambles for the PRACH resource to a first set of features and information that indicates a mapping of a second set of the PRACH preamble for the PRACH resource to a second set of features.” [0039]).
determine whether the UE and the base station support a first feature specific random access (RA) procedure for the first feature and a second feature specific RA procedure for the second feature (“a network node (e.g., a base station such as, e.g., a gNB) maps PRACH resources to different sets of features. The UE determines which set of features the UE wants to indicate in the random access procedure by inspecting the mappings of the possible PRACH resources and selects the PRACH resource which maps to the set of features that the UE wants to indicate.” [0109]);
Bergstrom does not specifically teach in response to determining that both the UE and the base station support the first feature specific RA procedure for the first feature and support the second feature specific RA procedure for the second feature, determine whether a first condition for the first feature and a second condition for the second features are satisfied.
In an analogous art, Taherzadeh discloses in response to determining that both the UE and the base station support (“In some cases, UE 115-a and base station 105-a may perform the two-step RACH procedure and four-step RACH procedure over wide beams 205-a and 205-b and beams 210-a, 210-b, and 210-c. In some implementations, UE 115-a may be configured to select between the two-step RACH procedure and the four-step RACH procedure. UE 115-a may be configured with a RACH procedure selection rule. The RACH procedure selection rule may include one or more SSB-based RSRP thresholds such that UE 115-a may compare the SSB-based RSRP calculated from wide beam 205-a, or wide beam 205-b, or both to the configured thresholds. An SSB-based RSRP calculation may indicate a channel quality between the base station 105-a and UE 115-a and a channel quality between UE 115-a and base station 105-a. For example, a higher SSB-based RSRP measurement or calculation ay correspond to a higher channel quality.” [0081]) the first feature specific RA procedure for the first feature (“four-step RACH”) and support the second feature specific RA procedure for the second feature (“two-step RACH”), determine whether a first condition for the first feature and a second condition for the second features are satisfied (“If the calculated SSB-based RSRP is above the threshold, UE 115-a may be configured to select the two-step RACH procedure because the channel quality between base station 105-a and UE 115-a is good (i.e. second condition is satisfied). If the calculated SSB-based RSRP is below the threshold, UE 115-a may be configured to select the four-step RACH procedure (i.e. first condition is satisfied) because the four-step RACH may be more reliable than the two-step RACH. In some cases, UE 115-a may be configured with one or more thresholds, and UE 115-a may select which threshold to use based on whether MPE conditions are present.” [0081]).
Before the effective filling date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify Bergstrom’s method for PRACH partitioning for feature signaling, to include Taherzadeh’s exposure-dependent random access channel (RACH) procedure selection, in order to identify physical resources supporting different features (Taherzadeh [Abstract).
Bergstrom and Taherzadeh do not specifically teach in response to determining that the first condition and the second condition are satisfied: select a first feature specific RACH resource for the first feature or a second feature specific RACH resource for the second feature based on priorities assigned to the first feature and the second feature; and perform a 4-step RA procedure or a 2-step RA procedure based on the selected first feature specific RACH resource or the second feature specific RACH resource.
In an analogous art, You discloses in response to determining that the first condition and the second condition are satisfied: select a first feature specific RACH resource for the first feature (“four-step random access”) or a second feature specific RACH resource for the second feature (“two-step random access”) based on priorities assigned to the first feature and the second feature (“Optionally, the terminal may select, from random access resources whose priority is higher in the first-type random access resources and the second-type random access resources, a resource used to initiate random access. A priority of the first-type random access resources and a priority of the second-type random access resources may be preset, or may be configured by the network device. Alternatively, a type of random access resources whose priority is higher or lower may be indicated by the network device. For example, it may be pre-configured that a priority of selecting the four-step random access resource is higher than a priority of selecting the two-step random access resource, or that a priority of selecting the two-step random access resource is higher than a priority of selecting the four-step random access resource. For another example, the network device may send a priority indication to the terminal, where the priority indication may be used to indicate a relationship between a priority of the four-step random access resource and a priority of the two-step random access resource.” [0200]); and
perform a 4-step RA procedure or a 2-step RA procedure based on the selected first feature specific RACH resource (“Step 602a: The terminal sends a preamble to a network device by using the time-frequency resource in the four-step random access resources, to initiate a four-step random access process. When the preamble resource included in the four-step random access resources and the preamble resource included in the two-step random access resources are different, the preamble is a preamble included in the four-step random access resources.” [0177]) or the second feature specific RACH resource (“Step 602b: The terminal sends a preamble and information used for contention resolution to the network device by using the time-frequency resource in the two-step random access resources, to initiate a two-step random access process. It may be understood that the preamble is a preamble included in the two-step random access resources.” [0178]).
Before the effective filling date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify Bergstrom’s method for PRACH partitioning for feature signaling, as modified by Taherzadeh, to include You’s random access method, in order to identify physical resources supporting different features (You [Abstract). Thus, a person of ordinary skill would have appreciated the ability to incorporate You’s random access method into Bergstrom’s method for PRACH partitioning for feature signaling 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.
Regarding claim 2
Bergstrom, as modified by Taherzadeh and You, previously discloses the UE of claim 1,
Bergstrom further discloses wherein one or more RACH occasions or one or more preambles partitioned based on the plurality of features (“the plurality of PRACH occasions and/or associated preamble ranges are prepared to simplify indications of the mappings from the feature configurations” [0047] and furthermore “For example, if feature Fn shares PRACH occasions with feature F1 (the Rel-15 group A/B feature), the RACH-configCommon-Fn IE can point to PRACH occasions defined in the Rel-15 RACH-ConfigCommon IE rather than defining new, separate ones. If separate PRACH occasions are defined, the SSB-associated contention-based preambles are partitioned to signal feature Fn combined with the other, previously introduced features.” [0156-0157]) are used for indicating the first feature or the second feature (“the information that indicates the mappings between the plurality of PRACH resources and the plurality of sets of features comprises, for a PRACH resource from among the plurality of PRACH resources, information that indicates a mapping of a first set of PRACH preambles for the PRACH resource to a first set of features and information that indicates a mapping of a second set of the PRACH preamble for the PRACH resource to a second set of features.” [0058]).
Regarding claim 5 (Currently Amended)
Bergstrom, as modified by Taherzadeh and You, previously discloses the UE of claim 1,
Bergstrom further discloses wherein one or more of a plurality of frequency resources of a RACH occasion associated with the plurality of features (“the information that indicates the mappings between the plurality of PRACH resources and the plurality of sets of features comprises, for a PRACH resource from among the plurality of PRACH resources, information that indicates a mapping of a first set of PRACH preambles for the PRACH resource to a first set of features and information that indicates a mapping of a second set of the PRACH preamble for the PRACH resource to a second set of features.” [0058]) are used to indicate the first feature or the second feature (“the plurality of PRACH resources form a plurality of PRACH occasions, the plurality of PRACH occasions being a common pool of PRACH occasions dedicated for feature signaling, and the information that indicates the mappings between the plurality of PRACH resources and the plurality of sets of features comprises, for each of a plurality of features, a feature configuration that comprises information that indicates one or more PRACH occasions from the common pool of PRACH occasions dedicated for feature signaling that are mapped to the feature” [0047]).
Regarding claim 6 (Currently Amended)
Bergstrom, as modified by Taherzadeh and You, previously discloses the UE of claim 1,
Bergstrom further discloses wherein one or more of a plurality of RACH occasions associated with the plurality of features are used to indicate the first feature or the second feature (“the information that indicates the mappings between the plurality of PRACH resources and the plurality of sets of features comprises, for a PRACH resource from among the plurality of PRACH resources, information that indicates a mapping of a first set of PRACH preambles for the PRACH resource to a first set of features and information that indicates a mapping of a second set of the PRACH preamble for the PRACH resource to a second set of features.” [0058]) and wherein the plurality of RACH occasions are spread in a frequency domain and a time domain (“for short preambles, there may not only be multiple PRACH occasions in the frequency domain but also in the time domain. In each such PRACH time/frequency occasion, there are 64 preambles available for transmission.” [0009]).
Regarding claim 7 (Currently Amended)
Bergstrom, as modified by Taherzadeh and You, previously discloses the UE of claim 1,
Bergstrom further discloses wherein one or more of a plurality of preamble offsets associated with the plurality of features are used to indicate the first feature or the second feature (“the plurality of PRACH occasions and/or associated preamble ranges are prepared to simplify indications of the mappings from the feature configurations. In one embodiment, a mapping between a feature and one or more preamble ranges in a PRACH resource to which the feature is mapped is defined based on a rule(s).” [0047]).
Regarding claim 8
Bergstrom, as modified by Taherzadeh and You, previously discloses the UE of claim 1,
Bergstrom further discloses wherein when the first feature specific RACH is selected between the first feature specific RACH resource and the second feature specific RACH, the processor is configured to select the first feature specific RACH resource based on the determined feature and a feature specific RACH configuration (“The PRACH configurations defined for Rel-15 4-step RA and Rel-16 2-step RA in PRACH-ConfigCommon and RACH-ConfigCommon2stepRA, respectively, are used as starting point. The group A/B feature in Rel-15 4-step RA can be seen as feature F1 and the 2-step RA feature introduced in Rel-16 can be seen as feature F2. Hence the next feature to be added is feature F3. When a new feature Fn (e.g., F3=RedCap) to be signaled via PRACH is introduced, a new IE is added in system information which contains the PRACH configuration for the new feature.“ [0154-0155]).
Regarding claim 9
Bergstrom, as modified by Taherzadeh and You, previously discloses the UE of claim 8,
Bergstrom further discloses wherein the feature specific RACH configuration includes a general RACH configuration (“For instance, it could be allowed for up to three or four features to share a common associated PRACH occasion, and signaled feature combinations could be restricted to contain no more than two or three features.” [0230]) and a plurality of specific RACH configurations (“Feature Fn either defines new, separate PRACH occasions or shares PRACH occasions defined by one of the previously introduced features.” [0156]).
Regarding claim 11
Bergstrom, as modified by Taherzadeh and You, previously discloses the UE of claim 9,
Bergstrom further discloses wherein each of the plurality of specific RACH configurations comprises information associated with a 4-step RA procedure or a 2-step RA procedure associated with the corresponding feature of the plurality of features (“Another way to support both RA types together with feature signaling could be to provide two instances of RACH configuration for feature signaling, where one of them configures PRACH occasions for 4-step RA and one of them configures PRACH occasions for 2-step RA. The feature configuration for a feature for which 2-step RA is suitable could then point out PRACH occasions for which 2-step RA is configured, while the feature configuration for a feature for which 4-step RA is suitable could point out PRACH occasions for which 4-step RA is configured. As another option, a feature configuration could point out both PRACH occasions with 2-step RA and PRACH occasions with 4-step RA and let the selection between them be governed by an RSRP threshold or some other condition.” [0212]).
Regarding claim 12
Bergstrom, as modified by Taherzadeh and You, previously discloses the UE of claim 8,
Taherzadeh further discloses wherein the feature specific RACH configuration comprises a first feature specific RACH configuration associated with the 4-step RA procedure and a second feature specific RACH configuration associated with the 2-step RA procedure (“In some cases, UE 115-a and base station 105-a may perform the two-step RACH procedure and four-step RACH procedure over wide beams 205-a and 205-b and beams 210-a, 210-b, and 210-c. In some implementations, UE 115-a may be configured to select between the two-step RACH procedure and the four-step RACH procedure.” [0081])
Regarding claim 13
Bergstrom, as modified by Taherzadeh and You, previously discloses the UE of claim 1, wherein the processor is further configured to:
You further discloses in response to determining that the second condition is not satisfied but the first condition is satisfied, perform the 4-step RA procedure (“Step 602a: The terminal sends a preamble to a network device by using the time-frequency resource in the four-step random access resources, to initiate a four-step random access process. When the preamble resource included in the four-step random access resources and the preamble resource included in the two-step random access resources are different, the preamble is a preamble included in the four-step random access resources.” [0177]) or the 2-step RA procedure based on the selected feature specific RACH resource (“Step 602b: The terminal sends a preamble and information used for contention resolution to the network device by using the time-frequency resource in the two-step random access resources, to initiate a two-step random access process. It may be understood that the preamble is a preamble included in the two-step random access resources.” [0178]).
Regarding claim 15 (Currently Amended)
A method, comprising:
determining, by a user equipment (UE), a first feature and a second feature to be indicated at an initial access of the UE to a base station using feature specific Random Access Channel (RACH) resources, wherein the first and second features are different ones of a plurality of features to be indicated at the initial access of the UE to the base station;
determining whether the UE and the base station support a first feature specific random access (RA) procedure for the first feature and a second feature specific RA procedure for the second feature;
in response to determining that both the UE and the base station support the first feature specific RA procedure for the first feature and support the second feature specific RA procedure for the second feature, determining whether a first condition for the first feature and a second condition for the second features are satisfied; and
in response to determining that the first condition and the second condition are satisfied:
selecting a first feature specific RACH resource for the first feature or a second feature specific RACH resource for the second feature based on priorities assigned to the first feature and the second feature; and
performing a 4-step RA procedure or a 2-step RA procedure based on the selected first feature specific RACH resource or the second feature specific RACH resource.
The scope and subject matter of method claim 15 is drawn to the method of using the corresponding apparatus claimed in claim 1. Therefore method claim 15 corresponds to apparatus claim 1 and is rejected for the same reasons of anticipation as used in claim 1 rejection above.
Regarding claim 16
The method of claim 15, wherein one or more RACH occasions or one or more preambles partitioned based on the plurality of features are used to indicate the first feature or the second feature.
The scope and subject matter of method claim 16 is drawn to the method of using the corresponding apparatus claimed in claim 2. Therefore method claim 16 corresponds to apparatus claim 2 and is rejected for the same reasons of anticipation as used in claim 2 rejection above.
Regarding claim 17
The method of claim 16, wherein:
one or more of a plurality of Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH) configuration indexes associated with the plurality of features are used to indicate the first feature or the second feature,
one or more of a plurality of sets of subframes for a PRACH configuration index associated with the plurality of features are used to indicate the first feature or the second feature,
one or more of a plurality of frequency resources of a RACH occasion associated with the plurality of features are used to indicate the first feature or the second feature,
one or more of a plurality of RACH occasions associated with the plurality of features are used to indicate the first feature or the second feature, wherein the plurality of RACH occasions are spread in a frequency domain and a time domain, or
one or more of a plurality of preamble offsets associated with the plurality of features are used for indicating the first feature or the second feature.
The scope and subject matter of method claim 17 is drawn to the method of using the corresponding apparatus claimed in claims 3-7. Therefore method claim 17 corresponds to apparatus claims 3-7 and is rejected for the same reasons of anticipation as used in claims 3-7 rejections above.
Regarding claim 18 (Currently Amended)
The method of claim 15, wherein when the first feature specific RACH is selected between the first feature specific RACH resource and the second feature specific RACH resource, selecting the first feature specific RACH resource based on the determined feature and a feature specific RACH configuration.
The scope and subject matter of method claim 18 is drawn to the method of using the corresponding apparatus claimed in claim 8. Therefore method claim 18 corresponds to apparatus claim 8 and is rejected for the same reasons of anticipation as used in claim 8 rejection above.
Regarding claim 19
The method of claim 18, wherein:
the feature specific RACH configuration includes a general RACH configuration and a plurality of specific RACH configurations, or
the feature specific RACH configuration comprises a first feature specific RACH configuration associated with the 4-step RA procedure and a second feature specific RACH configuration associated with the 2-step RA procedure.
The scope and subject matter of method claim 19 is drawn to the method of using the corresponding apparatus claimed in claims 9 and 11. Therefore method claim 19 corresponds to apparatus claims 9 and 11 and is rejected for the same reasons of anticipation as used in claims 9 and 11 rejections above.
Regarding claim 20
A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions that when executed by a processor of a user equipment (UE) cause the processor to perform operations comprising:
determining a first feature and a second feature to be indicated at an initial access of the UE to a base station using feature specific Random Access Channel (RACH) resources, wherein the first and second features are different ones of a plurality of features to be indicated at the initial access of the UE to the base station;
determining whether the UE and the base station support a first feature specific random access (RA) procedure for the first feature and a second feature specific RA procedure for the second feature;
in response to determining that both the UE and the base station support the first feature specific RA procedure for the first feature and support the second feature specific RA procedure for the second feature, determining whether a first condition for the first feature and a second condition for the second features are satisfied; and
in response to determining that the first condition and the second condition are satisfied:
selecting a first feature specific RACH resource for the first feature or a second feature specific RACH resource for the second feature based on priorities assigned to the first feature and the second feature; and
performing a 4-step RA procedure or a 2-step RA procedure based on the selected first feature specific RACH resource or the second feature specific RACH resource.
The scope and subject matter of non-transitory computer readable medium claim 20 is drawn to the computer program product of using the corresponding method claimed in claim 15. Therefore computer program product claim 20 corresponds to method claim 15 and is rejected for the same reasons of anticipation as used in claim 15 rejection above.
Regarding claim 21 (New)
Bergstrom, as modified by Taherzadeh and You, previously discloses the UE of claim 1,
Taherzadeh further discloses receive, via the transceiver, the first condition specifically associated with the first feature and the second condition specifically associated with the second feature (“If the calculated SSB-based RSRP is above the threshold, UE 115-a may be configured to select the two-step RACH procedure because the channel quality between base station 105-a and UE 115-a is good (i.e. second condition is associated with second feature aka two-step RACH). If the calculated SSB-based RSRP is below the threshold, UE 115-a may be configured to select the four-step RACH procedure (i.e. first condition is associated with first feature aka four-step RACH) because the four-step RACH may be more reliable than the two-step RACH. In some cases, UE 115-a may be configured with one or more thresholds, and UE 115-a may select which threshold to use based on whether MPE conditions are present.” [0081]).
Claim 3 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bergstrom, in view of Taherzadeh and You, and further in view of Zhang et al. US Pub 2020/0252977 (hereinafter “Zhang”).
Regarding claim 3 (Currently Amended)
Bergstrom, as modified by Taherzadeh and You, previously discloses the UE of claim 1,
Bergstrom, Taherzadeh, and You do not specifically teach one or more of a plurality of Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH) configuration indexes associated with the plurality of features are used for indicating the first feature or the second feature.
In an analogous art, Zhang discloses one or more of a plurality of Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH) configuration indexes associated with the plurality of features (“In some cases, it may be desirable for a communication system to support both two-step random access procedures and four-step random access procedures, by, for example, using the same physical RACH (PRACH) configuration for both types of procedures. In some cases, such as in NR, the PRACH configuration index may determine the RACH occasion (RO) (e.g., a transmission occasion during which a UE may transmit information) in the time domain.” [0149]) are used for indicating the first feature (e.g. “two-step RACH”) or the second feature (e.g. “four-step RACH”).
Before the effective filling date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify Bergstrom’s method for PRACH partitioning for feature signaling, as modified by Taherzadeh and You, to include Zhang’s random access procedure, in order to identify physical resources supporting different features (Zhang [0062). Thus, a person of ordinary skill would have appreciated the ability to incorporate Zhang’s random access procedure into Bergstrom’s method for PRACH partitioning for feature signaling 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.
Claim 4 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bergstrom, in view of Taherzadeh and You, and further in view of Cheng et al. US Pub 2023/0328794 (hereinafter “Cheng8794”).
Regarding claim 4 (Currently Amended)
Bergstrom, as modified by Taherzadeh and You, previously discloses the UE of claim 1,
Bergstrom, Taherzadeh, and You do not specifically teach wherein one or more of a plurality of sets of subframes for a Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH) configuration index associated with the plurality of features are used for indicating the first feature or the second feature.
In an analogous art, Cheng8794 discloses wherein the first feature specific RACH resource or the second feature specific RACH resource comprises a plurality of sets of subframes for a Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH) configuration index (“The RACH configuration may further specify that the random access response window starts a certain number of sub-frames after the end of the PRACH preamble in some examples.” [0090]) associated with the plurality of features are used for indicating the first feature or the second feature (“different RACH configurations for different slices” [0118]).
Before the effective filling date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify Bergstrom’s method for PRACH partitioning for feature signaling, as modified by Taherzadeh and You, to include Cheng8794’s method for configuring different random access channel (RACH) configurations for different service/slice groups, in order to support different features or network slices (Cheng8794 [Abstract]). Thus, a person of ordinary skill would have appreciated the ability to incorporate Cheng8794’s method for configuring different random access channel (RACH) configurations for different service/slice groups into Bergstrom’s method for PRACH partitioning for feature signaling 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.
Claim 10 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Bergstrom, in view of Taherzadeh and You, and further in view of 3GPP TS 38.211, version 16.2.0, 07-2020 (hereinafter “TS38.211”).
Regarding claim 10
Bergstrom, as modified by Taherzadeh and You, previously discloses the UE of claim 9,
Bergstrom, Taherzadeh, and You do not specifically teach wherein the general RACH configuration comprises a number of the plurality of specific RACH configurations and a mapping between a plurality of features and the plurality of specific RACH configurations.
In an analogous art, TS38.211 discloses Table 6.3.3.2-2 (as partially shown below) wherein the general RACH configuration comprises a number of the plurality of specific RACH configurations and a mapping between a plurality of features and the plurality of specific RACH configurations.
PNG
media_image1.png
586
710
media_image1.png
Greyscale
Before the effective filling date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify Bergstrom’s method for PRACH partitioning for feature signaling, as modified by Taherzadeh and You, to include TS38.211’s method for configuring different random access channel (RACH) configurations, in order to identify physical resources supporting different features (TS38.211 [6.3.3.2). Thus, a person of ordinary skill would have appreciated the ability to incorporate TS38.211’s method for configuring different random access channel (RACH) configurations into Bergstrom’s method for PRACH partitioning for feature signaling 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.
Conclusion
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/CHUONG M NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2411
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