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 .
Applicant’s amendment filed 11/3/2025 is acknowledged.
Claims 1,6,13, and 25 are amended.
Claims 2,14,17-19,23,24, and 26-29 are cancelled.
Claim 30 is new.
Claims 1,3-13,15,16,20-22, 25, and 30 are pending.
Applicant’s response and amendment with respect to the double patenting rejections is noted and the double patenting rejections are withdrawn.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) 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.
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.
Claim(s) 1,4,6-13,16,20-22, and 25 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Decarreau (US 20220217781) in view of Jeon (US 20200229241).
Re claim 1:
Decarreau discloses determining related information of a random access initiated by the terminal (Fig.7 ref. 2 UE logs the RACH information); and
reporting the related information of the random access to a network device (Fig.7 ref. 5. UE information response and Para.[0086] 5. The UE sends back the requested information in a UEInformationResponse message that include the RACH information (e.g., RACH statistics) from the UE);
wherein the related information of the random access comprises information of a bandwidth part (BWP) where the random access selected by the terminal is located, and the information of the BWP where the random access selected by the terminal is located comprises (Para.[0096] Also, UE may further include in the RACH report the following information: and Para.[0100] a) The BWP (bandwidth part) index in which RACH is performed).
Decarreau does not explicitly disclose whether the BWP uses an extended cyclic prefix (CP).
Jeon discloses whether the BWP uses an extended cyclic prefix (CP) (Para.[0354] A field, IE, or prefix (e.g., cyclic prefix) may indicate whether to use the extended cyclic prefix for this BWP… A parameter (e.g., locationAndBanddwidth) may indicate a frequency domain location and/or a bandwidth of this BWP and Para.[0424] A wireless device may send/transmit, to a base station, one or more random access reports comprising the channel-specific random access statistics for at least one channel).
Decarreau and Jeon are analogous because they both pertain to data communications.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the RACH report BWP information of Decarreau to include extended cyclic prefix information for a BWP, as taught by Jeon, in order to improve transmission efficiency and optimize random access procedure (Jeon Para.[0334,0424]).
Re claim 4:
Decarreau discloses wherein the related information of the random access further comprises a scenario of the random access initiated by the terminal, the scenario of the random access comprises at least one of: an initial access scenario; a handover scenario; a reconfiguration scenario with synchronization; a beam fault recovery (BFR) scenario; or a random access scenario fallen back or switched from another random access type (Para.[0096] ] Also, UE may further include in the RACH report the following information: Example “Information in RACH Report:” (some examples of information that may be included in a RACH report): [0097] 1) RACH trigger type: Is it for: Initial Access from RRC_IDLE).
Re claim 6:
Decarreau discloses wherein the information of the BWP where the random access selected by the terminal is located further comprises at least one of: location and bandwidth of the BWP; a subcarrier spacing of the BWP (Para.[0096] The BWP (bandwidth part) index in which RACH is performed (in case a BWP is activated). A UE can be configured in the uplink with up to 4 BWPs. All active BWPs on which RACH is performed may be reported).
As shown above, Decarreau discloses reporting information about the BWP. Decarreau does not explicitly disclose the BWP information comprises at least one of a location and bandwidth of the BWP. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention location and bandwidth of the BWP are well-known BWP information. Hwang (US 20210235505 Para.[0179]) is further evidence relied upon to show location and bandwidth of the BWP.
Re claim 7:
Decarreau discloses wherein the related information of the random access further comprises a reason why the terminal selects the carrier where the random access is located, and the reason why the terminal selects the carrier where the random access is located comprises one of: the carrier is configured by the network device; and the carrier is selected by the terminal according to selection conditions for different types of carriers configured by the network device (Para.[0047] the RACH procedure involves several parameters which are given to the UE by the network (or BS). Such parameters include (among others) the RACH (or PRACH) configuration index (which may identify a RACH preamble format, a subframe number, a slot number, a starting symbol, etc., and thus specifies the available set of PRACH occasions) and Para.[0068] According to an example embodiment, an example RACH report (sent at 322) may include various RACH-related information, such as, for example, one or more of the following: the random access (RACH) procedure trigger type, which triggers the RACH procedure; a number of steps, either 2 steps or 4 steps, for the RACH procedure; a resource used for the RACH procedure, including one or more of: a bandwidth part index for a bandwidth part, a frequency, a synchronization signalling block (SSB) index (identifying a particular SSB), and timing information; a number of RACH preambles sent by the user equipment until a successful RACH procedure completion; a reason (or cause) for a RACH procedure failure (e.g., failure to receive a random access response (RAR), contention indication, or UE timeout) (in the case where a RACH procedure failed); and/or one or more RACH procedure configuration indexes used by the user equipment until a successful RACH procedure completion. Other parameters or information may be included as well).
Re claim 8:
Decarreau discloses wherein determining the related information of the random access initiated by the terminal comprises: recording, by the terminal, the related information of the random access according to configuration of network management or configuration of a tracking collection entity (TCE) or configuration of a base station or pre-definition (Fig.9 ref. 2 RACH information logging configuration and Para.[0092] 2. BS1 configures the UE for the RACH report with the indication that the RACH report will be used for RACH optimization or ML and therefore ask for increased logging of RACH information. 3. UE performs RACH on a Cell controlled by the BS2 (note that BS2 could be the same as BS1). 4. UE logs the information related to the RACH procedure in internal variables, according to the requirements signaled in the message 2. 5. The rest of the procedure is the same as the steps 3, 4, 5 of FIG. 7).
Re claim 9:
Decarreau discloses wherein reporting the related information of the random access to the network device comprises: receiving a request message sent by the network device for requesting the terminal to report the related information of the random access (Fig.7 ref. 4 UE information request and Para.[0086] The BS requests the UE to send the available information in UEInformationRequest message. In this message the BS can indicate which Report UE should include via a bitmap as described above. 5. The UE sends back the requested information in a UEInformationResponse message that include the RACH information (e.g., RACH statistics) from the UE); and
reporting, according to the request message, the related information of the random access to the network device (Fig.7 5. UE information response).
Re claim 10:
Decarreau discloses before receiving the request message sent by the network device for requesting the terminal to report the related information of the random access, further comprising: sending indication information to the network device, the indication information being used for indicating that the terminal records the related information of the random access (Fig.7 ref. 3 RACH report availability indicator (bitmap identify RACH trigger type(s) for which RACH information is available).
Re claim 11:
Decarreau discloses wherein reporting the related information of the random access to the network device comprises: reporting, by the terminal in an RRC connected state, the related information of the random access to the network device;or, reporting, in the process of the terminal entering the RRC connected state, the related information of the random access to the network device; or, reporting, in an idle state or inactive state, the related information of the random access to the network device (Para.[0096] Also, UE may further include in the RACH report the following information: Example “Information in RACH Report:” (some examples of information that may be included in a RACH report): [0097] 1) RACH trigger type: Is it for: Initial Access from RRC_IDLE, RRC re-establishment procedure, Handover, DL or UL data arrival during RRC_CONNECTED when UL synchronization status is “non-synchronized”, UL data arrival during RRC_CONNECTED when there are no PUCCH resources for SR available, SR failure, Request by RRC upon synchronous reconfiguration, Transition from RRC_INACTIVE, Establishment of time alignment at SCell addition).
Re claim 12:
Decarreau discloses wherein the related information of the random access is carried by at least one of: a target message; or a random access report (Para.[0096] Also, UE may further include in the RACH report the following information: Example “Information in RACH Report:” (some examples of information that may be included in a RACH report): [0097] 1) RACH trigger type: Is it for: Initial Access from RRC_IDLE).
Re claim 13: Claim 13 is rejected on the same grounds of rejection set forth in claim 1 from the perspective of the network device.
Re claim 16: Claim 16 is rejected on the same grounds of rejection set forth in claim 4.
Re claim 20: Claim 20 is rejected on the same grounds of rejection set forth in claim 7 from the perspective of the network device.
Re claim 21: Claim 21 is rejected on the same grounds of rejection set forth in claim 9 from the perspective of the network device.
Re claim 22: Claim 22 is rejected on the same grounds of rejection set forth in claim 10 from the perspective of the network device.
Re claim 25: Claim 25 is rejected on the same grounds of rejection set forth in claim 1.
Claim(s) 3 and 15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Decarreau (US 20220217781) in view of Jeon (US 20200229241) as applied to claims 1 and 13 above, and further in view of Qiu (US 20220191961).
Re claim 3:
As discussed above, Decarreau in view of Jeon meets all the limitations of the parent claims.
Decarreau does not explicitly disclose wherein the type of the random access comprises at least one of: 2-step CBRA; 2-step Contention-Free Random Access (2-step CFRA); 4-step CBRA; or 4-step CFRA.
Qiu discloses wherein the type of the random access comprises at least one of: 2-step CBRA; 2-step Contention-Free Random Access (2-step CFRA); 4-step CBRA; or 4-step CFRA (Para.[0088] The RACH report also can include the RACH type indicator, which can be selected between two-step and four-step).
Qiu does not explicitly disclose CBRA or CFRA. It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention that type 2 and type 4 random access are either CBRA or CFRA. Naseer-ul-Islam (US 20220295361 para0088) is evidence relied upon for CBRA and CFRA.
Decarreau and Qiu are analogous because they both pertain to data communications.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Decarreau to include information about access attempts as taught by Qiu in order to configure network elements in real time based on network conditions (Qiu Para.[0003]).
Re claim 15: Claim 15 is rejected on the same grounds of rejection set forth in claim 3.
Claim(s) 5 and 30 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Decarreau (US 20220217781) in view of Jeon (US 20200229241) as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of Wu (US 20210378028).
Re claim 5:
As discussed above, Decarreau in view of Jeon meets all the limitations of the parent claim.
Decarreau discloses wherein indication message (Claim 5 further limits an alternative of claim 2. Since Decarreau in view of Qiu discloses an alternative, the limitations of claim 5 have been met).
Decarreau does not explicitly disclose the related information of the random access further comprises a feedback message from the network device received by the terminal after sending the message A of 2-step random access.
Wu discloses the related information of the random access further comprises a feedback message from the network device received by the terminal after sending the message A of 2-step random access (Para.[0150] For example, if the new 2-step random access process fails, the random access process information reported by the terminal includes: the number of times the new 2-step random access process is initiated, the type indication of the new 2-step random access process, the number of times MsgA is sent, the number of times sending of data information of MsgA succeeds or fails, the number of times sending of the control information of MsgA succeeds or fails, whether contention (or conflict) has been detected, the number of times contention (or conflict) is detected, whether there is indication information indicating fallback to the traditional 4-step random access process, the number of times of fallback to the traditional 4-step random access process, whether the detected contention (or conflict) is indication information detected when the MsgB of the new 2-step random access process is received).
Decarreau and Wu are analogous because they both pertain to data communications.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Decarreau to include information about fallback indications and number of messages as taught by Wu in order to optimize configuration information of random access (Wu Para.[0063]).
Re claim 30:
As discussed above, Decarreau in view of Jeon meets all the limitations of the parent claims.
Decarreau does not explicitly disclose wherein the related information of the random access comprises at least one of: indication information indicating whether the terminal receives a fallback indication message after sending a message A of 2-step random access; or a number of messages A sent when the terminal switches or falls back to another type of random access from the 2-step random access.
Wu discloses wherein the related information of the random access comprises at least one of: indication information indicating whether the terminal receives a fallback indication message after sending a message A of 2-step random access; or a number of messages A sent when the terminal switches or falls back to another type of random access from the 2-step random access (Para.[0150] For example, if the new 2-step random access process fails, the random access process information reported by the terminal includes: the number of times the new 2-step random access process is initiated, the type indication of the new 2-step random access process, the number of times MsgA is sent, the number of times sending of data information of MsgA succeeds or fails, the number of times sending of the control information of MsgA succeeds or fails, whether contention (or conflict) has been detected, the number of times contention (or conflict) is detected, whether there is indication information indicating fallback to the traditional 4-step random access process, the number of times of fallback to the traditional 4-step random access process, whether the detected contention (or conflict) is indication information detected when the MsgB of the new 2-step random access process is received).
Decarreau and Wu are analogous because they both pertain to data communications.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Decarreau to include information about fallback indications and number of messages as taught by Wu in order to optimize configuration information of random access (Wu Para.[0063]).
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1,13, and 25 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MOHAMMAD SAJID ADHAMI whose telephone number is (571)272-8615. The examiner can normally be reached 8:30-5:00 PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Sujoy Kundu can be reached at (571) 272-8586. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/MOHAMMAD S ADHAMI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2471