DETAILED ACTION
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 has been entered. Claim(s) 1, 6, 9-11, 16, 19-21, 23, and 24 have been amended; Claim(s) 2-5, 7-8, 12-15, 17-18, and 22 have been canceled; Claim(s) 25-30 have been added. Claim(s) 1, 6, 9-11, 16, 19-21, and 23-30 are subject to examination.
Acknowledgement is made to the applicant’s amendment to claims 1, 11, and 20 to obviate the previous objection to claims 1, 11, and 20. The previous objection to claims 1, 11, and 20 is/are hereby withdrawn.
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 .
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 03/19/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Applicant’s Arguments:
The applicant argues that KO does not teach a reference signal transmitted using multiple peaks of the same beam, wherein the peak cannot be directly identified nor that the terminal generates a detection sequence encoding information representing a peak among the multiple peaks of a common beam and selects a random access resource corresponding to the peak.
Examiner’s Response:
The examiner respectfully disagrees. KO para 176 discusses using beam sweeping with an SSB burst set over a rather than only in one beam direction, wherein beam sweeping an SSB burst set creates spatially distinct peaks. Further, KO para 212-216 teaches about using an initial wide beam to transmit a synchronization block so that UE can measure a channel for each beam (peak) within the wide beam to perform communication with the optimum quality on a targeted narrow beam, wherein KO para 195 the UE can only identify a peak after determining a reference signal associated with a peak with an optimum quality above a threshold and not directly through signaling a peak identifier.
Continuing, the limitations of the claim do not explicitly disclose or define a terminal “generating” a detection sequence, but rather a terminal “determining” a detection sequence. KO para 183 describes ssb-PositionsinBurst as information about the number and positions of all the transmitted SSBs for a certain BS/cell. This ssb-PositionsinBurst is a full bitmap configured to the UE/terminal wherein each SSB is represented by an index based on a group-bitmap + intra-group bitmap. KO para 176-181 teaches that UE determines the best SSB index and transmits RACH preamble to the BS on a PRACH resource link/corresponding to the index (i.e., beam) of the best SSB. In other words, there is a correlation between a detection sequence/ssb-positioninburst determined by the UE to represent the best SSB and a random access resource. The examiner recommends adding limitations which specify if the terminal device generates the detection sequence and how the detection sequence is used, such as by indexing random access resources or transmitted to a network device.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 1, 9, 11, 16, 19, 20, 23, 27, and 28 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Claim 1 recites “…transmitted by a network device…” and “…sent by a network device…”. It is unclear whether these are the same network devices or different. For the purpose of examination, the examiner will interpret them as the same network device.
Claim 9, 19, and 23 recites “…a same transmit beam”. It is unclear whether the same transmit beam of claim 9 is the same as the same transmit beam of claim 1; the transmit beam of claim 19 is the same as the transmit beam of claim 11; or the transmit beam of claim 23 is the same as the transmit beam of claim 20. For the purpose of examination, the examiner will interpret them as the same transmit beam.
Claim 11 and 20 recites the limitation “the terminal device”. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim. For the purpose of examination, the examiner will interpret “the terminal device” of claim 11 as the same as “An random access apparatus” and “the terminal device” of claim 20 as the same as “a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium”.
Claim 16, 19, 27, and 28 recites the limitation "The apparatus according to claim 11". There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim. For the purpose of examination, the examiner will interpret “The apparatus according to claim 11” as the same as “An random access apparatus” in claim 11.
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.
Claim(s) 1, 6, 9-11, 16, 19-21, and 23-30 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over KO (US 20240049289 A1) (see 892 07/14/2025) in view of “Remaining issues in RACH Procedure,” 3GPP TSG RAN WG1 Meeting#91, Reno, USA, R1-1719501, pp. 1-11, 3rd Generation Partnership Project, Valbonne, France (Nov 27-Dec 1 2017) (see IDS 11/12/2022), hereby referred to as MEETING91.
Claim 1:
KO teaches A random access method comprising: obtaining, by a terminal device, reference signal grouping information indicating a grouping of N reference signals into one or more groups of M reference signals, wherein N is equal to or greater than M, and wherein each of the N references signals is associated with an index value (KO: para 183 (“A maximum of L SSBs may be transmitted in a SSB burst set…The number and positions of actually transmitted SSBs…ssb-PositionsinBurst…may be indicated by UE-specific RRC signaling or RMSI…includes a full bitmap (e.g., of length L) for frequency ranges below and above 6 GHz…indicated by group-bitmap (8 bits)+intra-group bitmap (8 bits)…”) wherein N reference signals are indicated to be in groups which is indicated by the group bitmap with an index value/intra-group bitmap indicating groups of L/M reference signals), and wherein at least one of the N reference signals is transmitted by a network device using a plurality of peaks of a same transmit beam such that a specific peak at which the reference signal is received by the terminal device is not directly identifiable (KO: para 211-216 (“…as the UE moves, optimum beam direction may be changed, and thus…needs to be continuously tracked…may perform connection setup using a wide beam…and after…with the optimum quality using a narrow beam…The BS transmits a synchronization block for each wide beam in order for the UE to find a BS…to measure the quality for a channel for each beam of a wide beam…”) using an initial wide beam to transmit a synchronization block so that UE can measure a channel for each beam (peak) within the wide beam to perform communication with the optimum quality on a targeted narrow beam, wherein UE can only identify a peak after determining a reference signal associated with a peak with an optimum quality above a threshold and not directly through signaling a peak identifier); detecting, by the terminal, at least one reference signal sent by a network device from among the N reference signals (KO: para 915 (“…SSB having a…(RSRP) measurement satisfying the threshold…the UE may select one of SSBs satisfying the threshold…”) and para 212-216 (“…to measure the quality for a channel for each beam of a wide beam…the UE to notify the BS of the DL beam acquisition result (e.g., a beam index)…”) wherein terminal determines/detects a best beam that satisfies the RSRP threshold); determining, by the terminal device, a detection sequence based on the index value of each of the at least one reference signal sent by the network device, wherein the detection sequence encodes, based on the grouping information and the index value, information representative of a peak among the plurality of peaks at which the at least one reference signal was received (KO: para 181 (“…the UE identifies the best SSB after performing SSB detection…UE may transmit a RACH preamble to the BS on a PRACH resource linked/corresponding to the index (i.e., beam) of the best SSB.”) and para 183 (“…ssb-PositionsinBurst…indicated by group-bitmap (8 bits)+intra-group bitmap (8 bits)…”) wherein reference signals have a detection sequence/ssb-PositionsinBurst value that is based on the grouping information/group-bitmap and the index value/intra-group bitmap; wherein this detection sequence is the beam index/identifier); determining, by the terminal device, a random access resource for sending a random access preamble based on the detection sequence, wherein the random access resource corresponds to the peak represented by the detection sequence (KO: para 181 (“…the UE identifies the best SSB after performing SSB detection…UE may transmit a RACH preamble to the BS on a PRACH resource linked/corresponding to the index (i.e., beam) of the best SSB.”)); and sending, by the terminal device, the random access preamble to the network device on the random access resource (KO: para 181 (“…the UE identifies the best SSB after performing SSB detection…UE may transmit a RACH preamble to the BS on a PRACH resource linked/corresponding to the index (i.e., beam) of the best SSB.”)).
However, while KO teaches a possibility of multiple groups of M reference signals (KO: para 183 (“…ssb-PositionsinBurst…indicated by group-bitmap (8 bits)+intra-group bitmap (8 bits)…”) wherein a group-bit map indicates multiple groups and intra-group bitmap indicates a reference signal of M reference signals in the group), KO does not explicitly disclose each of N and M is a positive integer greater than 1.
Meeting91, in the same field of endeavor, teaches each of N and M is a positive integer greater than 1 (MEETING91: pg 2 para 6 (“…indication of actually transmitted SS block in RMSI for >6GHz is given by: Group-Bitmap (8 bits) + Bitmap in Group (8 Bits)…the number of actually transmitted SS block can be {N*M, N ≤ 8, M≤8}, where N is the number of groups, M is the number of actually transmitted SS block per group.”) wherein N and M are positive integers greater than 1).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date, to have modified KO with Meeting91, the combination hereby referred to as KO-Meeting91 for the benefit of greater freedom in >6GHz communication (Meeting 91: pg 2).
Claim 6:
KO-MEETING91 teaches the method according to claim 1, wherein the detection sequence is a quantized binary sequence having a length equal to M, each bit position corresponding to one reference signal within a group of M reference signals, each bit indicating whether the corresponding reference signal is detected, and wherein each unique quantized binary sequence corresponds in a one-to-one manner to a respective peak among the plurality of peaks of the transmit beam (KO: para 162 (“…UE may identify the structure of an SSB burst set based on the index of the detected SSB…”) and para 183 (“…positions of actually transmitted SSBs…ssb-PositionsinBurst…may be indicated by a full bitmap (e.g., of length L)…”) wherein the detection sequence is an indication of the SSBs the UE detects; and wherein each bit corresponds to a reference signal), and each respective peak corresponds to a respective random access resource (KO: para 181 (“…the UE identifies the best SSB after performing SSB detection…UE may transmit a RACH preamble to the BS on a PRACH resource linked/corresponding to the index (i.e., beam) of the best SSB.”)).
Claim 9:
KO-Meeting91 teaches the method according to claim 1, wherein each of the N reference signals is transmitted using a plurality of spatially distinct peaks of a same transmit beam (KO: para 176 (“Beam sweeping refers to changing the beam (direction) of a radio signal over time…SSBs may be transmitted periodically by beam sweeping…”) wherein beam sweeping an SSB burst set is to transmit SSBs in different spatial directions/peaks), and wherein the grouping of the N reference signals into groups of M reference signals is configured such that detection of reference signals within a group resolves ambiguity as to which of the plurality of peaks the at least one reference signal was received from (KO: para 183 (“…SSBs may be indicated by group-bitmap (8 bits)+intra-group bitmap (8 bits)…”) wherein the max number of beams in a burst set/M reference signals are mapped in such a way to resolve ambiguity of where in the burst set/which peak the SSB was received from).
Claim 10:
KO-Meeting91 teaches the method according to claim 1, wherein determining the detection sequence comprises: based on received reference signal values of M reference signals within a group, determining a peak direction among the plurality of peaks by solving a peak-domain representation of the received reference signals using a peak base matrix (KO: para 162 (“…UE may identify the structure of an SSB burst set based on the index of the detected SSB…”) and para 183 (“…SSBs may be indicated by group-bitmap (8 bits)+intra-group bitmap (8 bits)…”) wherein the ssb-PositionsinBurst bit map is the matrix to identify received reference signals); and identifying the random access resource to be a peak associated with a maximum element of the peak-domain representation (KO: para 162 (“…UE may identify the structure of an SSB burst set based on the index of the detected SSB…”) and para 181 (“…the UE identifies the best SSB after performing SSB detection…UE may transmit a RACH preamble to the BS on a PRACH resource linked/corresponding to the index (i.e., beam) of the best SSB.”) wherein random access resource is associated with the peak corresponding to the maximum element/the index of the SSB which is the best).
Claim 25:
KO-Meeting91 teaches the method according to claim 1, wherein each transmit beam used to transmit the N reference signals comprises a plurality of peaks (KO: FIG. 14 wherein the beam sweeping comprises a plurality of peaks), and wherein random access preambles within a random access occasion are partitioned among the plurality of peaks such that each peak corresponds to a subset of consecutive random access preambles, wherein the subset assigned to a peak is distinct from subsets assigned to other peaks of the same transmit beam (KO: FIG. 14-15 and para 195 (“For example, the UE may select one of SSBs satisfying the threshold, and transmit or retransmit the RACH preamble in an RACH resource associated with the selected SSB.”) wherein each peak is associated with at least one distinct RACH resource for random access preamble).
Claim 26:
KO-Meeting91 teaches the method according to claim 1, wherein the grouping information indicates M reference signals form each group, and wherein the detection sequence has a length equal to M and is generated using one bit per reference signal within the group, such that the detection sequence corresponds to one of the plurality of peaks of the transmit beam (KO: para 162 (“…UE may identify the structure of an SSB burst set based on the index of the detected SSB…”) and para 183 (“…positions of actually transmitted SSBs…ssb-PositionsinBurst… SSBs may be indicated by group-bitmap (8 bits)+intra-group bitmap (8 bits)…may be indicated by a full bitmap (e.g., of length L)…”) wherein the ssb-PositionsinBurst includes grouping information indication how many M reference signals or a group and the detection sequence/ssb-PositionsinBurst can have one bit per reference signal within the group for actually transmitted beams).
Claim 11:
KO teaches a random access apparatus comprising: a transceiver configured to cooperate with a processor (KO: FIG. 28). For further limitations, see rejection for claim 1 above.
Claim 16:
KO-Meeting91 teaches the apparatus according to claim 11. For further limitations, see rejection for claim 6 above.
Claim 19:
KO-Meeting91 teaches the apparatus according to claim 11. For further limitations, see rejection for claim 9 above.
Claim 27:
KO-Meeting91 teaches the apparatus according to claim 11. For further limitations, see rejection for claim 25 above.
Claim 28:
KO-Meeting91 teaches the apparatus according to claim 11. For further limitations, see rejection for claim 26 above.
Claim 20:
KO teaches a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, storing a program or instructions used to implement a random access method (KO: FIG. 28). For further limitations, see rejection for claim 1 above.
Claim 21:
KO-Meeting91 teaches the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, according to claim 20. For further limitations, see rejection for claim 6 above.
Claim 23:
KO-Meeting91 teaches the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, according to claim 20. For further limitations, see section for claim 9 above.
Claim 24:
KO-Meeting91 teaches the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, according to claim 20. For further limitations, see section for claim 10 above.
Claim 29:
KO-Meeting91 teaches the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, according to claim 20. For further limitations, see section for claim 25 above.
Claim 30:
KO-Meeting91 teaches the non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, according to claim 20. For further limitations, see section for claim 26 above.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
KO et al. (US 20220338264 A1) teaches ssb-positioninBurst consisting of a group information and SSB index.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ANGELIE T NGO whose telephone number is (571)272-0180. The examiner can normally be reached Mon - Thur: 8am - 5pm; 2nd Fri: 8am - 3pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Noel Beharry can be reached at (571) 270-5630. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/A.T.N./Examiner, Art Unit 2416
/NOEL R BEHARRY/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2416
