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 .
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 8/1/2025 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. With regard to the pending amendments, applicant argues that Han fails to teach and wherein the second message further indicates whether the random access procedure is configured with a random access prioritization parameter, the random access prioritization parameter is useable to accelerate the random access procedure, and the random access prioritization parameter comprises a ramping step useable to determine transmit power for a next random access request message in response to a random access response message that fails to be received, as amended into claim 1, similar subject matter of which has been amended into claims 8 and 14, examiner respectfully traverses this argument for the following reason.
Paragraph 53 of Han makes clear that the prioritized power ramping done in paragraph 55 can be responsive to many events including a random access failure.
For this reason, it is the examiner’s belief that Shi in view of Ljung and Han still reads on the amendments.
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 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 non-obviousness.
Claims 1, 3, 5-10, 12-16 and 18-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over US 2023/0012119 (Shi et al.) in view of US 2022/0303944 (Ljung et al.) in view of US 2022/0078849 (Han et al.).
As to claim 1, Shi teaches a communication method (Fig. 2A-2D show the message transmission among the wireless communication), comprising:
receiving a first message (Fig. 2A; paging message 103P and [0038]) from a first network device (i.e., CN 103; Fig. 2A), wherein the first message comprises random access related information (The paging message 103P may include UE configuration information of UE 101. BS 102 may determine a DL data transmission procedure for UE 101 according to the UE configuration information [0038] and the procedure indication may indicate to UE 101 to select the DL data transmission procedure from (1) Msg.2 based RA procedure; (2) Msg.4 based RA procedure; (3) 2-step RACH procedure; (4) regular RA procedure [0041]);
the random access related information is related to a random access procedure and is determined by the first network device (see paragraphs 37 and 41, AMF in CN determines UE configuration information that includes a determined DL data transmission procedure that can be a RA or RACH procedure for the UE) and
sending a second message (Fig. 2A; paging message 102P) to a terminal device (BS 102 may transmit a paging message 102P to UE 101 and [0039]), wherein the second message indicates a first random access type (i.e., 2-step RACH procedure, [0040]) that is usable in a random access procedure, and the first random access type is a 2-step random access channel (RACH) or a 4-step RACH (the paging messages may include available resources which may be the resource for resource of Msg.A for 2-step RACH procedure, [0040]),
wherein the random-access related information comprises one or more of the following:
random access indication information, useable to indicate the first random access type ((The paging message 103P may include UE configuration information of UE 101. BS 102 may determine a DL data transmission procedure for UE 101 according to the UE configuration information [0038] and the procedure indication may indicate to UE 101 to select the DL data transmission procedure from (1) Msg.2 based RA procedure; (2) Msg.4 based RA procedure; (3) 2-step RACH procedure; (4) regular RA procedure [0041]);
random access capability information comprising information of a random access type supported by the terminal device (After receiving the paging message 102P, UE 101 may select the DL data transmission procedure according to the procedure indication so that UE 101 may receive DL data from BS 102 according to the DL data transmission procedure, [0067]-[0068]);
an early downlink-data transmission indication useable to indicate to transmit a downlink data packet in the random access procedure (According to some existing agreements for Mobile Terminated Early Data Transmission (MT-EDT), after receiving paging with UE identification record, UE 101 may need to initiate a DL data receiving procedure to receive DL data… in Msg.2 based RA procedure, BS 102 may transmit some DL data to UE 101 by an RA response (i.e., Message 2 of MT-EDT) in response to an RA preamble (i.e., Message 1 of MT-EDT), [0029]); or
a size of the downlink data packet (After receiving the data size information and/or the service type information of UE 101, BS 104 may transmit the data size information and the service type information of UE 101 to BS 102. In some embodiments, the data size information may indicate to BS 102 whether small data transmission or Msg.4/Msg.2 based RA procedure can be initiated, [0076]).
Shi further teaches that the second message (paging message) comprises a procedure indication indicating procedures that may involved early downlin-data transmissions (see paragraphs 29 and 39-41), but fails to specify wherein the second message comprises the early downlink-data transmission indication.
In analogous art, Ljung teaches a paging message from a network including a 1-bit indicator indicative of an early downlink payload data transmission (see Ljung, paragraph 23).
It would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to apply this teaching to Ljung, so as to ensure that the UE understands what type of data it should expect to receive in response to the paging message.
What is further lacking from Shi is and wherein the second message further indicates whether the random access procedure is configured with a random access prioritization parameter, the random access prioritization parameter is useable to accelerate the random access procedure, and the random access prioritization parameter comprises a ramping step useable to determine transmit power for a next random access request message in response to a random access response message that fails to be received.
In analogous art, Han teaches a second message indicating a random access prioritization parameter to accelerate a random access procedure by using power ramping in response to a random access failure (see Han, paragraphs 53 and 55).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the arts before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to apply this teachings to optimize parameters in a random access procedure by reporting random access statistical information ([0006]).
As to claim 8, Shi teaches a communication method (Fig. 2A-2D show the message transmission among the wireless communication), comprising:
receiving a second message (Fig. 2A; paging message 102P) from a second network device (BS 102 may transmit a paging message 102P to UE 101 and [0039]), wherein the second message indicates a first random access type i.e., 2-step RACH procedure, [0040]) that is usable in a random access procedure, and the first random access type is a 2-step random access channel (RACH) or a 4-step RACH (the paging messages may include available resources which may be the resource for resource of Msg.A for 2-step RACH procedure, [0040]);
and initiating random access by the first random access type, wherein the second message is a paging message (after receiving the paging message 102P with the procedure indication, UE 101 may apply 2-step RACH procedure as the DL data transmission procedure. UE 101 may transmit Message A preamble (i.e., Message A preamble of 2-step RACH procedure) to BS 102, [0054]-[0055]), and
the first random access type is related to random access related information that is related to the random access procedure and is determined by a first network device (see paragraphs 37 and 41, AMF in CN determines UE configuration information that includes a determined DL data transmission procedure that can be a RA or RACH procedure for the UE).
Shi further teaches that the second message (paging message) comprises a procedure indication indicating procedures that may involved early downlink-data transmissions (see paragraphs 29 and 39-41), but fails to specify wherein the second message comprises the early downlink-data transmission indication.
In analogous art, Ljung teaches a paging message from a network including a 1-bit indicator indicative of an early downlink payload data transmission (see Ljung, paragraph 23).
It would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to apply this teaching to Ljung, so as to ensure that the UE understands what type of data it should expect to receive in response to the paging message.
What is further lacking from Shi is and wherein the second message further indicates whether the random access procedure is configured with a random access prioritization parameter, the random access prioritization parameter is useable to accelerate the random access procedure, and the random access prioritization parameter comprises a ramping step useable to determine transmit power for a next random access request message in response to a random access response message that fails to be received.
In analogous art, Han teaches a second message indicating a random access prioritization parameter to accelerate a random access procedure by using power ramping in response to a random access failure (see Han, paragraphs 53 and 55).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the arts before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to apply this teachings to optimize parameters in a random access procedure by reporting random access statistical information ([0006]).
As to claim 14, Shi teaches an apparatus (i.e., UE 101, Fig. 1 and Fig. 7), comprising: one or more processors; and one or more non-transitory memories coupled to the one or more processors (the apparatus 70 may include a processor 705 coupled to the non-transitory computer-readable medium, [0121]) and configured to store non-transitory instructions, and in response to being executed by the one or more processors cause the apparatus to perform operations (the non-transitory computer-readable medium may have stored thereon computer-executable instructions to cause a processor to implement the method with respect to the user equipment, [0126]) comprising:
receiving a second message (Fig. 2A; paging message 102P) from a second network device (BS 102 may transmit a paging message 102P to UE 101 and [0039]), wherein the second message indicates a first random access type (i.e., 2-step RACH procedure, [0040]) that is usable in a random access procedure, and the first random access type is a 2-step random access channel (RACH) or a 4-step RACH (the paging messages may include available resources which may be the resource for resource of Msg.A for 2-step RACH procedure, [0040]);
and initiating random access by the first random access type, wherein the second message is a paging message (after receiving the paging message 102P with the procedure indication, UE 101 may apply 2-step RACH procedure as the DL data transmission procedure. UE 101 may transmit Message A preamble (i.e., Message A preamble of 2-step RACH procedure) to BS 102, [0054]-[0055]), and
the first random access type is related to random access related information that is related to the random access procedure and is determined by a first network device (see paragraphs 37 and 41, AMF in CN determines UE configuration information that includes a determined DL data transmission procedure that can be a RA or RACH procedure for the UE).
Shi further teaches that the second message (paging message) comprises a procedure indication indicating procedures that may involve early downlink-data transmissions (see paragraphs 29 and 39-41), but fails to specify wherein the second message comprises the early downlink-data transmission indication.
In analogous art, Ljung teaches a paging message from a network including a 1-bit indicator indicative of an early downlink payload data transmission (see Ljung, paragraph 23).
It would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to apply this teaching to Ljung, so as to ensure that the UE understands what type of data it should expect to receive in response to the paging message.
What is further lacking from Shi is and wherein the second message further indicates whether the random access procedure is configured with a random access prioritization parameter, the random access prioritization parameter is useable to accelerate the random access procedure, and the random access prioritization parameter comprises a ramping step useable to determine transmit power for a next random access request message in response to a random access response message that fails to be received.
In analogous art, Han teaches a second message indicating a random access prioritization parameter to accelerate a random access procedure by using power ramping in response to a random access failure (see Han, paragraphs 53 and 55).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the arts before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to apply this teachings to optimize parameters in a random access procedure by reporting random access statistical information ([0006]).
As to claim 3, Shi further teaches wherein the second message further comprises the random access mode information (According to some existing agreements for Mobile Terminated Early Data Transmission (MT-EDT), after receiving paging with UE identification record, UE 101 may need to initiate a DL data receiving procedure to receive DL data. in Msg.2 based RA procedure, BS 102 may transmit some DL data to UE 101 by an RA response (i.e., Message 2 of MT-EDT) in response to an RA preamble (i.e., Message 1 of MT-EDT), [0029])
As to claims 5, 12 and 18, the combination of Shi and Han discloses everything claimed as applied above (see claims 4, 11 and 17), in addition Han discloses, wherein the random access prioritization parameter further comprises a scaling factor, the scaling factor is useable to determine a backoff duration prior to a next random access procedure is initiated (The indication information for use is used to indicate whether a high-priority parameter is used in the random access procedure. The high-priority random access parameter that needs to be reported is the high-priority parameter used in the random-access procedure, and includes at least one of power ramping step high priority and a scaling factor BI of time backoff. The base station may optimize parameters of ordinary random access or high-priority random access. For example, the power ramping step high priority and/or the scaling factor of time backoff may be optimized for high-priority random access, [0055]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the arts before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to apply this teachings to optimize parameters in a random access procedure by reporting random access statistical information ([0006]).
As to claim 6, the combination of Shi and Han discloses everything claimed as applied above (see claim 4).
In addition, Han discloses, wherein the method further comprises: sending the random-access prioritization parameter to the terminal device (the base station may determine whether to back off to the four-step random access. For example, when the base station has merely successfully received a preamble part in msg A, the base station sends msg2 to the terminal, and the terminal considers that it backs off to the four-step random access, [0081]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the arts before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to apply this teachings to optimize parameters in a random access procedure by reporting random access statistical information ([0006]).
As to claim 7, Shi further teaches wherein the first message is a radio access network paging message; or the second message is a paging message (paging messages 102P and 103P, Fig. 2A).
As to claim 9, Shi further teaches wherein the second message further comprises the random access mode information, wherein the second message comprises at least one of an early downlink-data transmission indication or random access mode information, wherein the early downlink-data transmission indication is useable to indicate to transmit a downlink data packet in the random access procedure (According to some existing agreements for Mobile Terminated Early Data Transmission (MT-EDT), after receiving paging with UE identification record, UE 101 may need to initiate a DL data receiving procedure to receive DL data. in Msg.2 based RA procedure, BS 102 may transmit some DL data to UE 101 by an RA response (i.e., Message 2 of MT-EDT) in response to an RA preamble (i.e., Message 1 of MT-EDT), [0029]),
As to claims 10 and 16, Shi further teaches wherein the method further comprises: performing early downlink-data transmission in the random-access procedure (According to some existing agreements for Mobile Terminated Early Data Transmission (MT-EDT), after receiving paging with UE identification record, UE 101 may need to initiate a DL data receiving procedure to receive DL data. in Msg.2 based RA procedure, BS 102 may transmit some DL data to UE 101 by an RA response (i.e., Message 2 of MT-EDT) in response to an RA preamble (i.e., Message 1 of MT-EDT), [0029]).
As to claims 13 and 19, the combination of Shi and Han discloses everything claimed as applied above (see claims 11 and 17).
In addition, Han discloses, receiving the random-access prioritization parameter (the base station may determine whether to back off to the four-step random access. For example, when the base station has merely successfully received a preamble part in msg A, the base station sends msg2 to the terminal, and the terminal considers that it backs off to the four-step random access, [0081]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the arts before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to apply this teachings to optimize parameters in a random access procedure by reporting random access statistical information ([0006]).
As to claim 15, Shi further teaches wherein the second message further comprises random access mode information, wherein the early downlink-data transmission indication is useable to indicate to transmit a downlink data packet in the random access procedure (According to some existing agreements for Mobile Terminated Early Data Transmission (MT-EDT), after receiving paging with UE identification record, UE 101 may need to initiate a DL data receiving procedure to receive DL data… in Msg.2 based RA procedure, BS 102 may transmit some DL data to UE 101 by an RA response (i.e., Message 2 of MT-EDT) in response to an RA preamble (i.e., Message 1 of MT-EDT), [0029]),
Claim 2 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Shi in view of Ljung and Han as applied to claim 1 above, and further in view of US 2022/0159739 (Takeda et al.).
As to claim 2, Shi fails to explicitly teach wherein the random access related information comprises the random access capability information, and fails to comprise the random-access indication information; and the method further comprises: determining the first random access type based on the random access capability information, wherein the first random access type is the 2-step RACH or the 4-step RACH in response to the terminal device supporting the 2-step RACH; or the first random access type is the 4-step RACH, in response to the terminal device failing to support the 2-step RACH.
In the same field of endeavor, Takeda discloses, wherein the random-access related information comprises the random-access capability information, and fails to comprise the random-access indication information (UE may determine the random-access procedure to apply based on information (or configuration) from the base station. Alternatively, the UE may determine the random access procedure to apply based on the capability information of the UE, [0078]-[0079]); and the method further comprises: determining the first random access type based on the random access capability information, wherein the first random access type is the 2-step RACH or the 4-step RACH in response to the terminal device supporting the 2-step RACH; or the first random access type is the 4-step RACH, in response to the terminal device failing to support the 2-step RACH (The UE may switch to the 4-step random access procedure and perform the random access procedure when the 2-step random access procedure fails (for example, when it is not successful even trying for a given number of times). The switch from the 2-step random access procedure to the 4-step random access procedure may be referred to as fall back. For example, when the transmission of message A using the PUSCH fails continuously a given number of times at the time of initial connection or after the RRC connection, the UE may control to transmit the PRACH, [0080]).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Shi by specifically providing wherein the random access related information comprises the random access capability information, and fails to comprise the random access indication information; and the method further comprises: determining the first random access type based on the random access capability information, wherein the first random access type is the 2-step RACH or the 4-step RACH in response to the terminal device supporting the 2-step RACH; or the first random access type is the 4-step RACH, in response to the terminal device failing to support the 2-step RACH, as taught by Takeda for the purpose of providing a user terminal and a radio communication method capable of appropriately performing communication even when performing the random access procedure with fewer steps than the existing case [0011].
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 MAZDA SABOURI whose telephone number is (571)272-8892. The examiner can normally be reached 10 am-7 pm.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Charles Appiah can be reached at 571-272-7904. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/MAZDA SABOURI/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2641