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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 11/21/2025 has been entered.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments filed on 10/17/2025 have been fully considered. Applicant’s
arguments and examiner’s response are provided below.
Rejections under 35 U.S.C. 103:
Applicant argues: Hong generally describes a paging occasion in a paging DRX cycle that includes one or more monitoring occasions. Hong fails to teach or suggest a periodicity of a search space being shorter than the ON duration of the DRX cycle.
Examiner’s response: Hong in paragraphs 159-160 and Figs. 10-12 describes that a paging occasion in a DRX cycle is configured with multiple PDCCH monitoring occasions, each monitoring occasion corresponds to a search space instance where the UE attempts PDCCH decoding. Since multiple monitoring occasions (multiple search space instances) are accommodated within a single paging occasion (PO), and the PO itself is within the ON duration of the DRX cycle (Fig. 10), it means that the periodicity of the search space is shorter than the ON duration of the DRX cycle, otherwise only a single monitoring occasion could be mapped within one PO/ ON duration. As shown in Fig. 12, the UE monitors the search space multiple times within one DRX ON duration, and a POSITA would recognize that such repeated monitoring requires the monitoring periodicity to be shorter than the ON duration.
Applicant argues: The combination fails to teach or suggest “a periodicity of the second search space is longer than a periodicity of the first search space and provides one or more monitoring occasions during the ON duration of the DRX cycle”.
Examiner’s response: Thyagarajan discloses in [0058] that the second search space has a lower granularity than the first search space, a lower frequency of PDCCH occasions in a given time interval, which means that the second search space has a longer periodicity than the first search space. Thyagarajan also discloses in [0091] that the UE is configured to monitor PDCCH in the DRX ON durations with a lower monitoring frequency to increase power savings. The lower monitoring frequency corresponds to the second search space and it has one or more monitoring occasions during the DRX ON duration.
Applicant argues: The combination fails to teach or suggest switching between search spaces with all of the recited characteristics in response to receiving DCI”.
Examiner’s response: Thyagarajan discloses switching between search spaces based on DCI, to achieve a trade-off between providing more granular PDCCH transmission occasions so that the BS is able to transmit quickly after acquiring the channel and the UE not spending too much power in order to monitor the occasions at the high granularity, [0055], the second search space is to increase power savings. XU and Hong further disclose characteristics of the search space that increases power savings. Thyagarajan discloses switching between first and second search spaces in response to receiving DCI, [0070] – [0073]. Thyagarajan also discloses that the second search space has a longer periodicity/ lower frequency of PDCCH occasions to increase power savings, [0058], [0061], [0091]. XU discloses that the time duration of a monitoring occasion in a second SS is less than that of a first SS, to reduce power consumption, [0046], [0051]. HONG discloses that for reducing power consumption, the periodicity of the search space is less than the ON duration of the DRX cycle.
Claim Objections
Claims 21, 45, 49, 53 and 55 are objected to because of the following informalities:
The limitation “wherein a periodicity of the second search space is longer than a periodicity of the first search space and provides one or more monitoring occasions during an ON duration of a DRX cycle” is repeated twice in the claims.
Appropriate correction is required.
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.
Claims 1-3, 11, 21, 31, 45-46, 49, 53-55, 57, 59-60 and 66 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as
being unpatentable over THYAGARAJAN (US 2022/0386373 A1) in view of XU et al. (US
20210250922 A1) and further in view of HONG (US 20200084747 A1).
Regarding claim 1,
THYAGARAJAN discloses “A method of operating a user equipment ("UE") in a
discontinuous reception ("DRX") mode for monitoring a downlink control channel” (See
[0031] methods that provide techniques for a UE to switch between using particular groups
of search space sets (e.g., corresponding to different time resources) for monitoring a
downlink control channel. See Fig 6, [0086] UE in DRX mode), “the method comprising:
configuring a first search space for downlink control channel monitoring during an ON
duration of a DRX cycle; configuring a second search space for downlink control channel
monitoring during the ON duration of a DRX cycle” (See Fig. 5, Step 502, [0070] configuring
a plurality of groups of search space sets that can be monitored by a user equipment (UE),
wherein the plurality of groups includes at least a first group of search space sets and a
second group of search space sets. Note: The configuration implicitly takes place during an
ON duration), “the second search space having a reduced amount of control channel resources compared to the first search space” (See [0070] wherein the first group of search
space sets as compared to the second group of search space sets has more occasions
configured in a given time period for monitoring a control channel. Note: Since the first SS is
configured with more occasions, this means that the second SS has a reduced amount of
control channel resources); “receiving downlink control information ("DCI") transmitted by
a network node; and responsive to receiving the DCI, switching between the first search
space and the second search space as an active search space for downlink control channel
monitoring” (See Fig. 5, [0071] At 504, the BS decides when the UE is to monitor each of the
plurality of groups of search space sets. [0072] At 506, the BS transmits to the UE
information relating to when the UE is to monitor each of the plurality of groups of search
space sets, based on the decision. [0073] explicit signaling may be used to trigger a switch
between groups of search space sets at the UE. The BS may include one or more explicit bits
in a group-common PDCCH (GC-PDCCH) and/or UE-specific PDCCH, the one or more bits
identifying the group of search space sets the UE is to switch to. While GC-PDCCH generally
includes DCI common for multiple UEs, a UE-specific PDCCH is specific to a single UE), “wherein a periodicity of the second search space is longer than a periodicity of the first search space and provides one or more monitoring occasions during an ON duration of a DRX cycle” (See [0058] For example, a first search space set may be defined with a
higher granularity, for example, a mini-slot level granularity for PDCCH occasions where
there may be multiple PDCCH occasions configured in a single slot. A second search space
set may be defined with a lower granularity, for example, a slot level granularity where
there is a single PDCCH occasion configured in each slot. Thus, the first search space set as
compared to the second search space set has a higher frequency of PDCCH occasions in a
given time interval. Note: This means that the second search space has a longer periodicity/
longer time between monitoring occasions. See [0091] the UE is configured to monitor PDCCH in the DRX ON durations with a lower monitoring frequency to increase power savings. The lower monitoring frequency corresponds to the second search space and it has one or more monitoring occasions during the DRX ON duration).
THYAGARAJAN does not explicitly disclose that the time duration of a monitoring occasion in
the second search space is less a time duration of a monitoring occasion in the first search
space.
However, XU discloses “wherein a time duration of a monitoring occasion in the second
search space is less than a time duration of a monitoring occasion in the first search space”
(See [0046] the terminal device may perform PDCCH monitoring in the first PDCCH search
space, and perform extra PDCCH monitoring in the second PDCCH search space after the time point when DCI is detected. In this way, the power consumption of the terminal device
can be reduced by configuring the first PDCCH search space, and more transmission
opportunities can be provided by the second PDCCH search space. [0051] The first
PDCCH search space may be configured for saving power consumption, for example,
configuring a larger period of a monitoring slot of the PDCCH search space,
a shorter monitoring duration, a smaller number of monitoring time points, etc., to reduce
the frequency for the terminal device to monitor the PDCCH, thereby saving power
consumption of the terminal device). Note: The first SS in XU is the second SS and has a
shorter duration of a monitoring occasion than the other search space for power saving.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the
effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the teachings of
THYAGARAJAN with the teachings of XU, and the motivation to do so would have been to
realize timely and rapid scheduling of data packets under the condition of reducing
power consumption, thereby ensuring the delay requirement of data transmission (XU
[0046]).
THYAGARAJAN in view of XU does not explicitly disclose that the periodicity of the second
search space is shorter than an ON duration of the DRX cycle.
However, HONG discloses “wherein a periodicity of the second search space is shorter than
an ON duration of the DRX cycle” (See Fig. 10 and Fig. 12, [0159] Referring to FIG. 12, a
paging occasion (PO) in a paging DRX cycle may include one or more PDCCH monitoring
occasions 1210. As described above, the set of PDCCH monitoring occasions 1210 may include one or more PDCCH monitoring occasions 1200. For example, the set of PDCCH
monitoring occasions 1210 may be configured with M repetitions of S consecutive PDCCH
monitoring occasions. [0160] As an example, as illustrated in FIG. 12, 2 PDCCH monitoring
occasions 1200 repeat 3 times; thereby a set of PDCCH monitoring occasions 1210 may be
configured with a total of 6 PDCCH monitoring occasions 1200). Note: A paging occasion in a
DRX cycle is configured with multiple PDCCH monitoring occasions, each monitoring
occasion corresponds to a search space instance where the UE attempts PDCCH decoding.
Since multiple monitoring occasions (multiple search space instances) are accommodated
within a single paging occasion (PO), and the PO itself is within the ON duration of the DRX
cycle (Fig. 10), it means that the periodicity of the search space is shorter than the ON
duration of the DRX cycle.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the
effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the teachings of
THYAGARAJAN and XU, with the teachings of HONG, and the motivation to do so would
have been for performing a paging operation efficiently with power consumption reduced
(See HONG [0008]).
Regarding claim 2,
THYAGARAJAN in view of XU and HONG discloses “The method of Claim 1, wherein
receiving the DCI comprises receiving a switch command transmitted to the UE in the
active search space” (See THYAGARAJAN [0073] explicit signaling may be used to trigger a
switch between groups of search space sets at the UE. The BS may include one or more
explicit bits in a group- common PDCCH (GC-PDCCH) and/or UE-specific PDCCH, the one or more bits identifying the group of search space sets the UE is to switch to. While GC-PDCCH
generally includes DCI common for multiple UEs, a UE-specific PDCCH is specific to a single
UE. See Fig. 4, [0066-0068] The UE monitoring a first SS (active SS) receives the
trigger/switch command to switch to the second SS).
Regarding claim 3,
THYAGARAJAN in view of XU and HONG discloses “The method of Claim 2, wherein
receiving the switch command comprises receiving the switch command as part of DCI
scheduling a downlink transmission transmitted to the UE in the second search space” (See
THYAGARAJAN [0073] explicit signaling may be used to trigger a switch between groups of
search space sets at the UE. The BS may include one or more explicit bits in a group-
common PDCCH (GC-PDCCH) and/or UE- specific PDCCH, the one or more bits identifying
the group of search space sets the UE is to switch to. While GC-PDCCH generally includes
DCI common for multiple UEs, a UE-specific PDCCH is specific to a single UE. [0076] the
explicit signaling to switch between groups of SS sets provides the BS more control
regarding when the UE switches between particular groups of SS sets, the BS may transmit
the signaling to the UE based on downlink transmissions scheduled for the UE); “wherein
switching between the first search space and the second search space as the active search
space comprises the UE switching to the first search space for downlink control channel
monitoring based on receiving the switch command” (See THYAGARAJAN [0073] explicit
signaling may be used to trigger a switch between groups of search space sets at the UE.
[0076] The UE may switch to Group B in response to the trigger and continue monitoring
Group B till the UE detects another trigger to switch back to Group A).
Regarding claim 11,
THYAGARAJAN in view of XU and HONG discloses “The method of claim 1, wherein the
second search space provides multiple monitoring occasions during the ON duration of the
DRX cycle” (See HONG, Fig. 10 and Fig. 12, [0159] Referring to FIG. 12, a paging occasion
(PO) in a paging DRX cycle may include one or more PDCCH monitoring occasions 1210. As
described above, the set of PDCCH monitoring occasions 1210 may include one or more
PDCCH monitoring occasions 1200. For example, the set of PDCCH monitoring occasions
1210 may be configured with M repetitions of S consecutive PDCCH monitoring occasions.
[0160] As an example, as illustrated in FIG. 12, 2 PDCCH monitoring occasions 1200 repeat 3
times; thereby a set of PDCCH monitoring occasions 1210 may be configured with a total of
6 PDCCH monitoring occasions 1200).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the
effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the teachings of THYAGARAJAN and XU, with the teachings of HONG, and the motivation to do so would
have been for performing a paging operation efficiently with power consumption reduced
(See HONG [0008]).
Regarding claim 21,
THYAGARAJAN discloses “A method of operating a network node for transmitting downlink
control information ("DCI")” (See [0032] the BS needs to acquire use of a frequency band
corresponding to a downlink control channel to transmit a downlink transmission including
downlink control information (DCI) on the downlink control channel, such as to a UE), “the
method comprising: configuring a UE with a first search space for downlink control
channel monitoring during an ON duration of a DRX cycle; configuring the UE with a
second search space for downlink control channel monitoring during the ON duration of a
DRX cycle” (See Fig 6, [0086] UE in DRX mode, See Fig. 5, Step 502, [0070] configuring a
plurality of groups of search space sets that can be monitored by a user equipment (UE),
wherein the plurality of groups includes at least a first group of search space sets and a
second group of search space sets. Note: The configuration implicitly takes place during an
ON duration), “the second search space having a reduced amount of control channel
resources compared to the first search space” (See [0070] wherein the first group of search
space sets as compared to the second group of search space sets has more occasions
configured in a given time period for monitoring a control channel. Note: Since the first SS is
configured with more occasions, this means that the second SS has a reduced amount of
control channel resources); “and transmitting ("DCI") to the UE to switch the UE between
the first search space and the second search space as the active search space for downlink
control channel monitoring” (See [0034] the UE may be configured to switch between different one or more search space sets to use for monitoring the downlink control channel,
See Fig. 5, [0071] At 504, the BS decides when the UE is to monitor each of the plurality of
groups of search space sets. [0072] At 506, the BS transmits to the UE information relating
to when the UE is to monitor each of the plurality of groups of search space sets, based on
the decision. [0073] explicit signaling may be used to trigger a switch between groups of
search space sets at the UE. The BS may include one or more explicit bits in a group-
common PDCCH (GC-PDCCH) and/or UE-specific PDCCH, the one or more bits identifying the
group of search space sets the UE is to switch to. While GC-PDCCH generally includes DCI
common for multiple UEs, a UE-specific PDCCH is specific to a single UE), “wherein a periodicity of the second search space is longer than a periodicity of the first search space and provides one or more monitoring occasions during an ON duration of a DRX cycle” (See [0058] For example, a first search space set may be defined with a
higher granularity, for example, a mini-slot level granularity for PDCCH occasions where
there may be multiple PDCCH occasions configured in a single slot. A second search space
set may be defined with a lower granularity, for example, a slot level granularity where
there is a single PDCCH occasion configured in each slot. Thus, the first search space set as
compared to the second search space set has a higher frequency of PDCCH occasions in a
given time interval. Note: This means that the second search space has a longer periodicity/
longer time between monitoring occasions. See [0091] the UE is configured to monitor PDCCH in the DRX ON durations with a lower monitoring frequency to increase power savings. The lower monitoring frequency corresponds to the second search space and it has one or more monitoring occasions during the DRX ON duration).
THYAGARAJAN does not explicitly disclose that the time duration of a monitoring occasion in
the second search space is less a time duration of a monitoring occasion in the first search
space.
However, XU discloses “wherein a time duration of a monitoring occasion in the second
search space is less than a time duration of a monitoring occasion in the first search space”
(See [0046] the terminal device may perform PDCCH monitoring in the first PDCCH search
space, and perform extra PDCCH monitoring in the second PDCCH search space after the time point when DCI is detected. In this way, the power consumption of the terminal device
can be reduced by configuring the first PDCCH search space, and more transmission
opportunities can be provided by the second PDCCH search space. [0051] The first
PDCCH search space may be configured for saving power consumption, for example,
configuring a larger period of a monitoring slot of the PDCCH search space,
a shorter monitoring duration, a smaller number of monitoring time points, etc., to reduce
the frequency for the terminal device to monitor the PDCCH, thereby saving power
consumption of the terminal device). Note: The first SS in XU is the second SS and has a
shorter duration of a monitoring occasion than the other search space for power saving.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the
effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the teachings of
THYAGARAJAN with the teachings of XU, and the motivation to do so would have been to
realize timely and rapid scheduling of data packets under the condition of reducing
power consumption, thereby ensuring the delay requirement of data transmission (XU
[0046]).
THYAGARAJAN in view of XU does not explicitly disclose that the periodicity of the second
search space is shorter than an ON duration of the DRX cycle.
However, HONG discloses “wherein a periodicity of the second search space is shorter than
an ON duration of the DRX cycle” (See Fig. 10 and Fig. 12, [0159] Referring to FIG. 12, a
paging occasion (PO) in a paging DRX cycle may include one or more PDCCH monitoring
occasions 1210. As described above, the set of PDCCH monitoring occasions 1210 may include one or more PDCCH monitoring occasions 1200. For example, the set of PDCCH
monitoring occasions 1210 may be configured with M repetitions of S consecutive PDCCH
monitoring occasions. [0160] As an example, as illustrated in FIG. 12, 2 PDCCH monitoring
occasions 1200 repeat 3 times; thereby a set of PDCCH monitoring occasions 1210 may be
configured with a total of 6 PDCCH monitoring occasions 1200). Note: A paging occasion in a
DRX cycle is configured with multiple PDCCH monitoring occasions, each monitoring
occasion corresponds to a search space instance where the UE attempts PDCCH decoding.
Since multiple monitoring occasions (multiple search space instances) are accommodated
within a single paging occasion (PO), and the PO itself is within the ON duration of the DRX
cycle (Fig. 10), it means that the periodicity of the search space is shorter than the ON
duration of the DRX cycle.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the
effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the teachings of
THYAGARAJAN and XU, with the teachings of HONG, and the motivation to do so would
have been for performing a paging operation efficiently with power consumption reduced
(See HONG [0008]).
Regarding claim 31,
THYAGARAJAN in view of XU and HONG discloses “The method of claim 21, wherein the
second search space provides multiple monitoring occasions during the ON duration of the
DRX cycle” (See HONG, Fig. 10 and Fig. 12, [0159] Referring to FIG. 12, a paging occasion
(PO) in a paging DRX cycle may include one or more PDCCH monitoring occasions 1210. As
described above, the set of PDCCH monitoring occasions 1210 may include one or more
PDCCH monitoring occasions 1200. For example, the set of PDCCH monitoring occasions
1210 may be configured with M repetitions of S consecutive PDCCH monitoring occasions.
[0160] As an example, as illustrated in FIG. 12, 2 PDCCH monitoring occasions 1200 repeat 3
times; thereby a set of PDCCH monitoring occasions 1210 may be configured with a total of
6 PDCCH monitoring occasions 1200).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the
effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the teachings of
THYAGARAJAN and XU, with the teachings of HONG, and the motivation to do so would
have been for performing a paging operation efficiently with power consumption reduced
(See HONG [0008]).
Regarding claim 45,
THYAGARAJAN discloses “A user equipment ("UE") configured for downlink control channel
monitoring in a discontinuous reception mode” (See [0009] an apparatus for wireless
communication by a User Equipment (UE). [0031] methods that provide techniques for a UE
to switch between using particular groups of search space sets (e.g., corresponding to
different time resources) for monitoring a downlink control channel. See Fig 6, [0086] UE in
DRX mode), “the UE comprising: processing circuitry; and memory coupled to the processing circuitry and having instructions stored therein that are executable by the
processing circuitry to cause the UE to perform operations comprising” (See Fig. 2, UE 120):
“configuring a first search space for downlink control channel monitoring during an ON
duration of a DRX cycle; configuring a second search space for downlink control channel
monitoring during the ON duration of a DRX cycle” (See Fig. 5, Step 502, [0070] configuring
a plurality of groups of search space sets that can be monitored by a user equipment (UE),
wherein the plurality of groups includes at least a first group of search space sets and a
second group of search space sets. Note: The configuration implicitly takes place during an
ON duration), “the second search space having a reduced amount of control channel
resources compared to the first search space” (See [0070] wherein the first group of search
space sets as compared to the second group of search space sets has more occasions
configured in a given time period for monitoring a control channel. Note: Since the first SS is
configured with more occasions, this means that the second SS has a reduced amount of
control channel resources); “receiving downlink control information ("DCI") transmitted by
a network node; and responsive to receiving the DCI, switching between the first search
space and the second search space as an active search space for downlink control channel
monitoring” (See Fig. 5, [0071] At 504, the BS decides when the UE is to monitor each of the
plurality of groups of search space sets. [0072] At 506, the BS transmits to the UE
information relating to when the UE is to monitor each of the plurality of groups of search
space sets, based on the decision. [0073] explicit signaling may be used to trigger a switch
between groups of search space sets at the UE. The BS may include one or more explicit bits
in a group-common PDCCH (GC-PDCCH) and/or UE-specific PDCCH, the one or more bits
identifying the group of search space sets the UE is to switch to. While GC-PDCCH generally includes DCI common for multiple UEs, a UE-specific PDCCH is specific to a single UE),
“wherein a periodicity of the second search space is longer than a periodicity of the first
search space and provides one or more monitoring occasions during the ON duration of
the DRX cycle” (See [0058] For example, a first search space set may be defined with a
higher granularity, for example, a mini-slot level granularity for PDCCH occasions where
there may be multiple PDCCH occasions configured in a single slot. A second search space
set may be defined with a lower granularity, for example, a slot level granularity where
there is a single PDCCH occasion configured in each slot. Thus, the first search space set as
compared to the second search space set has a higher frequency of PDCCH occasions in a
given time interval. Note: This means that the second search space has a longer periodicity/
longer time between monitoring occasions. See [0091] the UE is configured to monitor PDCCH in the DRX ON durations with a lower monitoring frequency to increase power savings. The lower monitoring frequency corresponds to the second search space and it has one or more monitoring occasions during the DRX ON duration).
THYAGARAJAN does not explicitly disclose that the time duration of a monitoring occasion in
the second search space is less a time duration of a monitoring occasion in the first search
space.
However, XU discloses “wherein a time duration of a monitoring occasion in the second
search space is less than a time duration of a monitoring occasion in the first search space”
(See [0046] the terminal device may perform PDCCH monitoring in the first PDCCH search
space, and perform extra PDCCH monitoring in the second PDCCH search space after the time point when DCI is detected. In this way, the power consumption of the terminal device
can be reduced by configuring the first PDCCH search space, and more transmission
opportunities can be provided by the second PDCCH search space. [0051] The first
PDCCH search space may be configured for saving power consumption, for example,
configuring a larger period of a monitoring slot of the PDCCH search space,
a shorter monitoring duration, a smaller number of monitoring time points, etc., to reduce
the frequency for the terminal device to monitor the PDCCH, thereby saving power
consumption of the terminal device). Note: The first SS in XU is the second SS and has a
shorter duration of a monitoring occasion than the other search space for power saving.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the
effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the teachings of
THYAGARAJAN with the teachings of XU, and the motivation to do so would have been to
realize timely and rapid scheduling of data packets under the condition of reducing
power consumption, thereby ensuring the delay requirement of data transmission (XU
[0046]).
THYAGARAJAN in view of XU does not explicitly disclose that the periodicity of the second
search space is shorter than an ON duration of the DRX cycle.
However, HONG discloses “wherein a periodicity of the second search space is shorter than
an ON duration of the DRX cycle” (See Fig. 10 and Fig. 12, [0159] Referring to FIG. 12, a
paging occasion (PO) in a paging DRX cycle may include one or more PDCCH monitoring
occasions 1210. As described above, the set of PDCCH monitoring occasions 1210 may include one or more PDCCH monitoring occasions 1200. For example, the set of PDCCH
monitoring occasions 1210 may be configured with M repetitions of S consecutive PDCCH
monitoring occasions. [0160] As an example, as illustrated in FIG. 12, 2 PDCCH monitoring
occasions 1200 repeat 3 times; thereby a set of PDCCH monitoring occasions 1210 may be
configured with a total of 6 PDCCH monitoring occasions 1200). Note: A paging occasion in a
DRX cycle is configured with multiple PDCCH monitoring occasions, each monitoring
occasion corresponds to a search space instance where the UE attempts PDCCH decoding.
Since multiple monitoring occasions (multiple search space instances) are accommodated
within a single paging occasion (PO), and the PO itself is within the ON duration of the DRX
cycle (Fig. 10), it means that the periodicity of the search space is shorter than the ON
duration of the DRX cycle.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the
effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the teachings of
THYAGARAJAN and XU, with the teachings of HONG, and the motivation to do so would
have been for performing a paging operation efficiently with power consumption reduced
(See HONG [0008]).
Regarding claim 46,
THYAGARAJAN in view of XU and HONG discloses “The UE according to Claim 45, wherein
receiving the DCI comprises receiving a switch command transmitted to the UE in the
active search space” (See THYAGARAJAN [0073] explicit signaling may be used to trigger a
switch between groups of search space sets at the UE. The BS may include one or more
explicit bits in a group-common PDCCH (GC-PDCCH) and/or UE-specific PDCCH, the one or
more bits identifying the group of search space sets the UE is to switch to. While GC-PDCCH
generally includes DCI common for multiple UEs, a UE-specific PDCCH is specific to a single
UE. See Fig. 4, [0066-0068] The UE monitoring a first SS (active SS) receives the
trigger/switch command to switch to the second SS), “wherein the switch command is received by the UE in DCI scheduling a downlink transmission to the UE in the second
search space” (See THYAGARAJAN [0076] the explicit signaling to switch between groups of
SS sets provides the BS more control regarding when the UE switches between particular
groups of SS sets, the BS may transmit the signaling to the UE based on downlink
transmissions scheduled for the UE), “and wherein switching between the first search
space and the second space as the active search space comprises the UE switching to the
first search space for downlink control channel monitoring based on receiving the switch
command” (See THYAGARAJAN [0073] explicit signaling may be used to trigger a switch
between groups of search space sets at the UE. [0076] The UE may switch to Group B in
response to the trigger and continue monitoring Group B till the UE detects another trigger
to switch back to Group A).
Regarding claim 49,
THYAGARAJAN discloses “A non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions
stored therein that are executable by processing circuitry of a user equipment ("UE") to
cause the UE to perform operations comprising” (See [0017] a non-transitory computer
readable medium including instructions that when executed by an apparatus or user
equipment (UE), cause the apparatus or UE to perform a method for wireless
communication): “configuring a first search space for downlink control channel monitoring
during an ON duration of a discontinuous reception ("DRX") cycle; configuring a second
search space for downlink control channel monitoring during the ON duration of a DRX
cycle” (See Fig. 5, Step 502, [0070] configuring a plurality of groups of search space sets that
can be monitored by a user equipment (UE), wherein the plurality of groups includes at least
a first group of search space sets and a second group of search space sets. Note: The configuration implicitly takes place during an ON duration), “the second search space
having a reduced amount of control channel resources compared to the first search space”
(See [0070] wherein the first group of search space sets as compared to the second group of
search space sets has more occasions configured in a given time period for monitoring a
control channel. Note: Since the first SS is configured with more occasions, this means that
the second SS has a reduced amount of control channel resources); “receiving downlink
control information ("DCI") transmitted by a network node; and responsive to receiving
the DCI, switching between the first search space and the second search space as an active
search space for downlink control channel monitoring” (See Fig. 5, [0071] At 504, the BS
decides when the UE is to monitor each of the plurality of groups of search space sets.
[0072] At 506, the BS transmits to the UE information relating to when the UE is to monitor
each of the plurality of groups of search space sets, based on the decision. [0073] explicit
signaling may be used to trigger a switch between groups of search space sets at the UE. The
BS may include one or more explicit bits in a group-common PDCCH (GC-PDCCH) and/or UE-
specific PDCCH, the one or more bits identifying the group of search space sets the UE is to
switch to. While GC-PDCCH generally includes DCI common for multiple UEs, a UE-specific
PDCCH is specific to a single UE), “wherein a periodicity of the second search space is
longer than a periodicity of the first search space and provides one or more monitoring
occasions during the ON duration of the DRX cycle” (See [0058] For example, a first search
space set may be defined with a higher granularity, for example, a mini-slot level granularity
for PDCCH occasions where there may be multiple PDCCH occasions configured in a single
slot. A second search space set may be defined with a lower granularity, for example, a slot
level granularity where there is a single PDCCH occasion configured in each slot. Thus, the
first search space set as compared to the second search space set has a higher frequency of PDCCH occasions in a given time interval. Note: This means that the second search space
has a longer periodicity/ longer time between monitoring occasions. See [0091] the UE is configured to monitor PDCCH in the DRX ON durations with a lower monitoring frequency to increase power savings. The lower monitoring frequency corresponds to the second search space and it has one or more monitoring occasions during the DRX ON duration).
THYAGARAJAN does not explicitly disclose that the time duration of a monitoring occasion in
the second search space is less a time duration of a monitoring occasion in the first search
space.
However, XU discloses “wherein a time duration of a monitoring occasion in the second
search space is less than a time duration of a monitoring occasion in the first search space”
(See [0046] the terminal device may perform PDCCH monitoring in the first PDCCH search
space, and perform extra PDCCH monitoring in the second PDCCH search space after the time point when DCI is detected. In this way, the power consumption of the terminal device
can be reduced by configuring the first PDCCH search space, and more transmission
opportunities can be provided by the second PDCCH search space. [0051] The first
PDCCH search space may be configured for saving power consumption, for example,
configuring a larger period of a monitoring slot of the PDCCH search space,
a shorter monitoring duration, a smaller number of monitoring time points, etc., to reduce
the frequency for the terminal device to monitor the PDCCH, thereby saving power
consumption of the terminal device). Note: The first SS in XU is the second SS and has a
shorter duration of a monitoring occasion than the other search space for power saving.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the
effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the teachings of
THYAGARAJAN with the teachings of XU, and the motivation to do so would have been to
realize timely and rapid scheduling of data packets under the condition of reducing
power consumption, thereby ensuring the delay requirement of data transmission (XU
[0046]).
THYAGARAJAN in view of XU does not explicitly disclose that the periodicity of the second
search space is shorter than an ON duration of the DRX cycle.
However, HONG discloses “wherein a periodicity of the second search space is shorter than
an ON duration of the DRX cycle” (See Fig. 10 and Fig. 12, [0159] Referring to FIG. 12, a
paging occasion (PO) in a paging DRX cycle may include one or more PDCCH monitoring
occasions 1210. As described above, the set of PDCCH monitoring occasions 1210 may include one or more PDCCH monitoring occasions 1200. For example, the set of PDCCH
monitoring occasions 1210 may be configured with M repetitions of S consecutive PDCCH
monitoring occasions. [0160] As an example, as illustrated in FIG. 12, 2 PDCCH monitoring
occasions 1200 repeat 3 times; thereby a set of PDCCH monitoring occasions 1210 may be
configured with a total of 6 PDCCH monitoring occasions 1200). Note: A paging occasion in a
DRX cycle is configured with multiple PDCCH monitoring occasions, each monitoring
occasion corresponds to a search space instance where the UE attempts PDCCH decoding.
Since multiple monitoring occasions (multiple search space instances) are accommodated
within a single paging occasion (PO), and the PO itself is within the ON duration of the DRX
cycle (Fig. 10), it means that the periodicity of the search space is shorter than the ON
duration of the DRX cycle.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the
effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the teachings of
THYAGARAJAN and XU, with the teachings of HONG, and the motivation to do so would
have been for performing a paging operation efficiently with power consumption reduced
(See HONG [0008]).
Regarding claim 53,
THYAGARAJAN discloses “A network node configured to transmit downlink control
information ("DCI") to a UE” (See [0032] the BS needs to acquire use of a frequency band
corresponding to a downlink control channel to transmit a downlink transmission including
downlink control information (DCI) on the downlink control channel, such as to a UE), “the
network node comprising: processing circuitry; and memory coupled to the processing
circuitry and having instructions stored therein that are executable by the processing
circuitry to cause the network node to perform operations comprising” (See Fig. 2, BS 110): “configuring the UE with a first search space for downlink control channel monitoring
during an ON duration of a DRX cycle; configuring the UE with a second search space for
downlink control channel monitoring during the ON duration of a DRX cycle” (See Fig. 5,
Step 502, [0070] configuring a plurality of groups of search space sets that can be monitored
by a user equipment (UE), wherein the plurality of groups includes at least a first group of
search space sets and a second group of search space sets. Note: The configuration
implicitly takes place during an ON duration), “the second search space having a reduced
amount of control channel resources compared to the first search space” (See [0070]
wherein the first group of search space sets as compared to the second group of search
space sets has more occasions configured in a given time period for monitoring a control
channel. Note: Since the first SS is configured with more occasions, this means that the second SS has a reduced amount of control channel resources); “and transmitting DCI to
the UE to switch the UE between the first search space and the second search space as the
active search space for downlink control channel monitoring” (See [0034] the UE may be
configured to switch between different one or more search space sets to use for monitoring
the downlink control channel, See Fig. 5, [0071] At 504, the BS decides when the UE is to
monitor each of the plurality of groups of search space sets. [0072] At 506, the BS transmits
to the UE information relating to when the UE is to monitor each of the plurality of groups
of search space sets, based on the decision. [0073] explicit signaling may be used to trigger a
switch between groups of search space sets at the UE. The BS may include one or more
explicit bits in a group-common PDCCH (GC-PDCCH) and/or UE-specific PDCCH, the one or
more bits identifying the group of search space sets the UE is to switch to. While GC-PDCCH
generally includes DCI common for multiple UEs, a UE-specific PDCCH is specific to a single
UE), “wherein a periodicity of the second search space is longer than a periodicity of the
first search space and provides one or more monitoring occasions during the ON duration
of the DRX cycle” (See [0058] For example, a first search space set may be defined with a
higher granularity, for example, a mini-slot level granularity for PDCCH occasions where
there may be multiple PDCCH occasions configured in a single slot. A second search space
set may be defined with a lower granularity, for example, a slot level granularity where
there is a single PDCCH occasion configured in each slot. Thus, the first search space set as
compared to the second search space set has a higher frequency of PDCCH occasions in a
given time interval. Note: This means that the second search space has a longer periodicity/
longer time between monitoring occasions. See [0091] the UE is configured to monitor PDCCH in the DRX ON durations with a lower monitoring frequency to increase power savings. The lower monitoring frequency corresponds to the second search space and it has one or more monitoring occasions during the DRX ON duration).
THYAGARAJAN does not explicitly disclose that the time duration of a monitoring occasion in
the second search space is less a time duration of a monitoring occasion in the first search
space.
However, XU discloses “wherein a time duration of a monitoring occasion in the second
search space is less than a time duration of a monitoring occasion in the first search space”
(See [0046] the terminal device may perform PDCCH monitoring in the first PDCCH search
space, and perform extra PDCCH monitoring in the second PDCCH search space after the time point when DCI is detected. In this way, the power consumption of the terminal device
can be reduced by configuring the first PDCCH search space, and more transmission
opportunities can be provided by the second PDCCH search space. [0051] The first
PDCCH search space may be configured for saving power consumption, for example,
configuring a larger period of a monitoring slot of the PDCCH search space,
a shorter monitoring duration, a smaller number of monitoring time points, etc., to reduce
the frequency for the terminal device to monitor the PDCCH, thereby saving power
consumption of the terminal device). Note: The first SS in XU is the second SS and has a
shorter duration of a monitoring occasion than the other search space for power saving.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the
effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the teachings of
THYAGARAJAN with the teachings of XU, and the motivation to do so would have been to
realize timely and rapid scheduling of data packets under the condition of reducing
power consumption, thereby ensuring the delay requirement of data transmission (XU
[0046]).
THYAGARAJAN in view of XU does not explicitly disclose that the periodicity of the second
search space is shorter than an ON duration of the DRX cycle.
However, HONG discloses “wherein a periodicity of the second search space is shorter than
an ON duration of the DRX cycle” (See Fig. 10 and Fig. 12, [0159] Referring to FIG. 12, a
paging occasion (PO) in a paging DRX cycle may include one or more PDCCH monitoring
occasions 1210. As described above, the set of PDCCH monitoring occasions 1210 may include one or more PDCCH monitoring occasions 1200. For example, the set of PDCCH
monitoring occasions 1210 may be configured with M repetitions of S consecutive PDCCH
monitoring occasions. [0160] As an example, as illustrated in FIG. 12, 2 PDCCH monitoring
occasions 1200 repeat 3 times; thereby a set of PDCCH monitoring occasions 1210 may be
configured with a total of 6 PDCCH monitoring occasions 1200). Note: A paging occasion in a
DRX cycle is configured with multiple PDCCH monitoring occasions, each monitoring
occasion corresponds to a search space instance where the UE attempts PDCCH decoding.
Since multiple monitoring occasions (multiple search space instances) are accommodated
within a single paging occasion (PO), and the PO itself is within the ON duration of the DRX
cycle (Fig. 10), it means that the periodicity of the search space is shorter than the ON
duration of the DRX cycle.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the
effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the teachings of
THYAGARAJAN and XU, with the teachings of HONG, and the motivation to do so would
have been for performing a paging operation efficiently with power consumption reduced
(See HONG [0008]).
Regarding claim 54,
THYAGARAJAN in view of XU and HONG discloses “The network node of claim 53, wherein
the second search space provides multiple monitoring occasions during the ON duration of
the DRX cycle” (See HONG, Fig. 10 and Fig. 12, [0159] Referring to FIG. 12, a paging occasion
(PO) in a paging DRX cycle may include one or more PDCCH monitoring occasions 1210. As
described above, the set of PDCCH monitoring occasions 1210 may include one or more
PDCCH monitoring occasions 1200. For example, the set of PDCCH monitoring occasions
1210 may be configured with M repetitions of S consecutive PDCCH monitoring occasions.
[0160] As an example, as illustrated in FIG. 12, 2 PDCCH monitoring occasions 1200 repeat 3
times; thereby a set of PDCCH monitoring occasions 1210 may be configured with a total of
6 PDCCH monitoring occasions 1200).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the
effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the teachings of
THYAGARAJAN and XU, with the teachings of HONG, and the motivation to do so would
have been for performing a paging operation efficiently with power consumption reduced
(See HONG [0008]).
Regarding claim 55,
THYAGARAJAN discloses “A non-transitory computer- readable medium having instructions
stored therein that are executable by processing circuitry of a network node to cause the
network node to perform operations comprising” (See [0018] a non-transitory computer
readable medium including instructions that when executed by an apparatus or base station (BS), cause the apparatus or BS to perform a method for wireless communication):
“configuring a user equipment (“UE”) with a first search space for downlink control
channel monitoring during an ON duration of a DRX cycle; configuring the UE with a
second search space for downlink control channel monitoring during the ON duration of a
DRX cycle” (See Fig. 5, Step 502, [0070] configuring a plurality of groups of search space sets
that can be monitored by a user equipment (UE), wherein the plurality of groups includes at
least a first group of search space sets and a second group of search space sets. Note: The
configuration implicitly takes place during an ON duration), “the second search space
having a reduced amount of control channel resources compared to the first search space”
(See [0070] wherein the first group of search space sets as compared to the second group of
search space sets has more occasions configured in a given time period for monitoring a
control channel. Note: Since the first SS is configured with more occasions, this means that
the second SS has a reduced amount of control channel resources); “and transmitting
downlink control information ("DCI") to the UE to switch the UE between the first search
space and the second search space as the active search space for downlink control channel
monitoring” (See [0034] the UE may be configured to switch between different one or more
search space sets to use for monitoring the downlink control channel, See Fig. 5, [0071] At
504, the BS decides when the UE is to monitor each of the plurality of groups of search
space sets. [0072] At 506, the BS transmits to the UE information relating to when the UE is
to monitor each of the plurality of groups of search space sets, based on the decision.
[0073] explicit signaling may be used to trigger a switch between groups of search space
sets at the UE. The BS may include one or more explicit bits in a group-common PDCCH (GC-
PDCCH) and/or UE-specific PDCCH, the one or more bits identifying the group of search
space sets the UE is to switch to. While GC-PDCCH generally includes DCI common for multiple UEs, a UE-specific PDCCH is specific to a single UE), “wherein a periodicity of the
second search space is longer than a periodicity of the first search space and provides one
or more monitoring occasions during the ON duration of the DRX cycle” (See [0058] For
example, a first search space set may be defined with a higher granularity, for example, a
mini-slot level granularity for PDCCH occasions where there may be multiple PDCCH
occasions configured in a single slot. A second search space set may be defined with a lower
granularity, for example, a slot level granularity where there is a single PDCCH occasion
configured in each slot. Thus, the first search space set as compared to the second search
space set has a higher frequency of PDCCH occasions in a given time interval. Note: This
means that the second search space has a longer periodicity/ longer time between
monitoring occasions. See [0091] the UE is configured to monitor PDCCH in the DRX ON durations with a lower monitoring frequency to increase power savings. The lower monitoring frequency corresponds to the second search space and it has one or more monitoring occasions during the DRX ON duration).
THYAGARAJAN does not explicitly disclose that the time duration of a monitoring occasion in
the second search space is less a time duration of a monitoring occasion in the first search
space.
However, XU discloses “wherein a time duration of a monitoring occasion in the second
search space is less than a time duration of a monitoring occasion in the first search space”
(See [0046] the terminal device may perform PDCCH monitoring in the first PDCCH search
space, and perform extra PDCCH monitoring in the second PDCCH search space after the time point when DCI is detected. In this way, the power consumption of the terminal device
can be reduced by configuring the first PDCCH search space, and more transmission
opportunities can be provided by the second PDCCH search space. [0051] The first
PDCCH search space may be configured for saving power consumption, for example,
configuring a larger period of a monitoring slot of the PDCCH search space,
a shorter monitoring duration, a smaller number of monitoring time points, etc., to reduce
the frequency for the terminal device to monitor the PDCCH, thereby saving power
consumption of the terminal device). Note: The first SS in XU is the second SS and has a
shorter duration of a monitoring occasion than the other search space for power saving.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the
effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the teachings of
THYAGARAJAN with the teachings of XU, and the motivation to do so would have been to
realize timely and rapid scheduling of data packets under the condition of reducing
power consumption, thereby ensuring the delay requirement of data transmission (XU
[0046]).
THYAGARAJAN in view of XU does not explicitly disclose that the periodicity of the second
search space is shorter than an ON duration of the DRX cycle.
However, HONG discloses “wherein a periodicity of the second search space is shorter than
an ON duration of the DRX cycle” (See Fig. 10 and Fig. 12, [0159] Referring to FIG. 12, a
paging occasion (PO) in a paging DRX cycle may include one or more PDCCH monitoring
occasions 1210. As described above, the set of PDCCH monitoring occasions 1210 may include one or more PDCCH monitoring occasions 1200. For example, the set of PDCCH
monitoring occasions 1210 may be configured with M repetitions of S consecutive PDCCH
monitoring occasions. [0160] As an example, as illustrated in FIG. 12, 2 PDCCH monitoring
occasions 1200 repeat 3 times; thereby a set of PDCCH monitoring occasions 1210 may be
configured with a total of 6 PDCCH monitoring occasions 1200). Note: A paging occasion in a
DRX cycle is configured with multiple PDCCH monitoring occasions, each monitoring
occasion corresponds to a search space instance where the UE attempts PDCCH decoding.
Since multiple monitoring occasions (multiple search space instances) are accommodated
within a single paging occasion (PO), and the PO itself is within the ON duration of the DRX
cycle (Fig. 10), it means that the periodicity of the search space is shorter than the ON
duration of the DRX cycle.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the
effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the teachings of
THYAGARAJAN and XU, with the teachings of HONG, and the motivation to do so would
have been for performing a paging operation efficiently with power consumption reduced
(See HONG [0008]).
Regarding claim 57,
THYAGARAJAN in view of XU and HONG discloses “The non-transitory computer-readable
medium of Claim 49, wherein receiving the DCI comprises receiving a switch command
transmitted to the UE in the active search space” (See THYAGARAJAN [0073] explicit
signaling may be used to trigger a switch between groups of search space sets at the UE. The
BS may include one or more explicit bits in a group-common PDCCH (GC-PDCCH) and/or UE-
specific PDCCH, the one or more bits identifying the group of search space sets the UE is to
switch to. While GC- PDCCH generally includes DCI common for multiple UEs, a UE-specific
PDCCH is specific to a single UE. See Fig. 4, [0066-0068] The UE monitoring a first SS (active
SS) receives the trigger/switch command to switch to the second SS), “wherein the switch command is received by the UE in DCI scheduling a downlink transmission to the UE in the
second search space” (See THYAGARAJAN [0073] explicit signaling may be used to trigger a
switch between groups of search space sets at the UE. The BS may include one or more
explicit bits in a group-common PDCCH (GC- PDCCH) and/or UE-specific PDCCH, the one or
more bits identifying the group of search space sets the UE is to switch to. While GC-PDCCH
generally includes DCI common for multiple UEs, a UE-specific PDCCH is specific to a single
UE. [0076] the explicit signaling to switch between groups of SS sets provides the BS more
control regarding when the UE switches between particular groups of SS sets, the BS may
transmit the signaling to the UE based on downlink transmissions scheduled for the UE), “and wherein switching between the first search space and the second space as the active
search space comprises the UE switching to the first search space for downlink control
channel monitoring based on receiving the switch command” (See THYAGARAJAN [0073]
explicit signaling may be used to trigger a switch between groups of search space sets at the
UE. [0076] The UE may switch to Group B in response to the trigger and continue
monitoring Group B till the UE detects another trigger to switch back to Group A).
Regarding claim 59-60 and 66,
THYAGARAJAN in view of XU and HONG discloses claim 59 of “The non-transitory computer
readable medium of claim 49”, claim 60 of “The non-transitory computer-readable
medium of claim 55”, and claim 66 of “The UE of Claim 45”, “wherein the second search space provides multiple monitoring occasions during the ON duration of the DRX cycle” (See HONG, Fig. 10 and Fig. 12, [0159] Referring to FIG. 12, a paging occasion (PO) in a paging DRX cycle may include one or more PDCCH monitoring occasions 1210. As described above, the set of PDCCH monitoring occasions 1210 may include one or more PDCCH monitoring occasions 1200. For example, the set of PDCCH monitoring occasions 1210 may be configured with M repetitions of S consecutive PDCCH monitoring occasions. [0160] As an example, as illustrated in FIG. 12, 2 PDCCH monitoring occasions 1200 repeat 3 times; thereby a set of PDCCH monitoring occasions 1210 may be configured with a total of 6 PDCCH monitoring occasions 1200).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the
effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the teachings of
THYAGARAJAN and XU, with the teachings of HONG, and the motivation to do so would
have been for performing a paging operation efficiently with power consumption reduced
(See HONG [0008]).
Claims 10, 30, 58, 62 and 64-65 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over
THYAGARAJAN (US 2022/0386373 A1) in view of XU et al. (US 20210250922 A1) and further
in view of HONG (US 20200084747 A1) and further in view of CHEN et al. (US 2022/0022176
A1).
Regarding claims 10, 30, 58, 62 and 64-65,
THYAGARAJAN in view of XU and HONG discloses claim 10 of “The method of claim 1”,
claim 30 of “The method of claim 21”, claim 58 of “The non-transitory computer-readable
medium of claim 49”, claim 62 of “The UE of claim 45”, claim 64 of “The network node of claim 53”, claim 65 of “The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 55”, but does not explicitly disclose that the periodicity of the second search space is longer than a duration of an inactivity timer.
However, analogous art CHEN discloses “wherein a periodicity of the second search space
is longer than a duration of an inactivity timer” (See [0103] With a proper indication of
BWP indicator in the first set of PDCCH candidates, it is more beneficial for UE to switch to
larger BWP for large packet reception or transmission, and use small BWP to monitoring
PDCCH candidates. [0185] the monitoring occasion of the first set of PDCCH candidates
or search space of the first set of PDCCH candidates is periodical. [0186] the monitoring
occasion of the first set of PDCCH candidates can be after the start of the inactivity-timer.
Note: This means that the periodicity is longer than the duration of the inactivity timer).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the
effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the teachings of
THYAGARAJAN, XU and HONG with the teachings of CHEN, and the motivation to do so
would have been for more efficient power saving and improving performance (See CHEN
[0018]).
Claims 20 and 41 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over
THYAGARAJAN (US 2022/0386373 A1) in view of XU et al. (US 20210250922 A1) and further
in view of HONG (US 20200084747 A1) and further in view of XU (US 2021/0368445 A1).
Regarding claim 20,
THYAGARAJAN in view of XU and HONG discloses “The method of claim 1”, but does not
explicitly disclose monitoring in the first search space during an ON duration and monitoring
in the second SS while an inactivity timer is running.
However, XU ‘445 discloses “further comprising: monitoring the downlink control
channel in the first search space during the ON duration of the DRX cycle; and switching to
the second search space to monitor the downlink control channel while an inactivity timer
is running” (See [0140] the receiving module 920 is configured to, when the power saving
signal is not detected by the receiving module, perform the PDCCH monitoring by adopting a
first PDCCH searching space within the On Duration time period of the DRX; the receiving
module is further configured to perform the PDCCH monitoring by adopting the
second PDCCH searching space before the first timer expires, where the second PDCCH
searching space is different from the first PDCCH searching space. See Fig. 8, Step 404, Step
406, Method 2, performing the monitoring before the DRX inactivity timer expires).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the
effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the teachings of
THYAGARAJAN, XU and HONG with the teachings of XU ‘445, and the motivation to do so
would have been to reduce the power consumption of the terminal (See XU [0096]).
Regarding claim 41,
THYAGARAJAN in view of XU and HONG discloses “The method of claim 21”, but does not
explicitly disclose transmitting DCI in the first SS during an ON duration and transmitting DCI
in second SS while an inactivity timer is running.
However, XU ‘445 discloses “further comprising: transmitting DCI to the UE in the
first search space during the ON duration of the DRX cycle; and transmitting to the UE in the second search space when an inactivity timer is running” (See [0072] the power saving
signal is transmitted in DCI. See [0140] the receiving module 920 is configured to, when the
power saving signal is not detected by the receiving module, perform the PDCCH monitoring
by adopting a first PDCCH searching space within the On Duration time period of the DRX;
the receiving module is further configured to perform the PDCCH monitoring by adopting
the second PDCCH searching space before the first timer expires, where the second PDCCH
searching space is different from the first PDCCH searching space. See Fig. 8, Step 403, Step
404, Step 406, Method 2, performing the monitoring before the DRX inactivity timer
expires).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the
effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the teachings of
THYAGARAJAN, XU and HONG with the teachings of XU ‘445, and the motivation to do so
would have been to reduce the power consumption of the terminal (See XU [0096]).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to SALMA A AYAD whose telephone number is (571)270-0285. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8:00 to 5:30 ET.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Yemane Mesfin can be reached at 5712723927. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/SALMA AYAD/Examiner, Art Unit 2462
/YEMANE MESFIN/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2462