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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 September 15, 2025 has been entered, wherein claims 5, 9-12, 16, are cancelled, claims 1-4, 13-15, and 17-19 are pending and ready for examination.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to the claims have been considered but are moot in view of the new grounds of rejection.
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, 8, and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Oh et al. (Oh072 hereafter) (US 20210298072 A1) in view of Lei; Haipeng (Lei620 hereafter) (US 20230052620 A1)
Regarding claim 1 Oh072 teaches, A method comprising:
receiving, by a user equipment (UE) (from a base station), channel access configuration information including (frame-based channel access procedure configuration information including) a unit bandwidth (BW) size (at least one of fixed frame period (FFP) information) (Oh072 ; [0020] receiving, from a base station, information about a type of the channel access procedure in the unlicensed band; when the channel access procedure is a frame-based channel access procedure, receiving, from the base station, frame-based channel access procedure configuration information including at least one of fixed frame period (FFP) information, channel occupancy time (COT) information in an FFP, or fixed frame start slot offset information).
performing, by the UE, a channel access procedure based on the unit BW size and the ED threshold power (Oh072; [0097] the transmitting device measure the strength of the signal for X us… when the measured strength of the signal is smaller than a pre-defined or calculated threshold value T, determine that the unlicensed band is in the idle state, and transmit a configured signal.); and
transmitting, by the UE, an uplink signal based on a result of the channel access procedure and the maximum output power, wherein, based on the unit BW size being less than a reference BW size, the uplink signal is transmitted within a first channel occupancy time (COT) initiated by a base station (BS) (transmitting device generally receives a signal in the unlicensed band for a certain period of time) (Oh072 ; [0055] … configured uplink transmission is transmitted from the terminal to the base station via the unlicensed band, [0056] the transmitting device generally receives a signal in the unlicensed band for a certain period of time or a time calculated according to a pre-defined rule, and the idle state of the unlicensed band may be determined by comparing the strength of the received signal with a threshold value that is pre-defined or calculated according to a function including at least one variable from among a channel bandwidth or a bandwidth of a signal where a signal to be transmitted is transmitted, strength of transmit power, and a beam width of a transmission signal).
Oh072 fails to explicitly teach, receiving, by the UE, downlink control information (DCI) including (i) an energy detection (ED) threshold power for the unit BW size and (ii) a maximum output power per the unit BW size;
However, in the same field of endeavor Lei620 teaches, receiving, by the UE, downlink control information (DCI) including (i) an energy detection (ED) threshold power ([0032] performing energy
detection on a certain channel) for the unit BW size ([0035] Occupied channel bandwidth (OCB): the bandwidth containing 99% of the power of the signal) (Lei620; [0031-0032] the BSs 102 may communicate with the UEs 101 using 3GPP 5G protocols. [0032] For transmission on unlicensed spectrum ...By means of performing energy detection on a certain channel, if the received
power is below a predefined threshold, then the LBT is successful, which means the channel is deemed as empty and available for transmission) and (ii) a maximum output power per the unit BW size (Maximum Power Spectrum Density (PSD) with a resolution bandwidth of 1 MHz, e.g., 10 dBm/MHz) (Lei; [0033] In addition, wireless signal transmission on unlicensed spectrum should meet the requirements of regulation subject to the management [0034] The requirements mainly include two aspects: [0035] i. Occupied channel bandwidth (OCB): the bandwidth containing 99% of the power of the signal, shall be between 80% and 100% of declared nominal channel bandwidth; and [0036] ii. Maximum Power Spectrum Density (PSD) with a resolution bandwidth of 1 MHz, e.g., 10 dBm/MHz);
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date to create the invention of Oh072 to include the above recited limitations as taught by Lei620 in order to perform transmission on unlicensed spectrum (Lei620; [0032]).
Regarding claim 8 Oh072 teaches, A user equipment (UE) comprising:
at least one transceiver (Oh072; Fig. 10);
at least one processor (Oh072; Fig. 10 processor 1030); and
at least one memory operatively connected to the at least one processor (Oh072; Fig. 10 the memory 1020 may be implemented as a single chip. Also, the processor 1030), and configured to store instructions such that the at least one processor performs operations by executing the instructions (Oh072; [0257] The programs (e.g., software modules or software) may be stored in random access memory (RAM), non-volatile memory including flash memory, read-only memory (ROM), electrically erasable programmable read-only memory (EEPROM)), the operations comprising:
receiving, channel access configuration information including (frame-based channel access procedure configuration information including) a unit bandwidth (BW) size (at least one of fixed frame period (FFP) information) (Oh072 ; [0020] receiving, from a base station, information about a type of the channel access procedure in the unlicensed band; when the channel access procedure is a frame-based channel access procedure, receiving, from the base station, frame-based channel access procedure configuration information including at least one of fixed frame period (FFP) information, channel occupancy time (COT) information in an FFP, or fixed frame start slot offset information).
performing, a channel access procedure based on the unit BW size and the ED threshold power (Oh072; [0097] the transmitting device measure the strength of the signal for X us… when the measured strength of the signal is smaller than a pre-defined or calculated threshold value T, determine that the unlicensed band is in the idle state, and transmit a configured signal.); and
transmitting, an uplink signal based on a result of the channel access procedure and the maximum output power, wherein, based on the unit BW size being less than a reference BW size, the uplink signal is transmitted within a first channel occupancy time (COT) initiated by a base station (BS) (transmitting device generally receives a signal in the unlicensed band for a certain period of time) (Oh072 ; [0055] … configured uplink transmission is transmitted from the terminal to the base station via the unlicensed band, [0056] the transmitting device generally receives a signal in the unlicensed band for a certain period of time or a time calculated according to a pre-defined rule, and the idle state of the unlicensed band may be determined by comparing the strength of the received signal with a threshold value that is pre-defined or calculated according to a function including at least one variable from among a channel bandwidth or a bandwidth of a signal where a signal to be transmitted is transmitted, strength of transmit power, and a beam width of a transmission signal).
Oh072 fails to explicitly teach, receiving, by the UE, downlink control information (DCI) including (i) an energy detection (ED) threshold power for the unit BW size and (ii) a maximum output power per the unit BW size;
However, in the same field of endeavor Lei620 teaches, receiving, by the UE, downlink control information (DCI) including (i) an energy detection (ED) threshold power ([0032] performing energy
detection on a certain channel) for the unit BW size ([0035] Occupied channel bandwidth (OCB): the bandwidth containing 99% of the power of the signal) (Lei620; [0031-0032] the BSs 102 may communicate with the UEs 101 using 3GPP 5G protocols. [0032] For transmission on unlicensed spectrum ...By means of performing energy detection on a certain channel, if the received
power is below a predefined threshold, then the LBT is successful, which means the channel is deemed as empty and available for transmission) and (ii) a maximum output power per the unit BW size (Maximum Power Spectrum Density (PSD) with a resolution bandwidth of 1 MHz, e.g., 10 dBm/MHz) (Lei620; [0033] In addition, wireless signal transmission on unlicensed spectrum should meet the requirements of regulation subject to the management [0034] The requirements mainly include two aspects: [0035] i. Occupied channel bandwidth (OCB): the bandwidth containing 99% of the power of the signal, shall be between 80% and 100% of declared nominal channel bandwidth; and [0036] ii. Maximum Power Spectrum Density (PSD) with a resolution bandwidth of 1 MHz, e.g., 10 dBm/MHz);
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date to create the invention of Oh072 to include the above recited limitations as taught by Lei620 in order to perform transmission on unlicensed spectrum (Lei620; [0032]).
Regarding claim 19 Oh072 teaches, A non-transitory computer readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by a processor of a device, causes the device to perform operations, the operations comprising: (Oh072; Fig. 9);
receiving, by a user equipment (UE) (from a base station), channel access configuration information including (frame-based channel access procedure configuration information including) a unit bandwidth (BW) size (at least one of fixed frame period (FFP) information) (Oh072 ; [0020] receiving, from a base station, information about a type of the channel access procedure in the unlicensed band; when the channel access procedure is a frame-based channel access procedure, receiving, from the base station, frame-based channel access procedure configuration information including at least one of fixed frame period (FFP) information, channel occupancy time (COT) information in an FFP, or fixed frame start slot offset information).
performing, by the UE, a channel access procedure based on the unit BW size and the ED threshold power (Oh072; [0097] the transmitting device measure the strength of the signal for X us… when the measured strength of the signal is smaller than a pre-defined or calculated threshold value T, determine that the unlicensed band is in the idle state, and transmit a configured signal.); and
transmitting, by the UE, an uplink signal based on a result of the channel access procedure and the maximum output power, wherein, based on the unit BW size being less than a reference BW size, the uplink signal is transmitted within a first channel occupancy time (COT) initiated by a base station (BS) (transmitting device generally receives a signal in the unlicensed band for a certain period of time) (Oh072 ; [0055] … configured uplink transmission is transmitted from the terminal to the base station via the unlicensed band, [0056] the transmitting device generally receives a signal in the unlicensed band for a certain period of time or a time calculated according to a pre-defined rule, and the idle state of the unlicensed band may be determined by comparing the strength of the received signal with a threshold value that is pre-defined or calculated according to a function including at least one variable from among a channel bandwidth or a bandwidth of a signal where a signal to be transmitted is transmitted, strength of transmit power, and a beam width of a transmission signal).
Oh072 fails to explicitly teach, receiving, by the UE, downlink control information (DCI) including (i) an energy detection (ED) threshold power for the unit BW size and (ii) a maximum output power per the unit BW size;
However, in the same field of endeavor Lei620 teaches, receiving, by the UE, downlink control information (DCI) including (i) an energy detection (ED) threshold power ([0032] performing energy
detection on a certain channel) for the unit BW size ([0035] Occupied channel bandwidth (OCB): the bandwidth containing 99% of the power of the signal) (Lei620; [0031-0032] the BSs 102 may communicate with the UEs 101 using 3GPP 5G protocols. [0032] For transmission on unlicensed spectrum ...By means of performing energy detection on a certain channel, if the received
power is below a predefined threshold, then the LBT is successful, which means the channel is deemed as empty and available for transmission) and (ii) a maximum output power per the unit BW size (Maximum Power Spectrum Density (PSD) with a resolution bandwidth of 1 MHz, e.g., 10 dBm/MHz) (Lei620; [0033] In addition, wireless signal transmission on unlicensed spectrum should meet the requirements of regulation subject to the management [0034] The requirements mainly include two aspects: [0035] i. Occupied channel bandwidth (OCB): the bandwidth containing 99% of the power of the signal, shall be between 80% and 100% of declared nominal channel bandwidth; and [0036] ii. Maximum Power Spectrum Density (PSD) with a resolution bandwidth of 1 MHz, e.g., 10 dBm/MHz);
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date to create the invention of Oh072 to include the above recited limitations as taught by Lei620 in order to perform transmission on unlicensed spectrum (Lei620; [0032]).
Claims 2 and 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Oh072-Lei620 as applied to claims 1 and 8 above, and further in view of Lei et al. (Lei558 hereafter) (US 20220295558 A1)
Regarding claims 2 and 13 Oh072-Lei620 teaches, The claims 1 and 8,
Oh072-Lei620 fails to explicitly teach, wherein: a maximum channel occupancy time (MCOT) for the uplink signal is determined based on the size of the unit bandwidth
However, in the same field of endeavor Lei558 teaches, wherein a maximum channel occupancy time (MCOT) for the uplink signal is determined based on the size of the unit bandwidth (Lei558; [0069] if a power of the received signal on a certain channel is determine to be less than a predefined threshold, the LBT procedure is successful for the corresponding channel, which means the channel is deemed to be clear and available for a subsequent transmission… Only when the LBT procedure indicates success after measuring a certain channel, a transmission node may occupy such channel for a COT. And the UE can start to transmit uplink data until a maximum channel occupancy time (MCOT) has being reached).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date to create the invention of Oh072- Lei620 to include the above recited limitations as taught by Lei558 in order to achieve a fair coexistence with other wireless systems (Lei558; [0069]).
Claims 3, 4, 14, and 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Oh072- Lei620 as applied to claims 1 and 8 above, and further in view of Xu et al. (Xu hereafter) (US 20230032015 A1).
Regarding claims 3 and 14 Oh072- Lei620 teaches, the claims 1 and 8,
Oh072-Lei620 fails to explicitly teach, wherein based on the unit BW size being equal to or greater than a reference BW size, the uplink signal is transmitted within a second COT initiated by the UE and the second COT is shared with the BS.
However, in the same field of endeavor Xu teaches, wherein based on the unit BW size being equal to or greater than a reference BW size, the uplink signal is transmitted within a second COT initiated by the UE and the second COT is shared with the BS (Xu; [0054] the UE may perform its own LBT and, if that passes, send its own uplink transmission. Detection of the uplink transmission from the UE implies that the gNB can share the UE's COT (e.g., scheduling transmission to this UE and/or other UEs) … [0059] the gNB can configure a subset of all instances of an RRC configured UL transmission opportunity to allow a UE to be able to start a COT. For example, the UE may be allowed to start a COT in the first CG-UL in a gNB FFP after a minimum delay, if there are multiple transmission opportunities of the CG-UL in the gNB FFP.)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date to create the invention of Oh072- Lei620 to include the above recited limitations as taught by Xu in order to provide enhanced resource utilization, allowing a UE to act as initiating device (Xu; [0045]).
Regarding claims 4 and 15 Oh072-Lei620 teaches, The claims 1 and 8,
Oh072-Lei620 fails to explicitly teach, wherein based on the unit BW size being less than the reference BW size, the first COT initiated by the BS is shared with the UE for the uplink signal is transmission
However, in the same field of endeavor Xu teaches, wherein based on the unit BW size being less than the reference BW size, the first COT initiated by the BS is shared with the UE for the uplink signal is transmission (Xu; [0051] FIG. 5 illustrates example operations 500 for wireless communications by a network entity, in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure. For example, operations 500 may be performed by a BS 110 (e.g., a gNB) shown in FIGS. 1 and 2
communicating with a UE 120 (performing operations 400 of FIG. 4 to initiate channel access)).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date to create the invention of Oh072- Lei620 to include the above recited limitations as taught by Xu in order to provide enhanced resource utilization, allowing a UE to act as initiating device (Xu; [0045]).
Claims 6 and 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Oh072-Lei620 as applied to claims 1 and 8 above, and further in view of Dinan (Dinan hereafter) (US 20170325175 A1).
Regarding claims 6 and 17 Oh072- Lei620 teaches, the method according to claim 1,
Oh072- Lei620 fails to explicitly teach, wherein: the maximum output power is determined based on unit BW size; and
the ED threshold power is determined based on the maximum output power.
However, in the same field of endeavor Dinan teaches, wherein: the maximum output power is determined based on unit BW size; and (Dinan; [0167] Maximum allowed transmission power may depend on transmission bandwidth. The power control in the current LTE systems may limit maximum total output power of a UE via configurable maximum transmit power PCMAX independent of transmission bandwidth (the number of RBs used for uplink transmission).); and
the ED threshold power is determined based on the maximum output power (Dinan; [0156] An actual UL transmit power (e.g. instead of PCMAX, c or PEMAX, c) may be implemented to determine the CCA threshold).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date to create the invention of Oh072- Lei620 to include the above recited limitations as taught by Dinan in order to increase the probability to access the channel with higher CCA threshold (Dinan; [0156]).
Claims 7 and 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Oh072-Lei620 as applied to claims 1 and 8 above, and further in view of Gou et al. (Gou hereafter) (US20190007972 A1)
Regarding claims 7 and 18 Oh072-Lei620 teaches, The claims 1 and 8,
Oh072- Lei620 fails to explicitly teach, wherein the ED threshold is determined based on the unit BW size;
However, in the same field of endeavor Gou teaches, wherein: the ED threshold is determined based on the unit BW size, (Gou; [0100] a CCA energy detection threshold is TL= −75+(23−PH) +10 log(W)=−62 dBm, where W denotes a bandwidth of each unlicensed carrier); and
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date to create the invention of Oh072- Lei620 to include the above recited limitations as taught by Gou in order to performs LBT in unlicensed carriers (Gou; [0100]).
Conclusion
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/W. T/ Examiner, Art Unit 2416
/NOEL R BEHARRY/ Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2416