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 Amendment
Applicant’s submission filed on 03/10/2026 has been entered. Claims 1-20 are pending.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 04/24/2026 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Claim Objections
Claims 16 and 17 objected to because of the following informalities:
in claim 16, the term “EN-DC” is not defined. For the purposes of examination, it is interpreted to mean “Eutran NR Dual Connectivity” as indicated in the Applicant’s specification in par. [0025].
in claim 17, the term “NE-DC” is not defined. For the purposes of examination, it is interpreted to mean “NR E-UTRAN Dual Connectivity”.
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.
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 nonobviousness.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claims 1-4, 9, 11, 19, and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Caporal Del Barrio et al. (US 2022/0337278), hereinafter “Caporal ‘278”, in view of Liu et al. (US 2021/0298061), hereinafter “Liu”, and further in view of Caporal Del Barrio et al. (US 2024/0381138), hereinafter “Caporal ‘138”, and further in view of Lee et al. (US 2022/0264622), hereinafter “Lee”.
Regarding claim 1, Caporal ‘278 teaches:
An apparatus, comprising:
a memory configured to store instructions (see Caporal ‘278, Fig. 3, par. [0093]: a UE 3000 may include processing circuitry, such as at least one processor 3100, at least one communication bus 3200, a memory 3300, and see par. [0095]: Stored in the memory 3300 is program code (i.e., computer readable instructions) related to operating the UE 3000); and
a processor configured to execute the instructions and perform operations (see Caporal ‘278, Fig. 3, par. [0093]: a UE 3000 may include processing circuitry, such as at least one processor 3100, at least one communication bus 3200, a memory 3300, and see par. [0094]: Once the special purpose program instructions are loaded into the processing circuitry (e.g., the at least one processor 3100, etc.), the at least one processor 3100 executes the special purpose program instructions) comprising:
receiving, via dedicated radio resource control (RRC) signaling, an uplink (UL) gap configuration (see Caporal ‘278, Fig. 5, par. [0131]: In operation S5030, the RAN node 110 may transmit a dynamic MPE UL gap configuration to the UE device 120. The dynamic UL gap configuration settings via RRC signaling),
performing, during the UL gap, a transmission power management operation within the serving carrier frequency (see Caporal ‘278, Fig. 5, par. [0133]: In operation S5040, the UE device 120 may perform a user detection operation using the wireless antenna panel and/or additional proximity sensors during a scheduled UL gap in accordance with the dynamic UL gap configuration settings to determine and/or estimate the presence of a person within the proximity of the UE device 120, and/or determine and/or estimate the distance between the person the UE device 120, and see par. [0159]: one or more of the example embodiments provide improvements by allowing a UE and/or a RAN node to dynamically configure UL gaps so that the periodicity of the scheduled UL gaps is increased (e.g., become more frequent, etc.) if a person is detected within a desired warning range of the UE device, so that the UE device may more accurately and more frequently determine the person's distance away from the UE device and appropriately decrease the maximum transmission power limit of the UE device, and see par. [0110]: the default UL gap configuration may also include one or more settings related to a default UL gap scheduling (e.g., UL gap scheduling information, etc.) set by the RAN node 110 and/or the core network 100, etc., such as a UL gap periodicity value (e.g., the frequency and/or periodicity of UL gaps, etc.));
However, Caporal ‘278 does not teach:
receiving, via dedicated radio resource control (RRC) signaling, a measurement gap configuration for inter-frequency measurement control,
wherein the UL gap configuration indicates a UL gap pattern for a UL gap and a reference cell for aligning timing of the UL gap across a multi-radio dual connectivity (MR-DC) configuration;
stopping, during the UL gap, UL data transmission on a serving carrier frequency; and
performing measurement operations during an overlap interval in which a measurement gap configured by the measurement gap configuration overlaps with the UL gap,
wherein the UL gap configuration is independent of the measurement gap configuration.
Liu, in the same field of endeavor, teaches:
wherein the UL gap configuration indicates a UL gap pattern for a UL gap and a reference cell for aligning timing of the UL gap across a multi-radio dual connectivity (MR-DC) configuration (see Liu, par. [0007]: in NR DC, an MgNB is also responsible for configuring all types of gap patterns. However, the UE may acquire different synchronization timing from different serving cells of different gNodeBs, a gap calculation in the time domain based on just the gap pattern received from the MgNB is ambiguous and extra interruption of data scheduling is required. Therefore, there exists a need to develop a method and apparatus for accurately configuring frequency measurement and reference timing for gap calculation in New Radio with dual connectivity, and see par. [0012]: a method for configuring a gap, includes transmitting, by a first base station, a first message to a user equipment to configure the gap, the first message including first time reference information and the first timing reference information indicating a cell including, a primary cell of the first base station, a primary cell of a second base station, or a serving cell; and configuring, by using the first message, the user equipment to use a system frame number and a subframe of the cell for gap calculation, and see Fig. 4, par. [0093]: The method 400 continues with operation 404 in which the UE 104 determines the gap position according to some embodiments. In some embodiments, when an index of a serving cell is received, the UE 104 can determine a synchronization timing of the serving cell according to the index. After the synchronization timing is obtained according to the index of the serving cell, the position of the gap in the time domain can be determined according to the synchronization timing and the gap pattern, and see par. [0094]: the first BS 102-1 configures a gap pattern of the FR2 frequency and determines whether to use a respective system frame number (SFN) and a subframe of a serving cell on the FR2 frequency of the first BS 102-1 or the second BS 102-2 for calculating a position of the FR2 gap. The first BS 102-1 transmits an RRCReconfiguration message to the UE 104, wherein the RRCReconfiguration message comprises the pattern of the FR2 gap and an indicator of the timing reference (e.g., use SCG-FR2serving));
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the UL gap configuration of Caporal ‘278 with the specific indication of Liu with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of enabling gap calculation in New Radio with dual connectivity (see Liu, par. [0002]).
However, the combination of Caporal ‘278 in view of Liu does not teach:
receiving, via dedicated radio resource control (RRC) signaling, a measurement gap configuration for inter-frequency measurement control,
stopping, during the UL gap, UL data transmission on a serving carrier frequency; and
performing measurement operations during an overlap interval in which a measurement gap configured by the measurement gap configuration overlaps with the UL gap,
wherein the UL gap configuration is independent of the measurement gap configuration.
Caporal ‘138, in the same field of endeavor, teaches:
stopping, during the UL gap, UL data transmission on a serving carrier frequency (see Caporal ‘138, pars. [0051-0053]: The UE may perform the required measurements during a measurement gap, which is a gap during which no transmission and/or reception occurs. During these measurement gaps, an antenna array, e.g. FR2 array, of the UE may be used as a radar for accurate proximity sensing. When the distance between a blockage, e.g. a user, and the UE is determined accurately, the UE is able to optimize transmission (Tx) power under MPE events by avoiding unnecessary Tx power reduction, i.e. unnecessary P-MPR. FIG. 2 shows, by way of example, a frame structure comprising a downlink slot 210 and an uplink slot 250. The DL slot 210 comprises a DL control (CTRL) signal 215, DL demodulation reference signal (DMRS) 220, and the DL data 225. The UL slot 250 comprises an UL CTRL signal 255, UL DMRS 260, and the UL data 270. In addition, an uplink gap 265 is placed in an uplink slot 250, and see par. [0071]: the transmission gaps may be configured in both the DL and the UL slots, or in DL, UL and special (S) slots; in this case, transmissions are stopped for particular gaps during communication);
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the apparatus of Caporal ‘278 in view of Liu with the stopping UL data transmission during the UL gap of Caporal ‘138 with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of enabling dynamic power management by performing required measurements during measurement gaps (see Caporal ‘138, pars. [0048-0052]).
However, the combination of Caporal ‘278 in view of Liu, and further in view of Caporal ‘138, does not teach:
receiving, via dedicated radio resource control (RRC) signaling, a measurement gap configuration for inter-frequency measurement control,
performing measurement operations during an overlap interval in which a measurement gap configured by the measurement gap configuration overlaps with the UL gap,
wherein the UL gap configuration is independent of the measurement gap configuration.
Lee, in the same field of endeavor, teaches:
receiving, via dedicated radio resource control (RRC) signaling, a measurement gap configuration for inter-frequency measurement control (see Lee, par. [0200]: In order to guarantee the coverage of a UE, the network may configure an RRC_CONNECTED UE to perform measurements and report them in accordance with the measurement configuration, and see par. [0222]: the network may dynamically configure the temp MG by using a DL MAC CE (or RRC) message during the skipped MG or after receiving a skip indication from a UE or when transmitting the skip command),
performing measurement operations during an overlap interval in which a measurement gap configured by the measurement gap configuration overlaps with the UL gap (see Lee, Fig. 14, pars. [0233-0243]: The measurement gap configuration includes at least one of following parameters: MG configuration information (Gap offset, MG length, MG repetition period, MG timing advance) MG skip indication information (Periodic resource information for MG skip indication and a MG skip indication may be associated with one or more measurement gap) Temporary MG information (Time offset from the skipped MG and Length of the temporary MG) 2) If the UE determines to skip a configured MG. In this procedure, the UE configures a temporary MG according to the temporary MG information. If UE does not receive the temporary MG information from the NW, the UE may transmit the information for the temporary MG to the network. 3) Then, the UE transmits a MG skip indication to the network, and performs the followings during the skipped MG. transmissions of HARQ feedback, SR, CSI; reporting SRS; transmissions of UL data on UL-SCH; monitoring the PDCCH. 4) Finally, the UE performs measurements during the temporary MG; in this case, performing measurements in a measurement gap when UL transmission is not being performed corresponds to performing measurements during an overlap interval between the measurement gap and the UL gap),
wherein the UL gap configuration is independent of the measurement gap configuration (see Lee, pars. [0127-0131]: A UE is provided with at least the following parameters via RRC signaling from a BS when the configured grant type 1 is configured: cs-RNTI which is CS-RNTI for retransmission; periodicity which provides periodicity of the configured grant Type 1; timeDomainOffset which represents offset of a resource with respect to SFN=0 in time domain; timeDomainAllocation value m which provides a row index m+1 pointing to an allocation table, indicating a combination of a start symbol S and length L and PUSCH mapping type, and see par. [0149]: For UL, the processor(s) 102 of the present disclosure may transmit (or control the transceiver(s) 106 to transmit) the data unit of the present disclosure based on the UL grant available to the UE, and see par. [0200]: In order to guarantee the coverage of a UE, the network may configure an RRC_CONNECTED UE to perform measurements and report them in accordance with the measurement configuration, and see par. [0222]: the network may dynamically configure the temp MG by using a DL MAC CE (or RRC) message during the skipped MG or after receiving a skip indication from a UE or when transmitting the skip command; in this case, UL transmission configuration and measurement configuration are performed separately, corresponding to the configurations being independent).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the apparatus of the combination of Caporal ‘278 in view of Liu, and further in view of Caporal ‘138, with the receiving measurement gap configuration, performing measurement operations during overlap, and independent configurations of Lee with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of enabling UE to efficiently perform measurements considering both measurement gap and uplink transmission (see Lee, par. [0010]).
Regarding claim 2, the combination of Caporal ‘278 in view of Liu, and further in view of Caporal ‘138, and further in view of Lee, teaches the apparatus.
The combination of Caporal ‘278 in view of Liu does not teach, but Caporal ‘138 teaches:
wherein the transmission power management operation comprises:
performing a body proximity sensing using a body proximity sensor to detect presence or absence of human target(s) in close proximity around a radiating antenna panel (see Caporal ‘138, Fig. 3, par. [0055]: FIG. 3 shows, by way of example, an uplink oriented slots configuration, wherein a frame structure comprises less DL slots (D) 301, 302, 303 than UL slots (U) 310, 311, 312. The frame structure may comprise special slots (S) 321, 322 as well. Each UL slot is configured with an UL gap 351, 352, 353. The UE performs proximity sensing measurements, e.g. radar measurements, in slots 3, 4 and 5, and see par. [0069]: transmission gaps may be configured in DL slots and in UL slots, and see par. [0052]: During these measurement gaps, an antenna array, e.g. FR2 array, of the UE may be used as a radar for accurate proximity sensing, and see par. [0046]: The energy absorbed by the human body increases as a function of the distance to the UE. Therefore, to comply with the MPE limit, the UE might have to reduce its output power if the user gets in close vicinity of the antenna); and
selectively applying additional power management maximum power reduction (P- MPR) or operating duty cycle based on a result of the body proximity sensing (see Caporal ‘138, par. [0048]: Proximity sensors, e.g. infrared sensors, of the UE may be applied for proximity sensing. A trigger distance may be pre-defined such that as soon as a user is detected at trigger distance, based on proximity sensing, a maximum power reduction (MPR) or back-off is applied. This might work in FR1, where the trigger distance may be defined as below 1 cm, and the required MPR is small. However, in FR2, the trigger distance may be e.g. 10 cm or more and the back-off value, depending on the array design of the UE, may be e.g. 20 dB. When the user's location or distance from the UE can be defined more accurately, it is possible to define the power management MPR (P-MPR) dynamically. More power may be radiated by the UE, when the user's location can be accurately defined, and is e.g. within the trigger distance but the user is not touching the array. For example, in the example above, a dynamic power back-off would limit P-MPR to 3 dB when the user is detected at 6 cm, instead of 18 dB without accurate distance detection, and see par. [0056]: Based on the radar measurements, the UE may determine the distance to a possibly detected user, and adjust transmission power accordingly).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the apparatus of Caporal ‘278 in view of Liu with the body proximity sensing and power management of Caporal ‘138 with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of enabling dynamic power management by performing required measurements during measurement gaps (see Caporal ‘138, pars. [0048-0052]).
Regarding claim 3, the combination of Caporal ‘278 in view of Liu, and further in view of Caporal ‘138, and further in view of Lee, teaches the apparatus.
Caporal ‘278 does not teach, but Liu teaches:
wherein the UL gap configuration indicates a system frame number (SFN) and a subframe of the reference cell used for calculating the UL gap pattern (see Liu, Abstract: configuring, by using the first message, the user equipment to use a system frame number and a subframe of the cell for gap calculation, and see Fig. 4, par. [0094]: When the UE 104 is configured to perform frequency measurement on the FR2 frequency, the first BS 102-1 configures a gap pattern of the FR2 frequency and determines whether to use a respective system frame number (SFN) and a subframe of a serving cell on the FR2 frequency of the first BS 102-1 or the second BS 102-2 for calculating a position of the FR2 gap).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the UL gap configuration of Caporal ‘278 with the specific indication of Liu with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of enabling gap calculation in New Radio with dual connectivity (see Liu, par. [0002]).
Regarding claim 4, the combination of Caporal ‘278 in view of Liu, and further in view of Caporal ‘138, and further in view of Lee, teaches the apparatus.
Caporal ‘278 does not teach, but Liu teaches:
wherein the reference cell is a FR2 cell (see Liu, Abstract: configuring, by using the first message, the user equipment to use a system frame number and a subframe of the cell for gap calculation, and see Fig. 4, par. [0094]: When the UE 104 is configured to perform frequency measurement on the FR2 frequency, the first BS 102-1 configures a gap pattern of the FR2 frequency and determines whether to use a respective system frame number (SFN) and a subframe of a serving cell on the FR2 frequency of the first BS 102-1 or the second BS 102-2 for calculating a position of the FR2 gap. The first BS 102-1 transmits an RRCReconfiguration message to the UE 104, wherein the RRCReconfiguration message comprises the pattern of the FR2 gap and an indicator of the timing reference (e.g., use SCG-FR2serving)).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the apparatus of Caporal ‘278 with the reference cell of Liu with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of enabling gap calculation in New Radio with dual connectivity (see Liu, par. [0002]).
Regarding claim 9, the combination of Caporal ‘278 in view of Liu, and further in view of Caporal ‘138, and further in view of Lee, teaches the apparatus.
The combination of Caporal ‘278 in view of Liu does not teach, but Caporal ‘138 teaches:
wherein the processor is configured to continue UE measurements indicated by a measurement gap during the UL gap (see Caporal ‘138, par. [0051]: The UE may perform the required measurements during a measurement gap, which is a gap during which no transmission and/or reception occurs).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the apparatus of Caporal ‘278 in view of Liu with the measurements during the UL gap of Caporal ‘138 with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of enabling dynamic power management by performing required measurements during measurement gaps (see Caporal ‘138, pars. [0048-0052]).
Regarding claim 11, the combination of Caporal ‘278 in view of Liu, and further in view of Caporal ‘138, and further in view of Lee, teaches the apparatus.
The combination of Caporal ‘278 in view of Liu does not teach, but Caporal ‘138 teaches:
wherein the processor is configured to derive the UL gap pattern based on a time division duplex (TDD) uplink/downlink configuration with the same reference cell indication (see Caporal ‘138, par. [0070]: In a time division duplex (TDD) frame configuration, the transmission gaps may be flexibly configured with respect to the DL/UL slot ratio. For example, in a DL oriented frame, the transmission gaps may be configured in the DL slots. For example, gaps of a small number of symbols, e.g. 2 symbols, may be configured in the beginning or in the end of the DL slot. For close detection, for example, the gap may cover one symbol).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the apparatus of Caporal ‘278 in view of Liu with the UL gap pattern based on a TDD configuration of Caporal ‘138 with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of enabling dynamic power management by performing required measurements during measurement gaps (see Caporal ‘138, pars. [0048-0052]).
Regarding claim 19, Caporal ‘278 teaches:
A method, comprising:
receiving, from a base station via dedicated radio resource control (RRC) signaling, an uplink (UL) gap configuration (see Caporal ‘278, Fig. 5, par. [0131]: In operation S5030, the RAN node 110 may transmit a dynamic MPE UL gap configuration to the UE device 120. The dynamic UL gap configuration settings via RRC signaling); and
performing, during the UL gap, an FR2 transmission power management operation (see Caporal ‘278, Fig. 5, par. [0133]: In operation S5040, the UE device 120 may perform a user detection operation using the wireless antenna panel and/or additional proximity sensors during a scheduled UL gap in accordance with the dynamic UL gap configuration settings to determine and/or estimate the presence of a person within the proximity of the UE device 120, and/or determine and/or estimate the distance between the person the UE device 120, and see par. [0159]: one or more of the example embodiments provide improvements by allowing a UE and/or a RAN node to dynamically configure UL gaps so that the periodicity of the scheduled UL gaps is increased (e.g., become more frequent, etc.) if a person is detected within a desired warning range of the UE device, so that the UE device may more accurately and more frequently determine the person's distance away from the UE device and appropriately decrease the maximum transmission power limit of the UE device, and see par. [0110]: the default UL gap configuration may also include one or more settings related to a default UL gap scheduling (e.g., UL gap scheduling information, etc.) set by the RAN node 110 and/or the core network 100, etc., such as a UL gap periodicity value (e.g., the frequency and/or periodicity of UL gaps, etc.));
However, Caporal ‘278 does not teach:
wherein the UL gap configuration indicates a UL gap pattern for a UL gap
receiving, from a base station via dedicated radio resource control (RRC) signaling, a measurement gap configuration independent of the measurement gap configuration and for inter-frequency measurement control;
stopping, during the UL gap, UL data transmission on a serving carrier frequency; and
performing measurement operations during an overlap interval in which a measurement gap configured by the measurement gap configuration overlaps with the UL gap.
Liu, in the same field of endeavor, teaches:
wherein the UL gap configuration indicates a UL gap pattern for a UL gap (see Liu, par. [0007]: in NR DC, an MgNB is also responsible for configuring all types of gap patterns. However, the UE may acquire different synchronization timing from different serving cells of different gNodeBs, a gap calculation in the time domain based on just the gap pattern received from the MgNB is ambiguous and extra interruption of data scheduling is required. Therefore, there exists a need to develop a method and apparatus for accurately configuring frequency measurement and reference timing for gap calculation in New Radio with dual connectivity, and see par. [0012]: a method for configuring a gap, includes transmitting, by a first base station, a first message to a user equipment to configure the gap, the first message including first time reference information and the first timing reference information indicating a cell including, a primary cell of the first base station, a primary cell of a second base station, or a serving cell; and configuring, by using the first message, the user equipment to use a system frame number and a subframe of the cell for gap calculation)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the UL gap configuration of Caporal ‘278 with the specific indication of Liu with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of enabling gap calculation in New Radio with dual connectivity (see Liu, par. [0002]).
However, the combination of Caporal ‘278 in view of Liu does not teach:
receiving, from a base station via dedicated radio resource control (RRC) signaling, a measurement gap configuration independent of the measurement gap configuration and for inter-frequency measurement control;
stopping, during the UL gap, UL data transmission on a serving carrier frequency; and
performing measurement operations during an overlap interval in which a measurement gap configured by the measurement gap configuration overlaps with the UL gap.
Caporal ‘138, in the same field of endeavor, teaches:
stopping, during the UL gap, UL data transmission on a serving carrier frequency (see Caporal ‘138, pars. [0051-0053]: The UE may perform the required measurements during a measurement gap, which is a gap during which no transmission and/or reception occurs. During these measurement gaps, an antenna array, e.g. FR2 array, of the UE may be used as a radar for accurate proximity sensing. When the distance between a blockage, e.g. a user, and the UE is determined accurately, the UE is able to optimize transmission (Tx) power under MPE events by avoiding unnecessary Tx power reduction, i.e. unnecessary P-MPR. FIG. 2 shows, by way of example, a frame structure comprising a downlink slot 210 and an uplink slot 250. The DL slot 210 comprises a DL control (CTRL) signal 215, DL demodulation reference signal (DMRS) 220, and the DL data 225. The UL slot 250 comprises an UL CTRL signal 255, UL DMRS 260, and the UL data 270. In addition, an uplink gap 265 is placed in an uplink slot 250, and see par. [0071]: the transmission gaps may be configured in both the DL and the UL slots, or in DL, UL and special (S) slots; in this case, transmissions are stopped for particular gaps during communication);
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the method of the combination of Caporal ‘278 in view of Liu with the stopping UL data transmission during the UL gap of Caporal ‘138 with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of enabling dynamic power management by performing required measurements during measurement gaps (see Caporal ‘138, pars. [0048-0052]).
However, the combination of Caporal ‘278 in view of Liu, and further in view of Caporal ‘138, does not teach:
receiving, from a base station via dedicated radio resource control (RRC) signaling, a measurement gap configuration independent of the measurement gap configuration and for inter-frequency measurement control;
performing measurement operations during an overlap interval in which a measurement gap configured by the measurement gap configuration overlaps with the UL gap.
Lee, in the same field of endeavor, teaches:
receiving, from a base station via dedicated radio resource control (RRC) signaling, a measurement gap configuration independent of the measurement gap configuration and for inter-frequency measurement control (see Lee, pars. [0127-0131]: A UE is provided with at least the following parameters via RRC signaling from a BS when the configured grant type 1 is configured: cs-RNTI which is CS-RNTI for retransmission; periodicity which provides periodicity of the configured grant Type 1; timeDomainOffset which represents offset of a resource with respect to SFN=0 in time domain; timeDomainAllocation value m which provides a row index m+1 pointing to an allocation table, indicating a combination of a start symbol S and length L and PUSCH mapping type, and see par. [0149]: For UL, the processor(s) 102 of the present disclosure may transmit (or control the transceiver(s) 106 to transmit) the data unit of the present disclosure based on the UL grant available to the UE, and see par. [0200]: In order to guarantee the coverage of a UE, the network may configure an RRC_CONNECTED UE to perform measurements and report them in accordance with the measurement configuration, and see par. [0222]: the network may dynamically configure the temp MG by using a DL MAC CE (or RRC) message during the skipped MG or after receiving a skip indication from a UE or when transmitting the skip command; in this case, UL transmission configuration and measurement configuration are performed separately, corresponding to the configurations being independent);
performing measurement operations during an overlap interval in which a measurement gap configured by the measurement gap configuration overlaps with the UL gap (see Lee, Fig. 14, pars. [0233-0243]: The measurement gap configuration includes at least one of following parameters: MG configuration information (Gap offset, MG length, MG repetition period, MG timing advance) MG skip indication information (Periodic resource information for MG skip indication and a MG skip indication may be associated with one or more measurement gap) Temporary MG information (Time offset from the skipped MG and Length of the temporary MG) 2) If the UE determines to skip a configured MG. In this procedure, the UE configures a temporary MG according to the temporary MG information. If UE does not receive the temporary MG information from the NW, the UE may transmit the information for the temporary MG to the network. 3) Then, the UE transmits a MG skip indication to the network, and performs the followings during the skipped MG. transmissions of HARQ feedback, SR, CSI; reporting SRS; transmissions of UL data on UL-SCH; monitoring the PDCCH. 4) Finally, the UE performs measurements during the temporary MG; in this case, performing measurements in a measurement gap when UL transmission is not being performed corresponds to performing measurements during an overlap interval between the measurement gap and the UL gap).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the method of the combination of Caporal ‘278 in view of Liu, and further in view of Caporal ‘138, with the receiving measurement gap configuration, performing measurement operations during overlap, and independent configurations of Lee with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of enabling UE to efficiently perform measurements considering both measurement gap and uplink transmission (see Lee, par. [0010]).
Regarding claim 20, the combination of Caporal ‘278 in view of Liu, and further in view of Caporal ‘138, and further in view of Lee, teaches the method.
The combination of Caporal ‘278 in view of Liu does not teach, but Caporal ‘138 teaches:
wherein the FR2 transmission power management operation comprising comprises:
performing a body proximity sensing using a body proximity sensor to detect presence or absence of human target(s) in close proximity around a radiating FR2 antenna panel (see Caporal ‘138, Fig. 3, par. [0055]: FIG. 3 shows, by way of example, an uplink oriented slots configuration, wherein a frame structure comprises less DL slots (D) 301, 302, 303 than UL slots (U) 310, 311, 312. The frame structure may comprise special slots (S) 321, 322 as well. Each UL slot is configured with an UL gap 351, 352, 353. The UE performs proximity sensing measurements, e.g. radar measurements, in slots 3, 4 and 5, and see par. [0069]: transmission gaps may be configured in DL slots and in UL slots, and see par. [0052]: During these measurement gaps, an antenna array, e.g. FR2 array, of the UE may be used as a radar for accurate proximity sensing, and see par. [0046]: The energy absorbed by the human body increases as a function of the distance to the UE. Therefore, to comply with the MPE limit, the UE might have to reduce its output power if the user gets in close vicinity of the antenna); and
selectively applying additional power management maximum power reduction (P- MPR) or operating duty cycle based on a result of the body proximity sensing (see Caporal ‘138, par. [0048]: Proximity sensors, e.g. infrared sensors, of the UE may be applied for proximity sensing. A trigger distance may be pre-defined such that as soon as a user is detected at trigger distance, based on proximity sensing, a maximum power reduction (MPR) or back-off is applied. This might work in FR1, where the trigger distance may be defined as below 1 cm, and the required MPR is small. However, in FR2, the trigger distance may be e.g. 10 cm or more and the back-off value, depending on the array design of the UE, may be e.g. 20 dB. When the user's location or distance from the UE can be defined more accurately, it is possible to define the power management MPR (P-MPR) dynamically. More power may be radiated by the UE, when the user's location can be accurately defined, and is e.g. within the trigger distance but the user is not touching the array. For example, in the example above, a dynamic power back-off would limit P-MPR to 3 dB when the user is detected at 6 cm, instead of 18 dB without accurate distance detection, and see par. [0056]: Based on the radar measurements, the UE may determine the distance to a possibly detected user, and adjust transmission power accordingly).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the apparatus of Caporal ‘278 in view of Liu with the body proximity sensing and power management of Caporal ‘138 with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of enabling dynamic power management by performing required measurements during measurement gaps (see Caporal ‘138, pars. [0048-0052]).
Claims 5-7 and 10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Caporal ‘278 in view of Liu, and further in view of Caporal ‘138, and further in view of Lee, as applied to claims 1-4, 9, 11, 19, and 20 above, and further in view of Tang et al. (US 2024/0373305), hereinafter “Tang”.
Regarding claim 5, the combination of Caporal ‘278 in view of Liu, and further in view of Caporal ‘138, and further in view of Lee, teaches the apparatus.
The combination of Caporal ‘278 in view of Liu, and further in view of Caporal ‘138, and further in view of Lee, does not teach:
wherein the reference cell is configured by a reference cell indication parameter selected from a list of cells including a FR1 cell.
Tang, in the same field of endeavor, teaches:
wherein the reference cell is configured by a reference cell indication parameter selected from a list of cells including a FR1 cell (see Tang, par. [0006]: Information Element (IE) MeasGapConfig specifies the measurement gap configuration and controls setup/release of measurement gaps, and see Table 1: refFR2ServCelllAsyncCA Indicates the FR2 serving cell identifier whose SFN and subframe is used for FR2 gap calculation for this gap pattern with asynchronous CA involving FR2 carrier(s). refServCellIndicator Indicates the serving cell whose SFN and subframe are used for gap calculation for this gap pattern).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the reference cell of the combination of Caporal ‘278 in view of Liu, and further in view of Caporal ‘138, and further in view of Lee, with the reference cell indication parameter of Tang with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of supporting gap pattern configuration based on the applicability in CA, NE-DC, and NR-DC (see Tang, pars. [0006-0006]).
Regarding claim 6, the combination of Caporal ‘278 in view of Liu, and further in view of Caporal ‘138, and further in view of Lee, and further in view of Tang, teaches the apparatus.
The combination of Caporal ‘278 in view of Liu, and further in view of Caporal ‘138, and further in view of Lee, does not teach, but Tang teaches:
wherein the reference cell is configured by a FR2 asynchronous reference cell indication parameter indicating a FR2 cell if the reference cell is not configured by the reference cell indication parameter and in case of asynchronous carrier aggregation (CA) in FR2 (see Tang, par. [0006]: Information Element (IE) MeasGapConfig specifies the measurement gap configuration and controls setup/release of measurement gaps, and see Table 1: refFR2ServCelllAsyncCA Indicates the FR2 serving cell identifier whose SFN and subframe is used for FR2 gap calculation for this gap pattern with asynchronous CA involving FR2 carrier(s). refServCellIndicator Indicates the serving cell whose SFN and subframe are used for gap calculation for this gap pattern, and see Table 2: AsyncCA is mandatory when configuring FR2 gap pattern to UE in: (NG)EGN-DC or NR SA with asynchronous CA involving FR2 carrier(s)).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the reference cell of the combination of Caporal ‘278 in view of Liu, and further in view of Caporal ‘138, and further in view of Lee, with the reference cell configuration of Tang with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of supporting gap pattern configuration based on the applicability in CA, NE-DC, and NR-DC (see Tang, pars. [0006-0006]).
Regarding claim 7, the combination of Caporal ‘278 in view of Liu, and further in view of Caporal ‘138, and further in view of Lee, teaches the apparatus.
However, combination of Caporal ‘278 in view of Liu, and further in view of Caporal ‘138, and further in view of Lee, does not teach:
wherein the reference cell is configured by a FR2 asynchronous reference cell indication parameter indicating a FR2 cell in case of asynchronous carrier aggregation (CA) in FR2.
Tang, in the same field of endeavor, teaches:
wherein the reference cell is configured by a FR2 asynchronous reference cell indication parameter indicating a FR2 cell in case of asynchronous carrier aggregation (CA) in FR2 (see Tang, par. [0006]: Information Element (IE) MeasGapConfig specifies the measurement gap configuration and controls setup/release of measurement gaps, and see Table 1: refFR2ServCelllAsyncCA Indicates the FR2 serving cell identifier whose SFN and subframe is used for FR2 gap calculation for this gap pattern with asynchronous CA involving FR2 carrier(s). refServCellIndicator Indicates the serving cell whose SFN and subframe are used for gap calculation for this gap pattern, and see Table 2: AsyncCA is mandatory when configuring FR2 gap pattern to UE in: (NG)EGN-DC or NR SA with asynchronous CA involving FR2 carrier(s)).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the reference cell of the combination of Caporal ‘278 in view of Liu, and further in view of Caporal ‘138, and further in view of Lee, with the reference cell configuration of Tang with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of supporting gap pattern configuration based on the applicability in CA, NE-DC, and NR-DC (see Tang, pars. [0006-0006]).
Regarding claim 10, the combination of Caporal ‘278 in view of Liu, and further in view of Caporal ‘138, and further in view of Lee, teaches the apparatus. Caporal ‘278 further teaches:
the uplink gap configuration is used for uplink transmission control (see Caporal ‘278, par. [0133]: In operation S5040, the UE device 120 may perform a user detection operation using the wireless antenna panel and/or additional proximity sensors during a scheduled UL gap in accordance with the dynamic UL gap configuration settings to determine and/or estimate the presence of a person within the proximity of the UE device 120, and/or determine and/or estimate the distance between the person the UE device 120, but the example embodiments are not limited thereto. In operation S5050, in response to the UE device detecting a person within the MPE warning distance range, the UE device 120 may transmit a MPE-related message, e.g., a MPE warning message, to the RAN node 110)
The combination of Caporal ‘278 in view of Liu, does not teach, but Caporal ‘138 teaches:
wherein the measurement gap configuration is used for inter-frequency measurement control requiring receiver retuning (see Caporal ‘138, par. [0051]: the UE may measure signal quality of a target cell and report it to the network, and see pars. [0051-0053]: The UE may perform the required measurements during a measurement gap, which is a gap during which no transmission and/or reception occurs. During these measurement gaps, an antenna array, e.g. FR2 array, of the UE may be used as a radar for accurate proximity sensing. When the distance between a blockage, e.g. a user, and the UE is determined accurately, the UE is able to optimize transmission (Tx) power under MPE events by avoiding unnecessary Tx power reduction, i.e. unnecessary P-MPR. FIG. 2 shows, by way of example, a frame structure comprising a downlink slot 210 and an uplink slot 250. The DL slot 210 comprises a DL control (CTRL) signal 215, DL demodulation reference signal (DMRS) 220, and the DL data 225. The UL slot 250 comprises an UL CTRL signal 255, UL DMRS 260, and the UL data 270. In addition, an uplink gap 265 is placed in an uplink slot 250, and see par. [0071]: the transmission gaps may be configured in both the DL and the UL slots, or in DL, UL and special (S) slots),
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the apparatus of Caporal ‘278 in view of Liu with the measurement gap configuration of Caporal ‘138 with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of enabling dynamic power management by performing required measurements during measurement gaps (see Caporal ‘138, pars. [0048-0052]).
However, the combination of Caporal ‘278 in view of Liu, and further in view of Caporal ‘138, and further in view of Lee, does not teach:
the uplink gap configuration is used for uplink transmission control without receiver retuning.
Tang, in the same field of endeavor, teaches:
the uplink gap configuration is used for uplink transmission control without receiver retuning (see Tang, par. [0004]: When configured with per-UE MGP, the UE creates gaps on all the serving cells (e.g. Primary Cell (PCell), Primary Secondary Cell (PSCell), Secondary Cell (SCells) etc.) regardless of their frequency range. The per-UE MGP can be used by the UE for performing measurements on cells of any carrier frequency belonging to any Radio access technology (RAT) or frequency range (FR), and see par. [0163]: During the ST time, the UE retunes its transceiver between carriers e.g. between carriers of the serving cell and measured cell).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the uplink gap configuration of the combination of Caporal ‘278 in view of Liu, and further in view of Caporal ‘138, and further in view of Lee, with the receiver retuning of Tang with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of supporting gap pattern configuration based on the applicability in CA, NE-DC, and NR-DC (see Tang, pars. [0006-0006]).
Claims 8 and 12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Caporal ‘278 in view of Liu, and further in view of Caporal ‘138, and further in view of Lee, as applied to claims 1-4, 9, 11, 19, and 20 above, and further in view of Yiu et al. (US 2019/0253909), hereinafter “Yiu”.
Regarding claim 8, the combination of Caporal ‘278 in view of Liu, and further in view of Caporal ‘138, and further in view of Lee, teaches the apparatus.
However, the combination of Caporal ‘278 in view of Liu, and further in view of Caporal ‘138, and further in view of Lee, does not teach:
wherein the processor is configured to continue Frequency Range 1 (FR1) communication and stop Frequency Range 2 (FR2) communication during the UL gap.
Yiu, in the same field of endeavor, teaches:
wherein the processor is configured to continue Frequency Range 1 (FR1) communication and stop Frequency Range 2 (FR2) communication during the UL gap (see Yiu, Fig. 4, par. [0060]: if the AN 405 of NR SA configures FR1 measurement gap and FR2 measurement gap to the UE 105 for operations in FR1 and FR2 respectively, the UE 105 may measure a reference signal of FR2 transmitted from the AN 410 in compliance with the FR2 measurement gap and receive or transmit a data signal of FR1 from or to the AN 405 simultaneously, and see par. [0021]: In EN-DC and similar communications that involve an MN of non-NR operation, measurement gap configuration may be one of the non-data duties. A measurement gap configuration schedules a gap period repeatedly so that a UE may use the configured period to conduct a non-data duty, for example, cell measurements).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the apparatus of the combination of Caporal ‘278 in view of Liu, and further in view of Caporal ‘138, and further in view of Lee, with the gap configuration of Yiu with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of allowing non-data operations while operating at any frequency in either FR1 or FR2 (see Yiu, par. [0021]).
Regarding claim 12, the combination of Caporal ‘278 in view of Liu, and further in view of Caporal ‘138, and further in view of Lee, teaches the apparatus.
However, the combination of Caporal ‘278 in view of Liu, and further in view of Caporal ‘138, and further in view of Lee, does not teach:
wherein the UL gap configuration comprises a plurality of UL gap pattern IDs corresponding to a plurality of combinations of a UL gap length and a UL gap repetition period.
Yiu, in the same field of endeavor, teaches:
wherein the UL gap configuration comprises a plurality of UL gap pattern IDs corresponding to a plurality of combinations of a UL gap length and a UL gap repetition period (see Yiu, par. [0059]: a UE measurement gap or an FR measurement gap may correspond to a plurality of measurement gap patterns and further determination may be required to schedule a particular measurement gap pattern to the UE 105, and see par. [0066]: The UE 105 may operate in accordance with the determined measurement gap or gap pattern).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the apparatus of the combination of Caporal ‘278 in view of Liu, and further in view of Caporal ‘138, and further in view of Lee, with the gap configuration of Yiu with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of allowing non-data operations while operating at any frequency in either FR1 or FR2 (see Yiu, par. [0021]).
Claim 13 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Caporal ‘278 in view of Liu, and further in view of Caporal ‘138, and further in view of Lee, as applied to claims 1-4, 9, 11, 19, and 20 above, and further in view of He et al. (US 2024/0049035), hereinafter “He”, and further in view of Wei et al. (EP 3487205), hereinafter “Wei”.
Regarding claim 13, the combination of Caporal ‘278 in view of Liu, and further in view of Caporal ‘138, and further in view of Lee, teaches the apparatus.
However, the combination of Caporal ‘278 in view of Liu, and further in view of Caporal ‘138, and further in view of Lee, does not teach:
wherein the UL gap configuration comprises a first amount of bits representing a group of UL gap lengths and a second amount of bits representing a group of UL gap repetition periods, wherein the first amount is different than the second amount.
He, in the same field of endeavor, teaches:
wherein the UL gap configuration comprises a first amount of bits representing UL gap lengths (see He, par. [0175]: DCI format used for the information 604 may be extended with a plurality of bits, where a part of bits may be used to indicate an index of MGL parameter, another part of bits may be used to indicate an index of MGRP parameter, and so on) and a second amount of bits representing UL gap repetition periods, wherein the first amount is different than the second amount (see He, par. [0175]: DCI format used for the information 604 may be extended with a plurality of bits, where a part of bits may be used to indicate an index of MGL parameter, another part of bits may be used to indicate an index of MGRP parameter, and so on).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the UL gap configuration of the combination of Caporal ‘278 in view of Liu, and further in view of Caporal ‘138, and further in view of Lee, with the bits of He with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of allowing a plurality of measurement gap patterns configuration (see He, Abstract, par. [0002]).
However, the combination of Caporal ‘278 in view of Liu, and further in view of Caporal ‘138, and further in view of Lee, and further in view of He, does not teach:
a group of UL gap lengths and a group of UL gap repetition periods
Wei, in the same field of endeavor, teaches:
a group of UL gap lengths and a group of UL gap repetition periods (see Wei, pars. [0043-0044]: the method comprising communicating to a terminal a measurement gap configuration which has multiple measurement gap lengths and repetition periods. Here, "measurement configuration" refers to information which instructs the terminal how and when to perform measurements on received signals. A "measurement gap configuration" defines a gap in the terminal's normal transmission and/or reception with respect to a serving cell or beam, for the purpose of allowing the terminal to make measurements on signals from other cells or beams. A measurement gap length refers to the duration of a measurement gap and a repetition period defines a length of time between successive measurement gaps)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the UL gap configuration of the combination of Caporal ‘278 in view of Liu, and further in view of Caporal ‘138, and further in view of Lee, and further in view of He, with the group of gap lengths and repetition periods of Wei with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of enabling measurement gap configuration to include multiple measurement gap patterns for the terminal (see Wei, par. [0048]).
Claim 14 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Caporal ‘278 in view of Liu, and further in view of Caporal ‘138, and further in view of Lee, as applied to claims 1-4, 9, 11, 19, and 20 above, and further in view of Zhang et al. (WO 2022/261839), hereinafter “Zhang”, and further in view of Wei, and further in view of Yiu.
Regarding claim 14, the combination of Caporal ‘278 in view of Liu, and further in view of Caporal ‘138, and further in view of Lee, teaches the apparatus.
However, the combination of Caporal ‘278 in view of Liu, and further in view of Caporal ‘138, and further in view of Lee, does not teach:
wherein the UL gap configuration comprises 1 bit representing a UL gap length of 1 ms or 0.125 ms and 3 bits representing a UL gap repetition period of 5 ms, 10 ms, 20 ms, 40 ms, 80 ms, or 160 ms.
Zhang, in the same field of endeavor, teaches:
wherein the UL gap configuration comprises 1 bit representing a UL gap and 3 bits representing a UL gap repetition period (see Zhang, page 21, lines 1-7: the number of bits in the first bitmap may be determined according to the number of gap occasions included in the activation periods of the multiple MGs. If the activation period occupies the length of 4 gap occasions, that is, 4 MGRPs, then the first bit map can be 4 bits, each bit corresponds to a gap occasion, and each bit is used to indicate the activated MG on the corresponding gap occasion, so the first bit can be used for the gap length and 3 bits can be used for the MG occasions (as the repetitions in MGRP)).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the UL gap configuration of the combination of Caporal ‘278 in view of Liu, and further in view of Caporal ‘138, and further in view of Lee, with the bits of Zhang with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of enabling indication of the time domain position where the MG is activated in multiple time domain positions in a bitmap manner (see Zhang, page 20, example 11).
However, the combination of Caporal ‘278 in view of Liu, and further in view of Caporal ‘138, and further in view of Lee, and further in view of Zhang, does not teach:
a UL gap length of 1 ms or 0.125 ms and a UL gap repetition period of 5 ms, 10 ms, 20 ms, 40 ms, 80 ms, or 160 ms.
Wei, in the same field of endeavor, teaches:
a UL gap length of 1 ms or 0.125 ms (see Wei, par. [0079]: The minimum reasonable gap length for NR could be 1ms)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the UL gap configuration of the combination of Caporal ‘278 in view of Liu, and further in view of Caporal ‘138, and further in view of Lee, and further in view of Zhang, with the gap length time of Wei with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of enabling measurement gap configuration to include multiple measurement gap patterns for the terminal (see Wei, par. [0048]).
However, the combination of Caporal ‘278 in view of Liu, and further in view of Caporal ‘138, and further in view of Lee, and further in view of Zhang, and further in view of Wei, does not teach:
a UL gap repetition period of 5 ms, 10 ms, 20 ms, 40 ms, 80 ms, or 160 ms.
Yiu, in the same field of endeavor, teaches:
a UL gap repetition period of 5 ms, 10 ms, 20 ms, 40 ms, 80 ms, or 160 ms (see Yiu, Table 1: mgrp ENUMERATED {ms20, ms40, ms80, ms160}.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the apparatus of the combination of Caporal ‘278 in view of Liu, and further in view of Caporal ‘138, and further in view of Lee, and further in view of Zhang, and further in view of Wei, with the gap repetition period time of Yiu with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of allowing non-data operations while operating at any frequency in either FR1 or FR2 (see Yiu, par. [0021]).
Claim 15 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Caporal ‘278 in view of Caporal ‘138, and further in view of Lee.
Regarding claim 15, Caporal ‘278 teaches:
An apparatus, comprising a processor (see Caporal ‘278, Fig. 2, par. [0080]: a RAN node 2000 may include processing circuitry, such as at least one processor 2100), when executing instructions stored in a memory, configured to perform operations (see Caporal ‘278, Fig. 2, par. [0080]: The memory 2300 may include various special purpose program code including computer executable instructions which may cause the RAN node 2000 to perform the one or more of the methods) comprising:
providing, to a user equipment (UE) via dedicated radio resource control (RRC) signaling, an uplink (UL) gap configuration that indicates a UL gap pattern for a UL gap of the UE (see Caporal ‘278, Fig. 5, par. [0131]: In operation S5030, the RAN node 110 may transmit a dynamic MPE UL gap configuration to the UE device 120. The dynamic UL gap configuration settings via RRC signaling, and see par. [0132]: the dynamic UL gap configuration setting may include a new UL gap periodicity setting and/or value which may be used by the UE device 120 instead of and/or may replace the stored default UL gap periodicity setting, etc, and see par. [0132]: the dynamic UL gap configuration setting may further include a new UL gap duration setting and/or value, which may be used by the UE device 120 instead of and/or may replace the stored default UL gap duration setting, etc);
However, Caporal ‘278 does not teach:
providing, to a user equipment (UE) via dedicated radio resource control (RRC) signaling, a measurement gap configuration independent of the UL gap configuration and for inter-frequency measurement control; and
during the UL gap, causing the UE to stop UL data transmission on a serving carrier frequency for the UE to perform a transmission power management operation,
wherein measurement operations are performed during an overlap interval in which a measurement gap configured by the measurement gap configuration overlaps with the UL gap.
Caporal ‘138, in the same field of endeavor, teaches:
during the UL gap, causing the UE to stop UL data transmission on a serving carrier frequency for the UE to perform a transmission power management operation (see Caporal ‘138, pars. [0051-0053]: The UE may perform the required measurements during a measurement gap, which is a gap during which no transmission and/or reception occurs. During these measurement gaps, an antenna array, e.g. FR2 array, of the UE may be used as a radar for accurate proximity sensing. When the distance between a blockage, e.g. a user, and the UE is determined accurately, the UE is able to optimize transmission (Tx) power under MPE events by avoiding unnecessary Tx power reduction, i.e. unnecessary P-MPR. FIG. 2 shows, by way of example, a frame structure comprising a downlink slot 210 and an uplink slot 250. The DL slot 210 comprises a DL control (CTRL) signal 215, DL demodulation reference signal (DMRS) 220, and the DL data 225. The UL slot 250 comprises an UL CTRL signal 255, UL DMRS 260, and the UL data 270. In addition, an uplink gap 265 is placed in an uplink slot 250, and see par. [0071]: the transmission gaps may be configured in both the DL and the UL slots, or in DL, UL and special (S) slots, and see par. [0056]: During the transmission gaps, the UE is allowed to perform radar measurements. Based on the radar measurements, the UE may determine the distance to a possibly detected user, and adjust transmission power accordingly; in this case, transmissions are stopped for particular gaps during communication for performing measurements and power control),
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the apparatus of Caporal ‘278 in view of Liu with the stopping UL data transmission during the UL gap of Caporal ‘138 with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of enabling dynamic power management by performing required measurements during measurement gaps (see Caporal ‘138, pars. [0048-0052]).
However, the combination of Caporal ‘278 in view of Caporal ‘138 does not teach:
providing, to a user equipment (UE) via dedicated radio resource control (RRC) signaling, a measurement gap configuration independent of the UL gap configuration and for inter-frequency measurement control; and
wherein measurement operations are performed during an overlap interval in which a measurement gap configured by the measurement gap configuration overlaps with the UL gap.
Lee, in the same field of endeavor, teaches:
providing, to a user equipment (UE) via dedicated radio resource control (RRC) signaling, a measurement gap configuration independent of the UL gap configuration and for inter-frequency measurement control (see Lee, pars. [0127-0131]: A UE is provided with at least the following parameters via RRC signaling from a BS when the configured grant type 1 is configured: cs-RNTI which is CS-RNTI for retransmission; periodicity which provides periodicity of the configured grant Type 1; timeDomainOffset which represents offset of a resource with respect to SFN=0 in time domain; timeDomainAllocation value m which provides a row index m+1 pointing to an allocation table, indicating a combination of a start symbol S and length L and PUSCH mapping type, and see par. [0149]: For UL, the processor(s) 102 of the present disclosure may transmit (or control the transceiver(s) 106 to transmit) the data unit of the present disclosure based on the UL grant available to the UE, and see par. [0200]: In order to guarantee the coverage of a UE, the network may configure an RRC_CONNECTED UE to perform measurements and report them in accordance with the measurement configuration, and see par. [0222]: the network may dynamically configure the temp MG by using a DL MAC CE (or RRC) message during the skipped MG or after receiving a skip indication from a UE or when transmitting the skip command; in this case, UL transmission configuration and measurement configuration are performed separately, corresponding to the configurations being independent); and
wherein measurement operations are performed during an overlap interval in which a measurement gap configured by the measurement gap configuration overlaps with the UL gap (see Lee, Fig. 14, pars. [0233-0243]: The measurement gap configuration includes at least one of following parameters: MG configuration information (Gap offset, MG length, MG repetition period, MG timing advance) MG skip indication information (Periodic resource information for MG skip indication and a MG skip indication may be associated with one or more measurement gap) Temporary MG information (Time offset from the skipped MG and Length of the temporary MG) 2) If the UE determines to skip a configured MG. In this procedure, the UE configures a temporary MG according to the temporary MG information. If UE does not receive the temporary MG information from the NW, the UE may transmit the information for the temporary MG to the network. 3) Then, the UE transmits a MG skip indication to the network, and performs the followings during the skipped MG. transmissions of HARQ feedback, SR, CSI; reporting SRS; transmissions of UL data on UL-SCH; monitoring the PDCCH. 4) Finally, the UE performs measurements during the temporary MG; in this case, performing measurements in a measurement gap when UL transmission is not being performed corresponds to performing measurements during an overlap interval between the measurement gap and the UL gap).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the apparatus of the combination of Caporal ‘278 in view of Caporal ‘138 with the providing measurement gap configuration and performing measurement operations during overlap of Lee with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of enabling UE to efficiently perform measurements considering both measurement gap and uplink transmission (see Lee, par. [0010]).
Claims 16-18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Caporal ‘278 in view of Caporal ‘138, and further in view of Lee, as applied to claim 15 above, and further in view of Liu.
Regarding claim 16, the combination of Caporal ‘278 in view of Caporal ‘138, and further in view of Lee, teaches the apparatus.
However, the combination of Caporal ‘278 in view of Caporal ‘138, and further in view of Lee, does not teach:
wherein the apparatus is configured to receive a UL gap pattern request from a secondary base station and send the UL gap pattern to the secondary base station if the UE supports a per-UE gap and the secondary base station configures the UE for EN-DC.
Liu, in the same field of endeavor, teaches:
wherein the apparatus is configured to receive a UL gap pattern request from a secondary base station (see Liu, par. [0027]: the UE 104 forms direct communication (i.e., uplink) channels 103-1 and 103-2 with the first BS 102-1 and the second BS 102-2, respectively. In some embodiments, the UE 104 also forms direct communication (i.e., downlink) channels 105-1 and 105-2 with the first BS 102-1 and the second BS 102-2, respectively. The direct communication channels between the UE 104 and the BS 102 can be through interfaces such as an Uu interface, which is also known as E-UTRA air interface. In some embodiments, the UE 104 comprises a plurality of transceivers which enables the UE 104 to support dual connectivity so as to receive data simultaneously from the first BS 102-1 and the second BS 102-2, and see par. [0079]: The method 300 continues with operation 310 in which the first BS 102-1 receives a third message from the second BS 102-2 according to some embodiments. In some embodiments, the third message comprises a configuration restriction request, and see par. [0094]: The first BS 102-1 also transmits the gap pattern of the FR2 frequency and the indicator of the timing reference to the second BS 102-2 through an inter-node RRC message (e.g., CG-ConfigInfo)) and send the UL gap pattern to the secondary base station if the UE supports a per-UE gap and the secondary base station configures the UE for EN-DC (see Liu, par. [0092]: the timing reference is also transmitted from the first BS 102-1 to the second BS 102-2, and see par. [0092]: the information of the timing reference is indicated with respect to at least one of the following gap patterns: a Per-UE gap pattern, a Per-FR FR1 gap pattern, and a Per-FR FR2 gap pattern, and see par. [0094]: The first BS 102-1 also transmits the gap pattern of the FR2 frequency and the indicator of the timing reference to the second BS 102-2 through an inter-node RRC message (e.g., CG-ConfigInfo), and see Fig. 1A, par. [0027]: the UE 104 also forms direct communication (i.e., downlink) channels 105-1 and 105-2 with the first BS 102-1 and the second BS 102-2, respectively, and see par. [0026]: a network side communication node or a base station (BS) 102 can be a node B, an E-UTRA Node B (also known as Evolved Node B, eNodeB or eNB), a gNodeB (also known as gNB) in new radio (NR) technology).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have apparatus of the combination of Caporal ‘278 in view of Caporal ‘138, and further in view of Lee, with the gap pattern request and response of Liu with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of enabling gap calculation in New Radio with dual connectivity (see Liu, par. [0002]).
Regarding claim 17, the combination of Caporal ‘278 in view of Caporal ‘138, and further in view of Lee, teaches the apparatus.
However, the combination of Caporal ‘278 in view of Caporal ‘138, and further in view of Lee, does not teach:
wherein the apparatus is configured to send the UL gap pattern to a secondary base station if the UE supports a per-UE gap for NE-DC.
Liu, in the same field of endeavor, teaches:
wherein the apparatus is configured to send the UL gap pattern to a secondary base station if the UE supports a per-UE gap for NE-DC (see Liu, par. [0092]: the timing reference is also transmitted from the first BS 102-1 to the second BS 102-2, and see par. [0092]: the information of the timing reference is indicated with respect to at least one of the following gap patterns: a Per-UE gap pattern, a Per-FR FR1 gap pattern, and a Per-FR FR2 gap pattern, and see par. [0094]: The first BS 102-1 also transmits the gap pattern of the FR2 frequency and the indicator of the timing reference to the second BS 102-2 through an inter-node RRC message (e.g., CG-ConfigInfo), and see Fig. 1A, par. [0027]: the UE 104 also forms direct communication (i.e., downlink) channels 105-1 and 105-2 with the first BS 102-1 and the second BS 102-2, respectively, and see par. [0026]: a network side communication node or a base station (BS) 102 can be a node B, an E-UTRA Node B (also known as Evolved Node B, eNodeB or eNB), a gNodeB (also known as gNB) in new radio (NR) technology).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have apparatus of the combination of Caporal ‘278 in view of Caporal ‘138, and further in view of Lee, with the gap pattern request and response of Liu with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of enabling gap calculation in New Radio with dual connectivity (see Liu, par. [0002]).
Regarding claim 18, the combination of Caporal ‘278 in view of Caporal ‘138, and further in view of Lee, teaches the apparatus.
However, the combination of Caporal ‘278 in view of Caporal ‘138, and further in view of Lee, does not teach:
wherein the apparatus is configured to receive a UL gap pattern request from a secondary base station and send the UL gap pattern to the secondary base station if the UE supports a per-UE gap and the secondary base station configures the UE with Frequency Range 2 (FR2) bands for NR- DC.
Liu, in the same field of endeavor, teaches:
wherein the apparatus is configured to receive a UL gap pattern request from a secondary base station (see Liu, par. [0092]: the timing reference is also transmitted from the first BS 102-1 to the second BS 102-2, and see par. [0092]: the information of the timing reference is indicated with respect to at least one of the following gap patterns: a Per-UE gap pattern, a Per-FR FR1 gap pattern, and a Per-FR FR2 gap pattern, and see par. [0094]: The first BS 102-1 also transmits the gap pattern of the FR2 frequency and the indicator of the timing reference to the second BS 102-2 through an inter-node RRC message (e.g., CG-ConfigInfo), and see Fig. 1A, par. [0027]: the UE 104 also forms direct communication (i.e., downlink) channels 105-1 and 105-2 with the first BS 102-1 and the second BS 102-2, respectively, and see par. [0026]: a network side communication node or a base station (BS) 102 can be a node B, an E-UTRA Node B (also known as Evolved Node B, eNodeB or eNB), a gNodeB (also known as gNB) in new radio (NR) technology) and send the UL gap pattern to the secondary base station if the UE supports a per-UE gap (see Liu, par. [0092]: the timing reference is also transmitted from the first BS 102-1 to the second BS 102-2, and see par. [0092]: the information of the timing reference is indicated with respect to at least one of the following gap patterns: a Per-UE gap pattern, a Per-FR FR1 gap pattern, and a Per-FR FR2 gap pattern, and see par. [0094]: The first BS 102-1 also transmits the gap pattern of the FR2 frequency and the indicator of the timing reference to the second BS 102-2 through an inter-node RRC message (e.g., CG-ConfigInfo), and see Fig. 1A, par. [0027]: the UE 104 also forms direct communication (i.e., downlink) channels 105-1 and 105-2 with the first BS 102-1 and the second BS 102-2, respectively, and see par. [0026]: a network side communication node or a base station (BS) 102 can be a node B, an E-UTRA Node B (also known as Evolved Node B, eNodeB or eNB), a gNodeB (also known as gNB) in new radio (NR) technology) and the secondary base station configures the UE with Frequency Range 2 (FR2) bands for NR- DC (see Liu, par. [0094]: the first BS 102-1 and the second BS 102-2 comprises serving cells operating on a FR2 frequency. When the UE 104 is configured to perform frequency measurement on the FR2 frequency, the first BS 102-1 configures a gap pattern of the FR2 frequency and determines whether to use a respective system frame number (SFN) and a subframe of a serving cell on the FR2 frequency of the first BS 102-1 or the second BS 102-2 for calculating a position of the FR2 gap, and see par. [0095]: The first BS 102-1 transmits an RRCReconfiguration message to the UE 104, wherein the RRCReconfiguration message comprises the gap pattern of the FR2 frequency and an indicator of the timing reference).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have apparatus of the combination of Caporal ‘278 in view of Caporal ‘138, and further in view of Lee, with the gap pattern request and response of Liu with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of enabling gap calculation in New Radio with dual connectivity (see Liu, par. [0002]).
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims 1, 15, and 19 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
Wu (US 2011/0299486) teaches a method of performing uplink transmission for a mobile device configured with a primary component carrier and at least one secondary component carrier in a wireless communication system.
Zhao (US 2015/0188793) teaches a method and device for determining an uplink transmission interruption time. The method comprises: a UE determining an uplink transmission interruption time of each cell aggregated by the UE; within the uplink transmission interruption time of each cell aggregated by the UE, the UE stopping uplink transmission of the cell.
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.
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/C.J.B./Examiner, Art Unit 2419
/Nishant Divecha/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2419
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