DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 06/12/2026 has been entered.
Summary
This action is in reply to Applicant’s Amendments and Remarks filed on.
Claims 11, 14 and 21-22 are pending.
Claims 1-10, 12-13, 15-20 and 23 are cancelled.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, with respect to claims 11, 14 and 21-22, filed on 06/12/2026 have been considered fully but they are moot as they are not applicable to the combinations of prior arts used in this office action.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102 of this title, 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.
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 11, 14 and 21-22 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over CATT (R1-1910338 “PRACH design and UL timing management”, of IDS, hereinafter ‘CATT338’) in view of Li; H. (WO 2021159449 A1 Machine Translation, of record, hereinafter ‘LI’).
Regarding claim 11, CATT teaches a terminal (Page 3, Figure 1: UE), comprising:
a receiver (Page 3, Figure 1 UE) that acquires, in a random access response, timing advance information indicating a first timing advance which is a part of a terminal- specific timing advance (Page 3,
Page 2:
(2nd) Agreement:
Indication of common TA to all users within the coverage of the same beam with broadcasting as a baseline for signalling, e.g., via SIB/MIB
Page 3,
2.2 Initial TA acquisition
Autonomous TA acquisition
Step 1: UE gets the ephemeris information and position information, and perform DL synchronization
Step 2: After DL synchronization, UE calculates the distance between the UE and the satellite. Based on broadcast signaling, UE gets a common reference distance for service link.
Step 3: UE calculates its UE specific differential TA based on the reference distance, shown in the figure 1.
(Construed UE determines a Common Reference TA from SIB.MIB broadcasted (see also Proposal 3), and determines common reference point d0, from Common Reference TA=2*d0/c (or =2*(d0+d0_F)/c) based on Reference Point and then based on a location of the terminal and satellite data and Common Reference TA determines UE Specific Differential TA or a first timing offset)
Step 4: UE sends the PRACH signal with UE specific differential TA to gNB.
Step 5: gNB detects the PRACH signal and response to UE with RAR message.
(Construed UE transmits PRACH with first UE specific TA adjustment and Common Reference TA and receives RAR with corrected UL/DL timing )
Step 6: UE gets TA refinement information based on RAR message
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Figure 1: Common reference TA and UE specific deferential TA calculation
Page 4:
Proposal 3: In Autonomous TA acquisition, common reference TA can be indicated by network to facilitate the UE specific differential TA calculation and compensation.
Proposal 4: In Autonomous TA acquisition, RAR message should carry TA indication to assist UE to do finer TA compensation.
(Construed that UE receives a RAR indicating a first TA Reference Distance d0 between a Reference point in a spot beam of the satellite and the satellite, the first TA associated with Reference Distance d0 is also part of terminal- specific TA as disclosed by Figure 1 UE Specific TA = 2*(d1-d0/c)) ); and
a processor (Page 3, Figure 1 UE) that determines a timing offset based on a location of the terminal and satellite data (
See Page 3:
Step 3: UE calculates its UE specific differential TA based on the reference distance, shown in the figure 1.
Step 4: UE sends the PRACH signal with UE specific differential TA to gNB.
Step 5: gNB detects the PRACH signal and response to UE with RAR message.
Step 6: UE gets TA refinement information based on RAR message
Figure 1 UE Specific TA = 2*(d1-d0/c)
Page 4:
Proposal 4: In Autonomous TA acquisition, RAR message should carry TA indication to assist UE to do finer TA compensation.
(It is obvious from Step 6 and Proposal 4 that that finer refinement of TA by UE includes a further UE location specific TA offset determination)), and determines the terminal-specific timing advance based at least on the first timing advance and the timing offset (
Page 3:
Step 6: UE gets TA refinement information based on RAR message
Figure 1 UE Specific TA = 2*(d1-d0/c)
Page 4:
Proposal 4: In Autonomous TA acquisition, RAR message should carry TA indication to assist UE to do finer TA compensation.
(Finer TA determination include UE/terminal-specific timing advance based at least on the first timing advance associated with reference distance d0 and the timing offset associated with UE location)),
wherein the processor determines a timing advance for uplink transmission based on the terminal-specific timing advance and a cell-specific timing advance (
Page 2:
(2nd) Agreement:
Indication of common TA to all users within the coverage of the same beam with broadcasting as a baseline for signalling, e.g., via SIB/MIB
(Common TA broadcasted to all users/UEs of the same beam or satellite Cell as known in the art, e.g. EP 4009718 A1 [0080] beams of the satellite … or …. satellite cells, for using as baseline signalling for DL/UL as obvious )
See Page 3:
Step 3: UE calculates its UE specific differential TA based on the reference distance, shown in the figure 1.
Step 4: UE sends the PRACH signal with UE specific differential TA to gNB.
Step 5: gNB detects the PRACH signal and response to UE with RAR message.
Step 6: UE gets TA refinement information based on RAR message
Figure 1 UE Specific TA = 2*(d1-d0/c)
Page 4:
Proposal 4: In Autonomous TA acquisition, RAR message should carry TA indication to assist UE to do finer TA compensation.
(It is obvious that UL PRACH transmission is based on received beam/cell-specific common TA for all UEs to be used as baseline for signalling and subsequent determination of UE/terminal-specific TA, and for finer TA compensation by UE)),
wherein the terminal-specific timing advance is a sum of
the first timing advance and the timing offset (
Page 3:
Step 6: UE gets TA refinement information based on RAR message
Figure 1 UE Specific TA = 2*(d1-d0/c)
Page 4:
Proposal 4: In Autonomous TA acquisition, RAR message should carry TA indication to assist UE to do finer TA compensation.
(Finer TA determination include UE/terminal-specific timing advance based at least on the first timing advance associated with reference distance d0 and the timing offset associated with UE location)),
wherein the processor determines a complete timing advance, where the complete timing advance is a sum of a common timing advance and the terminal-specific timing advance (
Page 2:
(2nd) Agreement:
Indication of common TA to all users within the coverage of the same beam with broadcasting as a baseline for signalling, e.g., via SIB/MIB
(Common TA broadcasted to all users/UEs of the same beam or satellite Cell as known in the art for using as baseline signalling for DL/UL as obvious )
See Page 3:
Step 3: UE calculates its UE specific differential TA based on the reference distance, shown in the figure 1.
Step 4: UE sends the PRACH signal with UE specific differential TA to gNB.
Step 5: gNB detects the PRACH signal and response to UE with RAR message.
Step 6: UE gets TA refinement information based on RAR message
Figure 1 UE Specific TA = 2*(d1-d0/c)
Page 4:
Proposal 4: In Autonomous TA acquisition, RAR message should carry TA indication to assist UE to do finer TA compensation.
(It is obvious that the complete timing advance as determined by UE for finer TA compensation is based on or sum/combination of Beam/Cell-specific Common TA received by SIB as baseline for DL/UL signaling and Terminal-Specific TA based on Common Reference TA or the First TA and UE location UE/Terminal Specific TA for distance d3 or 2*(d1-d0/c) as shown in Figure 1 used for UL/PRACH transmission)),
wherein the cell-specific timing advance is included in a System Information Block (SIB) (
Page 2:
(2nd) Agreement:
Indication of common TA to all users within the coverage of the same beam with broadcasting as a baseline for signalling, e.g., via SIB/MIB).
CATT338 does not explicitly disclose wherein the satellite data is received via higher layer signaling.
In an analogous art, LI teaches wherein the satellite data is received via higher layer signaling (
[0072]
The ephemeris information may be acquired in a manner that: the network device of the serving cell sends the ephemeris information to the terminal device ......
For example, the ephemeris information may be carried in MAC CE or RRC signaling.
[0073]
Specifically, the ephemeris information may be ephemeris data, also known as an ephemeris table, which is a table of stellar orbital parameters, that is, a table of data describing the expected position of a celestial body at regular intervals, or the expected position of a satellite at regular intervals.).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to take the technique of sending satellite ephemeris or data of LI to the system of PRACH design and UL timing advance to support Non-Terrestrial network (NTN) in New Radio (NR) of CATT in order to take the advantage of a method for timing advance update to ensuring that network equipment can keep up with the changes in the TA value of terminal equipment so that network equipment can be closer to the TA value of terminal equipment during scheduling instead of always using the maximum TA value supported by the system to avoid greater service transmission delay (LI: [0001-0002]).
Regarding claim 14, the claim is interpreted mutatis mutandis of claim 11 and rejected for the same reason as set forth for claim 11.
Regarding claim 21, CATT338 teaches a base station (Page 3, Figure 1 Satellite or Satellite with Gateway), comprising:
a transmitter (Page 3, Figure 1 Satellite or Satellite with Gateway) that transmits, in a random access response (
Page 3,
Step 5: gNB detects the PRACH signal and response to UE with RAR message.), and
a receiver (Page 3, Figure 1 Satellite or Satellite with Gateway) that receives uplink transmission (Page 3,
Page 3,
Step 5: gNB detects the PRACH signal and response to UE with RAR message.).
Further the claim 21 is interpreted mutatis mutandis of claim 11 and rejected for the same reason as set forth for claim 11.
Regarding claim 22, CATT teaches a system comprising a terminal (Page 3, Figure 1: UE) and a base station (Page 3, Figure 1 Satellite or Satellite with Gateway as base station).
Further the claim 21 is interpreted mutatis mutandis of claim 11 and rejected for the same reason as set forth for claim 11.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
Xu et al. (EP 4009718 A1), describing COMMON TIMING ADVANCE INDICATION METHOD AND APPARATUS, DEVICE, AND STORAGE MEDIUM
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/SHAH M RAHMAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2413
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