Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments regarding the 103 rejection have been considered and are moot because they do not apply to the new reference used in the current 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, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claims 1-7, 9-15, 17-22, 24-28, 31-32 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ayaz (WO 2021093963, cited in IDS ) in view of Ma (US 20220369227) further in view of Lu (US 20240078165).
Regarding claim 1, Ayaz discloses a user equipment (UE) for wireless communication, comprising: at least one memory; and at least one processor communicatively coupled with the at least one memory (page 16, 4th para.), the at least one processor configured to cause the UE to:
receive, from a network node, information that configures a periodic bandwidth part (BWP) switching pattern that indicates a sequence of BWPs (page 4, 2nd para., to receive control information from a network node of the wireless network, wherein the control information defines a BWP switching pattern for periodic activation of at least one BWP of the plurality of BWPs), wherein each BWP in the sequence of BWPs is associated with a respective network energy saving (NES) state of a plurality of NES states; and
communicate with the network node according to the periodic BWP switching pattern, wherein, to cause the UE to communicate with the network node (page 4, 2nd para., to communicate using a plurality of bandwidth parts, BWPs; page 11, 2nd para., page 14, 2nd para. ), the at least one processor is configured to cause the UE to:
sequentially switch among the BWPs in the sequence of BWPs indicated in the periodic BWP switching pattern, wherein each BWP used to communicate with the network node is associated with a configuration corresponding to the respective NES state of a plurality of NES states associated with the BWP (page 15, 3rd para., the BWP switching pattern may be signaled collectively for all configured BWPs (e.g., BWP0-BWP3) by means of an activation sequence indicating the set of BWPs that shall be active in each period of time (e.g., each radio frame), as shown in the table of figure 9c for the frame-wise BWP switching example of figure 6).
Even though Ayaz discloses the network node may tailor the BWP switching pattern to the terminal on the basis of its traffic characteristics (page 5), which implicitly discloses each BWP in the sequence of BWPs is associated with a respective network state (if no traffic, may entering power saving mode). To further clarify this feature, Ma discloses each BWP in the sequence of BWPs is associated with a respective network energy saving (NES) state of a plurality of NES states (Ma, [0099][0102], if the value of one bit is 0, a user equipment switches an active BWP of the secondary cell corresponding to the one bit from the first power consumption state to the second power consumption state).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the time of effective filing to combine the teachings as given by Ayaz with the teachings of reducing energy consumption given by Ma. The motivation for doing so would have been to reduce unnecessary power consumption (Ma, [0003]).
Ma only discloses a power saving sate, Ma does not explicitly disclose wherein the plurality of NES states comprises a synchronization signal block less (SSB-less) NES state.
Lu discloses wherein the plurality of NES states comprises a synchronization signal block less (SSB-less) NES state (Lu, [0089], an enhanced power saving mode may also or alternatively be implemented without using synchronized context information, that is, SSB-less state).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the time of effective filing to combine the teachings as given by Ayaz and Ma with the teachings of turning off power in the power saving mode given by Lu. The motivation for doing so would have been to reduce unnecessary power consumption (Ma, [0003], Lu, [0089).
It is noted that the applicant uses selective language in this claim and the examiner is only showing one of the claimed options.
Claims 9, 17, 24 are rejected similarly with claim 1.
Regarding claims 2, 10, 18, 25, Ayaz and Ma disclose the UE of claim 1, wherein the periodic BWP switching pattern indicates respective durations that each BWP in the sequence of BWPs is configured to be an active BWP (Ayaz, page 15, 3rd para., an activation sequence indicating the set of BWPs that shall be active in each period of time (e.g., each radio frame)).
Regarding claims 3, 11, 19, 26, Ayaz and Ma disclose the UE of claim 2, wherein the duration that each BWP in the sequence of BWPs is configured to be the active BWP is defined by a quantity of transmission time intervals, defined by a quantity of milliseconds (Ayaz, page 13, 2nd para. activated for a fraction of a radio frame (here, by way of example, 5 subframes) at regular intervals (20 ms for BWP1, 50 ms for BWP3) to support periodic communication services with the respective periodicities and numerology requirements).
Regarding claims 4, 12, 20, 27, Ayaz and Ma disclose the UE of claim 2, wherein the duration that each BWP in the sequence of BWPs is configured to be the active BWP is defined by a fixed time unit that applies to each BWP in the sequence of BWPs indicated by the BWP switching pattern (Ayaz, page 13, 2nd para. activated for a fraction of a radio frame (here, by way of example, 5 subframes) at regular intervals (20 ms for BWP1, 50 ms for BWP3) to support periodic communication services with the respective periodicities and numerology requirements).
Regarding claims 5, 13, 21, 28, Ayaz and Ma disclose the UE of claim 1, wherein each BWP in the sequence of BWPs is associated with a respective configuration, among multiple configurations, for a single BWP (Ayaz, page 14, last para, including BWP-specific parameters (such as offset, duration, periodicity and the like) in the respective BWP configuration as defined by the control information).
Regarding claims 6, 14, 22, 29, Ayaz and Ma disclose the UE of claim 1, wherein, to cause the UE to receive the information that configures the periodic BWP switching pattern, the at least one processor is configured to cause the UE to:
receive, from the network node, radio resource control (RRC) signaling that configures multiple periodic BWP switching patterns (Ayaz, page 1st para., semi-statically configuring (e.g., via RRC signaling or other types of control signaling) a terminal with a BWP switching pattern); and
receive, from the network node, downlink control information (DCI) that indicates, among the multiple periodic BWP switching patterns, the periodic BWP switching pattern to use to communicate with the network node (Ayaz, page 2, at a given time, one of the configured DL BWPs is referred to as the active DL BWP, and one of the configured UL BWPs is referred to as the active UL BWP. The base station (gNB) can activate and deactivate BWPs using downlink control signaling (DCI)).
Regarding claims 7, 15, Ayaz and Ma disclose the UE of claim 6, wherein each of the multiple periodic BWP switching patterns is associated with a respective identifier, and wherein the DCI includes a field that indicates the respective identifier associated with the periodic BWP switching pattern to use to communicate with the network node (Ayaz, page 2, last para., to page 3, 1st para., using the BWP indicator field in the DCI. If the BWP indicator points to a different BWP than the currently active one, the active BWP is changed).
Regarding claim 31, Ayaz, Ma and Lu disclose the UE of claim 1, wherein the plurality of NES states comprises a state in which one or more antenna panels of the UE are turned off or a state in which one or more RF chains of the UE are turned off (Ma, [0192], indicating that the terminal does not wake up, does not start an OnDurationTimer, and maintains the DRX-OFF state. Lu, [0010], turning off power).
It is noted that the applicant uses selective language in this claim and the examiner is only showing one of the claimed options. The motivation of the combination is same as in claim 1.
Regarding claim 32, Ayaz and Ma disclose the UE of claim 1, wherein a duration that each BWP in the sequence of BWPs is configured to be an active BWP is a function of a subcarrier spacing (Ayaz, Background section, Ma, [0058][0114]).
Claims 8, 16, 23 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Ayaz, Ma and Lu further in view of Chou (US 20180183551).
Regarding claims 8, 16, 23, Ayaz, Lu and Ma disclose the UE of claim 1, wherein
Ayaz, Lu and Ma do not explicitly disclose the sequence of BWPs includes a flexible BWP associated with a dynamic time division duplexing (TDD) pattern.
Chou discloses the sequence of BWPs includes a flexible BWP associated with a dynamic time division duplexing (TDD) pattern (Chou, [0067], both downlink and uplink operations through time division duplex (TDD)).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the time of effective filing to combine the teachings as given by Ayaz with the teachings of TDD techniques given by Chou. The motivation for doing so would have been to utilize/take the advantage of the TDD technology.
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to ZHENSHENG ZHANG whose telephone number is (571)270-1985. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Thursday 8:00am-6:00pm.
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/ZHENSHENG ZHANG/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2474