DETAILED ACTION
This Final Office Action is in response to application number 17/951,770 filed on September 23nd,2022. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Information Disclosure Statements
The information disclosure statements (IDS), submitted on January 22nd, 2026, July 16th, 2024, November 29th,2022 and September 23rd, 2023, are in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statements are being considered by the examiner.
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 may not be obtained though the invention is not identically disclosed or described as set forth in section 102 of this title, if the differences between the subject matter sought to be patented and the prior art are such that the subject matter as a whole would have been obvious at the time the invention was made to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which said subject matter pertains. Patentability shall not be negatived by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Wang et al. (US 20200119797) in view of Jung et al. (US 20210288696 A1) further in view of Li et al. (US 20190246321 A1).
Regarding claim 1, Wang et al. disclose a method comprising; receiving, by a wireless communication device, at least a first reference signal (RS) from a first transmission and reception point (TRP), and a second RS from a second TRP (Paragraphs 210-212 disclose “The network device sends CSI-RSs to the terminal device on at least two groups of CSI-RS resources. For example, the first network device sends a CSI-RS on a first group of CSI-RS resources, and the second network device sends a CSI-RS on a second group of CSI-RS resources.”); determining, by a wireless communication device, a first channel quality associated with the first RS, and a second channel quality associated with the second RS (Paragraph 0227 discloses “The terminal device separately calculates block error rates of the four subbands with reference to the two CSI-RS resources…”);
Wang et al. fail to explicitly disclose detecting, by the wireless communication device, using at least one of the first channel quality or the second channel quality, a triggering event indicating a change in a TRP group including the first TRP and the second TRP, the TRP group used for transmission to the wireless communication device; and transmitting, by the wireless communication device to a wireless communication node, responsive to detecting the triggering event, a report including information associated with at least one of the first RS or the second RS. the handover recommendation recommending a handover from the TRP group to a different TRP or TRP group recommendation determined by the wireless communication device, the handover recommendation recommending a handover from the TRP group to a different TRP or TRP group.
However, in an analogous art Jung et al. teaches; detecting, by the wireless communication device, using at least one of the first channel quality or the second channel quality, a triggering event indicating a change in a TRP group including the first TRP and the second TRP, the TRP group used for transmission to the wireless communication device; and transmitting, by the wireless communication device to a wireless communication node, responsive to detecting the triggering event, a report including information associated with at least one of the first RS or the second RS. the handover recommendation recommending a handover from the TRP group to a different TRP or TRP group recommendation determined by the wireless communication device, the handover recommendation recommending a handover from the TRP group to a different TRP or TRP group (Paragraphs 0497-0498 and FIG.19A-B discloses, “ At operation 1918, the UE 1900 determines whether a TRP change event has been triggered. If a TRP change event has not been triggered, at operation 1919, the UE 1900 does not perform an operation for a TRP change. If a TRP change event has been triggered, at operation 1920, the UE 1900 may transmit TRP change request information to the TRP2 1902. The UE 1900 may transmit at least one of a TRP change request, a TRP reallocation request, or a TRP reconfiguration request. The request of the UE 1900 may be transmitted through a common channel or an RACH channel or an allocated another uplink resource.” Paragraph 0480 and 0508 discloses that the UE measures reference signals corresponding to TRP1 and TRP2 to distinctly identify TRPs. Paragraph 0253 discloses the measurement triggering event is based on the first and second channel quality “Event C2′: when a CSI-RS resource set (or TRP or NR-SS resource set or beam set or antenna configuration set) is better than a reference CSI-RS resource set (or TRP or NR-SS resource set or beam set or antenna configuration set) by a set offset or more.” Paragraph 0017 discloses “ …a method for a base station to collect reports for each transmission and reception point for the measurement, report, and change procedure…).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified Wang et al.to incorporate the teachings of Jung et al., to transmit the measurement reports in response to triggering events defined, in order to optimize performance, reliability and efficiency of the network.
Wang et al. and Jung et al. does not explicitly disclose the report including recommending a handover recommendation determined by the wireless communication device.
However, in an analogous art Li et al. teaches the report including recommending a handover recommendation determined by the wireless communication device, (Paragraph 0211 discloses “…receive, from the UE 115, a handover request to perform handover from the additional coordinated cluster to a first coordinated cluster of the group of TRPs 105,…”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified Wang et al. and Jung et al. to incorporate the teachings of Li et al., to recommend a handover recommendation determined by the wireless communication device, in order to leverage the devices real time knowledge of its local environment and internal state.
Regarding claim 2, Wang et al. and Jung et al. disclose the method of claim 1, wherein the report includes the information associated with the first RS and the second RS in response to the triggering event determined according to the first channel quality and the second channel quality, the triggering event comprising at least one of: the first channel quality associated with the first RS, is better than or equal to a threshold, and the second channel quality associated with the second RS, is better than or equal to the threshold, the first channel quality associated with the first RS, is better than or equal to the threshold, and the second channel quality associated with the second RS, is better than or equal to the first channel quality (The limitation of this claim is interpreted to be 2nd Channel Quality >= 1st Channel Quality >=Threshold Value, Paragraph 0251 discloses that the larger value in CQIs is to be used when two or more CQIs are considered) or the first channel quality associated with the first RS, is better than or equal to the threshold, and the second channel quality associated with the second RS, is within a channel quality range having a first bound equal to a difference between the first channel quality and an offset amount, and a second bound equal to a sum of the offset amount and the first channel quality (The limitation of this claim is interpreted such that, the 2nd channel quality is bound by a range, a constant +/- offset, Paragraph 0190 discloses the range to be defined as +/- preset threshold).
Regarding claim 3, Wang et al. and Jung et al. disclose the method of claim 2, wherein a channel quality better than or equal to a threshold comprises at least one of: a corresponding block error ratio (BLER) is lower than or equal to a first threshold (Paragraph 0040 discloses that the CSI corresponding to the sub-band meeting a target requirement (threshold) has block error rates less than the preset block error rate), or a corresponding reference signal received power (RSRP), channel state information (CSI), signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) or channel quality information (CQI), is higher than or equal to a second threshold.
Regarding claim 4, Wang et al. and Jung et al. disclose the method of claim 2, wherein the offset amount is configurable (Paragraph 0190 discloses the configurable preset threshold value).
Regarding claim 5, Wang et al. and Jung et al. disclose the method of claim 2, wherein the report includes at least one of: indexes of the first RS and the second RS respectively (Paragraph 0221 discloses the terminal device performing measurements for at least 2 or more groups of CSI-RS resources to obtain at least 2 or more CQIs), indexes of panels of the wireless communication device corresponding to the first RS and the second RS respectively, or the first channel quality and the second channel quality (Paragraph 0118 discloses the terminal device measuring at least 2 groups of CSI-RS resources and reporting, or the first channel quality and a joint channel quality determined using the first RS and the second RS.
Regarding claim 6, Wang et al. and Jung et al. disclose the method of claim 2, wherein the first RS and the second RS can be received simultaneously by the wireless communication device (Paragraph 0110 discloses the terminal devices performing measuring “based on the foregoing two configurations” to determine CQIs related to resource set 1 and resource set 2) , or the first RS and the second RS can be jointly used for determining a channel quality (Paragraph 0222 discloses the terminal device performing joint measurements for at least two groups and generating one CQI. Paragraph 009 discloses jointly reporting CSI).
Regarding claim 7, Wang et al. and Jung et al. disclose the method of claim 1, wherein the report includes the information associated with second RS in response to a triggering event determined according to the second channel quality, the triggering event comprising at least one of: the first channel quality associated with the first RS, is worse than or equal to a threshold, and the second channel quality associated with the second RS, is better than or equal to the threshold, the first channel quality associated with the first RS, is worse than or equal to the threshold, and the second channel quality associated with the second RS, is better than the first channel quality (The limitation of this claim is interpreted to be 2nd Channel Quality > Threshold Value > 1st Channel Quality, Paragraph 0251 discloses that the larger value in CQIs is to be used when two or more CQIs are considered), or the first channel quality associated with the first RS, is worse than or equal to the threshold, and the second channel quality associated with the second RS, is better than the first channel quality, by an offset amount (Paragraph 0190 discloses CQI value greater than or less than a preset threshold).
Regarding claim 8, Wang et al. and Jung et al. disclose the method of claim 7, wherein a channel quality worse than or equal to a threshold comprises at least one of: a corresponding block error ratio (BLER) is higher than or equal to a first threshold (Paragraph 0230 discloses that the BLER can be can be predefined, thus indicating that the BLER associated with a specific channel quality can be higher or lower) or a corresponding reference signal received power (RSRP), channel state information (CSI), signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) or channel quality information (CQI), is lower than or equal to a second threshold.
Regarding claim 9, Wang et al. and Jung et al. disclose the method of claim 7, wherein the offset amount is configurable (Paragraph 0190 discloses that the predefined offset value is configurable).
Regarding claim 10, Wang et al. and Jung et al. disclose the method of claim 7, wherein the report includes at least one of: an index of the second RS (Paragraph 0018 discloses the terminal device receiving and measuring CSI-RSs and reporting the CQI), an index of a panel of the wireless communication device corresponding to the second RS, the second channel quality (Paragraph 0015 discloses receiving and measuring individual reference signals and reporting the corresponding CSI as revealed in prior art), or a 1-bit value.
Regarding claim 11, Wang et al. and Jung et al. disclose the method of claim 10, wherein the 1-bit value indicates a switching mode, the switching mode including at least one of: Mode 1, switching from receiving from a channel of the first RS to a channel of the second RS, or Mode 3, switching from receiving from the channels of the first RS and the second RS to the channel of the second RS (Paragraphs 0029-0030 disclose the configuration information equivalent to the Mode identifying the set or groups of RS to be received and measured).
Regarding claim 12, Wang et al. and Jung et al. disclose the method of claim 1, wherein the report includes the information associated with the second RS in response to the triggering event determined according to the second channel quality, the triggering event comprising at least one of the first channel quality associated with the first RS, is better than or equal to a threshold, and the second channel quality associated with the second RS, is better than or equal to the threshold, the first channel quality associated with the first RS, is better than or equal to the threshold, and the second channel quality associated with the second RS, is better than the first channel quality, or the first channel quality associated with the first RS, is better than or equal to the threshold, and the second channel quality associated with the second RS, is within a channel quality range having a first bound equal to a difference between the first channel quality and an offset amount, and a second bound equal to a sum of the offset amount and the first channel quality (The limitations of this claim are rejected on the same ground of rejection as claim #2).
Regarding claim 13, Wang et al. and Jung et al. disclose the method of claim 12, wherein a channel quality better than or equal to a threshold comprises at least one of: a corresponding block error ratio (BLER) is lower than or equal to a first threshold (The limitation of this claim is rejected on the same grounds of rejection as claim #3), or a corresponding reference signal received power (RSRP), channel state information (CSI), signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR) or channel quality information (CQI), is higher than or equal to a second threshold.
Regarding claim 14, Wang et al. and Jung et al. disclose the method of claim 13, wherein the offset amount is configurable (The limitation of this claim is rejected on the same grounds of rejection as claim #4).
Regarding claim 15, Wang et al. and Jung et al. disclose the method of claim 13, wherein the report includes at least one of an index of the second RS, an index of a panel of the wireless communication device corresponding to the second RS, the second channel quality, or the first channel quality (Paragraph 0015 discloses receiving and measuring individual reference signals and reporting the corresponding CSI as revealed in prior art) and a joint channel quality determined using the first RS and the second RS (Paragraph 0013 discloses the reporting of the joint CSI, based on at least two groups of CSI RS resources), or a 1-bit value.
Regarding claim 16, Wang et al. and Jung et al. disclose the method of claim 15, wherein the 1-bit value indicates a switching mode, the switching mode including: Mode 2, switching from receiving from the channel of the first RS to the channels of the first RS and the second RS (Paragraphs 0029-0030 disclose the configuration information equivalent to the Mode, identifying the set or groups of RSs to be received and measured).
Regarding claim 17, Wang et al. and Jung et al. disclose the method of claim 16, wherein when the 1-bit value is indicative of Mode 2, the first RS and the second RS can be received simultaneously by the wireless communication device (Paragraph 0110 discloses the terminal devices performing measuring “based on the foregoing two configurations” to determine CQIs related to resource set 1 and resource set 2), or the first RS and the second RS can be used for jointly determining a channel quality (Paragraph 0013 discloses the reporting of the joint CSI, based on at least two groups of CSI RS resources).
Regarding claim 18, Wang et al. and Jung et al. disclose a method comprising: receiving, by a wireless communication node from a wireless communication device, a report including information associated with at least one of a first reference signal (RS) from a first transmission and reception point (TRP) or a second RS from a second TRP, the first RS and the second RS received by the wireless communication device, wherein the report is received responsive to a triggering event determined using at least one of a first channel quality associated with the first RS, and a second channel quality associated with the second RS, the triggering event indicating a change in a TRP group including the first TRP and the second TRP, and wherein the report includes recommending a handover recommendation determined by the wireless communication device , the handover recommendation recommending a handover from the TRP group to a different TRP or TRP group. (The limitations of this claim are rejected on the same grounds of rejection as claim #1).
Regarding claim 19, Wang et al. and Jung et al. disclose a wireless communication device comprising: at least one processor configured to: receive, via a transceiver, at least a first reference signal (RS) from a first transmission and reception point (TRP), and a second RS from a second TRP; determine a first channel quality associated with the first RS, and a second channel quality associated with the second RS; detect, using at least one of the first channel quality or the second channel quality, a triggering event indicating a change in a TRP group including the first TRP and the second TRP, the TRP group used for transmission to the wireless communication device; and transmit, via the transceiver to a wireless communication node, responsive to detecting the triggering event, a report including information associated with at least one of the first RS or the second RS, the report including recommending a handover recommendation determined by the wireless communication device , the handover recommendation recommending a handover from the TRP group to a different TRP or TRP group. (The limitations of this claim are rejected on the same grounds of rejection as claim #1).
Regarding claim 20, Wang et al. and Jung et al. disclose a wireless communication node comprising: at least one processor configured to: receive, via a receiver from a wireless communication device, a report including information associated with at least one of a first reference signal (RS) from a first transmission and reception point (TRP) or a second RS from a second TRP, the first RS and the second RS received by the wireless communication device, wherein report is received responsive to a triggering event determined using at least one of a first channel quality associated with the first RS, or a second channel quality associated with the second RS the triggering event indicating a change in a TRP group including the first TRP and the second TRP, and wherein the report includes recommending a handover recommendation determined by the wireless communication device , the handover recommendation recommending a handover from the TRP group to a different TRP or TRP group. (The limitations of this claim are rejected on the same grounds of rejection as claim #1).
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed on 11/19/2025 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
In the remarks applicant states that “First, the references of record do not teach or suggest a wireless communication device which detects a triggering event indicating a change in a TRP group using at least one of the first channel quality or the second channel quality as recited in claim 1.”.
The Examiner respectfully disagrees, as Jung paragraph 0497-0498 and FIG.19A-B states, “ At operation 1918, the UE 1900 determines whether a TRP change event has been triggered. If a TRP change event has not been triggered, at operation 1919, the UE 1900 does not perform an operation for a TRP change. If a TRP change event has been triggered, at operation 1920, the UE 1900 may transmit TRP change request information to the TRP2 1902. The UE 1900 may transmit at least one of a TRP change request, a TRP reallocation request, or a TRP reconfiguration request. The request of the UE 1900 may be transmitted through a common channel or an RACH channel or an allocated another uplink resource.” This clearly shows that the UE has determined that a TRP change event has been triggered. Furthermore it addresses the second point of contention raised by the applicant by showing that the UE transmits TRP change request information. Additionally paragraph 0480 and 0508 discloses that the UE measures reference signals corresponding to TRP1 and TRP2 to distinctly identify differences. Paragraph 0253 discloses the measurement triggering event is based on the first and second channel quality “Event C2′: when a CSI-RS resource set (or TRP or NR-SS resource set or beam set or antenna configuration set) is better than a reference CSI-RS resource set (or TRP or NR-SS resource set or beam set or antenna configuration set) by a set offset or more.” Paragraph 0017 discloses “ …a method for a base station to collect reports for each transmission and reception point for the measurement, report, and change procedure…”.
Please note that reference to Li in claim 1 is included only to address the deficiency in Wang and Jung in relation to the limitation “the report including recommending a handover recommendation” as the cited passage in Jung paragraph 0498 discloses that the “the UE 1900 may transmit TRP change request information to the TRP2 1902.”.
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. 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 Samuel Dilan Rutnam whose telephone number is 703-756-1374. The examiner can normally be reached between 8:30am-5:00pm Mon-Fri.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Sujoy Kundu can be reached on 571-272-8586.
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/Samuel Dilan Rutnam/
Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2471
/SUJOY K KUNDU/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2471