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
The amendment filed 03/10/2026 has been entered. Claims 21, 31, 39, and 40 are amended.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 03/10/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
The examiner respectfully disagrees with the argument that Soldati et al, (US 2016/0029407), hereinafter Soldati, does not teach: “the broadcast message comprising information about one or more reserved identities and configuration information of a first time-frequency resource.” However, Soldati teaches the reserved identities in: “The particular design of these signals allows a UE to acquire the correct time-frequency synchronization (including subframe boundaries), as well as the physical identity of a cell, the cyclic prefix length, and whether the cell operates in time division duplex (TDD) or frequency division duplex (FDD) . . . a UE can correctly decode the system information broadcasted by the cell in the physical broadcast channel (PBCH), comprising a set of random-access preamble sequences and the corresponding time-frequency resources” (Soldati ¶ 0007) where the physical identity of the cell is further described in: “The modulation consists of a symbol-by-symbol operation as one of addition, subtraction, multiplication division or others. The transmitter identity is either assigned by the network in a way described in a related embodiment or belongs to a set of identities as part of the predefined set of resources. This method has the benefit of associating the information in a sensing signal to a transmitter, thereby enabling the network to distinguish and correlate sensing signals received at different the access points” (Soldati ¶ 0099) “the information bits of a sensing response and/or a sensing control signal are modulated by a transmitter-specific sequence. The benefit of this method is to allow the receiver (e.g., a mobile station) associate the received signal and information therein to a particular transmitter (e.g., an access point). The transmitted sensing response and/or sensing control signal comprises a sequence obtained by modulating one sequence out of the set of predefined sequences representing the information bits with a transmitter-specific sequence based on the transmitter identity” (Soldati ¶ 0108). The reserved identity of the applicant’s specification as described in applications specification ¶ 0084-0089 is presently interpreted as the identity which identifies, or at least highly correlates to, an identity of the primary node, or transmitter node: “if the first request is the scheduling request, because the second identity uniquely identifies, in the communications domain, the device that sends the scheduling request, the first device (that is, the primary node in the communications domain) may determine, based on the second identity included in the scheduling request, the device that sends the scheduling request . . .the first identity is used to indicate that the external node requests to access the primary node or access the communications domain in which the primary node is located . . . the first identity is definitely a reserved identity.” In other words, the disclosure of Soldati is aligned with the disclosure of the applicant’s currently written claims in view of the applicant’s specification, as Soldati’s physical identity of the cell correlates to the applicant’s first identity. Thus the argument that Soldati does not teach “the broadcast message comprising information about one or more reserved identities and configuration information of a first time-frequency resource” is not persuasive.
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.
Claims 21-22, 25, 31-32, 35, 39, and 40 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Soldati et al,(US 2016/0029407), hereinafter Soldati, Brunel et al. (US 2015/0038089), hereinafter Brunel, and Maeda et al. (US 2009/0316811), hereinafter Maeda.
Regarding Claim 21, Soldati teaches: A method, comprising: receiving, by a target device, a broadcast message sent by a first device, the broadcast message comprising information about one or more reserved identities and configuration information of a first time-frequency resource: “The particular design of these signals allows a UE to acquire the correct time-frequency synchronization (including subframe boundaries), as well as the physical identity of a cell, the cyclic prefix length, and whether the cell operates in time division duplex (TDD) or frequency division duplex (FDD)” (Soldati ¶ 0007); determining, by the target device, a first time-frequency sub-resource that belongs to the first time-frequency resource: “a UE can correctly decode the system information broadcasted by the cell in the physical broadcast channel (PBCH), comprising a set of random-access preamble sequences and the corresponding time-frequency resources, known as the physical random-access channel (PRACH), that can be used to access the network” (Soldati ¶ 0007); the first time-frequency resource comprising a predefined or preconfigured resource allocated to carry requests of a target device: “According to an embodiment, the set of predefined resources used for the transmission of sensing signals comprises a set of random-access preamble sequences, and the corresponding radio resources, of the related art LTE system . . . In another example, access points are either equipped to exchange the respective random-access resource configuration (i.e., random-access preamble sequences and radio resources), or receive this information by decoding the broadcast channel of neighbouring cells without any coordination. This enables an inactive access point to detect a mobile station in its proximity keeping backward compatibility to earlier releases of LTE” (Soldati ¶ 0100), the requests of the target device comprise a request used to request access and a request used to request scheduling: “Random-access is used in LTE for a number of purposes: for initial access to establish a radio link; to re-establish a radio link after a radio link failure; for handover; and for scheduling request when a dedicated resource has not been granted for scheduling purposes” (Soldati ¶ 0008), and the first time-frequency resource is not used to transmit service data; As seen above Soldati describes a system that only sends, on a first resource, a random access preamble, not service data.
Soldati does not teach: sending, by the target device, a first request on the first time-frequency sub-resource, the first request being used to request access, the first request comprises a first identity, and the first identity belongs to the one or more reserved identities; and sending, by the target device, a second request to the first device on a second time-frequency sub-resource that belongs to the first time-frequency resource, the second request being used to request scheduling, the second request comprises a second identity, the second identity is different from the first identity, and the second identity does not belong to the one or more reserved identities.
Regarding Claim 21, Brunel teaches: sending, by the target device, a first request on the first time-frequency sub-resource, the first request being used to request access, the first request comprises a first identity, and the first identity belongs to the one or more reserved identities: “RACH resource dedicated for PCI collision signaling can be reserved in the uplink channel at a specific position in the time/frequency/code domain for all home base stations HBS. Therefore, the random access request sent by the mobile terminal MT trying to inform its serving home base station HBS1 of the PCI collision can be read by any synchronized and potentially interfering home base station HBS2 in the neighborhood. The random access request contains the PCI and possibly the unique identifier of the interfered home base station HBS1 in order to enable the interfering home base station HBS2 to detect that it is involved in a PCI collision event” (Brunel ¶ 0131).
Brunel does not teach: and sending, by the target device, a second request to the first device on a second time-frequency sub-resource that belongs to the first time-frequency resource, the second request being used to request scheduling, the second request comprises a second identity, the second identity is different from the first identity, and the second identity does not belong to the one or more reserved identities.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the disclosure of Soldati with Brunel for the purpose of preventing PCI collisions. According to Brunel: “The present invention aims at providing a solution which enables to avoid PCI collisions” (Brunel ¶ 0014).
Regarding Claim 21, Maeda teaches: and sending, by the target device, a second request to the first device on a second time-frequency sub-resource that belongs to the first time-frequency resource, the second request being used to request scheduling, the second request comprises a second identity, the second identity is different from the first identity : As can be seen in Fig. 5 below the second request sent on a second time-frequency sub-resource comprises a similar access request to a first request; meaning the request comprises similar information including an identity for the second UE. Further, the same time-frequency resource is used for both UE1 and UE2 as can be seen in Fig. 42 below. As such, one of ordinary skill in the art would understand that Maeda teaches both a first request comprising a first identity, and a second request scheduled in a second time-frequency sub-resource that is contained within the same time-frequency resource as the first time-frequency sub-resource, where the second request comprises the same types of information included within the first request (e.g. a second identity) and could be applied to the disclosures of Soldati and Brunel for the purpose of sending a scheduling request after an access request, and the second identity does not belong to the one or more reserved identities: Maeda does not teach reserved identities, thus the second identity cannot belong to the one or more reserved identities.
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It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the disclosure of Soldati and Brunel with Maeda for the purpose of preventing an increases in the radio resources load due to increases in physical channels. According to Maeda: “it is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a data communication method, a communication system, and a mobile terminal which can prevent increase in the radio resources load due to temporary increase in the physical channels and can also reduce the PAPR” (Maeda ¶ 0053).
Regarding Claim 22, Soldati and Brunel teach: the method according to claim 21.
Soldati and Brunel do not teach: the first time-frequency resource carries requests of a plurality of target devices.
Regarding Claim 22, Maeda teaches: the first time-frequency resource carries requests of a plurality of target devices: “FIG. 42 shows in greater detail how each of a plurality of UEs is using radio resources allocated thereto at the same timing in the time-frequency region allocated to the UE group A. Unlike in the case of FIG. 38, in the case of FIG. 42, the region for uplink Sounding RS is placed in two LBs (LB1 in a first subframe, and LB6 in a second subframe) within 2 TTIs, like in the case of FIG. 35(b)” (Maeda ¶ 0466).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the disclosure of Soldati and Brunel with Maeda for the purpose of preventing an increases in the radio resources load due to increases in physical channels. According to Maeda: “it is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a data communication method, a communication system, and a mobile terminal which can prevent increase in the radio resources load due to temporary increase in the physical channels and can also reduce the PAPR” (Maeda ¶ 0053).
Regarding Claim 25, Soldati teaches: The method according to claim 21, wherein the broadcast message is a system message: “The cell-search procedure exploits two specially designed signals: the primary synchronization signal (PSS) and the secondary synchronization signal (SSS) . . . With this information, a UE can correctly decode the system information broadcasted by the cell in the physical broadcast channel (PBCH), comprising a set of random-access preamble sequences and the corresponding time-frequency resources, known as the physical random-access channel (PRACH), that can be used to access the network” (Soldati ¶ 0007).
Regarding Claim 31, Soldati teaches: A method, comprising: sending, by a first device, a broadcast message to a target device, the broadcast message comprising information about one or more reserved identities and configuration information of a first time-frequency resource: “The particular design of these signals allows a UE to acquire the correct time-frequency synchronization (including subframe boundaries), as well as the physical identity of a cell, the cyclic prefix length, and whether the cell operates in time division duplex (TDD) or frequency division duplex (FDD)” (Soldati ¶ 0007); the first time-frequency resource comprises a predefined or preconfigured resource allocated to carry requests of a target device: “According to an embodiment, the set of predefined resources used for the transmission of sensing signals comprises a set of random-access preamble sequences, and the corresponding radio resources, of the related art LTE system . . . In another example, access points are either equipped to exchange the respective random-access resource configuration (i.e., random-access preamble sequences and radio resources), or receive this information by decoding the broadcast channel of neighbouring cells without any coordination. This enables an inactive access point to detect a mobile station in its proximity keeping backward compatibility to earlier releases of LTE” (Soldati ¶ 0100), the requests of the target device comprising a request used to request access and a request used to request scheduling: “Random-access is used in LTE for a number of purposes: for initial access to establish a radio link; to re-establish a radio link after a radio link failure; for handover; and for scheduling request when a dedicated resource has not been granted for scheduling purposes” (Soldati ¶ 0008), and the first time-frequency resource is not used to transmit service data; As seen above Soldati describes a system that only sends, on a first resource, a random access preamble, not service data.
Soldati does not teach: receiving, by the first device, a first request from the target device on the first time-frequency sub-resource, the first request being used to request access, the first request comprises a first identity, and the first identity belongs to the one or more reserved identities; and receiving, by the first device, a second request from the target device on a second time-frequency sub-resource that belongs to the first time-frequency resource, the second request being used to request scheduling, the second request comprises a second identity, the second identity is different from the first identity, and the second identity does not belong to the one or more reserved identities.
Regarding Claim 31, Brunel teaches: receiving, by the first device, a first request from the target device on the first time-frequency sub-resource, the first request being used to request access, the first request comprises a first identity, and the first identity belongs to the one or more reserved identities: “RACH resource dedicated for PCI collision signaling can be reserved in the uplink channel at a specific position in the time/frequency/code domain for all home base stations HBS. Therefore, the random access request sent by the mobile terminal MT trying to inform its serving home base station HBS1 of the PCI collision can be read by any synchronized and potentially interfering home base station HBS2 in the neighborhood. The random access request contains the PCI and possibly the unique identifier of the interfered home base station HBS1 in order to enable the interfering home base station HBS2 to detect that it is involved in a PCI collision event” (Brunel ¶ 0131).
Brunel does not teach: receiving by the first device, a second request from the target device on a second time-frequency sub-resource that belongs to the first time-frequency resource, the second request being used to request scheduling, the second request comprises a second identity, the second identity is different from the first identity, and the second identity does not belong to the one or more reserved identities.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the disclosure of Soldati with Brunel for the purpose of preventing PCI collisions. According to Brunel: “The present invention aims at providing a solution which enables to avoid PCI collisions” (Brunel ¶ 0014).
Regarding Claim 31, Maeda teaches: receiving by the first device, a second request from the target device on a second time-frequency sub-resource that belongs to the first time-frequency resource, the second request being used to request scheduling, the second request comprises a second identity, the second identity is different from the first identity : As can be seen in Fig. 5 above the second request sent on a second time-frequency sub-resource comprises a similar access request to a first request; meaning the request comprises similar information including an identity for the second UE. Further, the same time-frequency resource is used for both UE1 and UE2 as can be seen in Fig. 42 above. As such, one of ordinary skill in the art would understand that Maeda teaches both a first request comprising a first identity, and a second request scheduled in a second time-frequency sub-resource that is contained within the same time-frequency resource as the first time-frequency sub-resource, where the second request comprises the same types of information included within the first request (e.g. a second identity) and could be applied to the disclosures of Soldati and Brunel for the purpose of sending a scheduling request after an access request, and the second identity does not belong to the one or more reserved identities: Maeda does not teach reserved identities, thus the second identity cannot belong to the one or more reserved identities.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the disclosure of Soldati and Brunel with Maeda for the purpose of preventing an increases in the radio resources load due to increases in physical channels. According to Maeda: “it is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a data communication method, a communication system, and a mobile terminal which can prevent increase in the radio resources load due to temporary increase in the physical channels and can also reduce the PAPR” (Maeda ¶ 0053).
Regarding Claim 32, Soldati and Brunel teach: the method according to claim 31.
Soldati and Brunel do not teach: the first time-frequency resource carries requests of a plurality of target devices.
Regarding Claim 32, Maeda teaches: the first time-frequency resource carries requests of a plurality of target devices: “FIG. 42 shows in greater detail how each of a plurality of UEs is using radio resources allocated thereto at the same timing in the time-frequency region allocated to the UE group A. Unlike in the case of FIG. 38, in the case of FIG. 42, the region for uplink Sounding RS is placed in two LBs (LB1 in a first subframe, and LB6 in a second subframe) within 2 TTIs, like in the case of FIG. 35(b)” (Maeda ¶ 0466).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the disclosure of Soldati and Brunel with Maeda for the purpose of preventing an increases in the radio resources load due to increases in physical channels. According to Maeda: “it is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a data communication method, a communication system, and a mobile terminal which can prevent increase in the radio resources load due to temporary increase in the physical channels and can also reduce the PAPR” (Maeda ¶ 0053).
Regarding Claim 35, Soldati teaches: The method according to claim 31, wherein the broadcast message is a system message: “The cell-search procedure exploits two specially designed signals: the primary synchronization signal (PSS) and the secondary synchronization signal (SSS) . . . With this information, a UE can correctly decode the system information broadcasted by the cell in the physical broadcast channel (PBCH), comprising a set of random-access preamble sequences and the corresponding time-frequency resources, known as the physical random-access channel (PRACH), that can be used to access the network” (Soldati ¶ 0007).
Regarding Claim 39, Soldati teaches: An apparatus, comprising: one or more processors, and a non-transitory storage medium in communication with the one or more processors, wherein the non-transitory storage medium stores program instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the apparatus: “It is further noted that any method according to the invention may be executed by processing means and may be comprised in a computer program product or in a memory unit of a suitable device” (Soldati ¶ 0042) to: receive a broadcast message, sent by a first device, the broadcast message comprising information about one or more reserved identities and configuration information of a first time-frequency resource: “The particular design of these signals allows a UE to acquire the correct time-frequency synchronization (including subframe boundaries), as well as the physical identity of a cell, the cyclic prefix length, and whether the cell operates in time division duplex (TDD) or frequency division duplex (FDD)” (Soldati ¶ 0007); determine a first time-frequency sub-resource that belongs to the first time-frequency resource: “a UE can correctly decode the system information broadcasted by the cell in the physical broadcast channel (PBCH), comprising a set of random-access preamble sequences and the corresponding time-frequency resources, known as the physical random-access channel (PRACH), that can be used to access the network” (Soldati ¶ 0007); the first time-frequency resource comprises a predefined or preconfigured resource allocated to carry requests of a target device: “According to an embodiment, the set of predefined resources used for the transmission of sensing signals comprises a set of random-access preamble sequences, and the corresponding radio resources, of the related art LTE system . . . In another example, access points are either equipped to exchange the respective random-access resource configuration (i.e., random-access preamble sequences and radio resources), or receive this information by decoding the broadcast channel of neighbouring cells without any coordination. This enables an inactive access point to detect a mobile station in its proximity keeping backward compatibility to earlier releases of LTE” (Soldati ¶ 0100), the requests of the target device comprise a request used to request access and a request used to request scheduling: “Random-access is used in LTE for a number of purposes: for initial access to establish a radio link; to re-establish a radio link after a radio link failure; for handover; and for scheduling request when a dedicated resource has not been granted for scheduling purposes” (Soldati ¶ 0008), and the first time-frequency resource is not used to transmit service data; As seen above Soldati describes a system that only sends, on a first resource, a random access preamble, not service data.
Soldati does not teach: send a first request to the first device on the first time-frequency sub-resource, the first request being used to request access, the first request comprises a first identity, and the first identity belongs to the one or more reserved identities; and send a second request to the first device on a second time-frequency sub-resource that belongs to the first time-frequency resource, the second request being used to request scheduling, the second request comprises a second identity, the second identity is different from the first identity, and the second identity does not belong to the one or more reserved identities.
Regarding Claim 39, Brunel teaches: send a first request to the first device on the first time-frequency sub-resource, the first request being used to request access, the first request comprises a first identity, and the first identity belongs to the one or more reserved identities: “RACH resource dedicated for PCI collision signaling can be reserved in the uplink channel at a specific position in the time/frequency/code domain for all home base stations HBS. Therefore, the random access request sent by the mobile terminal MT trying to inform its serving home base station HBS1 of the PCI collision can be read by any synchronized and potentially interfering home base station HBS2 in the neighborhood. The random access request contains the PCI and possibly the unique identifier of the interfered home base station HBS1 in order to enable the interfering home base station HBS2 to detect that it is involved in a PCI collision event” (Brunel ¶ 0131).
Brunel does not teach: send a second request to the first device on a second time-frequency sub-resource that belongs to the first time-frequency resource, the second request being used to request scheduling, the second request comprises a second identity, the second identity is different from the first identity, and the second identity does not belong to the one or more reserved identities.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the disclosure of Soldati with Brunel for the purpose of preventing PCI collisions. According to Brunel: “The present invention aims at providing a solution which enables to avoid PCI collisions” (Brunel ¶ 0014).
Regarding Claim 39, Maeda teaches: send a second request to the first device on a second time-frequency sub-resource that belongs to the first time-frequency resource, the second request being used to request scheduling, the second request comprises a second identity, the second identity is different from the first identity: As can be seen in Fig. 5 above the second request sent on a second time-frequency sub-resource comprises a similar access request to a first request; meaning the request comprises similar information including an identity for the second UE. Further, the same time-frequency resource is used for both UE1 and UE2 as can be seen in Fig. 42 above. As such, one of ordinary skill in the art would understand that Maeda teaches both a first request comprising a first identity, and a second request scheduled in a second time-frequency sub-resource that is contained within the same time-frequency resource as the first time-frequency sub-resource, where the second request comprises the same types of information included within the first request (e.g. a second identity) and could be applied to the disclosures of Soldati and Brunel for the purpose of sending a scheduling request after an access request, and the second identity does not belong to the one or more reserved identities: Maeda does not teach reserved identities, thus the second identity cannot belong to the one or more reserved identities.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the disclosure of Soldati and Brunel with Maeda for the purpose of preventing an increases in the radio resources load due to increases in physical channels. According to Maeda: “it is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a data communication method, a communication system, and a mobile terminal which can prevent increase in the radio resources load due to temporary increase in the physical channels and can also reduce the PAPR” (Maeda ¶ 0053).
Regarding Claim 40, Soldati teaches: An apparatus, comprising: one or more processors, and a non-transitory storage medium in communication with the one or more processors, wherein the non-transitory storage medium stores program instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the apparatus: “It is further noted that any method according to the invention may be executed by processing means and may be comprised in a computer program product or in a memory unit of a suitable device” (Soldati ¶ 0042) to: send a broadcast message to a target device, the broadcast message comprising information about one or more reserved identities and configuration information of a first time-frequency resource: “The particular design of these signals allows a UE to acquire the correct time-frequency synchronization (including subframe boundaries), as well as the physical identity of a cell, the cyclic prefix length, and whether the cell operates in time division duplex (TDD) or frequency division duplex (FDD)” (Soldati ¶ 0007); the first time-frequency resource comprises a predefined or preconfigured resource allocated to carry requests of a target device: “According to an embodiment, the set of predefined resources used for the transmission of sensing signals comprises a set of random-access preamble sequences, and the corresponding radio resources, of the related art LTE system . . . In another example, access points are either equipped to exchange the respective random-access resource configuration (i.e., random-access preamble sequences and radio resources), or receive this information by decoding the broadcast channel of neighbouring cells without any coordination. This enables an inactive access point to detect a mobile station in its proximity keeping backward compatibility to earlier releases of LTE” (Soldati ¶ 0100), the requests of the target device comprise a request used to request access and a request used to request scheduling: “Random-access is used in LTE for a number of purposes: for initial access to establish a radio link; to re-establish a radio link after a radio link failure; for handover; and for scheduling request when a dedicated resource has not been granted for scheduling purposes” (Soldati ¶ 0008), and the first time-frequency resource is not used to transmit service data; As seen above Soldati describes a system that only sends, on a first resource, a random access preamble, not service data.
Soldati does not teach: receive a first request from the target device on the first time-frequency sub-resource, the first request being used to request access, the first request comprises a first identity, and the first identity belongs to the one or more reserved identities; and receive a second request from the target device on a second time-frequency sub-resource that belongs to the first time-frequency resource, the second request being used to request scheduling, the second request comprises a second identity, the second identity is different from the first identity, and the second identity does not belong to the one or more reserved identities.
Regarding Claim 40, Brunel teaches: receive a first request from the target device on the first time-frequency sub-resource, the first request being used to request access, the first request comprises a first identity, and the first identity belongs to the one or more reserved identities: “RACH resource dedicated for PCI collision signaling can be reserved in the uplink channel at a specific position in the time/frequency/code domain for all home base stations HBS. Therefore, the random access request sent by the mobile terminal MT trying to inform its serving home base station HBS1 of the PCI collision can be read by any synchronized and potentially interfering home base station HBS2 in the neighborhood. The random access request contains the PCI and possibly the unique identifier of the interfered home base station HBS1 in order to enable the interfering home base station HBS2 to detect that it is involved in a PCI collision event” (Brunel ¶ 0131).
Brunel does not teach: receive a second request from the target device on a second time-frequency sub-resource that belongs to the first time-frequency resource, the second request being used to request scheduling, the second request comprises a second identity, the second identity is different from the first identity, and the second identity does not belong to the one or more reserved identities.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the disclosure of Soldati with Brunel for the purpose of preventing PCI collisions. According to Brunel: “The present invention aims at providing a solution which enables to avoid PCI collisions” (Brunel ¶ 0014).
Regarding Claim 40, Maeda teaches: receive a second request from the target device on a second time-frequency sub-resource that belongs to the first time-frequency resource, the second request being used to request scheduling, the second request comprises a second identity, the second identity is different from the first identity : As can be seen in Fig. 5 above the second request sent on a second time-frequency sub-resource comprises a similar access request to a first request; meaning the request comprises similar information including an identity for the second UE. Further, the same time-frequency resource is used for both UE1 and UE2 as can be seen in Fig. 42 above. As such, one of ordinary skill in the art would understand that Maeda teaches both a first request comprising a first identity, and a second request scheduled in a second time-frequency sub-resource that is contained within the same time-frequency resource as the first time-frequency sub-resource, where the second request comprises the same types of information included within the first request (e.g. a second identity) and could be applied to the disclosures of Soldati and Brunel for the purpose of sending a scheduling request after an access request, and the second identity does not belong to the one or more reserved identities: Maeda does not teach reserved identities, thus the second identity cannot belong to the one or more reserved identities.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the disclosure of Soldati and Brunel with Maeda for the purpose of preventing an increases in the radio resources load due to increases in physical channels. According to Maeda: “it is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a data communication method, a communication system, and a mobile terminal which can prevent increase in the radio resources load due to temporary increase in the physical channels and can also reduce the PAPR” (Maeda ¶ 0053).
Claims 26 and 36 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Soldati, Brunel, and Maeda as applied to claims 21 and 31 above, and further in view of Seo et al. (US 2011/0075629), hereinafter Seo.
Regarding Claim 26, Soldati, Brunel, and Maeda teach: The method according to claim 21.
Soldati, Brunel, and Maeda do not teach: receiving a broadcast message, wherein the broadcast message comprises configuration information of the first time-frequency resource.
Regarding Claim 26, Seo teaches: receiving a broadcast message, wherein the broadcast message comprises configuration information of the first time-frequency resource “At a 0th step (S200), a base station (eNB) broadcasts System Information (SI). Specifically, the base station broadcasts PRACH configuration information of each cell, such as available time-frequency resources and available Random Access Channel (RACH) preamble set information, through the system information” (Seo ¶ 0011).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the disclosures of Soldati, Brunel, and Maeda with Seo to achieve the predictable result of starting communications between UEs and a base station. According to Seo: “since it is not possible to allocate dedicated resources to a UE until the UE starts communication with the base station to be connected to the base station, the UE accesses the base station in a random access scheme in which the same wireless frequency resources are shared by a plurality of UEs in an initial access procedure” (Seo ¶ 0009).
Regarding Claim 36, Soldati, Brunel, and Maeda teach: The method according to claim 31.
Soldati, Brunel, and Maeda do not teach: sending a broadcast message, wherein the broadcast message comprises configuration information of the first time-frequency resource.
Regarding Claim 36, Seo teaches: sending a broadcast message, wherein the broadcast message comprises configuration information of the first time-frequency resource “At a 0th step (S200), a base station (eNB) broadcasts System Information (SI). Specifically, the base station broadcasts PRACH configuration information of each cell, such as available time-frequency resources and available Random Access Channel (RACH) preamble set information, through the system information” (Seo ¶ 0011).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the disclosures of Soldati, Brunel, and Maeda with Seo to achieve the predictable result of starting communications between UEs and a base station. According to Seo: “since it is not possible to allocate dedicated resources to a UE until the UE starts communication with the base station to be connected to the base station, the UE accesses the base station in a random access scheme in which the same wireless frequency resources are shared by a plurality of UEs in an initial access procedure” (Seo ¶ 0009).
Claims 27-28 and 37-38 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Soldati, Brunel, and Maeda as applied to claims 21 and 31 above, and further in view of Lee et al. (US 2016/0192376), hereinafter Lee.
Regarding Claim 27, Soldati, Brunel, and Maeda teach: The method according to claim 21.
Soldati, Brunel, and Maeda do not teach: the method further comprises: receiving a target message, wherein the target message comprises information about a second identity, the second identity is carried in a second request, and the second request is a scheduling request.
Regarding Claim 27, Lee teaches: the method further comprises: receiving a target message, wherein the target message comprises information about the second identity: “At Message 2, the WTRU may receive or expect to receive a Random Access Response (RAR) from a network node. The RAR message may indicate uplink grant and the timing advance to be used by the WTRU for transmission of subsequent messages. The RAR message may indicate the identity of the network node for subsequent transmissions” (Lee ¶ 0458).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the disclosures of Soldati, Brunel, and Maeda with Lee to achieve the predictable result of communicating between a WTRU and a cell with improved coverage. According to Lee: “The WTRU may detect a channel condition at least in part by determining a cell with better uplink coverage than the downlink cell. The WTRU may communicate uplink data with a first node associated with the determined cell and may communicate downlink data with a second node associated with the downlink cell” (Lee ¶ 0005).
Regarding Claim 28, Soldati, Brunel, and Maeda teach: The method according to claim 27.
Soldati, Brunel, and Maeda do not teach: the target message is an access response, the access response is received using a second time-frequency resource, and the second time-frequency resource is determined based on the first time-frequency sub-resource.
Regarding Claim 28, Lee teaches: the target message is an access response: “At Message 2, the WTRU may receive or expect to receive a Random Access Response (RAR) from a network node. The RAR message may indicate uplink grant and the timing advance to be used by the WTRU for transmission of subsequent messages. The RAR message may indicate the identity of the network node for subsequent transmissions” (Lee ¶ 0458), the access response is received using a second time-frequency resource, and the second time-frequency resource is determined based on the first time-frequency sub-resource: “For dynamic scheduling, a subframe may include two consecutive timeslots, which may be referred to as an RB pair. Certain subcarriers on some OFDM symbols may be allocated to carry pilot or reference signals in the time-frequency grid” (Lee ¶ 0068) and “A WTRU may expect a random access response (RAR) message from an LPN upon transmitting a PRACH preamble, and within a pre-configured time window” (Lee ¶ 0312).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the disclosures of Soldati, Brunel, and Maeda with Lee to achieve the predictable result of communicating between a WTRU and a cell with improved coverage. According to Lee: “The WTRU may detect a channel condition at least in part by determining a cell with better uplink coverage than the downlink cell. The WTRU may communicate uplink data with a first node associated with the determined cell and may communicate downlink data with a second node associated with the downlink cell” (Lee ¶ 0005).
Regarding Claim 37, Soldati, Brunel, and Maeda teach: The method according to claim 31.
Soldati, Brunel, and Maeda do not teach: the method further comprises: sending a target message, wherein the target message comprises information about the second identity.
Regarding Claim 37, Lee teaches: the method further comprises: sending a target message, wherein the target message comprises information about the second identity: “At Message 2, the WTRU may receive or expect to receive a Random Access Response (RAR) from a network node. The RAR message may indicate uplink grant and the timing advance to be used by the WTRU for transmission of subsequent messages. The RAR message may indicate the identity of the network node for subsequent transmissions” (Lee ¶ 0458).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the disclosures of Soldati, Brunel, and Maeda with Lee to achieve the predictable result of communicating between a WTRU and a cell with improved coverage. According to Lee: “The WTRU may detect a channel condition at least in part by determining a cell with better uplink coverage than the downlink cell. The WTRU may communicate uplink data with a first node associated with the determined cell and may communicate downlink data with a second node associated with the downlink cell” (Lee ¶ 0005).
Regarding Claim 38, Soldati, Brunel, and Maeda teach: The method according to claim 37.
Soldati, Brunel, and Maeda do not teach: the target message is an access response, the access response is sent using a second time-frequency resource, and the second time-frequency resource is determined based on the first time-frequency sub-resource.
Regarding Claim 38, Lee teaches: the target message is an access response: “At Message 2, the WTRU may receive or expect to receive a Random Access Response (RAR) from a network node. The RAR message may indicate uplink grant and the timing advance to be used by the WTRU for transmission of subsequent messages. The RAR message may indicate the identity of the network node for subsequent transmissions” (Lee ¶ 0458), the access response is sent using a second time-frequency resource, and the second time-frequency resource is determined based on the first time-frequency sub-resource: “For dynamic scheduling, a subframe may include two consecutive timeslots, which may be referred to as an RB pair. Certain subcarriers on some OFDM symbols may be allocated to carry pilot or reference signals in the time-frequency grid” (Lee ¶ 0068) and “A WTRU may expect a random access response (RAR) message from an LPN upon transmitting a PRACH preamble, and within a pre-configured time window” (Lee ¶ 0312).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the disclosures of Soldati, Brunel, and Maeda with Lee to achieve the predictable result of communicating between a WTRU and a cell with improved coverage. According to Lee: “The WTRU may detect a channel condition at least in part by determining a cell with better uplink coverage than the downlink cell. The WTRU may communicate uplink data with a first node associated with the determined cell and may communicate downlink data with a second node associated with the downlink cell” (Lee ¶ 0005).
Claims 29 and 30 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Soldati, Brunel, and Maeda as applied to claim 21 above, and further in view of Kim et al. (US 2020/0022106), hereinafter Kim.
Regarding Claim 29, Soldati, Brunel, and Maeda teach: The method according to claim 21.
Soldati, Brunel, and Maeda do not teach: the method further comprises: receiving a scheduling response using a third time-frequency resource, wherein the scheduling response comprises configuration information of a fourth time-frequency resource, and the fourth time-frequency resource carries service data or control information.
Regarding Claim 29, Kim teaches: the method further comprises: receiving a scheduling response using a third time-frequency resource: “The base station allocates an uplink transmission resource to the terminal such that the terminal is able to transmit buffer status information in response to the scheduling request (5f-15)” (Kim ¶ 0417), wherein the scheduling response comprises configuration information of a fourth time-frequency resource: “The terminal having been allocated with an uplink transmission resource transmits a buffer status report (BSR) for the logical channels or logical channel groups currently possessed by the terminal to the base station using the transmission resource (5f-20)” (Kim ¶ 0417), and the fourth time-frequency resource carries service data or control information: “Upon receiving the BSR, the base station allocates transmission resources for uplink data transmission to the terminal through scheduling (5f-25). That is, the base station may indicate the transmission resources in the time/frequency domain through which the terminal transmits the uplink data using a control signal” (Kim ¶ 0417).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the disclosures of Soldati, Brunel, and Maeda with Kim to achieve the predictable result of performing a paging function using a beam antenna. According to Kim: “Since a base station is not aware of the location of a terminal in an idle mode, all beam antennas must transmit paging signals. In addition, it is impossible to transmit paging signals at the same time from all beam antennas because of transmission power limitation, suppression of interference between antennas, and the like. Thus, if the beam antennas sequentially transmit paging signals one by one, a plurality of time slots is required in order to transmit one paging signal to the terminal. The disclosure proposes a method of configuring such a plurality of time slots” (Kim ¶ 0005).
Claim 30 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Soldati, Brunel, Maeda, and Kim as applied to claim 29 above, and further in view of Lee.
Regarding Claim 30, Soldati, Brunel, Maeda, and Kim teach: The method according to claim 29.
Soldati, Brunel, Maeda, and Kim do not teach: the third time-frequency resource is determined based on the first time-frequency sub-resource; or the third time-frequency resource is determined based on the first time-frequency sub-resource and a scheduling type of the first request.
Regarding Claim 30, Lee teaches: the third time-frequency resource is determined based on the first time-frequency sub-resource: “Upon receiving the scheduling request through the SR transmission resource, the base station may recognize the terminal that requested the scheduling because the base station has already allocated the SR transmission resource to the terminal. The base station allocates an uplink transmission resource to the terminal such that the terminal is able to transmit buffer status information in response to the scheduling request (5f-15)” (Lee ¶ 0417). In this case the third time-frequency resource is determined based on the first time-frequency sub-resource as the first time-frequency sub-resource carries the SR which is used to instruct the base station to allocate the uplink transmission resource.
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the disclosures of Soldati, Brunel, Maeda and Kim with Lee to achieve the predictable result of performing a paging function using a beam antenna. According to Kim: “Since a base station is not aware of the location of a terminal in an idle mode, all beam antennas must transmit paging signals. In addition, it is impossible to transmit paging signals at the same time from all beam antennas because of transmission power limitation, suppression of interference between antennas, and the like. Thus, if the beam antennas sequentially transmit paging signals one by one, a plurality of time slots is required in order to transmit one paging signal to the terminal. The disclosure proposes a method of configuring such a plurality of time slots” (Kim ¶ 0005).
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 BRADLEY DAVIS LYTLE whose telephone number is (703)756-4593. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 8:00 AM - 4:00 PM EST.
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/B.D.L./Examiner, Art Unit 2473
/BRADLEY D LYTLE JR./Examiner, Art Unit 2473
/KWANG B YAO/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2473
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