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 following is a final office action in response to applicant’s amendment filed on 04/09/2026 for response of the office action mailed on 01/09/2026. Claims 1 and 11 have been amended. Claims 2, 4-8, 12, 14-18 and 20 have been cancelled. Claims 21-27 are newly added. Claims 1, 3, 9-11, 13, 19 and 21-27 are pending in this application.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to Claim(s) 1, 3, 9-11, 13, 19 and 21 have been considered but are not persuasive/moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument. Please see Allowable Subject Matter regarding Claims 22-27.
Argument: In the rejection of claim 5, the Office Action asserts that Babaei teaches or suggests the claimed step of determining TCI states (See Office Action, p. 9). Applicant respectfully disagrees. The cited portions of Babaei disclose a base station determining TCI states, not a wireless device, as expressly required by amended claim 1. Thus, Babaei fails to teach the claimed subject matter.
Response: Examiner has considered the Applicant’s arguments and respectfully disagrees. In referencing ¶0129 in Babaei, the base station configures a list of potential TCI states and indicates them to the UE. Since each TCI state contains QCL information, the UE determines the optimal receive beam (spatial domain filter) by pointing its antenna to match the QCL reference signal indicated by the TCI state. So although TCI states are configured and indicated by the network, the UE determines the active downlink spatial reception configuration by resolving the TCI state into a concrete receive beam through QCL interpretation and beamforming. In this way, the TCI state is not directly applied as a physical beam, but is transformed into one by the UE, making the UE the entity that determines the effective realization of the TCI state. This response applies to all independent and dependent claims.
Argument: Babaei still does not disclose determining one or more first TCI states of one or more first coresets of a primary cell and one or more second TCI states of one or more second coresets of a secondary cell. In particular, the cited passages do not disclose "TCI states of one or more first coresets of the primary cell" or "TCI states of one or more second coresets of the secondary cell," as required by the claim.
Response: Examiner has considered the Applicant’s arguments and respectfully disagrees. Referencing the cited portions of Babaei, the base station configures the UE with configuration parameters for a primary and secondary cell, where the configuration includes PDCCH configuration parameters such as CORESET and search space configurations (¶0230). Since a CORESET defines the time-frequency resources and monitoring occasions for PDCCH within a cell, the UE maintains separate CORESET configurations for each cell, including the primary and secondary cell. Since the base station indicates one or more TCI states to the UE (via RRC, MAC CE or DCI), each TCI state provides QCL information thar defines the spatial reception assumption based on reference signals. The UE uses these indicated TCI states to determine a receive beam and corresponding spatial domain filter (¶0129). Because PDCCH monitoring is performed by the UE in configured CORESETs according to their associated search space configurations, the UE must apply the indicated TCI states within the context of each CORESET for both the primary and secondary cell. In conclusion, the UE determines the effective TCI state application per CORESET in both the primary and secondary cell by mapping the indicated TCI states to the CORESET-specific monitoring configurations and determining the corresponding receive beam and spatial filter used for PDCCH reception. This response applies to all independent and dependent claims.
Argument: Further, even if such a disclosure were assumed, the combination of Babaei with Murray still fails to teach or suggest the claimed feature of determining "one or more radio link monitoring reference signals for radio link monitoring of the primary cell, based on: the one or more first TCI states of the one or more first coresets of the primary cell; and the one or more second TCI states of the one or more second coresets of the secondary cell." While Murray may disclose an association between RLM reference signals and coresets, it does not disclose or suggest determining RLM reference signals based on TCI states of coresets, nor does it provide any motivation to modify Babaei in this manner.
Response: Examiner has considered the Applicant’s arguments and respectfully disagrees. Due to the nature of amendment(s) made on the independent claims, the Office no longer relies on Murray and instead introduces Lim et al. (US 2022/0061116). Lim explicitly discloses, referencing ¶0027, a UE monitoring radio link quality of a primary cell using radio link monitoring mechanisms to indicate in-sync/out-of-sync to higher layers, where the UE is configured with up to N.sub.LR-RLM RadioLinkMonitoringRS for link recovery procedures, and radio link monitoring. In ¶0030, it describes a UE using reference signals tied to TCI states to perform radio link monitoring. The UE may monitor the quality based on the reference signal in the configured RLM-RS resource(s) to detect the quality of the primary cell (¶0036). Lastly, Lim describes how a UE may look at TCI states that are already assigned to active CORESETs used for PDCCH monitoring and maps them to a specific set of reference signals used for radio link monitoring and beam failure detection in ¶0060. The base station may configure the UE with radio link monitoring reference signals to measure the radio link quality to determine whether the UE is in-sync or out-of-sync (¶0065). This response applies to all independent and dependent claims.
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.
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 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 non-obviousness.
Claims 1, 3, 9-11, 13, 19 and 21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Babaei (US 2021/0204309), Babaei hereinafter, and further in view of Lim et al. (US 2022/0061116), Lim hereinafter.
Re. Claim 1, Babaei teaches a method comprising: receiving, by a wireless device, configuration parameters of physical downlink control channels (PDCCHs) for scheduling a primary cell, wherein the configuration parameters indicate: one or more first control resource sets (coresets), of the primary cell, for monitoring a first downlink control information (DCI) comprising first resource assignment for the primary cell; and one or more second coresets, of a secondary cell cross-carrier scheduling the primary cell, for monitoring a second DCI comprising second resource assignment for the primary cell; (Fig. 18-19, 25-27, 35-36 & ¶0141 - In example embodiments, a wireless device may be configured with parameters and/or configuration arrangements. ¶0230 - In an example, the configuration parameters of a cell may comprise PDCCH configuration parameters. The PDCCH configuration parameters may comprise CORESET configuration and search space configuration parameters of CORESETs and search spaces for the cell … The search space configuration parameters may indicate configuration parameters for monitoring the search space for downlink control information, for example, a monitoring slot periodicity and offset parameter, a duration parameter, a parameter indicating a monitoring symbol within a slot, a search space type (e.g., common vs. UE specific), an identifier of the search space, etc. ¶0232 - a wireless device may receive configuration parameters of a plurality of cells comprising a primary cell and a secondary cell. ¶0239 - The wireless device may monitor one or more CORESETs/search spaces on the secondary cell for receiving a DCI comprising a resource assignment for the primary cell based on the secondary cell being configured as a scheduling cell for the primary cell. In an example, a field of the DCI (e.g., a carrier indicator field or one or more bits of a carrier indicator field) may indicate that the DCI is for cross-carrier scheduling of the primary cell. The wireless device may determine that the DCI is for cross-carrier scheduling of the primary cell based on the value of the field … The wireless device may determine that a received DCI is for cross-carrier carrier scheduling of the primary cell based on the receiving the DCI in the search space/CORESET of the secondary cell configured for cross-carrier scheduling of the primary cell);
receiving, by the wireless device and via the one or more first coresets, the first DCI comprising the first resource assignments for the primary cell; (¶0230 - In an example, the configuration parameters of a cell may comprise PDCCH configuration parameters. The PDCCH configuration parameters may comprise CORESET configuration and search space configuration parameters of CORESETs and search spaces for the cell. ¶0232 - In an example embodiment as shown in FIG. 19, a wireless device may receive configuration parameters of a plurality of cells comprising a primary cell … ¶0236 - In an example, the wireless device may determine that the one or more search spaces are for receiving resource assignment on the primary cell based on the configuration parameters of the one or more search spaces, for example, based on one or more identifiers of the one or more search spaces. ¶0336 - the wireless device may receive a first DCI comprising first scheduling information for a PDSCH (e.g., for receiving a downlink TB) or a PUSCH (e.g., for transmitting an uplink TB) on the primary cell);
receiving, by the wireless device and via the one or more second coresets, the second DCI comprising the second resource assignments for the primary cell; (¶0103 - In case of cross-carrier scheduling, the base station may transmit signaling for uplink grants and/or downlink assignments on a cell different from the cell that the corresponding uplink or downlink transmission takes place. ¶0239 - The wireless device may monitor one or more CORESETs/search spaces on the secondary cell for receiving a DCI comprising a resource assignment for the primary cell based on the secondary cell being configured as a scheduling cell for the primary cell);
determining, by the wireless device, one or more first TCI states of the one or more first coresets, based on at least one of: (¶0129 - For example, the base station may determine one or more transmission configuration indication (TCI) states and may indicate the one or more TCI states to the UE (e.g., using RRC signaling, a MAC CE and/or a DCI). Based on the one or more TCI states indicated to the UE, the UE may determine a downlink receive beam and receive downlink transmissions using the receive beam. In case of a beam correspondence, the UE may determine a spatial domain filter of a transmit beam based on spatial domain filter of a corresponding receive beam. Otherwise, the UE may perform an uplink beam selection procedure to determine the spatial domain filter of the transmit beam. ¶0230 - In an example, the configuration parameters of a cell may comprise PDCCH configuration parameters. The PDCCH configuration parameters may comprise CORESET configuration and search space configuration parameters of CORESETs and search spaces for the cell. ¶0232 - a wireless device may receive configuration parameters of a plurality of cells comprising a primary cell and a secondary cell);
one or more first monitoring periodicities of one or more first search spaces associated with the one or more first coresets; (¶0099 - For example, the UE may monitor a set of PDCCH candidates in configured monitoring occasions in one or more configured COntrol REsource SETs (CORESETs) according to the corresponding search space configurations. A search space configuration may define how/where to search for PDCCH candidates. For example, the search space configuration parameters may comprise a monitoring periodicity and offset parameter indicating the slots for monitoring the PDCCH candidates. Examiner interprets that only one of the claimed features to be mapped because of the presence of “at least one of”);
one or more first coreset indexes of the one or more first coresets;
or one or more first search space indexes of the one or more first search spaces;
determining, by the wireless device, one or more second TCI states of the one or more second coresets, based on at least one of: (¶0129 - For example, the base station may determine one or more transmission configuration indication (TCI) states and may indicate the one or more TCI states to the UE (e.g., using RRC signaling, a MAC CE and/or a DCI). Based on the one or more TCI states indicated to the UE, the UE may determine a downlink receive beam and receive downlink transmissions using the receive beam. In case of a beam correspondence, the UE may determine a spatial domain filter of a transmit beam based on spatial domain filter of a corresponding receive beam. Otherwise, the UE may perform an uplink beam selection procedure to determine the spatial domain filter of the transmit beam. ¶0230 - In an example, the configuration parameters of a cell may comprise PDCCH configuration parameters. The PDCCH configuration parameters may comprise CORESET configuration and search space configuration parameters of CORESETs and search spaces for the cell. ¶0232 - a wireless device may receive configuration parameters of a plurality of cells comprising a primary cell and a secondary cell);
one or more second monitoring periodicities of one or more second search spaces associated with the one or more second coresets; (¶0099 - For example, the UE may monitor a set of PDCCH candidates in configured monitoring occasions in one or more configured COntrol REsource SETs (CORESETs) according to the corresponding search space configurations. A search space configuration may define how/where to search for PDCCH candidates. For example, the search space configuration parameters may comprise a monitoring periodicity and offset parameter indicating the slots for monitoring the PDCCH candidates. Examiner interprets that only one of the claimed features to be mapped because of the presence of “at least one of”);
one or more second coreset indexes of the one or more second coresets;
or one or more second search space indexes of the one or more second search spaces;
Yet, Babaei does not explicitly teach determining, by the wireless device one or more radio link monitoring reference signals; for radio link monitoring of the primary cell, based on: the one or more first TCI states of the one or more first
However, in the analogous art, Lim explicitly teaches determining, by the wireless device one or more radio link monitoring reference signals; for radio link monitoring of the primary cell, based on: (Fig. 1-3 & ¶0027 - Radio Link Monitoring (RLM) refers to mechanisms used by the UE for monitoring the downlink (DL) radio link quality of a primary cell (Pcell) to indicate in-sync (IS)/out-of-sync (OOS) status to higher layers. ¶0029 - The UE can be configured with up to N.sub.LR-RLM RadioLinkMonitoringRS for link recovery procedures, and radio link monitoring. Please also see ¶0036-¶0037);
the one or more first TCI states of the one or more first coresets of the primary cell; and the one or more second TCI states of the one or more second coresets of the secondary cell; (¶0030 - If the UE is not provided higher layer parameter RadioLinkMonitoringRS and the UE is provided by higher layer parameter TCI-state for one or more RSs of a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) that include one or more of a CSI-RS and/or a SS/PBCH block, the UE may engage in several activities. The UE may use for radio link monitoring the RS provided for the active Transmission Configuration Indicator (TCI) state for the PDCCH if the active TCI state for the PDCCH includes only one RS. If the active TCI state for the PDCCH includes two RS, the UE may expect that one RS has Quasi Co-Location (QCL)-TypeD and the UE may use that RS for radio link monitoring… ¶0036 - The UE may monitor the downlink link quality based on the reference signal in the configured RLM-RS resource(s) to detect the downlink radio link quality of the PCell and PSCell … The RS for RLM (RLM-RS) resource is a resource out of the set of resources configured for RLM by higher layer parameter RLM-RS-List. Please also see ¶0047 and ¶0060);
and measuring, by the wireless device, the radio link monitoring reference signals for the radio link monitoring of the primary cell (Fig. 3 & ¶0065 - In general, the gNB can configure the UE with up to {2, 4 or 8} radio link monitoring reference signal resources (depending on the carrier frequency range of special cell (spCell)) to measure the radio link quality. As above, the RLM-RS resources can be a CSI-RS resource, an SSB resource or a mix of both the CSI-RS resources and SSB resources. ¶0070 - If the UE L1 determines that RLM-RS resource samples are not missing, the UE may proceed at operation 308. In operation 308, the UE L1 may measure the RLM-RS resource samples and make a determination whether the UE is in-sync or out-of-sync).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to add the teaching of Lim to the teaching of Babaei. The motivation would be because discussions regarding the RLM-RS resource configuration for NR-U are ongoing (¶0078, Lim).
Re. Claim 3, Babaei and Lim teach Claim 1.
Babaei further teaches determining that the secondary cell cross- carrier scheduling the primary cell based on the secondary cell being activated (Fig. 18-19, 22-27, 35-36 & ¶0275 - In an example, the wireless device may monitor one or more second search spaces on the secondary cell for receiving downlink control information associated with scheduling of the primary cell based on the secondary cell being in an activated state).
Re. Claim 9, Babaei and Lim teach Claim 1.
Yet, Babaei does not explicitly teach receiving configuration parameters indicating a threshold for an out-of-sync event; and determining the out-of-sync event of the radio link monitoring based on the threshold and the measuring the one or more radio link monitoring reference signals.
However, in the analogous art, Lim explicitly teaches receiving configuration parameters indicating a threshold for an out-of-sync event; (Fig. 1-3 & ¶0038 - The out-of-sync block error rate (BLER.sub.out) and in-sync block error rate (BLER.sub.in) may be determined from the network configuration via parameter RLM-IS-OOS-thresholdConfig signalled by higher layers. The network can configure one of the two pairs of out-of-sync and in-sync block error rates which are shown in Table RLM.1-1);
and determining the out-of-sync event of the radio link monitoring based on the threshold and the measuring the one or more radio link monitoring reference signals (¶0027 - In particular, UEs may also measure radio link quality on channels of both the licensed and unlicensed bands. Radio Link Monitoring (RLM) refers to mechanisms used by the UE for monitoring the downlink (DL) radio link quality of a primary cell (Pcell) to indicate in-sync (IS)/out-of-sync (OOS) status to higher layers. ¶0035 - The physical layer in the UE may indicate, in frames where the radio link quality is assessed, out-of-sync to higher layers when the radio link quality is worse than the threshold Q.sub.out for all resources in the set of resources for radio link monitoring. Please also see ¶0037);
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to add the teaching of Lim to the teaching of Babaei. The motivation would be because discussions regarding the RLM-RS resource configuration for NR-U are ongoing (¶0078, Lim).
Re. Claim 10, Babaei and Lim teach Claim 9.
Yet, Babaei does not explicitly teach detecting a radio link failure based on the out-of-sync event, wherein the determining the out-of-sync event is based on signal quality, of each reference signal of the one or more radio link monitoring reference signals, being lower than the threshold.
However, in the analogous art, Lim explicitly teaches detecting a radio link failure based on the out-of-sync event, (Fig. 1-3 & Claim 5 - … whether to declare radio link failure for a primary cell or primary secondary cell and perform re-establishment if radio link failure happens on the primary cell or inform a network if radio link failure happens on a secondary cell or the primary secondary cell. Claim 6 - … take into account a number of in-sync and out-of-sync indications in a determination whether to declare the radio link failure);
wherein the determining the out-of-sync event is based on signal quality, (¶0027 - Radio Link Monitoring (RLM) refers to mechanisms used by the UE for monitoring the downlink (DL) radio link quality of a primary cell (Pcell) to indicate in-sync (IS)/out-of-sync (OOS) status to higher layers. ¶0035 - The physical layer in the UE may indicate, in frames where the radio link quality is assessed, out-of-sync to higher layers when the radio link quality is worse than the threshold Q.sub.out for all resources in the set of resources for radio link monitoring);
of each reference signal of the one or more radio link monitoring reference signals, being lower than the threshold (¶0036 - The UE may monitor the downlink link quality based on the reference signal in the configured RLM-RS resource(s) to detect the downlink radio link quality of the PCell and PSCell. ¶0042 - The UE may be able to evaluate whether the downlink radio link quality on the configured RLM-RS resource estimated over the last T.sub.Evaluate_out_SSB [ms] period becomes worse than the threshold Q.sub.out SSB within T.sub.Evaluate_out_SSB [ms] evaluation period. ¶0052 - When the downlink radio link quality on all the configured RLM-RS resources is worse than Q.sub.out, Layer 1 of the UE may send an out-of-sync indication for the cell to the higher layers).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to add the teaching of Lim to the teaching of Babaei. The motivation would be because discussions regarding the RLM-RS resource configuration for NR-U are ongoing (¶0078, Lim).
Re. Claim 11, Babaei teaches a wireless device comprising: one or more processors; and memory storing instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the wireless device to: (Fig. 18-19, 25-27, 35-36 & ¶0350 - a device (e.g., a wireless device…) may include one or more processors and may include memory that may store instructions. The instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the device to perform…);
receive, by a wireless device, configuration parameters of physical downlink control channels (PDCCHs) for scheduling a primary cell, wherein the configuration parameters indicate: one or more first control resource sets (coresets), of the primary cell, for monitoring a first downlink control information (DCI) comprising first resource assignment for the primary cell; and one or more second coresets, of a secondary cell cross-carrier scheduling the primary cell, for monitoring a second DCI comprising second resource assignment for the primary cell; (¶0141 - In example embodiments, a wireless device may be configured with parameters and/or configuration arrangements. ¶0230 - In an example, the configuration parameters of a cell may comprise PDCCH configuration parameters. The PDCCH configuration parameters may comprise CORESET configuration and search space configuration parameters of CORESETs and search spaces for the cell … The search space configuration parameters may indicate configuration parameters for monitoring the search space for downlink control information, for example, a monitoring slot periodicity and offset parameter, a duration parameter, a parameter indicating a monitoring symbol within a slot, a search space type (e.g., common vs. UE specific), an identifier of the search space, etc. ¶0232 - a wireless device may receive configuration parameters of a plurality of cells comprising a primary cell and a secondary cell. ¶0239 - The wireless device may monitor one or more CORESETs/search spaces on the secondary cell for receiving a DCI comprising a resource assignment for the primary cell based on the secondary cell being configured as a scheduling cell for the primary cell. In an example, a field of the DCI (e.g., a carrier indicator field or one or more bits of a carrier indicator field) may indicate that the DCI is for cross-carrier scheduling of the primary cell. The wireless device may determine that the DCI is for cross-carrier scheduling of the primary cell based on the value of the field … The wireless device may determine that a received DCI is for cross-carrier carrier scheduling of the primary cell based on the receiving the DCI in the search space/CORESET of the secondary cell configured for cross-carrier scheduling of the primary cell);
receive, via the one or more first coresets, the first DCI comprising the first resource assignments for the primary cell; (¶0230 - In an example, the configuration parameters of a cell may comprise PDCCH configuration parameters. The PDCCH configuration parameters may comprise CORESET configuration and search space configuration parameters of CORESETs and search spaces for the cell. ¶0232 - In an example embodiment as shown in FIG. 19, a wireless device may receive configuration parameters of a plurality of cells comprising a primary cell … ¶0236 - In an example, the wireless device may determine that the one or more search spaces are for receiving resource assignment on the primary cell based on the configuration parameters of the one or more search spaces, for example, based on one or more identifiers of the one or more search spaces. ¶0336 - the wireless device may receive a first DCI comprising first scheduling information for a PDSCH (e.g., for receiving a downlink TB) or a PUSCH (e.g., for transmitting an uplink TB) on the primary cell);
receive, via the one or more second coresets, the second DCI comprising the second resource assignments for the primary cell; (¶0103 - In case of cross-carrier scheduling, the base station may transmit signaling for uplink grants and/or downlink assignments on a cell different from the cell that the corresponding uplink or downlink transmission takes place. ¶0239 - The wireless device may monitor one or more CORESETs/search spaces on the secondary cell for receiving a DCI comprising a resource assignment for the primary cell based on the secondary cell being configured as a scheduling cell for the primary cell);
determine one or more first TCI states of the one or more first coresets, based on at least one of: (¶0129 - For example, the base station may determine one or more transmission configuration indication (TCI) states and may indicate the one or more TCI states to the UE (e.g., using RRC signaling, a MAC CE and/or a DCI). Based on the one or more TCI states indicated to the UE, the UE may determine a downlink receive beam and receive downlink transmissions using the receive beam. In case of a beam correspondence, the UE may determine a spatial domain filter of a transmit beam based on spatial domain filter of a corresponding receive beam. Otherwise, the UE may perform an uplink beam selection procedure to determine the spatial domain filter of the transmit beam. ¶0230 - In an example, the configuration parameters of a cell may comprise PDCCH configuration parameters. The PDCCH configuration parameters may comprise CORESET configuration and search space configuration parameters of CORESETs and search spaces for the cell. ¶0232 - a wireless device may receive configuration parameters of a plurality of cells comprising a primary cell and a secondary cell);
one or more first monitoring periodicities of one or more first search spaces associated with the one or more first coresets; (¶0099 - For example, the UE may monitor a set of PDCCH candidates in configured monitoring occasions in one or more configured COntrol REsource SETs (CORESETs) according to the corresponding search space configurations. A search space configuration may define how/where to search for PDCCH candidates. For example, the search space configuration parameters may comprise a monitoring periodicity and offset parameter indicating the slots for monitoring the PDCCH candidates. Examiner interprets that only one of the claimed features to be mapped because of the presence of “at least one of”);
one or more first coreset indexes of the one or more first coresets;
or one or more first search space indexes of the one or more first search spaces;
determine one or more second TCI states of the one or more second coresets, based on at least one of: (¶0129 - For example, the base station may determine one or more transmission configuration indication (TCI) states and may indicate the one or more TCI states to the UE (e.g., using RRC signaling, a MAC CE and/or a DCI). Based on the one or more TCI states indicated to the UE, the UE may determine a downlink receive beam and receive downlink transmissions using the receive beam. In case of a beam correspondence, the UE may determine a spatial domain filter of a transmit beam based on spatial domain filter of a corresponding receive beam. Otherwise, the UE may perform an uplink beam selection procedure to determine the spatial domain filter of the transmit beam. ¶0230 - In an example, the configuration parameters of a cell may comprise PDCCH configuration parameters. The PDCCH configuration parameters may comprise CORESET configuration and search space configuration parameters of CORESETs and search spaces for the cell. ¶0232 - a wireless device may receive configuration parameters of a plurality of cells comprising a primary cell and a secondary cell);
one or more second monitoring periodicities of one or more second search spaces associated with the one or more second coresets; (¶0099 - For example, the UE may monitor a set of PDCCH candidates in configured monitoring occasions in one or more configured COntrol REsource SETs (CORESETs) according to the corresponding search space configurations. A search space configuration may define how/where to search for PDCCH candidates. For example, the search space configuration parameters may comprise a monitoring periodicity and offset parameter indicating the slots for monitoring the PDCCH candidates. Examiner interprets that only one of the claimed features to be mapped because of the presence of “at least one of”);
one or more second coreset indexes of the one or more second coresets;
or one or more second search space indexes of the one or more second search spaces;
Yet, Babaei does not explicitly teach determine one or more radio link monitoring reference signals; for radio link monitoring of the primary cell, based on:the one or more first TCI states of the one or more first coresets of the primary cell; andthe one or more second TCI states of the one or more second coresets of the secondary cell; and measure the radio link monitoring reference signals for the radio link monitoring of the primary cell.
However, in the analogous art, Lim explicitly teaches determine one or more radio link monitoring reference signals; for radio link monitoring of the primary cell, based on: (Fig. 1-3 & ¶0027 - Radio Link Monitoring (RLM) refers to mechanisms used by the UE for monitoring the downlink (DL) radio link quality of a primary cell (Pcell) to indicate in-sync (IS)/out-of-sync (OOS) status to higher layers. ¶0029 - The UE can be configured with up to N.sub.LR-RLM RadioLinkMonitoringRS for link recovery procedures, and radio link monitoring. Please also see ¶0036-¶0037);
the one or more first TCI states of the one or more first coresets of the primary cell; and the one or more second TCI states of the one or more second coresets of the secondary cell; (¶0030 - If the UE is not provided higher layer parameter RadioLinkMonitoringRS and the UE is provided by higher layer parameter TCI-state for one or more RSs of a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) that include one or more of a CSI-RS and/or a SS/PBCH block, the UE may engage in several activities. The UE may use for radio link monitoring the RS provided for the active Transmission Configuration Indicator (TCI) state for the PDCCH if the active TCI state for the PDCCH includes only one RS. If the active TCI state for the PDCCH includes two RS, the UE may expect that one RS has Quasi Co-Location (QCL)-TypeD and the UE may use that RS for radio link monitoring… ¶0036 - The UE may monitor the downlink link quality based on the reference signal in the configured RLM-RS resource(s) to detect the downlink radio link quality of the PCell and PSCell … The RS for RLM (RLM-RS) resource is a resource out of the set of resources configured for RLM by higher layer parameter RLM-RS-List. Please also see ¶0047 and ¶0060);
and measure the radio link monitoring reference signals for the radio link monitoring of the primary cell (Fig. 3 & ¶0065 - In general, the gNB can configure the UE with up to {2, 4 or 8} radio link monitoring reference signal resources (depending on the carrier frequency range of special cell (spCell)) to measure the radio link quality. As above, the RLM-RS resources can be a CSI-RS resource, an SSB resource or a mix of both the CSI-RS resources and SSB resources. ¶0070 - If the UE L1 determines that RLM-RS resource samples are not missing, the UE may proceed at operation 308. In operation 308, the UE L1 may measure the RLM-RS resource samples and make a determination whether the UE is in-sync or out-of-sync).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to add the teaching of Lim to the teaching of Babaei. The motivation would be because discussions regarding the RLM-RS resource configuration for NR-U are ongoing (¶0078, Lim).
Re. Claim 13, Babaei and Lim teach Claim 11.
Babaei further teaches the instructions stored in the memory, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the wireless device to determine that the secondary cell cross-carrier scheduling the primary cell based on the secondary cell being activated (Fig. 18-19, 22-27, 35-36 & ¶0350 - a device (e.g., a wireless device…) may include one or more processors and may include memory that may store instructions. The instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the device to perform… ¶0275 - In an example, the wireless device may monitor one or more second search spaces on the secondary cell for receiving downlink control information associated with scheduling of the primary cell based on the secondary cell being in an activated state).
Re. Claim 19, Babaei and Lim teach Claim 11.
Yet, Babaei does not explicitly teach the instructions stored in the memory, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the wireless device to: receive configuration parameters indicating a threshold for an out-of-sync event; and determine the out-of-sync event of the radio link monitoring based on the threshold and the measuring the one or more radio link monitoring reference signals.
However, in the analogous art, Lim explicitly teaches the instructions stored in the memory, when executed by the one or more processors, further cause the wireless device to: receive configuration parameters indicating a threshold for an out-of-sync event; (Fig. 1-3 & ¶0038 - The out-of-sync block error rate (BLER.sub.out) and in-sync block error rate (BLER.sub.in) may be determined from the network configuration via parameter RLM-IS-OOS-thresholdConfig signalled by higher layers. The network can configure one of the two pairs of out-of-sync and in-sync block error rates which are shown in Table RLM.1-1);
and determine the out-of-sync event of the radio link monitoring based on the threshold and the measuring the one or more radio link monitoring reference signals (¶0027 - In particular, UEs may also measure radio link quality on channels of both the licensed and unlicensed bands. Radio Link Monitoring (RLM) refers to mechanisms used by the UE for monitoring the downlink (DL) radio link quality of a primary cell (Pcell) to indicate in-sync (IS)/out-of-sync (OOS) status to higher layers. ¶0035 - The physical layer in the UE may indicate, in frames where the radio link quality is assessed, out-of-sync to higher layers when the radio link quality is worse than the threshold Q.sub.out for all resources in the set of resources for radio link monitoring. Please also see ¶0037);
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to add the teaching of Lim to the teaching of Babaei. The motivation would be because discussions regarding the RLM-RS resource configuration for NR-U are ongoing (¶0078, Lim).
Re. Claim 21, Babaei teaches a non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of a wireless device, cause the wireless device to: (Fig. 18-19, 25-27, 35-36 & ¶0139 - The Memory 1512 or the Memory 1552 may include non-transitory computer readable mediums (e.g., Storage Medium 1510 at the Memory 1512 and Storage Medium 1550 at the Memory 1552) that may store software code or instructions that may be executed by the Data Processing System1524 and Data Processing System1564, respectively, to implement the processes described in the present disclosure);
receive, by a wireless device, configuration parameters of physical downlink control channels (PDCCHs) for scheduling a primary cell, wherein the configuration parameters indicate: one or more first control resource sets (coresets), of the primary cell, for monitoring a first downlink control information (DCI) comprising first resource assignment for the primary cell; and one or more second coresets, of a secondary cell cross-carrier scheduling the primary cell, for monitoring a second DCI comprising second resource assignment for the primary cell; (¶0141 - In example embodiments, a wireless device may be configured with parameters and/or configuration arrangements. ¶0230 - In an example, the configuration parameters of a cell may comprise PDCCH configuration parameters. The PDCCH configuration parameters may comprise CORESET configuration and search space configuration parameters of CORESETs and search spaces for the cell … The search space configuration parameters may indicate configuration parameters for monitoring the search space for downlink control information, for example, a monitoring slot periodicity and offset parameter, a duration parameter, a parameter indicating a monitoring symbol within a slot, a search space type (e.g., common vs. UE specific), an identifier of the search space, etc. ¶0232 - a wireless device may receive configuration parameters of a plurality of cells comprising a primary cell and a secondary cell. ¶0239 - The wireless device may monitor one or more CORESETs/search spaces on the secondary cell for receiving a DCI comprising a resource assignment for the primary cell based on the secondary cell being configured as a scheduling cell for the primary cell. In an example, a field of the DCI (e.g., a carrier indicator field or one or more bits of a carrier indicator field) may indicate that the DCI is for cross-carrier scheduling of the primary cell. The wireless device may determine that the DCI is for cross-carrier scheduling of the primary cell based on the value of the field … The wireless device may determine that a received DCI is for cross-carrier carrier scheduling of the primary cell based on the receiving the DCI in the search space/CORESET of the secondary cell configured for cross-carrier scheduling of the primary cell);
receive, via the one or more first coresets, the first DCI comprising the first resource assignments for the primary cell; (¶0230 - In an example, the configuration parameters of a cell may comprise PDCCH configuration parameters. The PDCCH configuration parameters may comprise CORESET configuration and search space configuration parameters of CORESETs and search spaces for the cell. ¶0232 - In an example embodiment as shown in FIG. 19, a wireless device may receive configuration parameters of a plurality of cells comprising a primary cell … ¶0236 - In an example, the wireless device may determine that the one or more search spaces are for receiving resource assignment on the primary cell based on the configuration parameters of the one or more search spaces, for example, based on one or more identifiers of the one or more search spaces. ¶0336 - the wireless device may receive a first DCI comprising first scheduling information for a PDSCH (e.g., for receiving a downlink TB) or a PUSCH (e.g., for transmitting an uplink TB) on the primary cell);
receive, via the one or more second coresets, the second DCI comprising the second resource assignments for the primary cell; (¶0103 - In case of cross-carrier scheduling, the base station may transmit signaling for uplink grants and/or downlink assignments on a cell different from the cell that the corresponding uplink or downlink transmission takes place. ¶0239 - The wireless device may monitor one or more CORESETs/search spaces on the secondary cell for receiving a DCI comprising a resource assignment for the primary cell based on the secondary cell being configured as a scheduling cell for the primary cell);
determine one or more first TCI states of the one or more first coresets, based on at least one of: (¶0129 - For example, the base station may determine one or more transmission configuration indication (TCI) states and may indicate the one or more TCI states to the UE (e.g., using RRC signaling, a MAC CE and/or a DCI). Based on the one or more TCI states indicated to the UE, the UE may determine a downlink receive beam and receive downlink transmissions using the receive beam. In case of a beam correspondence, the UE may determine a spatial domain filter of a transmit beam based on spatial domain filter of a corresponding receive beam. Otherwise, the UE may perform an uplink beam selection procedure to determine the spatial domain filter of the transmit beam. ¶0230 - In an example, the configuration parameters of a cell may comprise PDCCH configuration parameters. The PDCCH configuration parameters may comprise CORESET configuration and search space configuration parameters of CORESETs and search spaces for the cell. ¶0232 - a wireless device may receive configuration parameters of a plurality of cells comprising a primary cell and a secondary cell);
one or more first monitoring periodicities of one or more first search spaces associated with the one or more first coresets; (¶0099 - For example, the UE may monitor a set of PDCCH candidates in configured monitoring occasions in one or more configured COntrol REsource SETs (CORESETs) according to the corresponding search space configurations. A search space configuration may define how/where to search for PDCCH candidates. For example, the search space configuration parameters may comprise a monitoring periodicity and offset parameter indicating the slots for monitoring the PDCCH candidates. Examiner interprets that only one of the claimed features to be mapped because of the presence of “at least one of”);
one or more first coreset indexes of the one or more first coresets;
or one or more first search space indexes of the one or more first search spaces;
determine one or more second TCI states of the one or more second coresets, based on at least one of: (¶0129 - For example, the base station may determine one or more transmission configuration indication (TCI) states and may indicate the one or more TCI states to the UE (e.g., using RRC signaling, a MAC CE and/or a DCI). Based on the one or more TCI states indicated to the UE, the UE may determine a downlink receive beam and receive downlink transmissions using the receive beam. In case of a beam correspondence, the UE may determine a spatial domain filter of a transmit beam based on spatial domain filter of a corresponding receive beam. Otherwise, the UE may perform an uplink beam selection procedure to determine the spatial domain filter of the transmit beam. ¶0230 - In an example, the configuration parameters of a cell may comprise PDCCH configuration parameters. The PDCCH configuration parameters may comprise CORESET configuration and search space configuration parameters of CORESETs and search spaces for the cell. ¶0232 - a wireless device may receive configuration parameters of a plurality of cells comprising a primary cell and a secondary cell);
one or more second monitoring periodicities of one or more second search spaces associated with the one or more second coresets; (¶0099 - For example, the UE may monitor a set of PDCCH candidates in configured monitoring occasions in one or more configured COntrol REsource SETs (CORESETs) according to the corresponding search space configurations. A search space configuration may define how/where to search for PDCCH candidates. For example, the search space configuration parameters may comprise a monitoring periodicity and offset parameter indicating the slots for monitoring the PDCCH candidates. Examiner interprets that only one of the claimed features to be mapped because of the presence of “at least one of”);
one or more second coreset indexes of the one or more second coresets;
or one or more second search space indexes of the one or more second search spaces;
Yet, Babaei does not explicitly teach determine one or more radio link monitoring reference signals for radio link monitoring of the primary cell, based on: the one or more first TCI states of the one or more first coresets of the primary cell; and the one or more second TCI states of the one or more second coresets of the secondary cell; and measure the radio link monitoring reference signals for the radio link monitoring of the primary cell.
However, in the analogous art, Lim explicitly teaches determine one or more radio link monitoring reference signals for radio link monitoring of the primary cell, based on: (Fig. 1-3 & ¶0027 - Radio Link Monitoring (RLM) refers to mechanisms used by the UE for monitoring the downlink (DL) radio link quality of a primary cell (Pcell) to indicate in-sync (IS)/out-of-sync (OOS) status to higher layers. ¶0029 - The UE can be configured with up to N.sub.LR-RLM RadioLinkMonitoringRS for link recovery procedures, and radio link monitoring. Please also see ¶0036-¶0037);
the one or more first TCI states of the one or more first coresets of the primary cell; and the one or more second TCI states of the one or more second coresets of the secondary cell; (¶0030 - If the UE is not provided higher layer parameter RadioLinkMonitoringRS and the UE is provided by higher layer parameter TCI-state for one or more RSs of a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) that include one or more of a CSI-RS and/or a SS/PBCH block, the UE may engage in several activities. The UE may use for radio link monitoring the RS provided for the active Transmission Configuration Indicator (TCI) state for the PDCCH if the active TCI state for the PDCCH includes only one RS. If the active TCI state for the PDCCH includes two RS, the UE may expect that one RS has Quasi Co-Location (QCL)-TypeD and the UE may use that RS for radio link monitoring… ¶0036 - The UE may monitor the downlink link quality based on the reference signal in the configured RLM-RS resource(s) to detect the downlink radio link quality of the PCell and PSCell … The RS for RLM (RLM-RS) resource is a resource out of the set of resources configured for RLM by higher layer parameter RLM-RS-List. Please also see ¶0047 and ¶0060);
and measure the radio link monitoring reference signals for the radio link monitoring of the primary cell (Fig. 3 & ¶0065 - In general, the gNB can configure the UE with up to {2, 4 or 8} radio link monitoring reference signal resources (depending on the carrier frequency range of special cell (spCell)) to measure the radio link quality. As above, the RLM-RS resources can be a CSI-RS resource, an SSB resource or a mix of both the CSI-RS resources and SSB resources. ¶0070 - If the UE L1 determines that RLM-RS resource samples are not missing, the UE may proceed at operation 308. In operation 308, the UE L1 may measure the RLM-RS resource samples and make a determination whether the UE is in-sync or out-of-sync).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of the ordinary skilled in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to add the teaching of Lim to the teaching of Babaei. The motivation would be because discussions regarding the RLM-RS resource configuration for NR-U are ongoing (¶0078, Lim).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 22-27 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter: Examiner has conducted a search of Patent and Non-Patent Literature and was unable to find any prior art which solely or in combination with another reference teaches the limitation of:
Claim 22 – and based on the number of the one or more first reference signals being smaller than the maximum number, determining one or more second reference signals based on the one or more second TCI states of the one or more second coresets of the secondary cell, wherein a number of the one or more second reference signals is based on a difference between the maximum number and the number of the one or more first reference signals.
Claim 23 – depends on Claim 22.
Claim 24 – and based on the number of the one or more first reference signals being smaller than the maximum number, determining one or more second reference signals based on the one or more second TCI states of the one or more second coresets of the secondary cell, wherein a number of the one or more second reference signals is based on a difference between the maximum number and the number of the one or more first reference signals.
Claim 25 – depends on Claim 24.
Claim 26 – and based on the number of the one or more first reference signals being smaller than the maximum number, determining one or more second reference signals based on the one or more second TCI states of the one or more second coresets of the secondary cell, wherein a number of the one or more second reference signals is based on a difference between the maximum number and the number of the one or more first reference signals.
Claim 27 – depends on Claim 26.
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 ALYSSA WILLIAMS whose telephone number is (571)270-7673. The examiner can normally be reached Mon-Fri 8-5pm. Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice. If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Ayman Abaza can be reached on (571) 270-0422. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/ALYSSA WILLIAMS/Examiner, Art Unit 2465B
/CHRISTOPHER T WYLLIE/Examiner, Art Unit 2465
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