DEATILED 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 .
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.
Claim(s) 1, 8-11, 16, 18-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Krishnamoorthy et al. (US 10966168 B1) in view of Xiong et al. (US 20200245373) in further view of Lin et al. (US 20220256610).
Regarding claim 1, Krishnamoorthy teaches a method comprising: receiving, by a wireless device, one or more radio resource control (RRC) messages comprising (Page 13, Col. 10, lines 17-36 describes a device receiving RRC message):
Krishnamoorthy teaches a first bitmap indicating a plurality of synchronization signal blocks (SSBs) transmitted to the wireless device in a cell (Page 13, Col. 10, lines 17-36 describes a base station transmitting, via an RRC message, a bitmap that indicates which SSBs are actually transmitted in a cell);
Krishnamoorthy doesn’t teach configuration parameters indicating physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) occasions of the cell; and a second bitmap indicating a subset of the plurality of SSBs associated with the PUSCH occasions;
However, in analogous art, Xiong teaches configuration parameters indicating physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) occasions of the cell (Paragraphs [0067]; [0079]-[0080] describes that PUSCH resources/occasions are configured (via higher layer signaling such as RMSI/RRC) and are associated with SSBs);
Lin teaches and a second bitmap indicating a subset of the plurality of SSBs associated with the PUSCH occasions (Paragraphs [0119]; [0124]; [0142]-[0149] describes a bitmap where each bit corresponds to one SSB, the bitmap covers only a subset of SSBs (those above an RSRP threshold), and all bits correspond to one RO/PUSCH occasion);
Krishnamoorthy teaches selecting, from the subset of the plurality of SSBs, a first SSB with a reference signal received power (RSRP) above a threshold (Page 14, Col. 11 lines 65- 67 and Col. 12 lines 1-13 and Page 15, Col. 13 lines 10-34 describes selecting an SSB from a set (subset) of SSBs based on RSRP measurement against threshold);
Krishnamoorthy doesn’t teach and transmitting a transport block via a first PUSCH occasion, of the PUSCH occasions of the cell, that is associated with the first SSB;
Lin teaches and transmitting a transport block via a first PUSCH occasion, of the PUSCH occasions of the cell, that is associated with the first SSB (Paragraphs [0037]; [0125] describes transmitting a message (including uplink shared channel/PUSCH data) on a RACH/PUSCH occasion that is mapped to and associated with the selected SSB. The SSB selection drives which PUSCH occasion is used for the uplink transmission).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified Krishnamoorthy and Xiong to incorporate the teachings of Lin to provide a second bitmap indicating a subset of the plurality of SSBs associated with the PUSCH occasions. Doing so would enable more efficient uplink beam selection by restricting the device’s transmission to only those SSBs mapped to available PUSCH occasions, thereby minimizing signaling overhead, and ensuring that the selected uplink transmission resource is properly aligned with the strongest received downlink beam (Lin, Paragraphs [0119]).
Regarding claim 8, Krishnamoorthy, Xiong, Lin, Xiong teaches wherein the second bitmap further indicates whether one or more SSBs of the plurality of SSBs are associated with the PUSCH occasions (Paragraph [0082]-[0083] describes a bitmap parameter where each bit indicates whether a given resource is or is not associated with the Msg A PUSCH).
Regarding claim 9, Krishnamoorthy, Xiong, Lin, Krishnamoorthy teaches wherein the threshold corresponds to the subset of the plurality of SSBs (Page 14, Col. 11 lines 65- 67 and Col. 12 lines 1-13 and Page 15, Col. 13 lines 10-34 describes the threshold corresponds to the subset of the plurality of SSBs).
Regarding claim 10, Krishnamoorthy, Xiong, Lin, Xiong teaches further comprising selecting the first PUSCH occasion associated with the first SSB (Paragraph [0082]-[0083] describes the first PUSCH occasion associated with the first SSB).
Regrading claims 11 and 20 are rejected for the same reason as set forth in claim 1 respectively.
Regrading claim 18 is rejected for the same reason as set forth in claim 8 respectively.
Regrading claim 19 is rejected for the same reason as set forth in claim 9 respectively.
Regrading claim 16 is rejected for the same reason as set forth in claim 10 respectively.
Claim(s) 2-5, 7, 12-15 and 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Krishnamoorthy in view of Xiong in further view of Lin and Lee et al. (US 2022/0210843; hereinafter Lee).
Regarding claim 2, Krishnamoorthy, Xiong and Lin don’t teach further comprising receiving an RRC message for handover of the wireless device to the cell.
However, in analogous art Lee teaches further comprising receiving an RRC message for handover of the wireless device to the cell (Paragraph [0136] describes UE receives handover command).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date of the claimed invention to have modified Krishnamoorthy, Xiong and Lin to incorporate the teachings of Lee to provide channel quality measurement to improve wireless communication (Lee, Paragraph [0009]).
Regarding claim 3, Krishnamoorthy, Xiong, Lin and Lee, Lee teaches wherein the one or more RRC messages comprise at least one system information block (Paragraphs [0132]; [0139] describes SIB is part of the RRC messages containing configurations).
Regarding claim 4, Krishnamoorthy, Xiong, Lin and Lee, Lee teaches wherein the at least one system information block comprises a parameter that indicates the threshold (Paragraph [0132]; [0139]).
Regarding claim 5, Krishnamoorthy, Xiong, Lin and Lee, Lee teaches wherein: the second bitmap indicates indexes of the subset of the plurality of SSBs, associated with first random access resources comprising the first PUSCH occasion (Paragraphs [0107]-[0108]; [0126] describes that SSBs are numbered/indexed 0 to L-1. Paragraphs [0132]; [0138]; [0224] describes SSBs are associated with resources that include PUSCH, and Random access resources comprise PUSCH occasions);
and the first random access resources comprise one or more repetitions of a random access response transmission (Paragraphs [0134]-[0135]; [0247] describes multiple retransmissions, each requiring RAR transmission).
Regarding claim 7, Krishnamoorthy, Xiong, Lin and Lee, Lee teaches further comprising determining, based on the second bitmap the subset of the plurality of SSBs is associated with the PUSCH occasions (Paragraphs [0126]-[0127]; [0133] describes that bitmaps are used for UE to determine SSB properties and UE determines association and makes selection based on that determination);
and one or more second SSBs of the plurality of SSBs are not associated with the PUSCH occasions (Paragraphs [0122]; [0132] describes the associations concept between SSBs and resources. Paragraph [0126]-[0127] describes SSBs being excluded from a subset),
wherein the one or more second SSBs do not comprise the subset (Paragraphs [0122]; [0127; [0132] inherently disclosed second SSBs don not comprise subset).
Regrading claim 12 is rejected for the same reason as set forth in claim 2 respectively.
Regrading claim 13 is rejected for the same reason as set forth in claims 3 and 4 respectively.
Regrading claims 14 and 15 are rejected for the same reason as set forth in claim 5 respectively.
Regrading claim 17 is rejected for the same reason as set forth in claim 7 respectively.
Claim 6 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Krishnamoorthy in view of Xiong in further view of Lin, Lee and Li et al. (US 2022/0369379; hereinafter Li).
Regarding claim 6, Krishnamoorthy, Xiong, Lin and Lee don’t teach wherein the first random access resources comprise one or more repetitions of a message 3 transmission.
However, in analogous art Li teaches wherein the first random access resources comprise one or more repetitions of a message 3 transmission (Paragraph [0076]; [0108] describes using a single bit to indicate whether RA Msg3 repetition is enabled or disabled).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to modify Krishnamoorthy, Xiong, Lin and Lee methods of reducing latency and procedure by incorporating the teaching of Li a method for efficiently signaling both repetition factor and transmit power control (TPC) commands for Random Access Message 3 (RA MSG 3 in 5G NR networks, specifically optimized for NR-Light devices (lower-power, reduced-capability user equipment) (Paragraph [0004]).
Conclusion
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/Chandrahas B Patel/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2464
/M.W.K./Examiner, Art Unit 2464