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 to the claims filed on 07/07/2025 complies with the requirements of 37 CFR 1.121(c) and has been entered. Objections to Amended Claims 1, 4-5, 13, and 18-19 are withdrawn as these claims have been amended for clarity.
Response to Arguments
Though Applicant's arguments filed 07/07/2025 with respect to rejected Claims 1, 13, and 15 under the cited prior art, they have been fully considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on references applied in the prior rejection of record for the matter specifically challenged in the arguments, i.e., the combination of features “the wake-up signal is multiplexed with SSB or SIB1 signals, the wake up signal comprises a base sequence with a cyclic shift dependent on a beam, and the wake-up signal for each beam is the same,” as recited by the currently Amended Claims 1, 13, and 15.
Claim Objections
Applicant is advised that should Amended Claims 1 and 13 be found allowable, Claims 2 and 16, respectively, will be objected to under 37 CFR 1.75 as being a substantial duplicate thereof. When two claims in an application are duplicates or else are so close in content that they both cover the same thing, despite a slight difference in wording, it is proper after allowing one claim to object to the other as being a substantial duplicate of the allowed claim. See MPEP § 608.01(m).
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 7, and 19-21, as amended, are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor (or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant), regards as the invention.
Dependent Claims 7, recite the limitation "the (wake-up signal) burst" when the claims they depend from, Amended Claims 1 and 15, do not recite “a (wake-up signal) burst” limitation. There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim.
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.
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 1-2, 4, 7-9, 11-13, 15, 16, 18, and 21, as amended, is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over of Gao et al., China Patent Application Publication No. CN110831125 (hereinafter Gao) in view of Li et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 20190349960 (hereinafter Li).
Regarding Amended Claim 1, Gao teaches a method of paging early indication in a wireless communications system (“[t]he present application provides a method for sending and receiving paging messages and a communication device, which can reduce the power consumption of a terminal device when receiving paging messages” – See [¶0009]), comprising:
transmitting a wake-up signal before each paging occasion by a base station; receiving the wake-up signal by a user equipment UE (“a terminal device receives a wake-up signal . . . the wake-up signal carrying indication information, the indication information being used to indicate whether a paging message . . . exists in one . . . paging access opportunities PO, . . . the terminal device determines whether it needs to receive a paging message . . . according to the indication information,” i.e., the base station sends wake-up signal (WUS) before each PO and “the terminal determines whether it needs to receive a paging message” in that PO – See [¶0010]; whereby “the wake-up signal . . . in addition to its role in the prior art, can also be used as a beam training signal for the paging message” – See [¶0172], i.e., the wake-up signal is transmitted before the paging message),
wherein the wake-up signal indicates information of UE groups/sub-groups for paging before the next paging occasion (“the beam training signal of the paging message,” i.e., the WUS, “carries indication information, which is used to indicate whether there is a paging message or a paging list in a paging access opportunity PO” – See [¶0137] and “[t]he paging list records the identification information of one or more terminal devices paged by the network device, for example, it can be one or a group of UE IDs” for paging in the next PO – See [¶0139]; furthermore, “the terminal device only needs to detect the beam training signal corresponding to its own PO, and then determine whether there is a paging message in its own PO based on the above indication information carried by the beam training signal corresponding to its own PO” – See [¶0140])
wherein the wake-up signal is multiplexed with SSB or SIB1 signals (“the WUS having the same time domain or frequency domain position as the SSB has the same QCL relationship as the SSB or has the same beam parameters or is transmitted using the same beam” – See [¶0014]; furthermore, a “beam training signal [for the paging message] may be a wake-up signal (WUS)” – See [¶0071] and “the association between the beam training signal (for example, a wake-up signal, a tracking signal) and the SSB, the time domain position and frequency domain position of the beam training signal and/or what information the beam training signal can carry, etc., can all be configured by the network device and sent to the terminal device through configuration information” carried by “system information block (SIB) 1, SIB2, SIB3” – See [¶0072], e.g., “[t]he beam training signal may have a QCL relationship with the SSB and have the same time domain position and/or frequency domain position as the SSB having the QCL relationship” – See [¶0084] whereby “when the duration of the beam training signal is 1 symbol, the beam training signal can be on the 1st symbol of the SSB, or on the 2nd symbol of the SSB, or on the 3rd symbol of the SSB, or on the 4th symbol of the SSB” – See [¶0087], and “[w]hen the time domain position of the beam training signal conflicts with the time domain position of the SSB, the beam training signal may be frequency-division multiplexed with the SSB” – See [¶0106] or may have “the same frequency domain location as the PDSCH of RMSI or SIB1” – See [¶0121], i.e., WUS is multiplexed with SSB or SIB1);
wherein the wake-up signal comprises a base sequence (the “sequence initialization formula or sequence generation formula of the beam training signal” may be “a ZC (Zadoff-chu) sequence,” or a “Gold sequence or an m-sequence” – See [¶¶0148-49]) and
the wake-up signal for each beam is the same (e.g., when “the network side has four transmission beams . . . the network side sends the beam training signal of the paging message through the transmitting beam in each direction” – See [¶0160]).
However, Gao does not teach that the base sequence used as the wake-up signal is shifted with a cyclic shift dependent on a beam.
Li teaches a beamforming method wherein “[e]ach training beam is associated with a unique training sequence” which is, e.g., a ZC sequence, and “the ZC sequence with a same root but with different cyclic-shifts can form multiple orthogonal training sequences” to mitigate interference from other beams – See [¶0217].
Li further teaches the same base sequence for training beams with a beam-specific cyclic shift to minimize beam interference from the same base station (“[t]o distinguish the desired beam from the interference beams . . . a ZC sequence is applied to the reference signals” according to a formula, and “the reference sequences of the adjacent beams are different cyclic shifted versions of the same ZC sequence” – See [¶0222], i.e., the base sequence is shifted dependent on a beam, e.g., “a ZC sequence of the length of 32 is chosen for the beam training sequence, and . . . beams could be assigned cyclic-shifts clockwise or counter clockwise by 0, c, 2c, . . . , moduled by K. Then the adjacent beams have different cyclic-shifts,” dependent on the beam, and “[t]he beams assigned the same cyclic-shift are separated by a large angle so that the interference could be ignored” – See [¶0227]).
Thus, Guo and Li each discloses using a base sequence such as ZC for beam training sequence at a UE. A person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have understood that shifting the same ZC base sequence with a different integer cyclically (i.e., modulo n) as taught by Li could have been applied to the wake-up signal used as beam training signal for the paging message in Guo because both Guo and Li teach using ZC sequence for beam training signals. Furthermore, a person of ordinary skill in the art would have been able to carry out the substitution through techniques known in the art. Finally, the substitution achieves the predictable result of reducing interference between multiple beams transmitting the wake-up signal, as taught in Li.
Therefore, Amended Claim 1 is obvious over Guo in view of Li.
Regarding Claim 2, dependent from Amended Claim 1, Guo teaches wherein the wake-up signal is sequence-based (“the beam training signal is a ZC (Zadoff-chu) sequence” or “a Gold sequence or an m-sequence” – See [¶0149], wherein the wake-up signal is a beam training signal for the paging message). Li also teaches “[a] ZC sequence of the length of 32 is chosen for the beam training sequence” – See [¶0227]).
Therefore, Claim 2 is obvious over Guo in view of Li.
Regarding Amended Claim 4, dependent from Amended Claim 1, though Guo teaches a “wake-up signal according to an association between a synchronization signal block SSB and a wake-up signal,” the wake-up signal carrying indication information, “the wake-up signal carrying indication information . . . used to indicate whether a paging message or a paging list exists in one or more paging access opportunities PO” – See [¶0010] is transmitted such as “the time domain position and/or frequency domain position of the wake-up signal is the same as that of the primary synchronization signal PSS in the synchronization signal block SSB” or “the same as that of the secondary synchronization signal SSS in the SSB” – See [¶0016], Guo does not teach wherein the wake-up signal is comprised in a wake-up signal burst.
Li teaches that “a UE may receive a paging occasion with a paging indication associated with the synchronization signal block” (SSB) and “a paging may share the same beam burst structure as a synchronization signal (SS) block burst structure” – See [¶0096] and Fig. 8 (showing a burst of SSBs before a PO in one configuration for DL beams).
Thus, Guo and Li each teaches a SSB before a PO wherein a paging indication is associated with the SSB. A person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have understood that the SSB burst taught in Li could have contained a wake-up signal as taught in Guo because Guo teaches that the wake-up signal contains a paging indication and can be multiplexed with a SSB. Furthermore, a person of ordinary skill in the art would have been able to carry out the combination through techniques known in the art. Finally, the combination achieves the predictable result of beamforming before the PO through beam sweeping during the SSB burst, as taught in Li, hence reducing signaling for the paging message.
Therefore, Claim 4 is obvious over Guo in view of Li.
Regarding Claim 7, dependent from Amended Claim 1, Guo teaches wherein at least two of the wake-up signals of the burst are transmitted continuously in adjacent symbols (“The beam training symbol can also be located in the same time slot as the SSB” – See [¶0086], and “the symbol position of the beam training signal can be the position indexed as {0,1}, . . . {1,2}, . . . {2,3} in the symbols occupied by SSB in the time domain” – See [¶0088]; additionally, “[w]hen the beam training signal is QCLed to multiple SSBs, only the time domain position of the first beam training signal may be indicated, and the time domain positions of other beam training signals may be calculated according to the sequential arrangement” – See [¶0100], i.e., in an SSB burst, the wake-up signal will be situated in the first two symbols of each SSB)
Therefore, Claim 7 is obvious over Guo in view of Li.
Regarding Claim 8, dependent from Amended Claim 1, Li further teaches wherein the wake up signals of at least two beams are the same (“training sequences are based on a ZC sequence with a same root” but “assigned cyclic-shifts clockwise or counter clockwise by 0, c, 2c, . . . , moduled by K” and “beams assigned the same cyclic-shift are separated by a large angle, so that the interference could be ignored” – See [¶0227], i.e., when more than K beams are used, the wake up signals of at least two beams are the same).
Therefore, Claim 8 is obvious over Guo in view of Li.
Regarding Claim 9, dependent from Amended Claim 1, Li further teaches wherein the wake up signals of at least two beams are different because they are assigned a different cyclic-shift in the set “0, c, 2c, . . . , moduled by K” – See id..
Therefore, Claim 9 is obvious over Guo in view of Li.
Regarding Claim 11, dependent from Amended Claim 1, Guo teaches wherein a burst of wake-up signals is transmitted in at least two slots (e.g., “[w]hen the beam training signal is QCLed to multiple SSBs,” i.e., in a burst, “only the time domain position of the first beam training signal may be indicated, and the time domain positions of other beam training signals may be calculated according to the sequential arrangement” using “the duration of the beam training signal [M], which is a fixed or configured constant. The unit of M can be . . . time slot” – See [¶0103] and Fig. 4, showing multiplexed WUS with SSB in multiple time-slots in two consecutive frames).
Therefore, Claim 11 is obvious over Guo in view of Li.
Regarding Claim 12, dependent from Amended Claim 1, Guo further teaches that WUS (beam training signal) may have has the same time domain position as the primary/secondary synchronization signal in SSB – See [¶¶0079-80]. Li further teaches that SSBs and paging signals may cone in bursts – See, e.g., [¶0096], wherein a burst of wake-up signals does not overlap with control regions of slots in which the burst of wake up signals is transmitted (“Beam specific signals, control, and/or data, e.g. resources allocated to a specific narrow beam or beams (e.g., Mini-slot 6 and 7 in FIG. 17B)” are separated from “[n]umerology specific signals, control and/or data. For example, different subcarrier spacing and/or different symbol length may exist within the reference numerology subframe and/or slot (e.g., Mini-slot 1 and 2 in FIG. 17A)” – See [¶0116],[¶0115], Figs. 17A and B and Table 2 showing time-frequency position for synchronization resources do not overlap with control resources).
Therefore, Claim 12 is obvious over Guo in view of Li.
Regarding Amended Claims 13 and 15, Guo teaches a paging early indication method performed by a user equipment (UE) (“a method and a communication device for receiving a paging message” – See [¶0003]) configured, by a base station, with a wake-up signal before a next paging occasion (PO) (“a method and a communication device for sending a paging message” – See id., whereby “the association between the beam training signal (for example, a wake-up signal, a tracking signal) and the SSB, the time domain position and frequency domain position of the beam training signal and/or what information the beam training signal can carry, etc., can all be configured by the network device and sent to the terminal device through configuration information” – See [¶0072]), wherein the wake-up signal has all the limitations recited by the method of Amended Claim 1. Because Amended Claim 1 is obvious over Guo in view of Li, and the UE performing the method is disclosed by Guo, Amended Claims 13 and 15 are obvious over Guo in view of Li.
Regarding Claims 16, 18 and 21, as amended, dependent from Amended Claim 15, they merely recite the same limitations of Claims 2, 4 and 11, respectively, as amended. Because Claims 2, 4, 11 and 15, as amended, are obvious over Guo in view of Li, Claims 16, 18 and 21, as amended, are obvious over Guo in view of Li.
Therefore, Claims 1-2, 4, 7-9, 11-13, 15, 16, 18, and 21, as amended, are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as obvious over Guo in view of Li.
Claims 5-6 and 19-20, as amended, are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Guo in view of Li as applied to Amended Claims 4 and 15 above, and further in view of 3GPP TS 36.304 V16.0.0 (2020-03), "Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA); User Equipment (UE) procedures in idle mode (Release 16)" (hereinafter TS 36.304).
Regarding Amended Claim 5, dependent from Amended Claim 4, although Li shows in Fig. 8 a SSB burst before a PO, Guo in view of Li does not disclose a predefined time offset prior to a paging occasion (PO) to which the wake-up signal (WUS) relates.
Section 7.4. of 3GPP TS 36.304 discloses a predefined time offset prior to a paging occasion to which the wake-up signal relates (“The WUS configuration, provided in system information, includes time-offset between end of WUS and start of the first PO . . .UE is required to monitor” and is predefined, e.g., as in Table 7.4.1 – See § 7.4, 3GPP TS 36.304:48).
Thus, Guo in view of Li and 3GPP TS 36.304 each disclose WUS before PO. A person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have understood that the SSB/WUS burst taught by Guo in view of Li could have been sent with an offset from the associated PO as taught in 3GPP TS 36.304 because both Guo in view of Li and 3GPP TS 36.304 disclose WUS configurations. Finally, the combination achieves the predictable result of applying 3GPP standard specifications to WUS procedures disclosed in Guo in view of Li.
Therefore, Amended Claim 5 is obvious over Guo in view of Li, and further in view of 3GPP TS 36.304.
Regarding Claim 6, dependent from Amended Claim 5, TS 36.304 further teaches wherein the time offset is defined as the time from the end of the wake-up signal burst to the start of a paging occasion to which the wake-up signal burst relates, as explained in Regarding Claim 5, supra (“[t]he WUS configuration, provided in system information, includes time-offset between end of WUS and start of the first PO of the numPOs POs UE is required to monitor. The timeoffset in subframes, used to calculate the start of a subframe g0” and “g0 = PO – timeoffset, where PO is the Paging Occasion subframe” – See id.; furthermore, a person of ordinary skills in the art would know that a subframe is associated with a time expressed in ms according to the subcarrier spacing used for transmission).
Therefore, Claim 6 is obvious over Guo in view of Li, and further in view of 3GPP TS 36.304.
Regarding Amended Claims 19-20, dependent from Amended Claim 15, they merely recite the same limitations as Claims 5-6, as amended. Because Claims 5-6, and 15, as amended, are obvious over Guo in view of Li, and further in view of 3GPP TS 36.304, Claims 19-20, as amended, are obvious over Guo in view of Li, and further in view of 3GPP TS 36.304.
Therefore, Claims 5-6, and 19-20, as amended, are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as obvious over Guo in view of Li, and further in view of 3GPP TS 36.304.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
Liu, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2021/0227467, Nam et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 20210068055, and of Selvaganapathy et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 20220046544, as explained in the previous Office Action;
Cho et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2016/0043781 disclosing method for transmission training beam selected from the transmission beams using a secondary synchronization signal;
Cox et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2022/0201649 disclosing method and apparatus for wake-up receiver (WUR) that wakes up from an idle mode;
Kwon et al., U.S. Patent Application No. 20220039012, discloses multi-beam UE whereby WUS is transmitted using a first beam and the TCI state of the WUS and the TCI state of the first downlink control channel CORESET are the same;
Li et al., U.S. Patent Application No. 20210345245, discloses solutions to support wake up signals for group specific UEs;
Nam et al., U.S. Patent Application No. 20190387572, discloses method and apparatus for selectively monitoring a wakeup signal resource according to one of plurality of configurations;
3GPP TSG RAN WG1 Meeting #92bis, R1-1804520, Title: "Discussion on wake up signal configurations and procedures"; Source: LG Electronics; April 16th – 20th, 2018, disclosing that wake up signal can be design to convey UE sub-group information on top of the cell ID information when reusing NSSS sequence design criteria;
3GPP TS 36.331 V16.0.0 (2020-03), "Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA); Radio Resource Control (RRC); Protocol specification (Release 16)";
3GPP TSG-RAN WG2 Meeting #109bis-e, draft-R2-2004042 (CR 0783 to 3GPP TS 36.304), Title: "Introduction of Rel-16 NB-IoT enhancements," Source: Nokia, April, 2020, updating § 7.4 of 3GPP TS 36.304.
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.
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/L.G.G./Examiner, Art Unit 2478
/JOSEPH E AVELLINO/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2478