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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-6, 8, 10-20, 22, 24-28, and 58-59 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(1) as being anticipated by MANOLAKOS et al. (WO 2020069415 A1, hereinafter Manolakos).
Regarding claims 1, 15, 58 Manolakos discloses:
receiving downlink control information (DCI) from a first cell of a plurality of cells, the DCI indicating at least one of a plurality of transmission configuration indication (TCI) states, a plurality of path loss (PL) reference signal (RS) identifiers (IDs), or a plurality of spatial relation information IDs, the at least one of the plurality of TCI states, the plurality of PL RS IDs, or the plurality of spatial relation information IDs corresponding to one or more physical cell identities (PCIs), each of the one or more PCIs being associated with one of the plurality of cells; (Paragraph [0116], “the base station may, in some cases, transmit a TCI state indication to UE 115-b. For example, in some cases, the base station may transmit an indication of a TCI state (e.g., identification of a certain configured TCI state, via DCI), for UE 115-b use in receiving a subsequent transmission.”)
determining a first PCI of the one or more PCIs associated with the first cell based on at least one of a first TCI state of the plurality of TCI states, a first PL RS ID of the plurality of PL RS IDs, or a first spatial relation information ID of the plurality of spatial relation information IDs, the at least one of the first TCI state, the first PL RS ID, or the first spatial relation information ID corresponding to the first PCI; (Paragraph [0117], “the base station (e.g., TRP 205-c and/or TRP 205-d) may transmit a downlink transmission encoded according to a first PCI (e.g., associated with TRP 205-c) or a second PCI (e.g., associated with TRP 205-d), based on the association identified at 305 and the TCI state associated with the downlink transmission.”)
and communicating with the first cell over a first beam based on the determined first PCI associated with the first cell. (Fig. 5 and 7, Paragraph [0130], “The device 505 may be an example of aspects of a UE 115 as described herein.” And paragraph [0144], “FIG. 7 shows a block diagram 700 of a communications manager 705 that supports association of TCI states to PCIs in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure” And paragraph [0145], “The TCI state manager 710 may receive, using a receive beam associated with a TCI state, a downlink transmission from a set of TRPs identified by a set of PCIs.” The device that houses the TCI state manager is a UE that receives downlink transmission through beam associated with TCI state where the PCI comes from.)
Regarding claims 2, 16 and 59 Manolakos discloses:
wherein the first PCI is determined based on a synchronization signal block (SSB) of the first beam. (Fig. 7 and paragraph [0148], “The PCI selection manager 725 may identify, based on the received first reference signal, the received second reference signal, and the identified association between the set of PCIs and the set of reference signals for radio link management, a PCI of the set of PCIs to use to decode a downlink transmission received from at least one of the first TRP and the second TRP. In some examples, the PCI selection manager 725 may receive an SSB during an initial access procedure of the UE, and determine a PCI based at least in part on the received SSB…”)
Regarding claims 3 and 17 Manolakos discloses:
wherein the SSB of the first beam corresponds to a quasi co-location (QCL) source for the first beam, the first PCI corresponding to a PCI of the SSB. (Paragraph [0042], “Each TCI state may be associated with a set of reference signals (e.g., synchronization signal blocks (SSBs), different types of channel state information reference signals (CSI- RSs), or tracking reference signals (TRSs)), and the TCI state may indicate a QCL” PCI is determined based on the SSB.)
Regarding claims 4 and 18 Manolakos discloses:
wherein a PCI of the SSB is associated with a root of a quasi co-location (QCL) chain of the first TCI state. (Paragraph [0090], “if a first set of antenna ports is quasi co-located with a second set of antenna ports (e.g., if a first set of antenna ports and a second set of antenna ports have a QCL relationship), a UE 115 may be able to perform channel estimation for demodulating data or control information received on the first set of antenna ports based on reference signals received on the second set of antenna ports.” Being quasi co-located makes the second set the root QCL and as mentioned before the reference signal is SSB for which the PCI is associated.)
Regarding claims 5 and 19 Manolakos discloses:
wherein the first PCI is configured with at least one of the first TCI state or the first spatial relation information ID. (Paragraph [0093], “the base station may transmit TCI state and PCI association information to the UE”. BS configures the TCI and PCI for UE.)
Regarding claims 6 and 20 Manolakos discloses:
wherein the first PCI is indicated by a field of the first TCI state or a field of the first spatial relation information ID. (Paragraph [0093], “The UE 115 may then identify a TCI state to use for reception of some downlink transmission (e.g., based on a TCI state indication received from the base station 105), and may identify one or more PCIs associated with the TCI state based on the received TCI state and PCI association
information.” There must be a field to help identify the PCI in the received TCI state.)
Regarding claims 8 and 22 Manolakos discloses:
receiving a medium access control (MAC) control element (MAC-CE) indicating the first PCI associated with the first cell. (Paragraph [0006], “A base station may configure a UE with a set of possible TCI states (e.g., via media access control (MAC) control element (MAC-CE) signaling, downlink control information, etc.) used to receive transmissions. The base station may further provide the UE with an association between a set of PCIs (e.g., associated with multiple TRPs, for example of the base station) and the set of TCI states.”)
Regarding claims 10 and 24 Manolakos discloses:
wherein at least one of the first TCI state or the first spatial relation information ID corresponds to a beam ID for the first beam. (Paragraph [0010], “Another apparatus for wireless communication as a UE is described. The apparatus may include means for receiving, using one or more receive beams associated with a TCI state…” and Paragraph [0042], “Each TCI state may be associated with a set of reference signals (e.g., synchronization signal blocks (SSBs), different types of channel state information reference signals (CSI- RSs), or tracking reference signals (TRSs))…” Beam ID is the reference signal which the TCI is associated with.)
Regarding claims 11 and 25 Manolakos discloses:
The method of claim 1, wherein the first TCI state corresponds to a lowest TCI state of the plurality of TCI states. (Paragraph [0114], “In other cases, the TCI state and PCI association information may include a list of TCI states as well as PCIs for each TRP associated with the TCI state (e.g., PCI of the one or more serving TRPs corresponding to each TCI state).” The lowest TCI state is just the first index in the corresponding list of TCI states.)
Regarding claims 12 and 26 Manolakos discloses:
wherein the first PCI associated with the first cell corresponds to one or more component carriers (CCs). (Paragraph [0082], “Wireless communications system 100 may support communication with a UE 115 on multiple cells or carriers, a feature which may be referred to as carrier aggregation (CA) or multi-carrier operation.” And paragraph [0083], “In some cases, wireless communications system 100 may utilize enhanced component carriers (eCCs).” The system supports CC for the PCI and cells.)
Regarding claims 13 and 27 Manolakos discloses:
wherein the one or more CCs are indicated in a CC list via radio resource control (RRC) signaling. (Paragraph [0082], “A UE 115 may be configured with multiple downlink CCs and one or more uplink CCs according to a carrier aggregation configuration.” And paragraph [0083], “an eCC may be associated with a carrier aggregation configuration” the carrier aggregation configuration is a list of CC configured via RRC.)
Regarding claims 14 and 28 Manolakos discloses:
wherein the first cell corresponds to one or more transmit-receive points (TRPs). (Paragraph [0006], “The base station may further provide the UE with an association between a set of PCIs (e.g., associated with multiple TRPs, for example of the base station)…” sets of physical cells are associated with TRPs.)
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.
Claims 7, 9, 21 and 23 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Manolakos in view of Guo et al. (US 20190141693 A1, hereinafter Guo).
Regarding claims 7 and 21 Manolakos does not disclose:
wherein the at least one of the first TCI state, the first PL RS ID, or the first spatial relation information ID is indicated by a codepoint.
Guo discloses:
wherein the at least one of the first TCI state, the first PL RS ID, or the first spatial relation information ID is indicated by a codepoint. (Paragraph [0298], “Each codepoint of DCI field “transmission configuration indication” can indicate one TCI state from those up to 8 TCI states that activated in a MAC-CE message.”)
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the teachings of Manolakos in view of Guo to incorporate codepoints to the MAC-CE for the TCI states. One would have been motivated to do this to reduce latency and for fast beam switching (Paragraph [0300], Guo).
Regarding claims 9 and 23 Manolakos does not disclose:
wherein the MAC-CE includes a plurality of codepoints for a PCI field, the first PCI associated with the first cell corresponding to at least one codepoint of the plurality of codepoints.
Guo discloses:
wherein the MAC-CE includes a plurality of codepoints for a PCI field, the first PCI associated with the first cell corresponding to at least one codepoint of the plurality of codepoints. (Paragraph [0298], “Each codepoint of DCI field “transmission configuration indication” can indicate one TCI state from those up to 8 TCI states that activated in a MAC-CE message. On other hand, after the serving gNB send one MAC-CE message to activate a few TCI states, the indicating mapping between activated TCI states and codepoints of DCI field “transmission configuration indication” take effect after some time after the MAC-CE message is sent.” The codepoints associated with TCI state are included in the MAC-CE to activate the TCIs )
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to have modified the teachings of Manolakos in view of Guo to incorporate codepoints to the MAC-CE for the TCI states. One would have been motivated to do this to reduce latency and for fast beam switching (Paragraph [0300], Guo).
Conclusion
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/NAM P. CAO/Examiner, Art Unit 2479 /JAE Y LEE/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2479