DETAILED ACTION
Response to Amendment
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims 1 and 20-21 have been considered but are 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.
Applicant argues that Yu fails to disclose the energy saving information received from a first communication device, among the plurality of communication devices, indicates which of a plurality of energy saving modes are supported and configurable in the first communication device to reduce energy use of the first communication device. The Examiner disagrees. Yu discloses “The UE may report……capability……X1 means……the time domain position and periodicity …….PCI are the same as those of the SSB of the serving cell…..X2 means…….PCI are different from those of the SSB correspond to the PCI reported as X1” (par.0125-0127).
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.
Claims 1-12, 16 and 18-21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Yi (US Pub. 2023/0354163) in view of Babaei (US Pub. 2023/0389120).
Regarding claims 1 and 20, Yi discloses a communication control apparatus comprising at least one processor that performs:
by an energy saving mode designation unit (par.0118-0121 “The base station may use various ….two TRPs having different PCIs may operate ……..and designate the SSB transmitted in either TRP1 or TRP 2”, “par.044 “the term unit means……..Functions provide within the components”), designating a common energy saving mode to be applied to a plurality of communication devices (par.0198 “to transmit the SSB in the group common DCI broadcast and having a network energy saving-radio network temporary identifier”).
Babaei discloses receiving from the plurality of communications device the energy saving information indicating energy saving modes supported by each of the plurality of communication devices (par.0305 “a wireless device may transmit/send a message…..a capability message….indicating……a cell that is a network energy saving cell”). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to modify the system of Yi with the above teaching of Babaei in order to provide time-domain energy saving control.
The modified Yi discloses the energy saving information received from a first communication device, among the plurality of communication devices, indicates which of a plurality of energy saving modes are supported and configurable in the first communication device to reduce energy use of the first communication device (Yi, par.0125-0127).
Regarding claim 2, the modified Yi discloses the at least one processor performs: by an energy saving ID setting unit, setting a common energy saving ID for the plurality of communication devices; and by an energy saving information sharing unit, sharing at least one of the energy saving ID and the energy saving mode designation information with the plurality of communication devices (Yi, par.0198 “to transmit the SSB in the group common DCI broadcast and having a network energy saving-radio network temporary identifier….nes-RNTI”).
Regarding claim 3, the modified Yi discloses a scrambling unit, applying scrambling based on the energy saving ID to the control information including the energy saving mode designation information, and wherein the energy saving information sharing unit shares at least one of the energy saving ID and the energy saving mode designation information, by having the plurality of communication devices descramble the control information (Yi, par.0198 “scrambled by the news-RNTI”).
Regarding claim 4, the modified Yi discloses the energy saving ID is configured as a RNTI (Radio Network Temporary Identifier) temporarily assigned to the plurality of communication devices (Yi, par.0198 “to transmit the SSB in the group common DCI broadcast and having a network energy saving-radio network temporary identifier….nes-RNTI”).
Regarding claim 5, the modified Yi discloses the control information is a DCI (Downlink Control Information) transmitted from a base station to the plurality of communication devices, and the energy saving mode designation unit designates the common energy saving mode to be applied to the plurality of communication devices based on the DCI format corresponding to the energy saving mode (Yi, par.0200 “the group common DCI 1103 having the network energy saving-radio network temporary identifier”).
Regarding claim 6, the modified, Yi discloses SSB configuration information through common DCI (par.0198).
Babaei discloses the one or more synchronization signals received at 4010, may indicate whether the cell is in a network energy saving state based on a discontinuous transmission DTX pattern….DRX pattern of the cell (Babei, par.0438).
Regarding claim 7, the modified Yi discloses the time-domain energy saving control includes aligning the timings of discontinuous receptions of the plurality of communication devices (Babei, par.0438).
Regarding claim 8, the modified Yi discloses the common energy saving mode involves frequency-domain energy saving control for the plurality of communication devices (Babei, par.097 “The number of subcarriers …..in the frequency domain”, par.098 “the width of the transmit and/or receive bandwidth may change…shrink during period of low activity to save power”).
Regarding claim 9, the modified Yi discloses the frequency-domain energy saving control includes assigning a common BWP (Bandwidth Part) to the plurality of communication devices (Babei, par.098).
Regarding claim 10, the modified Yi discloses the frequency-domain energy saving control includes at least one of simultaneous switching of PCells (Primary Cells) of the plurality of communication devices (consideration is optional), and simultaneous shutoff of SCells (Secondary Cells) of the plurality of communication devices, in carrier aggregation (Babaei, par.0104 “In carrier aggregation…..SCells may be deactivated…based on traffic and/or channel conditions”).
Regarding claim 11, the modified Yi discloses the common energy saving mode involves space-domain energy saving control for the plurality of communication devices (Babei, par.0132 “spatial domain filter”).
Regarding claim 12, the modified Yi discloses wherein the space-domain energy saving control includes stopping at least one of the plurality of beams that can be transmitted by a base station in at least one direction (Babaei, par.0132 “beam selection”).
Regarding claim 16, the modified Yi discloses the common energy saving mode involves power-domain energy saving control for the plurality of communication devices (Yi, par.0198 “All the UEs in the serving mean all UEs in the serving cell supporting the energy saving mode”).
Regarding claim 18, the modified Yi discloses a detailed information provision unit (Yi, “par.044 “the term unit means……..Functions provide within the components”), providing detailed information of the energy saving mode from a base station to the plurality of communication devices in advance through the RRC (Radio Resource Control) signal, and wherein the plurality of communication devices, which have acquired the energy saving mode designation information by descrambling the control information, acquire the detailed information of the energy saving mode from the detailed information provision unit (Yi, par.0108, 0198).
Regarding claim 19, the modified Yi discloses the energy saving mode designation unit is provided on the network side that can communicate with a communication device, and designates the common energy saving mode after recognizing the common energy saving mode that can be commonly supported by the plurality of communication devices (Yi, par.044 “the term unit means……..Functions provide within the components”, par.0198).
Regarding claim 21, the modified Yi discloses everything as claim 1 above. More specifically, Yi discloses a computer-readable medium storing a communication control program causing a computer to perform (Yi, par.045).
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 13-15 and 17 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.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to Examiner Tu Nguyen whose telephone number is (571)272-7883. The examiner can normally be reached on 8AM-5PM Eastern Time.
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/TU X NGUYEN/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2642
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