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 .
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on 3/10/2026 has been entered.
Examiner’s Note
Examiner proposed an examiner’s amendment, to the Applicants’ Representative STAN LEWIS on multiple telephonic communications from March 2026 through June 2026 including a latest one on 6/1/2026. This was in an effort to place the application in condition of allowance. However, no response from the Applicants was received. An office action on merits is presented.
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.
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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claim(s) 33-38, 42-48, 52 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over KUANG et al (US 2023/0269742) in view of BASU MALLICK et al (US 2022/0191963)
Regarding claim 33, 43 KUANG et al (US 2023/0269742) method/network node performed by a network node that is configured to communicate with a wireless device, WD, the method comprising:
a data radio bearer, DRB, status of the WD (KUANG: ¶114, ¶120, ¶141, Fig. 3, DRB/connection status is present which is depending on the connection configured between the gNB and UE; this DRB/radio connection status includes whether the bearer/connection between eNB and UE is in a state of monitoring for scheduling/allocation information to transmit/receive data or in a state of transmitting/receiving the scheduled data);
determining one or more bandwidth parts, BWPs, and/or one or more search space, SS, configurations of one or more BWPs for the WD based on a DRB status (KUANG: ¶114-115, ¶186, ¶196-198, ¶212, Fig. 17, based on the state (first state = transmitting/receiving data or second state=monitoring for scheduling information), an initial SSS which is a sparse SSS group is determined to be used by the UE for monitoring; or a SSS group 1 (dense) is determined for the UE based on the status = scheduled/connected and transmitting/receiving scheduled data);
when the DRB status is inactive, enabling a power saving mode for the WD by configuring the WD with one or more BWP from the determined one or more BWPs and/or one or more SS configurations from the determined one or more SS configurations of the one or more BWPs for the WD based at least on the DRB status (KUANG: ¶196-198, ¶212, Fig. 17, ¶242, Fig. 23, initial/default BWP is configured with a corresponding default/sparser SSS group because the mode of the connection is monitoring/inactive and still haven’t started data communication); and
when the DRB status is active, disabling the power saving mode or not enabling the power saving mode (KUANG: ¶196-198, Fig. 17, Fig. 19, ¶242, ¶114-115, when the status of the connection is such that data is scheduled and data is transmitted/received, the SSS group is the dense mode (non-power saving, require higher UE power consumption)).
KUANG remains silent regarding, determining a data radio bearer, DRB, status of the WD, wherein determining DRB status comprises determining the DRB status to be active when an amount of data transmission activity for the DRB over a predefined period of time meets or exceeds a threshold, and determining the DRB status to be inactive otherwise.
However, BASU MALLICK et al (US 2022/0191963) discloses determining a data radio bearer, DRB, status of the WD, wherein determining DRB status comprises determining the DRB status to be active when an amount of data transmission activity for the DRB over a predefined period of time meets or exceeds a threshold, and determining the DRB status to be inactive otherwise (BASU MALLICK: ¶94, ¶91, ¶78, ¶80-81, ¶68, the indication from a remote unit based on which the status of the bearer of the remote unit is determined; this status is based on the amount of data to being above an amount for active state for its DRB and otherwise determine the remote unit (equivalent to WD) be in inactive state for its DRB).
A person of ordinary skill in the art working with the invention of KUANG would have been motivated to use the teachings of BASU MALLICK as it avoids using a fixed amount of data which may result in excessive transitions between the inactive state and the connected state or too few transitions between the inactive state and the connected state (¶4). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify invention of KUANG with teachings of BASU MALLICK in order to overcome the problem of too few or excessive transitions between active and inactive state of the bearers of a remote unit/WD.
Regarding claim 34,44 KUANG modified by BASU MALLICK discloses method/apparatus according to claim 33/43, wherein the configuring the WD with the SS configuration comprises: determining a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) monitoring occasion (MO) configuration associated the SS configuration; and/or determining at least one BWP having the SS configuration (KUANG: ¶242, Fig. 19 and Fig. 20, sparse or dense SS configuration configures the UE with monitoring scheme including monitoring periods (occasions)).
Regarding claim 35, 45 KUANG modified by BASU MALLICK discloses method according to claim 33, comprising disabling the power saving mode or not enabling the power saving mode by configuring the WD with a different SS configuration of the one or more BWPs for the WD (KUANG: ¶130, Fig. 23, ¶188, ¶242, SSS group 0 is disabled and SSS group 1 is enabled instead).
Regarding claim 36, 46 KUANG modified by BASU MALLICK discloses method according to claim 33, wherein the one or more BWPs and/or the one or more SS configurations relate to a WD type, a WD traffic type, and/or a service requirement (KUANG: ¶282, the SS configuration/BWP are based on the service requirement).
Regarding claim 37, 47, KUANG modified by BASU MALLICK discloses method according to claim 33, wherein determining the one or more SS configurations is performed using one or more criteria that comprise one or more out of:
a DL buffer occupancy of the WD in the network node;
a total DL buffer occupancy in the network node of WDs which the network node is serving;
a UL buffer occupancy of the WD;
a buffer occupancy in the network node of another WD in a communication system comprising the network node and the WD;
an energy consumption of the WD;
DL and/or UL radio resource consumption;
scheduling delays;
at least one time division duplex, TDD, configuration and/or at least one TDD pattern used in a DL and/or a UL in the one or more BWPs (KUANG: ¶188, the selection of SSS group is based on the DL/UL resource requirements; ¶199-201, based on the power consumption (minimize power wastage), the sparse SSS group is selected; also sparse SSS is selected when resource consumption is low (i.e. BS is unlikely to schedule the UE)).
Regarding claim 38, 48, KUANG modified by BASU MALLICK discloses method according to claim 33, wherein the DRB status is determined (BASU MALLICK: ¶94, ¶91, ¶78, ¶80-81, ¶68, the indication from a remote unit based on which the status of the bearer of the remote unit is determined; this status is based on the amount of data to being above an amount for active state for its DRB and otherwise determine the remote unit (equivalent to WD) be in inactive state for its DRB) the DRB status is determined based at least in part on a buffer occupancy of the WD (BASU MALLICK: ¶56, ¶66, ¶81, data property being buffer occupancy level; the status is based on the data property level being less than or greater than the threshold ) the DRB status is inactive when the buffer occupancy of the WD is zero or less than a threshold, and the DRB status is active when the buffer occupancy of the WD is not zero or greater than the threshold (BASU MALLICK: ¶57, inactive status when data property (buffer occupancy level) is below a threshold).
Regarding claim 42, 52 KUANG et al (2023/0269742)method according to claim 33, wherein disabling or not enabling the power saving mode further comprises configuring a timer for the WD when the WD is configured with an SS configuration used for an active DRB status, and wherein, when the timer expires, the WD automatically switches to an SS configuration for an inactive DRB status (KUANG: ¶239, after expiration of prohibition timer expires, the UE automatically switches to the SSS group 0).
Claim(s) 39-40, 49-50, is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over KUANG modified by BASU MALLICK as applied to claim 33 above, further in view of RASTOGI et al (US 2018/0014221)
Regarding claim 39, 49, KUANG modified by BASU MALLICK discloses method according to claim 33, wherein the DRB status is determined (KUANG: ¶95, ¶113, Fig. 3, DRB is status is determined based on the connection configured or not configured between the gNB and UE)
KUANG modified by BASU MALLICK remains silent regarding the DRB status determined based at least in part based on a DRB inactivity ratio of the WD, the DRB status is inactive when the DRB inactivity ratio of the WD is above a third threshold, and the DRB status is active when the DRB inactivity ratio of the WD is below the third threshold.
However, RASTOGI et al (US 2018/0014221) discloses that the DRB status determined based at least in part based on a DRB inactivity ratio of the WD, the DRB status is inactive when the DRB inactivity ratio of the WD is above a third threshold, and the DRB status is active when the DRB inactivity ratio of the WD is below the third threshold (RASTOGI: ¶24, ¶18, Fig, 1B, the activity ratio in terms of required resources for the data to the total available resources is determined based on the buffer occupancy and based on this activity ratio being high i.e. data is scheduled, the DRB is determined to be active; when the data is not enough to be scheduled i.e. the activation ratio is low, the DRB is inactive).
A person of ordinary skill in the art working with the invention of KUANG would have been motivated to use the teachings of RASTOGI as it provides a simple technique to identify free DRB resources that could be used for other UEs. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify invention of KUANG with teachings of RASTOGI in order to simplify and enhance resource allocation flexibility.
Regarding claim 40, 50, KUANG modified by BASU MALLICK modified by RASTOGI discloses a method according to claim 39/49, wherein any one or more out of the threshold, the second threshold, and the third threshold are determined based on a WD type, a WD traffic type, and/or a service requirement (RASTOGI: ¶47, ¶17-18, ¶31, the buffer occupancy of the UE indicates the DRB being active and a UE with no data in the buffer is not active i.e. no DRB is active for it; this decision making value remains zero (threshold is zero) implying that there is service requirement when the buffer occupancy is greater than zero).
Claim(s) 41, 51 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over KUANG modified by BASU MALLICK as applied to claim 33/43 above, further in view of CHATTERJEE et al (US 2022/0182860)
Regarding claim 41, 51 KUANG modified by BASU MALLICK discloses method according to claim 33, wherein the PDCCH MO of the SS configuration used when the DRB status is inactive is sparser than a PDCCH MO of an SS configuration used when the DRB status is active (KUANG: ¶114-115, ¶212, Fig. 23, ¶242, initial/default BWP is configured with a corresponding default/sparser SSS group with Mos sparser than the dense SSS group).
KUANG modified by BASU MALLICK remains silent regarding that the network node configures the WD with an offset value such that the PDCCH MO used when DRB status is inactive is non-overlapping with the PDCCH MO used by another WD served by the same network node.
However, CHATTERJEE et al (US 2022/0182860) discloses that the network node configures the WD with an offset value such that the PDCCH MO used when DRB status is inactive is non-overlapping with the PDCCH MO used by another WD served by the same network node (CHATTERJEE: ¶200, ¶224, non-overlapping CCEs allocated to the UE for monitoring PDCCHs).
A person of ordinary skill in the art working with the invention of KUANG modified by BASU MALLICK would have been motivated to use the teachings of CHATTERJEE as it provides a non-colliding resource assignment for critical control information thereby lowering blind decoding errors. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify invention of KUANG modified by BASU MALLICK with teachings of CHATTERJEE in order to improve resource contentions.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 3/10/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Applicants argue,
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Examiner respectfully disagrees with the above arguments. Applicants argue, that KUANG does not disclose “…determining one or more bandwidth parts, BWPs, and/or one or more search space, SS, configurations of one or more BWPs for the WD based on the DRB status… wherein determining DRB status comprises determining the DRB status to be active when an amount of data transmission activity for the DRB over a predefined period of time meets or exceeds a threshold, and determining the DRB status to be inactive otherwise”
Examiner respectfully submits that according to KUANG ¶196 a DCI is transmitted using PDCCH to schedule data for downlink/uplink communication of the UE.
[0196] …The scheduling DCI is not only provided to the UE to allocate radio resources for a downlink reception of data or uplink transmission of data, but is used for controlling which SSS group the UE is to use for performing the downlink control channel monitoring function.
Before this scheduling, the UE is configured to perform monitoring based on no scheduled uplink/downlink data. As the data bearer/connection has no data scheduled, the UE is configured to monitor using a sparsed SSS search group.
See Fig. 17 and ¶197 and also previously cited ¶212:
[0197] The improved downlink control channel monitoring procedure is exemplarily illustrated in FIG. 17, which shows for a sequence of slots how the UE (and base station) switch the group of search space sets (SSS) depending on the reception of the scheduling DCI. It is assumed that the. UE starts the monitoring function based on the SSSG 0, which is assumed to provide a periodicity of the monitoring occasions only every fourth slot (at n, n+4, n+8, n+12, etc.; considered to be a sparse SSSG, especially compared to SSSG 1). The SSSG 1 on the other hand can be considered to provide comparatively dense required monitoring occasions, particularly at every slot.
[0141] The time-domain allocation for the data to be received or transmitted is dynamically signaled in the DCI, which is useful because the part of a slot available for downlink reception or uplink transmission may vary from slot to slot as a result of the use of dynamic TDD or the amount of resources used for uplink control signaling. The slot in which the transmission occurs is signaled as part of the time-domain allocation. Although the downlink data in many cases is transmitted in the same slot as the corresponding resource assignment, this is frequently not the case, e.g., for uplink transmissions.
[0212] Another exemplary assumption is that one of the SSS groups is a default SSS group, e.g., the one SSS group that the UE initially uses for performing the monitoring function. […] initial or default SSS group can be defined to provide a low number of monitoring occasions per time, so as to increase the possibility of the UE to skip slots of PDCCH monitoring to save power.
When there is data scheduled and the data is being communicated by the UE with the base station, the SSS group is switched to a one with more dense monitoring occasions i.e. SSS group 1 of ¶197 and Fig. 17.
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This switch is based on receiving a schedule and transmitting/receiving the scheduled data between the UE and base-station (equivalent to the data radio bearer/connection being active). When the data radio bearer/connection between UE and base station is not active and only monitoring for the DCI is being performed i.e. no or minimal data is being communicated on the data radio bearer/connection between the UE and base station, then a configuration of the SSS group which is sparse and saves power at the UE, is used by the UE. When the data radio bearer/connection between UE and base station is active and DCI with scheduled data is transmitted and received on the data radio bearer/connection between the UE and base station, then a configuration of the SSS group which is dense and does not save power at the UE, is used by the UE.
Furthermore, the “status” of the DRB is defined by the detailed disclosure of the current application as whether or not, or how much data is being communicated on the DRB.
[0036] …In other words, for both “DRB active” and “DRB inactive,” the DRB may be setup and actively available for use (e.g., as described in existing wireless communication standards such as in 3GPP), but there may be a duration of time where there is no ongoing traffic (e.g., waiting for a server response, at the end of a connect, etc.) and/or little and/or low data activity, which is referred to as “DRB inactive” if this duration of time meets a predefined period of time.
Keeping this definition in sight, KUANG, for example in Fig. 17, when monitoring for a scheduling control signal and not yet communicating any scheduled data would be reasonably interpreted as one status, and when communicating scheduled data using the DCI schedule would be interpreted as another status. That is KUANG discloses the DRB statuses.
KUANG remains silent regarding determining of the status of the DRB… wherein determining DRB status comprises determining the DRB status to be active when an amount of data transmission activity for the DRB over a predefined period of time meets or exceeds a threshold, and determining the DRB status to be inactive otherwise…” (emphasis added)
However, newly cited reference, BASU MALLICK et al (US 2022/0191963), discloses determining a data radio bearer, DRB, status of the WD, wherein determining DRB status comprises determining the DRB status to be active when an amount of data transmission activity for the DRB over a predefined period of time meets or exceeds a threshold, and determining the DRB status to be inactive otherwise (BASU MALLICK: ¶94, ¶91, ¶78, ¶80-81, ¶68, the indication from a remote unit based on which the status of the bearer of the remote unit is determined; this status is based on the amount of data to being above an amount for active state for its DRB and otherwise determine the remote unit (equivalent to WD) be in inactive state for its DRB).
A person of ordinary skill in the art working with the invention of KUANG would have been motivated to use the teachings of BASU MALLICK as it avoids using a fixed amount of data which may result in excessive transitions between the inactive state and the connected state or too few transitions between the inactive state and the connected state (¶4). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify invention of KUANG with teachings of BASU MALLICK in order to overcome the problem of too few or excessive transitions between active and inactive state of the bearers of a remote unit/WD.
All remaining arguments are based on the arguments as above and are fully addressed.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to OMER S MIAN whose telephone number is (571)270-7524. The examiner can normally be reached M,T,W,Th: 10a-7p, Fri, 9a-12p.
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OMER S. MIAN
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2461
/OMER S MIAN/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2461
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