DETAILED ACTION
Response filed on 11/6/2025 has been entered and made of record.
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 .
Claims status
Claims 1-104, 110-114, 120-124, 130-133, 135-136, 142-145, and 147-148 were previously canceled.
Claims 105, 115, 125, and 137 are amended.
Claims 105-109, 115-119, 125-129, 134, 137-141, 146, and 149-152 are pending for examination.
Response to arguments
Re: 35 U.S.C. § 103 rejection
Applicant’s arguments/remarks received on 11/6/2025 have been fully considered. Below are applicant’s arguments and examiner’s response to the arguments:
Applicant’s argument: (Pg. 8 of applicant’s remarks) “the cited portion of Nokia merely discloses ''Network configures UE with maximum number of reported beams by signaling the value N." Nokia at p. 4. Therefore, in Nokia, the N value of maximum number of beams is merely a number of beams that the UE reports to the network. In contrast, in Claim 105, the "maximum number of beams" are for "cell quality derivation on the beams." The disclosure in Nokia on the UE merely reporting the maximum number of beams does not disclose, teach, or suggest "determining a first parameter ... and a second parameters" where each of these parameters "indicates a maximum number of beams to be used by a wireless device for cell quality derivation on the beams," as recited in Claim 105.
Examiner’s response: The rejection of the claim was based on combination of disclosures by Chen and Nokia. Though Nokia discloses reporting of maximum number of beams and not the maximum number of measurements, as per the claim, when combined with disclosure by Chen, it would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art to come up with the claimed invention, as discussed in the next section (35 U.S.C. § 103 rejection).
Applicant’s argument: (Pg. 9 of applicant’s remarks) “Chen does not disclose, teach, or suggest "sending the wireless device the UE-specific offset such that the wireless device adjusts the value of the first parameter according to the UE-specific offset," as recited in Claim 149. For analogous reasons, Chen also does not disclose, teach, or suggest "wireless device adjusts the value of the first parameter according to the UE-specific offset," as recited in each of Claims 150-152.”
Examiner’s response: Examiner respectfully disagrees. Disclosure by Chen as discussed in the rejection of the above claims teaches about offsets which are UE specific, “The offset may be frequency specific or component carrier specific gap offset” ([0166[) as may be seen in Fig. 10, showing UE1 and UE2 separated by a gap offset.
35 U.S.C. § 103 rejection is not withdrawn.
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.
Claims 105-109, 115-119, 125-129, 134, and 137-141 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Chen et al. (US 2021/0274403 A1), hereinafter “Chen” supported by provisional applications No. 62/475,360, filed on Mar. 23, 2017, hereinafter “ChenProv”, in view of R1-1703162, “Beam Management – Beam Reporting”, source Nokia, Alcatel-Lucent Shanghai Bell, 3GPP TSG-RAN WG1#88, hereinafter “Nokia”.
Claims 105, 115, 125, and 137:
Regarding claim 105, Chen teaches, A method for use in a network node (Chen: [Abstract] “Measurement modeling and filtering may include configurable cell quality derivation method is used for multi-beam based NR networks”), the method comprising:
determining a first parameter, associated with a first carrier frequency (Chen: [0005] “The configuration may include various information pertaining to how many beams are measured, when they are measured, and how they are assessed”) and
a second parameter associated with a second carrier frequency (Chen: [0065] “The measurement object list and may include inter-frequency objects”; [0070] “Inter-frequency neighbor cell measurements are neighbor cell measurements performed by the UE are inter-frequency measurements when the neighbor cell operates on a different carrier frequency, compared to the current cell.”)
Disclosure regarding, ‘A first carrier frequency’ and ‘a second carrier frequency’, is implied based on the disclosure that UE measurements may include inter-frequency measurements, as disclosed in Chen, [0057] The UE may be requested to perform the following types of measurements: intra-frequency measurements, e.g., measurements at the downlink carrier frequencies of the serving cells; inter-frequency measurements, e.g., measurements at frequencies that differ from any of the downlink carrier frequencies of the serving cells”.
Chen further discloses in [0058], “The measurement configuration may include a number of parameters, such as measurement objects. Measurement objects are objects on which the UE may perform the measurements”.
Measurement objects related to different carrier frequencies, as disclosed above, may be considered as parameters, first parameter and second parameter, associated with first carrier frequency and second carrier frequency.
Regarding claim element, ‘wherein each of the first and second parameters indicates a maximum number of beams to be used by a wireless device for cell quality derivation on the beams’, Chen (including ChenProv) does not teach it expressly though teaches, “Multiple options may be considered regarding which measured beams a UE could select in order to derive a group of beams' quality: Best beam, or N best beams, or all detected beams, or beams with measurement quantity (e.g., RSRP, RSRQ, etc.) above a configurable threshold” (Pg.20 of ChenProv).
In the same field of endeavor Nokia teaches the element (Nokia: Proposal 14: Network configures UE with maximum number of reported beams by signaling the value N).
It would have been obvious to a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to come up with the claimed invention by combining the disclosure by Nokia regarding configuring maximum number of reported beams for measurement reporting, with the disclosure by Chen to report all detected beams. When all detected beams are reported as per Chen, maximum number of beams used for measurement is the same as the maximum number of beams reported beams.
A person of ordinary skill in the art would be motivated to modifying the disclosure by Nokia from reporting the maximum number of beams to measuring maximum number of beams for cell quality derivation motivated by reduction of measurement costs, as described by Chen (in ChenProv), “ To reduce measurement cost from both energy and latency perspective (for single radio UE, measurement may also cause data/message transmission interruptions), measurement objects configured on a UE need to be limited to reduce UE measurement effort.” ([00100]).
Chen teaches, communicating the first parameter and the second parameter to the wireless device (implied by disclosure in Chen: [0003] A wireless apparatus, such as a user equipment (UE) receives beam measurement configuration information from another network node, such as a gNB, to facilitate adaptation to changing multi-beam environments. The configuration may pertain to beam-specific measurements of a plurality of beams of one or more wireless cells.”).
Claim 115 is for a device implementing method of claim 105. Claim elements are discussed above in claim 105.
Claim 125 is for method implemented by a wireless device, the method being complimentary to method of claim 115. Claim elements are discussed above in claim 105.
Claim 137 is for a device implementing method of claim 125. Claim elements are discussed above in claim 105.
Claims 106, 116, 126, and 138:
Regarding claim 106, combination of Chen and Nokia teaches the method of Claim 105 (discussed above), wherein the first and second parameters are communicated in dedicated signaling to the wireless device (Chen: [0097] A UE in RRC_CONNECTED should be able to perform RRM measurements on always on an idle RS, e.g., NR-PSS/SSS, and/or CSI-RS. The gNB should be able to configure RRM measurements via dedicated signaling to be performed on CSI-RS and/or idle RS. ).
Claim 116 is for a device implementing method of claim 106. Claim elements are discussed above in claim 106.
Claim 126 is for method implemented by a wireless device, the method being complimentary to method of claim 116. Claim elements are discussed above in claim 106.
Claim 138 is for a device implementing method of claim 126. Claim elements are discussed above in claim 106.
Claims 107, 117, 127, and 139:
Regarding claim 107, combination of Chen and Nokia teaches the method of Claim 105 (discussed above), wherein the first parameter is communicated in a first measurement object, MeasObject, information element (Chen: [0014] “A measurement object design, for an object on which a UE may perform the measurements, may be used to reduce UE measurement overhead and cost.”; naming of the object as MeasObject is a design choice.).
Claim 117 is for a device implementing method of claim 107. Claim elements are discussed above in claim 107.
Claim 127 is for method implemented by a wireless device, the method being complimentary to method of claim 117. Claim elements are discussed above in claim 107.
Claim 139 is for a device implementing method of claim 127. Claim elements are discussed above in claim 107.
Claims 108, 118, 128, and 140:
Regarding claim 108, combination of Chen and Nokia teaches the method of Claim 107 (discussed above).
Regarding wherein the first carrier frequency is indicated in terms of a first frequency channel number’, though Chen or Nokia does not expressly disclose the indication of carrier frequency in terms of channel number, it is a common way in the standards to do so. Standards use ARFCN, which is essentially a channel number used to determine the exact frequencies a device and network use to communicate. The concept, though originated with GSM networks (3GPP TS 45.005 V14.0.0 (2017-03)), extends to newer technologies, but with modified names:
UARFCN: Used for UMTS (3G) networks.
EARFCN: Used for LTE (4G) networks.
NR-ARFCN: Used for 5G networks
Claim 118 is for a device implementing method of claim 108. Claim elements are discussed above in claim 105.
Claim 128 is for method implemented by a wireless device, the method being complimentary to method of claim 118. Claim elements are discussed above in claim 108.
Claim 140 is for a device implementing method of claim 128. Claim elements are discussed above in claim 108.
Claims 109 and 119:
Regarding claim 109, combination of Chen and Nokia teaches the method of Claim 105 (discussed above), wherein cell quality derivation includes using the first parameter for performing measurement of synchronization signals on the first carrier frequency and the second parameter for performing measurement of synchronization signals on the second carrier frequency (Chen: [0004] “The beam-specific measurements may include, for example, measuring a reference signal received power, a reference signal received quality, or a signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio. The plurality of beams may include a new radio synchronization signal”; [0218] In step 2 of FIG. 15, UE performs beam level measurements in source cell and target cell based on cell specific beam reference signals (e.g., NR-SS specified in measurement configurations); measurement on first carrier frequency and second carrier frequency are implied based on disclosure earlier regarding measurements on more than one frequency).
Claim 119 is for method implemented by a wireless device, the method being complimentary to method of claim 109. Claim elements are discussed above in claim 109.
Claims 129 and 141:
Regarding claim 129, combination of Chen and Nokia teaches the method of Claim 128 (discussed above), wherein wireless device uses the first parameter for performing cell quality derivation on any cell operating on the first carrier frequency (Chen: [0006] Such beam-specific measurements may be performed automatically or conditionally on the beams of a primary cell, a secondary cell, or all neighbor cells of the apparatus; first carrier frequency is implied based on the discussion regarding measurement objects in claim 109; FIG. 9 illustrates example measurement sample inputs of a Layer 1 filter for NR-SS and an additional RS.).
Claim 141 is for a device implementing method of claim 129. Claim elements are discussed above in claim 129.
Regarding claim 134, combination of Chen and Nokia teaches the method of Claim 125 (discussed above), further comprising: detecting at least one cell operating on the first carrier frequency; and using the first parameter to derive cell quality for the at least one detected cell ([0066] “Detected cells are cells that are not listed within the measurement objects but are detected by the UE on the carrier frequencies indicated by the measurement objects.”; [0098] if detected. Possible options to derive cell level signaling quality may include selecting best beam, N best beams, all detected beams or beams above a threshold; use of first parameter is disclosed in claim 105). Nokia in 2.5 also discloses, “As the value ‘N’ indicates maximum number of beams to be included in the report may also contain less the maximum number of beams, depending how many beams UE is able to detect. Alternatively UE may detect more beams than it is allowed to report. When UE reports beam measurements it reports the highest quality beams that it has measured according to network configuration.”
Regarding claim 146, Chen teaches the method of Claim 137 (discussed above), ‘wherein the processing circuitry is further operable to: detect at least one cell operating on the first carrier frequency’ (discussed above in claim 134); and
‘report the first parameter to derive cell quality for the at least one detected cell’ ([0205] A measurement report sent by UE may be configured to include flexible content, such as, for example: measurement results of N beams of a cell and or a TRP; average or summation of combined results of N beams of a cell and/or a TRP; and a number of beams of a cell and/or a TRP with quality above some configurable threshold values.”; ‘report the first parameter’ is implied by the number beams used).
Claims 149-152:
Regarding claim 149, combination of Chen and Nokia teaches the method of Claim 105 (discussed above).
In [0091, Chen describes, beamforming and beam sweeping, “For beamforming at a TRP, Procedure P-1 typically includes an intra/inter-TRP Tx beam sweep from a set of different beams. For beamforming at UE, Procedure P-1 typically includes a UE Rx beam sweep from a set of different beams”.
In [0163] Chen describes “[0163] A UE capability bit may be associated with, e.g., the scenarios described in Table 3. The UE may signaled it capability to the gNB to help gNB in the provision of the proper measurement configuration gap.”
In [0166] Chen describes offset values, “The gNB may configure the UE with the offset values at the initial connection establishment or during subsequent reconfiguration.”. UE specific Gap offset is shown in fig.10. [0166] further describes, “The offset may be frequency specific or component carrier specific gap offset or cell specific gap offset. The UE use the offset information to implicitly derive the beam sweeping pattern (e.g., the burst series configuration) of the cells or TRPs or group of beams that are neighbor with its serving beam or serving TRP or serving cell.”.
The above teachings by Chen teaches the claim, further comprising: determining a UE-specific offset based on the beamforming capabilities of the wireless device;
sending the wireless device the UE-specific offset such that the wireless device adjusts the value of the first parameter according to the UE-specific offset (Chen: Fig.10).
Claims 150-152:
Claim elements are discussed above in claim 149. Claims are rejected based on rejection of claim 149.
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. 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.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to INTEKHAAB AALAM SIDDIQUEE whose telephone number is (571)272-0895. The examiner can normally be reached Monday to Friday 9AM-5PM EST.
Examiner interviews are available via telephone, in-person, and video conferencing using a USPTO supplied web-based collaboration tool. To schedule an interview, applicant is encouraged to use the USPTO Automated Interview Request (AIR) at http://www.uspto.gov/interviewpractice.
If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Yemane Mesfin can be reached at 571-272-3927. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
Information regarding the status of published or unpublished applications may be obtained from Patent Center. Unpublished application information in Patent Center is available to registered users. To file and manage patent submissions in Patent Center, visit: https://patentcenter.uspto.gov. Visit https://www.uspto.gov/patents/apply/patent-center for more information about Patent Center and https://www.uspto.gov/patents/docx for information about filing in DOCX format. For additional questions, contact the Electronic Business Center (EBC) at 866-217-9197 (toll-free). If you would like assistance from a USPTO Customer Service Representative, call 800-786-9199 (IN USA OR CANADA) or 571-272-1000.
/INTEKHAAB A SIDDIQUEE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2462