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 Arguments
Applicant’s arguments filed November February 6, 2026 with respect to claim(s) 1, 11 and 20 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.
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.
Claim(s) 1-4, 6-9, 11-14, 16, 17 and 19-22 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Si et al. (US 2019/0132170, IDS Reference) in view of Khoryaev et al. (US 2022/0140967).
Regarding claims 1 and 11, Si et al. disclose a user equipment (UE) (Paragraphs 143-145, UE; Figure 3, UE 116), comprising:
a memory (Figure 3, memory 360);
a transceiver (Figure 3, RF transceiver 310); and
a processor coupled to the memory and the transceiver (Figure 3, processor 340 coupled to memory 360 and RF transceiver 310);
wherein the processor is configured to transmit a first transmission, wherein the first transmission is used for synchronization and the first transmission occupies a bandwidth more than 11 resource blocks (RBs) (Paragraphs 145-146, For LTE NR, synchronization signals and PBCH block (NR−SS/PBCH block) is designed for enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB) purpose and for licensed bands only…The transmission bandwidth of NR−PSS and NR−SSS (e.g. 12 PRBs) is smaller than the transmission bandwidth of NR−PBCH (e.g. 20 PRBs), and the total transmission bandwidth of NR−SS/PBCH block is same as the one of NR−PBCH (e.g. 20 PRBs)), wherein the first transmission comprises a secondary synchronization signal (SSS) and a physical broadcast channel (PBCH) (Paragraphs 145-146, For LTE NR, synchronization signals and PBCH block (NR−SS/PBCH block) is designed for enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB) purpose and for licensed bands only…The transmission bandwidth of NR−PSS and NR−SSS (e.g. 12 PRBs) is smaller than the transmission bandwidth of NR−PBCH (e.g. 20 PRBs), and the total transmission bandwidth of NR−SS/PBCH block is same as the one of NR−PBCH (e.g. 20 PRBs)), the first transmission comprises M RBs in frequency domain, where M is an integer greater than 11 RBs (Paragraph 146, The transmission bandwidth of NR−PSS and NR−SSS (e.g. 12 PRBs) is smaller than the transmission bandwidth of NR−PBCH (e.g. 20 PRBs), and the total transmission bandwidth of NR−SS/PBCH block is same as the one of NR−PBCH (e.g. 20 PRBs)), and M is related to subcarrier spacing and/or a reference bandwidth and/or a number of subcarrier in an RB (Paragraph 203, A third component for configuring RMSI resources can be the bandwidth of the CORESET containing PDCCH scheduling RMSI (e.g. RMSI CORESET BW), which can be expressed in the number of physical resource blocks (PRBs) in term of the subcarrier spacing of RMSI; Paragraph 397, PRB grid offset between SS/PBCH block and RMSI is an integer multiple of RMSI subcarrier spacing) and wherein the first transmission is transmitted in a subset of the M RBs (Paragraphs 112 and 114, wherein DL and UL resource allocation of the transmission BW is disclosed. In summary, a UE is allocated MPDSCH RBs (DL) or NRB RBs (UL), from the transmission BW, to produce total number of REs for the DL/UL transmission BW. This is indication of a number, i.e. subset, of RBs/PRBs of the transmission BW being used for transmission).
Si et al. do not disclose the following limitations that are disclosed by Khoryaev et al.: the first transmission comprises at least two secondary synchronization signals (SSSs) (Khoryaev et al., Abstract, The EE determines a plurality of S-PSS symbols and a plurality of S-SSS symbols corresponding to a sub carrier spacing (SCS). The EE transmits to another EE the determined plurality of S-SSS symbols…The SCS may be associated with a physical resource block (PRB) allocation size; Paragraph 86, at least two S-SSS symbols should be allocated in the case of 15 kHz SCS). Khoryaev et al. disclose a maximum of 11 PRBs (See Abstract of Khoryaev et al.), however, in combination with Si et al., more than 11 PRBs can be achieved (See paragraphs 145-146 as cited above from Si et al.).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Si et al. with the cited disclosure from Khoryaev et al. in order to optimize receiver processing (Khoryaev et al., Title).
Regarding claims 2 and 12, Si et al. disclose wherein the reference bandwidth is 20 MHz (Paragraph 369, Carrier BW is 20 MHz, which is 106 PRBs in both SS and RMSI numerology).
Regarding claims 3 and 13, Si et al. disclose wherein the M RBs comprise the RBs from the lowest RB to the highest RB of the first transmission in the frequency domain (Paragraph 222, the frequency offset can be defined by the difference between the lowest/highest RE/PRB grid of SS/PBCH block and the lowest/highest RE/PRB grid of RMSI resources, which can be in term of number of PRBs or REs or Hz).
Regarding claims 4 and 14, Si et al. disclose wherein the first transmission comprises m subset transmissions, where m is an integer greater than or equal to 1 (Paragraph 145, Each NR−SS/PBCH block compromises of one symbol for NR−PSS, one symbol for NR−SSS multiplexed with part of NR−PBCH in frequency-domain, and two symbols for the remaining of NR−PBCH, wherein the four symbols are mapped consecutively and time division multiplexed; Paragraph 146, PSS, SSS and PBCH transmissions as subsets); wherein the m subset transmissions are transmitted in different RBs of the M RBs in the frequency domain (Paragraph 146, The transmission bandwidth of NR−PSS and NR−SSS (e.g. 12 PRBs) is smaller than the transmission bandwidth of NR−PBCH (e.g. 20 PRBs), and the total transmission bandwidth of NR−SS/PBCH block is same as the one of NR−PBCH (e.g. 20 PRBs)).
Regarding claims 6 and 16, Si et al. disclose wherein the first transmission is transmitted in K symbols, where K is an integer greater than or equal to 1; wherein the K symbols are consecutive in time domain (Paragraph 145, Each NR−SS/PBCH block compromises of one symbol for NR−PSS, one symbol for NR−SSS multiplexed with part of NR−PBCH in frequency-domain, and two symbols for the remaining of NR−PBCH, wherein the four symbols are mapped consecutively and time division multiplexed).
Regarding claims 7 and 17, Si et al. and Khoryaev et al. disclose wherein a bandwidth of the at least one PBCH is greater than a bandwidth of the at least two SSSs (Si et al., Paragraph 146, The transmission bandwidth of NR−PSS and NR−SSS (e.g. 12 PRBs) is smaller than the transmission bandwidth of NR−PBCH (e.g. 20 PRBs); Khoryaev et al., Abstract, plurality of S-SSS symbols transmitted; Paragraph 86, at least two S-SSS symbols should be allocated in the case of 15 kHz SCS); wherein a bandwidth of the at least one PBCH comprises the number of RB between the lowest RB and the highest RB of the at least one PBCH (Si et al. Paragraph 222, the frequency offset can be defined by the difference between the lowest/highest RE/PRB grid of SS/PBCH block and the lowest/highest RE/PRB grid of RMSI resources, which can be in term of number of PRBs or REs or Hz); wherein a bandwidth of the at least two SSSs comprises the number of RB between the lowest RB and the highest RB of the at least two SSSs (Si et al., Paragraph 222, the frequency offset can be defined by the difference between the lowest/highest RE/PRB grid of SS/PBCH block and the lowest/highest RE/PRB grid of RMSI resources, which can be in term of number of PRBs or REs or Hz; Khoryaev et al., Abstract, plurality of S-SSS symbols transmitted; Paragraph 86, at least two S-SSS symbols should be allocated in the case of 15 kHz SCS).
Regarding claims 8, Si et al. and Khoryaev et al. disclose wherein the at least one PBCH comprises at least one symbol, and the at least two SSSs comprise at least one symbol, wherein the at least one symbol of the at least two SSSs is the same as the at least one symbol of the at least one PBCH (Si et al., Paragraph 145, one symbol for NR−SSS multiplexed with part of NR−PBCH in frequency-domain; Khoryaev et al., Abstract, plurality of S-SSS symbols transmitted; Paragraph 86, at least two S-SSS symbols should be allocated in the case of 15 kHz SCS).
Regarding claim 9, Si et al. and Khoryaev et al. disclose wherein all symbols of the at least two SSSs comprise a PBCH; wherein at least one symbol of the PBCH only comprises a PBCH (Si et al., Paragraph 176, an enhanced NR−SS/PBCH block can composite of 0-1 symbol mapped for NR−PSS, 0-1 symbol mapped for NR−SSS (wherein within each symbol the enhanced NR−SS/PBCH block may be FDMed with NR−PBCH or NR-ePBCH), 0-2 symbols mapped for NR−ePSS, 0-2 symbols mapped for NR-eSSS (wherein within each symbol the enhanced NR−SS/PBCH block may be FDMed with NR−PBCH or NR-ePBCH), 0-2 symbols fully mapped for NR−PBCH (including enhanced NR−SS/PBCH block's DMRS) or 0-8 symbols fully mapped for NR-ePBCH (including enhanced NR−SS/PBCH block's DMRS), as well as 0-G symbols for gap (G is an integer); Khoryaev et al., Abstract, plurality of S-SSS symbols transmitted; Paragraph 86, at least two S-SSS symbols should be allocated in the case of 15 kHz SCS).
Regarding claim 19, Si et al. disclose wherein the first transmission is on side-link (Paragraphs 147, 177, sidelink synchronization).
Regarding claim 20, Si et al. disclose a chip, comprising: a processor, configured to call and run a program stored in a memory, to cause a device in which the chip is installed to execute (Paragraph 95, The processor 340 can include one or more processors or other processing devices and execute the OS 361 stored in the memory 360 in order to control the overall operation of the UE 116; Paragraph 96, The processor 340 is also capable of executing other processes and programs resident in the memory 360. The processor 340 can move data into or out of the memory 360 as required by an executing process. In some embodiments, the processor 340 is configured to execute the applications 362 based on the OS 361 or in response to signals received from eNBs or an operator. The processor 340 is also coupled to the I/O interface 345, which provides the UE 116 with the ability to connect to other devices, such as laptop computers and handheld computers. The I/O interface 345 is the communication path between these accessories and the processor 340) operation of:
transmitting a first transmission, wherein the first transmission is used for synchronization and the first transmission occupies a bandwidth more than 11 resource blocks (RBs) (Paragraphs 145-146, For LTE NR, synchronization signals and PBCH block (NR−SS/PBCH block) is designed for enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB) purpose and for licensed bands only…The transmission bandwidth of NR−PSS and NR−SSS (e.g. 12 PRBs) is smaller than the transmission bandwidth of NR−PBCH (e.g. 20 PRBs), and the total transmission bandwidth of NR−SS/PBCH block is same as the one of NR−PBCH (e.g. 20 PRBs)), wherein the first transmission comprises a secondary synchronization signal (SSS) and a physical broadcast channel (PBCH) (Paragraphs 145-146, For LTE NR, synchronization signals and PBCH block (NR−SS/PBCH block) is designed for enhanced Mobile Broadband (eMBB) purpose and for licensed bands only…The transmission bandwidth of NR−PSS and NR−SSS (e.g. 12 PRBs) is smaller than the transmission bandwidth of NR−PBCH (e.g. 20 PRBs), and the total transmission bandwidth of NR−SS/PBCH block is same as the one of NR−PBCH (e.g. 20 PRBs)), the first transmission comprises M RBs in frequency domain, where M is an integer greater than 11 RBs (Paragraph 146, The transmission bandwidth of NR−PSS and NR−SSS (e.g. 12 PRBs) is smaller than the transmission bandwidth of NR−PBCH (e.g. 20 PRBs), and the total transmission bandwidth of NR−SS/PBCH block is same as the one of NR−PBCH (e.g. 20 PRBs)), and M is related to subcarrier spacing and/or a reference bandwidth and/or a number of subcarrier in an RB (Paragraph 203, A third component for configuring RMSI resources can be the bandwidth of the CORESET containing PDCCH scheduling RMSI (e.g. RMSI CORESET BW), which can be expressed in the number of physical resource blocks (PRBs) in term of the subcarrier spacing of RMSI; Paragraph 397, PRB grid offset between SS/PBCH block and RMSI is an integer multiple of RMSI subcarrier spacing) and wherein the first transmission is transmitted in a subset of the M RBs (Paragraphs 112 and 114, wherein DL and UL resource allocation of the transmission BW is disclosed. In summary, a UE is allocated MPDSCH RBs (DL) or NRB RBs (UL), from the transmission BW, to produce total number of REs for the DL/UL transmission BW. This is indication of a number, i.e. subset, of RBs/PRBs of the transmission BW being used for transmission).
Si et al. do not disclose the following limitations that are disclosed by Khoryaev et al.: the first transmission comprises at least two secondary synchronization signals (SSSs) (Khoryaev et al., Abstract, The EE determines a plurality of S-PSS symbols and a plurality of S-SSS symbols corresponding to a sub carrier spacing (SCS). The EE transmits to another EE the determined plurality of S-SSS symbols…The SCS may be associated with a physical resource block (PRB) allocation size; Paragraph 86, at least two S-SSS symbols should be allocated in the case of 15 kHz SCS). Khoryaev et al. disclose a maximum of 11 PRBs (See Abstract of Khoryaev et al.), however, in combination with Si et al., more than 11 PRBs can be achieved (See paragraphs 145-146 as cited above from Si et al.).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Si et al. with the cited disclosure from Khoryaev et al. in order to optimize receiver processing (Khoryaev et al., Title).
Regarding claim 21, Si et al. and Khoryaev et al. disclose wherein the at least one PBCH comprises at least one symbol, and the at least two SSSs comprise at least one symbol, wherein the at least one symbol of the at least two SSSs is the same as the at least one symbol of the at least one PBCH (Si et al., Paragraph 145, one symbol for NR−SSS multiplexed with part of NR−PBCH in frequency-domain; Khoryaev et al., Abstract, plurality of S-SSS symbols transmitted; Paragraph 86, at least two S-SSS symbols should be allocated in the case of 15 kHz SCS).
Regarding claim 22, Si et al. and Khoryaev et al. disclose wherein all symbols of the at least two SSSs comprise a PBCH; wherein at least one symbol of the PBCH only comprises a PBCH (Si et al., Paragraph 176, an enhanced NR−SS/PBCH block can composite of 0-1 symbol mapped for NR−PSS, 0-1 symbol mapped for NR−SSS (wherein within each symbol the enhanced NR−SS/PBCH block may be FDMed with NR−PBCH or NR-ePBCH), 0-2 symbols mapped for NR−ePSS, 0-2 symbols mapped for NR-eSSS (wherein within each symbol the enhanced NR−SS/PBCH block may be FDMed with NR−PBCH or NR-ePBCH), 0-2 symbols fully mapped for NR−PBCH (including enhanced NR−SS/PBCH block's DMRS) or 0-8 symbols fully mapped for NR-ePBCH (including enhanced NR−SS/PBCH block's DMRS), as well as 0-G symbols for gap (G is an integer); Khoryaev et al., Abstract, plurality of S-SSS symbols transmitted; Paragraph 86, at least two S-SSS symbols should be allocated in the case of 15 kHz SCS).
Claim(s) 5 and 15 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Si et al. in view of Khoryaev et al. as applied to claims 4 and 14 above, and further in view of Matsumura et al. (US 2019/0357204).
Regarding claims 5 and 15, Si et al. in view of Khoryaev et al. disclose the claimed invention above but do not specifically disclose the following limitations that are disclosed by Matsumura et al.: wherein at least one subset of the m subset transmissions is based on a first base sequence (Matsumura et al., Paragraph 61, base sequence of PUCCH transmission); wherein the first base sequence has a length related to the values M and/or m and/or a number of subcarriers in an RB (Matsumura et al., Paragraph 68, The sequence length of the base sequence for use for a sequence-based PUCCH is determined by the number of subcarriers M and the number of PRBs); wherein the length of the first base sequence is a prime value (Matsumura et al., Paragraph 68, which is the largest prime number less than or equal to 12 (in this case, 11) minus 1); wherein the m subset transmissions are based on the same first base sequence (Matsumura et al., Paragraphs 68-69, phase rotating the base sequence); wherein the m subset transmissions are applied with different phase rotations (Matsumura et al., Paragraph 68, so 12 amounts of phase rotation are available for use; Paragraph 69, 12 sequences obtained by phase-rotating the base sequence by phase rotation (cyclic shift)).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the system of Si et al. and Khoryaev et al. with the cited disclosure from Matsumura et al. in order to properly report uplink control information (Matsumura et al., Abstract).
Conclusion
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.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to OTIS L THOMPSON, JR whose telephone number is (571)270-1953. The examiner can normally be reached Monday - Friday, 6:30am - 7:00pm.
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/OTIS L THOMPSON, JR/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2477
March 20, 2026