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 with respect to claim(s) 1, 22 and 29 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
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.
Claim(s) 1-10, 21-30 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cheng et al., US2020/0100193 A1 in view of Loehr et al., US2019/0394732 A1, and further in view of Hosseini et al., US2020/0213955 A1.
Regarding claim 1, Cheng teaches One or more non-transitory, computer-readable media having instructions (Fig. 14 item 1434, par. 0166; The memory 1434 may store computer-readable, computer-executable instructions 1432 (e.g., software codes) that are configured to, when executed) that, when executed, cause processor circuitry (Fig. 14 item 1428; processor 1428) to: detect a trigger condition (par. 0048; The UE may trigger a PHR when the UE detects that a pathloss difference of the pathloss reference RS(s) is larger than a PHR trigger threshold.).
Cheng fails to teach the following recited limitation. However, Loehr teaches generate, based on the trigger condition, a power headroom report (PHR) media access control (MAC) control element (CE) with a first power headroom (PH) field to indicate a first PH level associated with a first sounding reference signal (SRS) set and a second PH field to indicate a second PH level associated with a second SRS set (par. 0092; the remote unit 102 may compute PH values and generate a PHR MAC CE (e.g., multiple entry PHR MAC CE) based on the status (e.g., received UL allocations and the remote unit's 102 buffer status) at a PDCCH occasion in which the first UL has been received since PHR has been triggered, and if the remote unit 102 is configured to report only one PHR per serving cell, and/or if the remote unit 102 determines a Type 3 power headroom report for the serving cell based on a reference SRS transmission.). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to combine Cheng’s teachings with Loehr’s teachings in order to facilitate simultaneous support of services with vastly different requirements, e.g., ultra-low latency communications (short symbols and thus wide subcarrier spacing) and MBMS services (long symbols to enable long cyclic prefix and thus narrow subcarrier spacing) (Loehr, par. 0049).
Cheng and Loehr failed to teach the following amended recited limitation. However, Hosseini teaches generate, based on the trigger condition, a power headroom report (PHR) media access control (MAC) control element (CE) with a first power headroom (PH) field to indicate a first PH level associated with a first sounding reference signal (SRS) set of a serving cell and a second PH field to indicate a second PH level associated with a second SRS set of the serving cell (par. 0004 and 0086; The UE may generate a PHR including power headroom measurements for multiple cells (e.g., the first and second cells) based on whether the second DCI transmission was received and may transmit the PHR in uplink resources, and Type 3 power headroom may refer to the difference between the nominal UE maximum transmit power and the estimated power for sounding reference signal (SRS) transmissions per activated serving cell.). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to combine Cheng’s teachings in view of Loehr’s teachings with Hosseini’s teachings in order to support power headroom reporting procedures for multiple cells (Hosseini, par. 0004).
Regarding claims 2 and 23, Cheng, Loehr and Hosseini teach all the limitations in claims 1 and 22. Cheng further teaches wherein the PHR MAC CE includes a first field to indicate whether the first PH level is based on a real transmission or a reference format; and a second field to indicate whether the second PH level is based on a real transmission or a reference format (par. 0128).
Regarding claim 3, Cheng, Loehr and Hosseini teach all the limitations in claim 2. Cheng further teaches wherein the PHR MAC CE includes a first octet having the first PH field followed by a second octet having the second PH field, the first PH level is based on a real transmission, the second PH level is based on a reference format, and the PHR MAC CE is to: indicate the first PH level with the first PH field of the first octet based on the first PH level being based on the real transmission (par. 0128); and indicate the second PH level with the second PH field of the second octet based on the second PH level being based on the reference format (par. 0128).
Regarding claims 4 and 24, Cheng, Loehr and Hosseini teach all the limitations in claims 2 and 23. Cheng further teaches wherein the PHR MAC CE includes a first octet having the first PH field followed by a second octet having the second PH field, the first SRS set is associated with a first value, the second SRS set is associated with a second value that is greater than the first value, and the PHR MAC CE is to: indicate the first PH level with the first PH field of the first octet and indicate the second PH level with the second PH field of the second octet based on the second value being greater than the first value (par. 0126).
Regarding claims 5 and 25, Cheng, Loehr and Hosseini teach all the limitations in claims 4 and 24. Cheng further teaches wherein the first and second values are first and second SRS set indices, respectively (par. 0121).
Regarding claim 6, Cheng, Loehr and Hosseini teach all the limitations in claim 1. Cheng further teaches wherein the PHR MAC CE comprises: a field to indicate a configured maximum user equipment (UE) output power used to calculate the first PH level and the second PH level (par. 0128).
Regarding claim 7, Cheng, Loehr and Hosseini teach all the limitations in claim 1. Cheng further teaches wherein the PHR MAC CE comprises: a field to indicate an applied power backoff level to meet a maximum permissible exposure (MPE) requirement for the first and second SRS sets (par. 0128).
Regarding claims 8 and 26, Cheng, Loehr and Hosseini teach all the limitations in claims 1 and 21. Cheng further teaches wherein the instructions, when executed, further cause the processor circuitry to: receive a multi-transmit/receive point (mTRP) physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) repetition configuration from a base station (par. 0058); and generate the PHR MAC CE based on the mTRP PUSCH repetition configuration (par. 0058).
Regarding claims 9, Cheng, Loehr and Hosseini teach all the limitations in claim 1. Cheng further teaches wherein the PHR MAC CE is to indicate a plurality of maximum permissible exposure (MPE) values, the plurality of MPE values to respectively correspond to a plurality of reference signals, wherein at least one reference signal of the plurality of reference signals is not used to calculate the first or second PH levels (par. 0116).
Regarding claims 10 and 27, Cheng, Loehr and Hosseini teach all the limitations in claims 1 and 21. Cheng further teaches wherein the PHR MAC CE corresponds to a serving cell and further comprises: a first field to indicate a power management - maximum power reduction indication for associated with the first and second SRS sets (par. 0130); or a first field to indicate a first power management - maximum power reduction indication for associated with the first SRS set and a second power management - maximum power reduction indication for associated with the second SRS set (par. 0130).
Regarding claims 21 and 28, Cheng, Loehr and Hosseini teach all the limitations in claims 1 and 22. Cheng further teaches wherein to detect the trigger condition the processor circuitry is to: identify a configured threshold (par. 0051); calculate a pathloss change (par. 0051); and compare the pathloss change to the configured threshold (par. 0051).
Regarding claim 22, Cheng teaches A method comprising: detecting a trigger condition (par. 0048; The UE may trigger a PHR when the UE detects that a pathloss difference of the pathloss reference RS(s) is larger than a PHR trigger threshold.).
Cheng fails to teach the following recited limitation. However, Loehr teaches generating, based on the trigger condition, a power headroom report (PHR) media access control (MAC) control element (CE) with a first power headroom (PH) field to indicate a first PH level associated with a first sounding reference signal (SRS) set and a second PH field to indicate a second PH level associated with a second SRS set (par. 0092; the remote unit 102 may compute PH values and generate a PHR MAC CE (e.g., multiple entry PHR MAC CE) based on the status (e.g., received UL allocations and the remote unit's 102 buffer status) at a PDCCH occasion in which the first UL has been received since PHR has been triggered, and if the remote unit 102 is configured to report only one PHR per serving cell, and/or if the remote unit 102 determines a Type 3 power headroom report for the serving cell based on a reference SRS transmission.). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to combine Cheng’s teachings with Loehr’s teachings in order to facilitate simultaneous support of services with vastly different requirements, e.g., ultra-low latency communications (short symbols and thus wide subcarrier spacing) and MBMS services (long symbols to enable long cyclic prefix and thus narrow subcarrier spacing) (Loehr, par. 0049).
Cheng and Loehr failed to teach the following amended recited limitation. However, Hosseini teaches generating, based on the trigger condition, a power headroom report (PHR) media access control (MAC) control element (CE) with a first power headroom (PH) field to indicate a first PH level associated with a first sounding reference signal (SRS) set of a serving cell and a second PH field to indicate a second PH level associated with a second SRS set of the serving cell (par. 0004 and 0086; The UE may generate a PHR including power headroom measurements for multiple cells (e.g., the first and second cells) based on whether the second DCI transmission was received and may transmit the PHR in uplink resources, and Type 3 power headroom may refer to the difference between the nominal UE maximum transmit power and the estimated power for sounding reference signal (SRS) transmissions per activated serving cell.). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to combine Cheng’s teachings in view of Loehr’s teachings with Hosseini’s teachings in order to support power headroom reporting procedures for multiple cells (Hosseini, par. 0004).
Regarding claim 29, Cheng teaches A method comprising: generating a multi-transmit/receive point (mTRP) physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) repetition configuration for transmission to a user equipment (UE) (par. 0050; the UE may consider that the those TRPs may have the same (or similar) pathloss. In such a case, a PHR may be triggered when a pathloss difference (between the pathloss values monitored from two or more TRPs belonging to the same group) is larger than a PHR trigger threshold. In some of such implementations, the UE may associate each pathloss reference RS with a pathloss reference group based on an RS index(s) configured in a particular configuration for pathloss calculation.).
Cheng fails to teach the following recited limitation. However, Loehr teaches receiving, from the UE, a power headroom report (PHR) media access control (MAC) control element (CE) with a first power headroom (PH) field to indicate a first PH level associated with a first sounding reference signal (SRS) set and a second PH field to indicate a second PH level associated with a second SRS set (par. 0092; the remote unit 102 may compute PH values and generate a PHR MAC CE (e.g., multiple entry PHR MAC CE) based on the status (e.g., received UL allocations and the remote unit's 102 buffer status) at a PDCCH occasion in which the first UL has been received since PHR has been triggered, and if the remote unit 102 is configured to report only one PHR per serving cell, and/or if the remote unit 102 determines a Type 3 power headroom report for the serving cell based on a reference SRS transmission.). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to combine Cheng’s teachings with Loehr’s teachings in order to facilitate simultaneous support of services with vastly different requirements, e.g., ultra-low latency communications (short symbols and thus wide subcarrier spacing) and MBMS services (long symbols to enable long cyclic prefix and thus narrow subcarrier spacing) (Loehr, par. 0049).
Cheng and Loehr failed to teach the following amended recited limitation. However, Hosseini teaches receiving, from the UE, a power headroom report (PHR) media access control (MAC) control element (CE) with a first power headroom (PH) field to indicate a first PH level associated with a first sounding reference signal (SRS) set of a serving cell and a second PH field to indicate a second PH level associated with a second SRS set of the serving cell (par. 0004 and 0086; The UE may generate a PHR including power headroom measurements for multiple cells (e.g., the first and second cells) based on whether the second DCI transmission was received and may transmit the PHR in uplink resources, and Type 3 power headroom may refer to the difference between the nominal UE maximum transmit power and the estimated power for sounding reference signal (SRS) transmissions per activated serving cell.). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to combine Cheng’s teachings in view of Loehr’s teachings with Hosseini’s teachings in order to support power headroom reporting procedures for multiple cells (Hosseini, par. 0004).
Regarding claim 30, Cheng, Loehr and Hosseini teach all the limitations in claim 29. Cheng further teaches further comprising: generating, for transmission to the UE, an indication of a pathloss change threshold associated with a trigger condition for the PHR MAC CE (par. 0084).
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.
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/AYODEJI O AYOTUNDE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2649