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 .
DETAILED ACTION
a. Claims 1-19 in the present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA :
- claims 1, 5, 11, 14, and 15 are amended
- claims 16-19 are new
b. This is a final action on the merits based on Applicant’s claims submitted on 10/29/2025.
Response to Arguments
Regarding claim 11 previously objected for informalities, claim 11 has been amended according to the examiner's recommendation and thus the previous objection has been withdrawn.
Regarding claims 1-15 previously rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 102(a)(2), Applicant's arguments, see “Ryoo appears to merely mention that there is an interval for each state. However, Ryoo fails to mention that multiple intervals exist in the same state. Therefore, it is respectfully submitted that Ryoo fails to disclose the claimed features "control the terminal station device so as to cause the terminal station device being in the predetermined state to perform the communication by intermittently using each of the first duration and the second duration."” on page 3, filed on 10/29/2025, with respect to Ryoo et al. US Pub 2019/0166553 (hereinafter "Ryoo"), have been fully considered but are moot, over the limitations of “control the terminal station device so as to cause the terminal station device being in the predetermined state to perform the communication by intermittently using each of the first duration and the second duration”. Said limitations are newly added to the amended Claims 1, 5, 14, and 15 and have been addressed in instant office action, as shown in section 35 USC 102 rejection below, with newly identified disclosures in previously applied reference Ryoo, thus rendering said Applicant’s arguments moot.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Ryoo et al. US Pub 2019/0166553 (hereinafter “Ryoo”).
Regarding claim 1 (Currently Amended)
Ryoo discloses a base station device (“base station” in Fig. 23; [0163]) comprising:
a communicator (“transceiver 2310” in Fig. 23; [0163]) configured to perform communication when a terminal station device (“terminal“ in Fig. 22; [0158]) associated with the base station device is in a predetermined state (e.g. “radio resource control (RRC) inactivation state” [0160]; Fig. 8); and
a controller (“controller 2320” in Fig. 23; [0163]) configured to
configure, regarding setting that is related to a region (i.e. search space specific to a terminal) in which a control signal for the communication performed by the terminal station device is decoded (e.g. “UE capability information”) and that is related to a first duration (the first duration preceding a UE sleeping timer (i.e. step 850 in Fig. 8), i.e. turning off at least transmission and/or reception means) in which the region becomes available (i.e. operate in RRC INACTIVE state), a duration that corresponds to first communication (i.e. steps 820-840 in Fig. 8) and a second duration (the second duration following the sleep timer/period) that corresponds to second communication (i.e. steps 860-870 in Fig. 8), and
control the terminal station device so as to cause the terminal station device being in the predetermined state (i.e. operate in RRC INACTIVE state in Fig. 8) to perform the communication (performing small data transmission [0053], [0163-0165] and see also Fig. 8) by intermittently using each of the first duration and the second duration (the base station establishes two different communication durations as discussed above).
Regarding claim 2
Ryoo previously discloses the base station device according to claim 1,
Ryoo further discloses wherein the controller performs the setting related to the duration in which the region becomes available by causing the transmitter to transmit a master information block (MIB) or a system information block (SIB) (“as a base station start operation option, the base station may transmit a control signal (e.g., RRC (re)configuration or system information (SI), for example, essential SI or on-demand SI) to the terminal based on the feedback information based on the terminal use probability, and may change the corresponding DRX state and period configuration.” [0128]).
Regarding claim 3
Ryoo previously discloses the base station device according to claim 1,
Ryoo further discloses wherein the controller performs the setting related to the duration in which the region becomes available by causing the transmitter to transmit individual control information on a radio resource control (RRC) layer (“an operation method by a base station in a wireless communication system includes receiving from a terminal UE capability information including information indicating whether to support a radio resource control (RRC) inactive state; receiving terminal information from the terminal; and transitioning to the RRC inactive state if a timer determined based on the terminal information expires.” [0009]).
Regarding claim 4
Ryoo previously discloses the base station device according to claim 1,
Ryoo further discloses wherein the first communication is communication of paging (“When the RRC connection starts due to DL traffic occurrence (610) in an RRC inactive state, a base station 602 transmits a paging message including RRC access indication related information (620).” [0076]; Fig. 6), and the second communication is communication of small data (“Second, the small data transmission in an inactive state is based on a data ratio bearer (DRB).” [0053]).
Regarding claim 5 (Currently Amended)
Ryoo discloses a terminal station device (“terminal“ in Fig. 22; [0158]) comprising:
a communicator (“transceiver 2210” in Fig. 22; [0158]) configured to perform communication with a base station device associated with the terminal station device when the terminal station device is in a predetermined state; and
a controller (“controller 2220” in Fig. 22; [0158]) configured to:
receive, regarding setting that is related to a region in which a control signal for the communication is decoded and that is related to a duration in which the region becomes available, setting of, performed by the base station device, a first duration that corresponds to first communication and a second duration that corresponds to second communication out of the communication, and
control, in the predetermined state, the communication performed by intermittently using each of the first duration and the second duration.
The scope and subject matter of apparatus claim 5 are reciprocal to the scope and subject matter as claimed in apparatus claim 1. Therefore apparatus claim 5 corresponds to apparatus claim 1 and is rejected for the same reasons of anticipation as used in claim 1 rejection above.
Regarding claim 6
Ryoo previously discloses the terminal station device according to claim 5, wherein the controller:
Ryoo further discloses turns on a wireless receiving circuit (i.e. controls the transceiver) included in the transmitter in the duration that corresponds to the first communication that is periodically performed (“The controller 2220 may control the overall operation of the terminal according to an embodiment proposed in the present disclosure. For example, the controller 2220 may control a signal flow between respective blocks to perform the operation according to the embodiment as described above. Specifically, the controller 2220 transmits to the base station UE capability information including information indicating whether to support a radio resource control (RRC) inactivation state” [0160]), and
turns on the wireless receiving circuit (i.e. controls the transceiver) included in the transmitter in the duration that corresponds to the second communication including transmission of data (“controls the transceiver to transmit terminal information to the base station. If a timer determined based on the terminal information expires, the controller may control to transition to the RRC inactivation state.” [0160]).
Regarding claim 7
Ryoo previously discloses the terminal station device according to claim 6,
Ryoo further discloses wherein the controller continuously turns on the wireless receiving circuit included in the transmitter in a period of time (“In this case, if the base station conservatively configures the user-inactivity timer, the base station may operate to reduce delay of the RRC connection state and network configuration control burden instead of consuming the terminal power through configuration of a long timer value. In contrast, in case of actively configuring the user-inactivity timer, the base station may operate to increase the delay of the RRC connection state and to partially increase the network configuration control burden for low-power performance efficiency of the terminal through configuration of a short timer value.” [0098]) between the duration that corresponds to the first communication (a first duration preceding a UE sleeping timer, i.e. turning off at least transmission and/or reception means; see Fig. 8) and the duration that corresponds to the second communication (i.e. a second duration following a UE sleeping timer/period; see Fig. 8).
Regarding claim 8
Ryoo previously discloses the terminal station device according to claim 5,
Ryoo further discloses wherein, when a radio resource has been allocated by a random access procedure including transmission and reception of four messages (“During entering into an inactive state through an RRC connection release (inactivation) message transmitted to a terminal 400 at operation 410, a base station 402 may pre-configure an RRC connection access method. Such an RRC connection access method corresponds to 1) grant-free, 2) dedicated 2 or 4-step RACH, and 3) contention-based 2 or 4-step RACH (420).” [0067]) of a first message to a fourth message (see Figs. 6-8), the controller turns on the wireless receiving circuit included in the transmitter (“a controller configured to control the transceiver to receive from the terminal UE” [0011]) in a set duration located after data has been transmitted by using the radio resource (“a base station operating in a wireless communication system includes a transceiver configured to transmit and receive signals with a terminal; and a controller configured to control the transceiver to receive from the terminal UE capability information including at least one of information indicating whether to support a radio resource control (RRC) inactive state and information indicating whether a terminal context stored in the terminal is effective, control the transceiver to receive terminal information from the terminal, and control to transition to the RRC inactive state if a timer determined based on the terminal information expires.” [0011]).
Regarding claim 9
Ryoo previously discloses the terminal station device according to claim 8,
Ryoo further discloses wherein the controller:
starts, after the third message (i.e. “MSG3” in Fig. 7) out of the four messages has been transmitted, a timer for waiting to receive the fourth message (i.e. “MSG4” in Fig. 7), and
continuously turns on the wireless receiving circuit included in the transmitter in a period of time between the start of the timer and the set duration (“Thereafter, the base station 702 having received the information discriminates and configures UL grant time and resource for transmitting an RRC connection resume request message (MSG3) through synthesis of the corresponding information (730), and then includes the same in the MSG2 to be transmitted to the terminal (740). The method for discriminating and configuring the UL grant time and resource includes, for example, an operation of determining a start time of resources included in the UL grant in accordance with an option corresponding to urgent, normal, or slow, TTI and a sub-carrier (bandwidth). Since the terminal transmits the MSG3 on the resource indicated in the UL grant (750), and the base station determines the transmission time of the MSG3 in accordance with the UL grant, it is possible to control the RRC connection access delay through this.” [0082-0083; Fig. 7]).
Regarding claim 10
Ryoo previously discloses the terminal station device according to claim 5,
Ryoo further discloses wherein, during a random access procedure including transmission and reception of four messages of a first message (i.e. “MSG1” in Figs 6-8) to a fourth message (i.e. “MSG4” in Figs. 6-8),
the controller:
starts, after the third message out of the four messages has been transmitted, a timer (step 1140 in Fig. 11) for waiting to receive the fourth message (“Based on the information as described above, the base station may configure the user-inactivity timer and the DRX-inactivity timer (1130), and may transmit to the terminal an RRC connection (re)configuration message including information on the at least one timer (1140).” [0105]), and
causes the transmitter to transmit data as a result of a radio resource being allocated before the timer is expired (“If the configured DRX-inactivity timer expires, the terminal transitions to a long C-DRX mode. If the preconfigured DRX-inactivity timer expires through the configured RRC (re)configuration, the terminal may transition to a C-DRX or long C-DRX operation mode, and thereafter, if the user-inactivity timer expires, the terminal and the base station may transition to the inactive state without additional RRC signaling transmission.” [0105]).
Regarding claim 11 (Currently Amended)
Ryoo previously discloses the terminal station device according to claim 5,
Ryoo further discloses wherein, when a radio resource has been allocated by a random access procedure including transmission and reception of two messages of a first message (i.e. “MSG1” in Figs 6-8) and a second message (i.e. “MSG2” in Figs 6-8), the controller turns on the wireless receiving circuit included in the transmitter in a set duration (e.g. “the UL grant may be configured as one of urgent, normal, and slow”) located after data has been transmitted by using the radio resource (“The base station discriminates UL grant transmission time and resource for transmitting an RRC connection resume request message (MSG3) through synthesis of the corresponding information, and configures for MSG2 (640). In this case, the UL grant may be configured as one of urgent, normal, and slow. In case of an emergency, the base station immediately transmits MSG2, but in case of no emergency, the base station may transmit the MSG2 after a pre-configured time elapses after reception of the RA preamble. The terminal may start the RRC connection access procedure through transmission of the MSG3 based on the UL grant of the MSG2. Through such a method, the base station may control the RRC connection access delay.” [0078]).
Regarding claim 12
Ryoo previously discloses the terminal station device according to claim 11,
Ryoo further discloses wherein the controller: starts, after the first message has been transmitted (i.e. step 910 or 920 in Fig. 9), a timer (e.g. “user-inactivity timer 930”) for waiting to receive the second message (i.e. step 940 in Fig. 9), and continuously turns on the wireless receiving circuit included in the transmitter in a period of time between the start of the timer and the set duration (“The base station may perform an operation of explicitly configuring the RRC connection state. This operation is performed based on base station possession information, and the base station possession information may be, for example, last traffic characteristic information, base station inactive state operation support/non-support, and RAN-based paging configuration information. Based on the information as described above, the base station may configure a user-inactivity timer (930), and after expiration of the corresponding timer, the base station may explicitly transmit an RRC inactivation message to the terminal (940) to transition to the inactive state.” [0097]).
Regarding claim 13
Ryoo previously discloses the terminal station device according to claim 5,
Ryoo further discloses wherein, during a random access procedure including transmission and reception of two messages of a first message (i.e. “MSG1” in Figs 6-8) and a second message (i.e. “MSG2” in Figs 6-8),
the controller: starts, after the first message has been transmitted, a timer for waiting to receive the second message, and causes the transmitter to transmit data as a result of a radio resource being allocated before the timer is expired (“FIG. 10 is a diagram illustrating another example of a method for transitioning from an RRC connected state to an idle (or inactive) state in a communication system according to an embodiment of the present disclosure. Referring to FIG. 10, a corresponding DRX inactivity timer is (re)configured through explicit RRC signaling, and thereafter, the terminal may perform early C-DRX start or early transitioning operation to a long C-DRX based on the corresponding configured DRX inactivity timer.” [0099]).
Regarding claim 14 (Currently Amended)
Ryoo discloses a wireless communication system (see Fig. 3) comprising:
a terminal station device (“terminal“ in Fig. 22; [0158]); and
a base station device (“base station” in Fig. 23; [0163]),
wherein the base station device includes:
a communicator (“transceiver 2310” in Fig. 23; [0163]) configured to perform communication when the terminal station device is in a predetermined state, and
a controller (“controller 2320” in Fig. 23; [0163]) configured to: configure, regarding setting that is related to a region in which a control signal for the communication performed by the terminal station device is decoded and that is related to a first duration in which the region becomes available, a second duration that corresponds to first communication and a duration that corresponds to second communication, and
control the terminal station device so as to cause the terminal station device to perform the communication by intermittently using each of the first duration and the second duration.
The scope and subject matter of apparatus claim 14 are similar to the scope and subject matter as claimed in apparatus claims 1 and 5. Therefore apparatus claim 14 corresponds to apparatus claims 1 and 5 and is rejected for the same reasons of anticipation as used in claim 1 and 5 rejections above.
Regarding claim 15 (Currently Amended)
A wireless communication method performed by a base station device that includes a communicator and a controller, the wireless communication method comprising:
performing communication when a terminal station device associated with the base station device is in a predetermined state;
setting, regarding setting that is related to a region in which a control signal for the communication performed by the terminal station device is decoded and that is related to a first duration in which the region becomes available, a second duration that corresponds to first communication and a duration that corresponds to second communication; and
controlling the terminal station device so as to cause the terminal station device to perform the communication by intermittently using each of the first duration and the second duration.
The scope and subject matter of method claim 15 is drawn to the method of using the corresponding apparatus claimed in claim 1. Therefore method claim 15 corresponds to apparatus claim 1 and is rejected for the same reasons of anticipation as used in claim 1 rejection above.
Regarding claim 16 (New)
Ryoo previously discloses the base station device according to claim 1,
Ryoo further discloses wherein the communicator is further configured to transmit first information (i.e. steps 820-840 in Fig. 8) and second information (i.e. steps 860-870 in Fig. 8), the first information (“MSG2 including the UL grant to the terminal (8300” [0087]; Fig .8) relating with the first duration (the first duration preceding a UE sleeping timer (i.e. step 850 in Fig. 8), i.e. turning off at least transmission and/or reception means), the second information (“the base station and the terminal determine a delay time, respectively, and after the delay time, they transmit and receive the RRC connection resume response message, respectively (860)” [0087]; Fig. 8) relating with the second duration (the second duration following the sleep timer/period in Fig. 8).
Regarding claim 17 (New)
Ryoo previously discloses the base station device according to claim 1,
Ryoo further discloses wherein the predetermined state is an INACTIVE state (“RRC INACTIVE” in Fig. 8), and the second communication using the second duration is started when the terminal station device transmits data corresponding to the second communication (step 870 in Fig. 8).
Regarding claim 18 (New)
Ryoo previously discloses the terminal station device according to claim 1,
Ryoo further discloses wherein the communicator is further configured to receive first information and second information, the first information relating with the first duration, the second information relating with the second duration.
The scope and subject matter of claim 18 are reciprocal to the scope and subject matter as claimed in apparatus claim 16. Therefore apparatus claim 18 corresponds to apparatus claim 16 and is rejected for the same reasons of anticipation as used in claim 16 rejection above.
Regarding claim 19 (New)
Ryoo previously discloses the terminal station device according to claim 1,
Ryoo further discloses wherein the predetermined state is an INACTIVE state, and the second communication using the second duration is started when the communicator transmits data corresponding to the second communication.
The scope and subject matter of claim 19 are reciprocal to the scope and subject matter as claimed in apparatus claim 17. Therefore apparatus claim 19 corresponds to apparatus claim 17 and is rejected for the same reasons of anticipation as used in claim 17 rejection above.
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 CHUONG M NGUYEN whose telephone number is (571)272-8184. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 10:00am - 6:30pm.
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, Derrick Ferris can be reached at 571-272-3123. 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.
/CHUONG M NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2411