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and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114.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 02/05/2026 has been entered.
Response to Amendment
The amendment to the claims filed on 02/05/2026 complies with the requirements of 37 CFR 1.121(c) and has been entered. Claims 1-3, 7, 12, 17, and 19 are amended. Rejections under 35 U.S.C. §112(a) are withdrawn. Rejection under 35 U.S.C. §112(b) of Amended Claims 2 and 18 is maintained for reasons further explained in the present Office action.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments filed on 02/05/2026 (hereinafter Resp.) with respect to the amended claims being distinguishable from Deng (U.S. Pub. No. 2025/0097988, hereinafter "Deng") in view of Yang et al. (U.S. Pub. No. 2023/0337287, hereinafter "Yang") 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 the matter specifically challenged in the argument, i.e., PRACH transmission configured for joint decoding at the base station – See Resp.,9:¶2. For example, Matsumura et al., U.S. patent Application Publication No. 2025/0063604 (hereinafter Matsumura) discloses joint decoding of PRACH repetitions based on the same PRACH/SSB preamble – See [¶0326].
Claim Objections
Amended Claim 1 is objected to because of the following informalities: "a selected number of PRACH transmissions" should be "a selected number L of PRACH transmissions". Appropriate correction is required.
Amended Claim 12 is objected to because of the following informalities: "the selected number of transmissions" should be "the selected number L of PRACH transmissions". Appropriate correction is required.
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 1-20, as amended, are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Matsumura et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2025/0063604 (hereinafter Matsumura).
Regarding Amended Claim 1, Matsumura teaches a method (procedures for “[c]overage enhancement” using “PRACH repetition using the same beam or a plurality of different beams” – See [¶0076]) comprising:
transmitting, by a User Equipment (UE), a first Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH) transmission in a first Random Access Channel Occasion (RO) and comprising a preamble (a “UE implementation is to use an SSB beam associated with the PRACH occasion” so that “a base station can use an SSB for reception of a PRACH associated with the PRACH occasion” – See [¶0337] because “a set of PRACH occasions or PRACH preambles [are] mapped to N_Tx'SSB SS/PBCH block indices” for “an integer number of cycles of mapping from SS/PBCH block indices to PRACH occasions in [an] association period” – See [¶0081] and the); and
transmitting, by the UE, a second PRACH transmission in a second RO and comprising the preamble, the second PRACH transmission being a repetition of the first PRACH transmission from a selected number L of PRACH transmissions, (“UE may transmit the same PRACH preamble on ROs associated with repetition of the same PRACH preamble until the last repetition RO in the repetition period” – See [¶0341] when “Coverage enhancement including . . . PRACH repetition using the same beam” is used – See [¶0076] whereby a “number of actual repetitions may be less than a maximum number of repetitions in one repetition period (configured value/reported value)” – See [¶0341] i.e., a selected number L of actual PRACH transmissions1 in one repetition period, whereby “(RACH-ConfigCommon) may include generic RACH configuration (rach-ConfigGeneric ), a total number of RA preambles (totalNumberOfRA-Preambles), and an SSB for each RACH occasion and contention-based (CB) preambles for each SSB (ssb-perRACH-OccasionAndCB-PreamblesPerSSB), rach-ConfigGeneric may include a PRACH configuration index (prach-Configurationindex) and message 1 FDM (msgl-FDM, the number of PRACH occasions FDMed in one time instance)” – See [¶0078] and Fig. 1, i.e., the SSB-RO association is configurable, e.g., “FIG. 2A shows an example (mapping 1) of an association between a PRACH occasion (RACH occasion (RO)) and a beam (SSB/CSI-RS)” based on ssb-perRACHOccasionAndCB-PreamblesPerSSB whereby “when N<l, one SSB is mapped to a plurality of ROs. Therefore, RO capacity for each beam can be enhanced,”– See [¶0083] and Fig. 2A showing four ROs in each slot/TTI with each SSB mapped to two ROs; furthermore, “an occasion, a RACH occasion (RO), a PRACH occasion, a repetition resource, a repetition configuration resource, a resource configured for RO/repetition, a time instance and frequency instance, a time resource and frequency resource, and an RO/preamble resource may be interchangeably interpreted” – See [¶0159] and Fig. 5, showing a reference RO/preamble for each SSB2; see also 3GPP TS 38.331 v17.0.0 (2022-03), “Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; NR; Radio Resource Control (RRC) protocol specification (Release 17)” (hereinafter 3GPP TS 38.331), describing, at page 729-732, the RACH-ConfigCommon Information Element (IE), comprising totalNumberOfRA-Preambles field, indicating “Total number of preambles used for contention based and contention free 4-step or 2-step random access in the RACH resources defined in RACH-ConfigCommon . . . consistent with the setting of ssb-perRACH-OccasionAndCB-PreamblesPerSSB, i.e. it should be a multiple of the number of SSBs per RACH occasion,” i.e., when one SSB is used per RO, the number of RACH preambles may be 1, therefore two ROs mapped to the same SSB could use the same preamble3; see also id., at page 736-738, describing the RACH-ConfigDedicated IE, indicating the ra-PreambleIndex as “[t]he preamble index that the UE shall use when performing CF-RA upon selecting the candidate beams identified by this SSB”)
the second RO having an index differing from an index of the first RO by a set integer (“Indexing of the RO (repetition resource pattern) may be performed for each SSB/for each repetition/for each mapping cycle” and any of Embodiments #A0 to #A10 “may be employed in the indexing of the RO” – See [¶0477] knowing that “An association period, starting from frame 0, for mapping SS/PBCH blocks to PRACH occasions is a minimum value in a set determined by a PRACH configuration period in accordance with a relationship (relationship defined in specifications) between a PRACH configuration period and an association period (the number of PRACH configuration periods) so that N_Tx'SSB SS/PBCH block indices are mapped to PRACH occasions at least one time in the association period”; there may be “an integer number of cycles of mapping from SS/PBCH block indices to PRACH occasions in the association period . . . so that a pattern between PRACH occasions and SS/PBCH block indices repeats every 160 ms at most,” – See [¶0081] i.e., the longest pattern occupies 16 10 ms frames but one pattern could occupy just one frame, as shown in Fig. 3, depending on the prach-ConfigurationIndex setting the RO index and ssb-perRACH-OccasionAndCB-PreamblesPerSSB setting the number of SSBs per RO4 – See [¶0085] and Figs. 3-4; e.g., “[f]or PRACH configuration periods 10, 20, 40, 80, and 160 [msec], [the number of ] association periods are {1, 2, 4, 8, 16}, {1, 2, 4, 8}, {1, 2, 4}, [1, 2], and {1}, respectively” – See [¶0082] and Fig. 13A showing two cycles/association periods of SSB#/PRACH RO# mapping, wherein an RO index of the second repetition is separated by an integer from the first RO index, because “PRACH occasions are mapped consecutively for each corresponding SS/PBCH block index. Indexing of PRACH occasions . . . is reset . . . for each mapping cycle of consecutive PRACH occasions” – See [¶0111] and “[f]or an indicated preamble index, a sequence of the PRACH occasions is . . . [in] order of increment of frequency resource index for frequency multiplexed PRACH occasion” then in “order of increment of time resource index for time multiplexed PRACH occasion in PRACH slot;” and then in “ascending order of PRACH slot indices” – See [¶¶0113-6] e.g., as shown in Fig. 14B, SSB0 is mapped to RO1 and RO9 and each SSB#/RO# association is separated by 8 from the next occurrence of the association; furthermore, “indexing of an RO and a repetition resource pattern may be interchangeably interpreted” – See [¶0161] and “a repetition RO accompanied by the same beam, and repetition associated with the same SSB index may be interchangeably interpreted” – See [¶0164] and there are many possible PRACH repetition patterns5 including repeating an association period wherein one RO is mapped to one SSB and “[i]n ROs for the same SSB in respective repetition resources, a PRACH is repeated” – See [¶0312])
wherein the first PRACH transmission and the second PRACH transmission are configured for joint decoding operating at the network node based on the preamble (e.g., when “the repetition resource is one PRACH configuration period (10 ms)” – See [¶¶0324-25] and Figs. 18A and B, “[i]n ROs for the same SSB in respective repetition resources, a PRACH is repeated. When a base station has decoded/ received, in the first repetition resource, preamble 1 associated with SSB #x, the base station assumes that the same preamble associated with the same SSB is decoded/received in the second repetition resource. The base station may perform joint decoding/reception in order to enhance PRACH decoding/reception performance” – See [¶0326]), and
the first RO, the second RO, and ROs for the selected number of PRACH transmissions are associated with the same Synchronization Signal Block (SSB) index (for the ROs above, “an association between a plurality of PRACH resources repeated for the same beam may be recognized by a UE. Which RO is the xth repetition transmission may be recognized by the UE” – See [¶0341]; then “[t]he UE may transmit the same PRACH preamble on ROs associated with repetition of the same PRACH preamble until the last repetition RO in the repetition period (from the xth repetition until the last repetition)” – See [¶0341] and Fig. 21 wherein, “the number of repetitions is 4. Four repetition ROs are present in one repetition period. When the UE selects SSB 0 for a PRACH after the second repetition RO, the UE may transmit, in from the third repetition RO associated with the same PRACH preamble/SSB 0 until the last (fourth) repetition RO, the PRACH preamble” – See [¶0342]; furthermore “The base station using beam correspondence transmits a respective plurality of SSBs by using a plurality of beams every SSB transmission periodicity. The plurality of SSBs have a plurality of SSB indices. The UE that has detected one SSB transmits a PRACH in a RACH occasion associated with the SSB index” – See [¶0071]).
Therefore, Amended Claim 1 is anticipated by Matsumura.
Regarding Amended Claim 2, dependent from Amended Claim 1, Matsumura further teaches the method of claim 1, wherein the first RO and the second RO are selected based on a corresponding property (e.g., “repetition RO associated with the same PRACH preamble/SSB 0” – See [¶0342] and Fig. 21).
Therefore, Amended Claim 2 is anticipated by Matsumura.
Regarding Amended Claim 3, dependent from Amended Claim 1, Matsumura further teaches the method of claim 1, wherein the first PRACH transmission and the second PRACH transmission use an uplink (UL) beam (“the UE selects a beam for PRACH transmission” – See [¶0350], e.g., the “UE considers an RSRP value of each beam” and selects an SSB preamble – See [¶0351] e.g., SSB0 in Fig. 21, wherein “[t]he UE may transmit the same PRACH preamble on ROs associated with repetition of the same PRACH preamble until the last repetition RO in the repetition period (from the xth repetition until the last repetition)” – See [¶0341]; here, “a beam, an SSB, and an SSB index may be interchangeably interpreted” – See [¶0163]).
Therefore, Amended Claim 3 is anticipated by Matsumura.
Regarding Claim 4, dependent from Amended Claim 1, Matsumura further teaches the method of claim 1, wherein the set integer is Radio Resource Control (RRC) configured (“A UE may support a combination of two or more repetitions accompanied by the same beam” – See [¶0228] whereby “[w]hich of PRACH repetition accompanied by the same beam is used may be indicated/configured for a base station by SIB/RRC configuration,” – See [¶0232] “a repetition RO accompanied by the same beam, and repetition associated with the same SSB index may be interchangeably interpreted” – See [¶0164] and the RRC parameter ssb-perRACH-OccasionAndCB-PreamblesPerSSB indicates “the number N of SS/PBCH blocks associated with one PRACH occasion” – See [¶0080] and the RRC parameter “PRACH configuration index (prach-Configurationindex)” indicates “the PRACH occasion configuration” – See [¶0077] whereby the combination of the latter two RRC parameters define the set integer separating the indices of repeating ROs mapped to the same SSB#, as explained in Regarding Amended Claim 1 supra).
Therefore, Claim 4 is anticipated by Matsumura.
Regarding Claim 5, dependent from Amended Claim 1, Matsumura further teaches the method of claim 1, wherein the set integer is configured by a System Information Block (“The SIB1 includes RACH configuration and information for performing a RACH procedure,” – See [¶0070] whereby “common RACH configuration” includes “an SSB for each RACH occasion” and “rach-ConfigGeneric may include a PRACH configuration index” – See [¶0078] used to calculate the set integer separating the indices of repeating ROs mapped to the same SSB#, as explained in Regarding Amended Claim1 supra).
Therefore, Claim 5 is anticipated by Matsumura.
Regarding Claim 6, dependent from Amended Claim 1, Matsumura further teaches the method of claim 1, wherein the set integer is configured at startup of the UE (at startup, “[a] UE that has reported/transmitted the UE capability indicating that the function is supported may perform the function” – See [¶0495] whereby an “embodiment/option/choice/function out of a plurality of embodiments described . . . may be reported by a UE as a UE capability, may be defined in specifications, or may be determined by a reported UE capability and higher layer parameter configuration” – See [¶0497] e.g., “[t]he UE capability may indicate whether the UE supports at least one function of the following” – See [¶0498] “Counting configured ROs for indicated number of repetitions” – See [¶0500] “that repetition of same PRACH preamble occurs across a plurality of repetition periods” – See [¶0502] and the “Configuration of repetition period” – See [¶0528] i.e., the set integer is configured at startup of the UE as a capability) and “the UE can achieve the . . . function while maintaining compatibility with existing specifications” – See [¶0530]).
Therefore, Claim 6 is anticipated by Matsumura.
Regarding Amended Claim 7, dependent from Amended Claim 1, Matsumura further teaches the method of claim 1, wherein the first PRACH transmission, the second PRACH transmission, and remaining PRACH transmissions from the selected number of PRACH transmissions are used for performing joint decoding operating at the network node (e.g., “configuration of a PRACH repetition pattern/PRACH repetition resource/number of PRACH repetitions” – See [¶0297] “may be configured by SIB/RRC IE, or may be defined in specifications . . . for each unit resource of at least one of unit resource 1 to unit resource 6” – See [¶¶0298-0304] wherein “[i]n ROs for the same SSB in respective repetition resources, a PRACH is repeated” – See [¶0312] e.g., when “the repetition resource is one SSB (RO mapped to one SSB)” – See [¶0313] then “ROs for the same SSB in respective repetition resources, a PRACH is repeated” and “When a base station has decoded/ received, in the first repetition resource, preamble 1 associated with SSB #x, the base station assumes that the same preamble associated with the same SSB is decoded/received in the second repetition resource. The base station may perform joint decoding/reception in order to enhance PRACH decoding/reception performance” – See [¶0326] and “The UE may transmit the same PRACH preamble on ROs associated with repetition of the same PRACH preamble until the last repetition RO in the repetition period (from the xth repetition until the last repetition)” out of “a maximum number of repetitions in one repetition period (configured value/reported value)” – See [¶0341] and Fig. 21, showing the first PRACH transmission, the second PRACH transmission, and remaining PRACH transmissions using SSB0).
Therefore, Amended Claim 7 is anticipated by Matsumura.
Regarding Claim 8, dependent from Amended Claim 1, Matsumura further teaches the method of claim 1, comprising transmitting the selected number L of PRACH transmissions including: the first PRACH transmission; and L-1 PRACH repetitions including the second PRACH transmission, the L PRACH transmissions being in one SSB-RO association period (“The UE may transmit the same PRACH preamble on ROs associated with repetition of the same PRACH preamble until the last repetition RO in the repetition period (from the xth repetition until the last repetition)” out of “a maximum number of repetitions in one repetition period (configured value/reported value)” – See [¶0341] and Fig. 21, showing the first PRACH transmission, the second PRACH transmission, and remaining actual PRACH transmissions using SSB0, wherein an “association period may be X SSB mapping periodicities/cycles” – See [¶0299] e.g., in Fig. 21 8 cycles are shown as the SSB-RO association period comprising more than 2 actual PRACH transmissions using the SSB0 beam; see also [¶0359] and Footnote 1 regarding using PREAMBLE_TRANSMISSION_COUNTER as maximum actual PRACH transmissions, whereby e.g., L= preambleTransMax).
Therefore, Claim 8 is anticipated by Matsumura.
Regarding Claim 9, dependent from Amended Claim 1, Matsumura further teaches the method of claim 1, wherein the first PRACH transmission is made on one of N' ROs, the N' ROs being a set proper subset of N available ROs (“In an example of FIG. 21, the number of repetitions is 4. Four repetition ROs are present in one repetition period. When the UE selects SSB0 for a PRACH after the second repetition RO, the UE may transmit, in from the third repetition RO associated with the same PRACH preamble/SSB0 until the last (fourth) repetition RO, the PRACH preamble” – See [¶0342] i.e., 2 ROs out of 4 available ROs are used for an actual PRACH transmission and “subsequent available RO associated with the beam is not the first repetition transmission RO in a repetition period” – See [¶0340] and “[t]he number of actual repetitions may be less than a maximum number of repetitions in one repetition period (configured value/reported value)” – See [¶0341], therefore it is a proper subset of the set of the number of available ROs within the repetition period).
Therefore, Claim 9 is anticipated by Matsumura.
Regarding Claim 10, dependent from Claim 9, Matsumura further teaches wherein the set proper subset is Radio Resource Control (RRC) configured (“The random access preamble can be transmitted only in a time resource defined in random access configuration of specifications” – See [¶0085] while the “UE operation for repetitive preamble transmission, an impact on a RACH related counter/timer” – See [¶0091] must be configured to the UE, e.g., “A UE-specific number of PRACH repetitions may be configured by RRC” and “[t]he UE may determine the number of actual PRACH repetitions in accordance with a determination rule” e.g., when a SSB RSRP/RSRQ/ SINR/quality/power “threshold value may be defined in specifications, or may be configured by an RRC IE” and “PRACH repetition has been configured for the UE, the UE may transmit a PRACH a plurality of times (may transmit the PRACH repetition)” whereby “[a] plurality of threshold values/ranges associated with the number of PRACH repetitions may be configured” – See [¶0317] and the configured number of PRACH repetitions for each threshold value is always smaller than the available SSB-RO mapping repetitions in the repetition period, as shown in Fig. 22, whereby both the “association between a plurality of PRACH resources repeated for the same beam” and “[w]hich RO is the xth repetition transmission may be recognized by the UE” – See [¶0339]; similarly, “[a] preamble transmission counter” may be configured to the UE – See [¶0360] to count “[w]hen the second and subsequent (second, third, . . . ) repetitions of preambles are transmitted” – See [¶0359]).
Therefore, Claim 10 is anticipated by Matsumura.
Regarding Amended Claim 11, dependent from Claim 9, Matsumura further teaches the method of claim 9, comprising transmitting the selected number L of PRACH transmissions including: the first PRACH transmission; and L-1 PRACH repetitions including the second PRACH transmission, wherein the N' ROs are selected based on the value of L (“When the second and subsequent (second, third, . . . ) repetitions of preambles are transmitted” – See [¶0359] using the “preamble transmission counter (PREAMBLE_TRANSMISSION_COUNTER)” – See [¶0360], and, e.g., L= preambleTransMax or L=PREAMBLE_TRANSMISSION_COUNTER, “the UE can appropriately transmit PRACH repetition” – See [¶0363], i.e., the selected number L of PRACH transmissions including: the first PRACH transmission; and L-1 PRACH repetitions including the second PRACH transmission, up to preambleTransMax specified by 3GPP standards; furthermore, for a UE which supports PRACH repetitions: (1) “the UE may determine/calculate the number of repetitions on the basis of a determination rule or limitation,” e.g., “the UE may calculate the number of repetitions on the basis of an indicated/defined repetition period” – See [¶0319] and “[t]he repetition period may mean that mapping from all indicated SSB indices to ROs is repeated Y times in the period” – See [¶0320], i.e., Y=N ROs; and (2) “Which RO is the xth repetition transmission may be recognized by the UE” – See [¶0339] i.e., the UE knows that x<= L PRACHs were actually transmitted, whereby x ϵ N’ ROs as explained in Regarding Claim 9 supra, and that at least Y-x ROs are still available for the same PRACH preamble transmission; because x is always smaller than the configured maximum number of actual PRACH preamble transmissions, preambleTransMax, i.e., L, and x ϵ N’ ROs, then N’ ROs are selected based on the value of L).
Therefore, Claim 11 is anticipated by Matsumura.
Regarding Amended Claim 12, Matsumura teaches a method, comprising:
transmitting, by a User Equipment (UE), a first Physical Random Access Channel (PRACH) transmission comprising a preamble, in a first RO; and transmitting, by the UE, a second PRACH transmission comprising the preamble, in a second RO, the second PRACH transmission being a repetition of the first PRACH transmission from a selected number of PRACH transmissions (as explained in Regarding Amended Claim 1 supra, wherein the limitations are recited using the same language),
the first RO being selected based on an RO index (“Indexing of the RO (repetition resource pattern) may be performed for each SSB/for each repetition/for each mapping cycle” and any of Embodiments #A0 to #A10 “may be employed in the indexing of the RO” – See [¶0477] whereby the “PRACH occasion and an SSB index are normally mapped in specifications” and “UE implementation is to use an SSB beam associated with the PRACH occasion” – See [¶0337] and Fig. 4 showing the association by RO index, whereby “an association between a plurality of PRACH resources repeated for the same beam may be recognized by a UE. Which RO is the xth repetition transmission may be recognized by the UE” – See [¶0339], i.e., the UE may select an RO based on the RO index), and
the second RO being selected based on an RO index differing from the RO index of the first RO by a set integer, wherein the first PRACH transmission and the second PRACH transmission are configured for joint decoding operations at the network node based on the preamble, and the first RO, the second RO, and ROs for the selected number of transmissions are selected to be associated with the same Synchronization Signal Block (SSB) index (e.g., as shown in Fig. 21 each SSB-RO indexing pattern/cycle is repeated 4 times in the repetition period; furthermore, each of these limitations have been explained in detail in Regarding Amended Claim 1 supra, wherein the limitations are recited using the same language).
Therefore, Amended Claim 12 is anticipated by Matsumura.
Regarding Claims 13-16, dependent from Amended Claim 12, they merely recite the same limitations as Claims 8-11 with no other limitations. Because Claims 8-12, as amended, are anticipated by Matsumura, Claims 13-16 are also anticipated by Matsumura.
Regarding Amended Claim 17, Matsumura teaches, in Figs. 36and 37, a User Equipment (UE) comprising: one or more processors; and a memory storing instructions which, when executed by the one or more processors, cause performance of the method disclosed in Amended Claim 1. Therefore, Amended Claim 17 is anticipated by Matsumura.
Regarding Claims 18-20, as amended, dependent from Amended Claim 17, each claim merely discloses the same limitations as in Claims 2 - 4, respectively, as amended, and no other limitations. Because each of Claims 2-4, and 17, as amended, is anticipated by Matsumura, each of the Claims 18-20, as amended, is anticipated by Matsumura.
In sum, Claims 1-20, as amended, is rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 102(a)(2) as anticipated by Matsumura.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
Deng, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2025/0097988; Yang et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2023/0337287; and Wang et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2023/0397256 as used in previous Office actions;
Matsumura et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2025/0024509 disclosing similar teachings with emphasis on configuration of a PRACH repetition pattern;
Matsumura et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2025/0008566 disclosing similar teachings with emphasis on configuration of a PRACH repetition pattern;
Ali et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2023/0371081 discloses joint detection of repeated PUSCHs at the base station;
Utkovski et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2022/0110169 describes PRACH preambles and an example signature matrix with seven orthogonal subgroups of preambles;
Park, U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2022/0322443 (hereinafter Park). 2023/0085104 teaches how a UE discovers the time-frequency resource allocation of PRACH ROs;
Zhang et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2025/0168894 teaches various schemes for ROs to SSB indices associations;
Irukulapati et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2021/0352697 teaches SSNB to RO mapping against interference;
Kwak et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2022/0322443 teaches method and apparatus to determine one or more physical random access channel (PRACH) preamble transmission parameters associated with one or more PRACH coverage enhancement (CE) levels of a RACH procedure, wherein the one or more PRACH preamble transmission parameters comprise a first transmission attempt threshold that indicates a first number of PRACH preamble transmission attempts at a first PRACH CE level of the RACH procedure that will trigger a transition to a second PRACH CE level that is higher than the first PRACH CE level;
Islam et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2020/0267773 teaches method and apparatus for selecting which RACH procedure of multiple RACH procedures to perform;
Liu et al., WIPO Patent Application Publication No. 2023/201720 teaches method and apparatus to select a PRACH repetition number from the set of PRACH repetition numbers; and determine at least one time period for PRACH repetition based on the selected PRACH repetition number, wherein each time period of the at least one time period includes a set of random access channel (RACH) occasions (ROs) for PRACH repetition;
Ren et al., China Patent Application Publication CN114071772A, teaches mapping relationship between SSB and RO, and sets a preamble code that must exist for each RO;
3GPP TS 38.213 V17.1.0 (2022-03), “Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; NR; Physical layer procedures for control (Release 17);
3GPP TS 38.211 3GPP TS 38.211 V17.1.0 (2022-03), “Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; NR; Physical channels and modulation (Release 17)”;
3GPP TS 38.321 V17.0.0 (2022-03), “Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; NR; Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol specification (Release 17)”;
3GPP TS 38.331 v17.0.0 (2022-03), “Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; NR; Radio Resource Control (RRC) protocol specification (Release 17)”;
Chakrapani, “On the Design Details of SS/PBCH, Signal Generation and PRACH in 5G-NR,” IEEE Access, VOLUME 8, 2020, published July 20, 2020.
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/L.G.G./ Examiner, Art Unit 2478
/JAY L VOGEL/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2478
1 See [¶¶0359-60] (“repeated preamble transmission does not have an impact on a maximum number/count . . . of the number of transmissions” configured through “[a] preamble transmission counter (PREAMBLE_TRANSMISSION_COUNTER)”); see also 3GPP TS 38.331 infra, at page 741, describing rach-ConfigGeneric comprising preambleTransMax as “Max number of RA preamble transmission performed before declaring a failure (see TS 38.321 [3], clauses 5.1.4, 5.1.5)” whereby 3GPP TS 38.321 V17.0.0 (2022-03), “Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; NR; Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol specification (Release 17)” (hereinafter 3GPP TS 38.321) specifying, at page 32, that PREAMBLE_TRANSMISSION_COUNTER is incremented at each actual PRACH transmission up to “preambleTransMax + 1” before “indicat[ing] a Random Access problem to upper layers” or “consider[ing] the Random Access procedure unsuccessfully completed.”
2 In accord with present Spec.:[¶0083] stating “One mechanism is to let the UE targeting the transmission of L PRACH repetitions select preambles from ROs associated with the selected SSB index.”
3 See, e.g., 3GPP TS 38.321, at page 27, explaining the setting of the PRACH preamble based on the associated SSB as “if the contention-free Random Access Resources associated with SSBs have been explicitly provided in rach-ConfigDedicated and at least one SSB with SS-RSRP above rsrp-ThresholdSSB amongst the associated SSBs is available . . . set the PREAMBLE_INDEX to a ra-PreambleIndex corresponding to the selected SSB.”
4 The two configured parameters, prach-ConfigurationIndex and ssb-perRACH-OccasionAndCB-PreamblesPerSSB together determine the set integer separating consecutive ROs mapped to the same SSB#.in a PRACH configuration period following the sequence described in [¶¶0113-16] and Fig. 1. These Information Elements are specified in 3GPP 38.331 at page 729, as part of RACH-ConfigCommon IE, referencing also RACH-ConfigDedicated IE at page 737, and rach-ConfigGeneric IE, at page 739; see also 3GPP TS 38.211 3GPP TS 38.211 V17.1.0 (2022-03), “Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; NR; Physical channels and modulation (Release 17)” (hereinafter 3GPP TS 38.211) showing in Tables 6.3.3.2-2 to 6.3.3.2-4, at page 54-72, the correspondence between prach-ConfigurationIndex indices and RO indices per slot number depending on the length of the repetition period in number of frames.
5 See, e.g., [¶¶0299-304]; accord with §8.1, 3GPP TS 38.213 V17.1.0 (2022-03), “Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; NR; Physical layer procedures for control (Release 17)” (hereinafter 3GPP TS 38.213), describing, at page 48-50, the RA procedure whereby “a PRACH transmission includes the following: A configuration for PRACH transmission [4, TS 38.211]” and “[a] preamble index, a preamble SCS, P_(PRACH,target), a corresponding RA-RNTI, and a PRACH resource” and defines the mapping between a PRACH configuration period and SS/PBCH block to PRACH occasion association period in Table 8.1-1, at page 50; see also §6.3.3, 3GPP TS 38.211 V17.1.0 (2022-03), “Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; NR; Physical channels and modulation (Release 17)” (hereinafter 3GPP TS 38.211) , specifying, at page 52, the time resources allocations for transmitting random access preambles based on the PRACH configuration index in Tables 6.3.3.2-2 to 6.3.3.2-4 “given by the higher-layer parameter prach-ConfigurationIndex, or by msgA-PRACH-ConfigurationIndex if configured”;
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