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 .
Summary
This action is in reply to Applicant’s Amendments and Remarks filed on 08/11/2026.
Claims 1-16 are pending.
Claims 17-30 are canceled.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments filed on 08/11/2026 have been fully considered but they are moot as they are not applicable to prior arts used in this office action.
NOTICE for all US Patent Applications filed on or after March 16, 2013
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 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.
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)(1) the claimed invention was patented, described in a printed publication, or in public use, on sale, or otherwise available to the public before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claims 1-2 and 9-10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102 (a)(1) as being anticipated by Liu et al. (US 20200120708 A1, of record, hereinafter ‘LIU’).
Regarding claim 1, LIU teaches a method at an apparatus (
Fig. 1, Terminal 110,
[0060] FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of a communication scenario according to an embodiment of this application. As shown in FIG. 1, a terminal 110, corrected) accesses a wireless network through a network device 120 to obtain services of an external network …. initially accesses the network device 120. In this case, a cell accessed by the terminal is a serving cell of the terminal, and the cell is responsible for radio resource control (RRC) communication with the terminal 110.
[0061] In a CA technology, the network device 120 may further configure another serving cell for the terminal. For example, during RRC connection reconfiguration, at least one serving cell may be added for the terminal 110, corrected), and the added serving cell is a secondary serving cell (SCell). In this case, the serving cell initially accessed by the terminal 110, corrected) is a primary serving cell (PCell). The added SCell may be a cell of the network device 120 or a cell of another network device.
See also Fig. 20 Terminal,
[0171] FIG. 20 is a schematic structural diagram of a terminal according to an embodiment of this application.), comprising:
receiving, in a downlink on a first cell, scheduling information configured to schedule a secondary uplink on a second cell, different from the first cell (
Fig. 2, [0064] The following describes cross-carrier scheduling with reference to FIG. 2. … As shown in FIG. 2, the network device 120 may configure three types of carrier scheduling manners for the terminal 110, corrected) …... On the CC2 using cross-carrier scheduling, a downlink control channel is used to schedule a data channel of another carrier. In other words, the downlink control channel of the CC2 is used …. to carry uplink grant information and/or downlink grant information of another carrier, where ….. the uplink grant information and/or downlink grant information of the another carrier are/is used to indicate a PUSCH and/or PDSCH resource of the another carrier ….. CC2 carries … DCI for scheduling the another carrier, and the terminal blindly detects the downlink control channel of the CC2 to obtain the DCI for scheduling the another carrier. … The CC2 using cross-carrier scheduling may be referred to as an X-CC. For the CC3 using cross-carrier scheduled, a data channel of the CC3 is scheduled by another carrier (for example, the CC2).
See also [0065] … that is, the serving cell schedules another serving cell through cross-carrier scheduling.
See also Fig. 5, [0095] FIG. 5 is a schematic diagram of coverage scenarios of different frequency bands according to an embodiment of this application. As shown in FIG. 5, on an uplink, the NR network reuses a frequency band of 1.8 GHz, which is referred to as a 1.8 GHz frequency band below, of the LTE network. On a downlink, the NR network uses a frequency band of 3.5 GHz, which is referred to as a 3.5 GHz frequency band below. NR uplink and LTE uplink share a same frequency band resource.
(Construed CC2 == 3.5 GHz == First serving cell, CC3 == 1.8 GHz == Second serving cell, different from the first cell));
at least one of:
receiving, as a first option, downlink reference signals on the first cell (
[0115] S840. The network device determines to switch an uplink resource of the terminal from the second uplink resource to the first uplink resource.
[0116] For example, the terminal reports a measurement report to the network device, where the measurement report shows that channel quality of the terminal on the 3.5 GHz uplink resource is less than or equal to a threshold, for example, a reference signal received power (RSRP) of the terminal on the 3.5 GHz uplink resource is less than or equal to an RSRP threshold, which indicates that the terminal is about to move outside coverage of the 3.5 GHz uplink resource, and therefore the network device determines to switch the uplink resource of the terminal from 3.5 GHz to 1.8 GHz.), the downlink reference signals being associated with the secondary uplink (
[0116] … a reference signal received power (RSRP) of the terminal on the 3.5 GHz uplink resource is less than or equal to an RSRP threshold, which indicates that the terminal is about to move outside coverage of the 3.5 GHz uplink resource, and therefore the network device determines to switch the uplink resource of the terminal from 3.5 GHz to 1.8 GHz.), and
receiving, as a second option, radio resource control signaling configuring a third cell on which the downlink reference signals are received, the third cell being the same as or different from the first cell (
[0112] S820. The network device configures, for the terminal based on the capability information, a first uplink resource and a second uplink resource, which are the 1.8 GHz uplink resource and the 3.5 GHz uplink resource, respectively. An index of the 3.5 GHz uplink resource is “0”, and an index of the 1.8 GHz uplink resource is “1”.
[0113] S830. The network device sends configuration information to the terminal, where the configuration information is used to configure the first uplink resource and the second uplink resource for the terminal, that is, the configuration information includes an index of the first uplink resource and an index of the second uplink resource, and the configuration information may be an RRC message.
(Since only 3.5G carrier or first cell has downlink, it is construed that RRC message is received on the first or same third cell)
[0116] For example, the terminal reports a measurement report to the network device, where the measurement report shows that channel quality of the terminal on the 3.5 GHz uplink resource is less than or equal to a threshold, for example, a reference signal received power (RSRP) of the terminal on the 3.5 GHz uplink resource is less than or equal to an RSRP threshold), and
receiving the downlink reference signals on the third cell (
[0116] reference signal received power (RSRP) of the terminal on the 3.5 GHz uplink resource is less than or equal to an RSRP threshold); and
transmitting the secondary uplink on the second cell (
[0116] … the network device determines to switch the uplink resource of the terminal from 3.5 GHz to 1.8 GHz.
[0118] S850. The network device sends scheduling information to the terminal, where the scheduling information is, for example, DCI, and a value of a CIF in the scheduling information is “1”.
[0123] After switching, the terminal transmits at least one of a PUSCH, a PUCCH, an SRS, and a PRACH on the 1.8 GHz uplink resource…).
Regarding claim 2, LIU teaches the method of claim 1, wherein the secondary uplink has no associated downlink in the second cell (
Fig. 6 1.8G UL only.
See also [0140] 1.8 GHz is not used for downlink transmission …. in other words, 1.8 GHz is an SUL resource…).
Regarding claim 9, the claim is interpreted mutatis mutandis of claim 1 and rejected for the same reason as set forth for claim 1.
Regarding claim 10, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the same reason as set forth for claim 2.
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.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claims 3-4 and 11-12 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Liu et al. (US 20200120708 A1, of record, hereinafter ‘LIU’) in view of LEI et al. (US 20210045159 A1, of record, hereinafter ‘LEI’).
Regarding claim 3, LIU teaches the method of claim 1.
LIU does not explicitly disclose transmitting the secondary uplink on the second cell at a transmit power level determined with the downlink reference signals received on the at least one of:
the first cell in response to receiving the downlink reference signals on the first cell, or
the third cell in response to receiving the radio resource control signaling configuring the third cell.
In an analogous art, LEI teaches transmitting the secondary uplink on the second cell with at a transmit power level or with a timing control determined with the downlink reference signals received on the at least one of:
the first cell in response to receiving the downlink reference signals on the first cell (
[0095] A UE is typically provided with N synchronization signal (SS) and/or physical broadcast channel (PBCH) blocks (SSBs), with each SSB associated with one msgA occasion. If N is less than one, then one SS block may be mapped to 1/N sets of message RACH occasion (RO) and message physical resource units (PRU). If N is greater than or equal to one, then N consecutive SS blocks may be mapped to a set of message ROs and message PRUs….
(It is obvious that UE determines SSB as timing control reference)
[0096] In some cases, the strength in which an SSB is detected may impact the criteria for validating a msgA transmission occasion. For example, a UE may be provided with M thresholds for the signal quality measurement (S.sub.i), sorted ascending order (e.g., S.sub.1<S.sub.2< . . . S.sub.M) ….
[0097] In some cases, the validation criteria may involve the signal quality measurement (S.sub.i) being above a first threshold level.
[0099] In certain aspects, the validation criteria may depend on at least one of a maximum power of the UE and bandwidth available for selected message transmission occasion.
[0101] As illustrated, the BS may broadcast the SSB, system information block (SIB), and reference signal (RS) with system information (or RRC signaling) with configuration information for the two-step RACH procedure. As illustrated, the UE performs Layer 1 (L1) reference signal receive power (RSRP) measurement (e.g., of the SSBs).
[0102] The UE may select an msgA occasion (associated with the detected SSB) and evaluate (validate) the selected msgA occasion based on the L1-RSRP measurement and size of the msgA payload, as described above. In some cases, the evaluation may also consider other factors, such as the maximum transmission power
[0105] In some cases, the criteria for validating a selected msgA transmission occasion may involve the processing capabilities of the UE……. The validation may also involve the UE's capability to support carrier aggregation (CA), dual connectivity (DC), and supplementary uplink (SUL)
(It is obvious that UE transmits the secondary uplink on SUL or the second cell at a transmit power level with a timing control determined based on received SSB as at a PCell or SCell, as well known in the art, when UE supporting CA and DC uses a SUL)), or
the third cell in response to receiving the radio resource control signaling configuring the third cell.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to take the technique of measuring SSB as downlink reference signals for timing control and uplink transmission power control to support carrier aggregation (CA), dual connectivity (DC), and supplementary uplink (SUL) of LEI to the method of uplink resource grant for improved coverage and data rate of LIU in order to take the advantage of a method providing improved reliability of message decoding and reduced complexity of blind decoding using a finite set of ROs and PRUs for reducing monitoring overhead (blind decodes) by a base station for further improvements in NR and LTE technology (LEI: [0005, 0006, 0078]).
Regarding claim 4, LIU teaches the method of claim 1.
LIU does not explicitly disclose using the downlink reference signals in connection with at least one of:
layer 3 radio resource management (L3 RRM),
layer 1 beam management/inter-cell beam management (L1 BM/ICBM),
determining a transmit power level,
determining a timing control,
in association with the secondary uplink on the second cell and another uplink on at least one of: the first cell, or the third cell.
LEI teaches using the downlink reference signals in connection with at least one of:
layer 3 radio resource management (L3 RRM),
layer 1 beam management/inter-cell beam management (L1 BM/ICBM),
determining a transmit power level,
determining a timing control,
in association with the secondary uplink on the second cell and another uplink on at least one of: the first cell, or the third cell (
[0095] A UE is typically provided with N synchronization signal (SS) and/or physical broadcast channel (PBCH) blocks (SSBs), with each SSB associated with one msgA occasion. If N is less than one, then one SS block may be mapped to 1/N sets of message RACH occasion (RO) and message physical resource units (PRU). If N is greater than or equal to one, then N consecutive SS blocks may be mapped to a set of message ROs and message PRUs….
(It is obvious that UE determines SSB as timing control reference)
See [0096-0097, 0099, 0101] cited for claim 3, and further-
[0102] The UE may select an msgA occasion (associated with the detected SSB) and evaluate (validate) the selected msgA occasion based on the L1-RSRP measurement and size of the msgA payload, as described above. In some cases, the evaluation may also consider other factors, such as the maximum transmission power
[0105] In some cases, the criteria for validating a selected msgA transmission occasion may involve the processing capabilities of the UE……. The validation may also involve the UE's capability to support carrier aggregation (CA), dual connectivity (DC), and supplementary uplink (SUL)
(It is obvious that UE transmits the secondary uplink on SUL or the second cell at a transmit power level with a timing control determined based on received SSB as at a PCell or SCell, as well known in the art, when UE supporting CA and DC uses a SUL)).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to take the technique of measuring SSB as downlink reference signals for timing control and uplink transmission power control to support carrier aggregation (CA), dual connectivity (DC), and supplementary uplink (SUL) of LEI to the method of uplink resource grant for improved coverage and data rate of LIU in order to take the advantage of a method providing improved reliability of message decoding and reduced complexity of blind decoding using a finite set of ROs and PRUs for reducing monitoring overhead (blind decodes) by a base station for further improvements in NR and LTE technology (LEI: [0005, 0006, 0078]).
Regarding claim 11, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the same reason as set forth for claim 3.
Regarding claim 12, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the same reason as set forth for claim 4.
Claims 5-6 and 13-14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Liu et al. (US 20200120708 A1, of record, hereinafter ‘LIU’) further in view of Freda et al. (US 20200396654 A1, of record, hereinafter ‘FREDA’).
Regarding claim 5, LIU teaches the method of claim 1.
LIU does not explicitly disclose further comprising:
independently executing mobility determinations for the secondary uplink on the second cell and another uplink on at least one of: the first cell, or the third cell.
In an analogous art, FREDA teaches independently executing mobility determinations for the secondary uplink on the second cell and another uplink on at least one of: the first cell, or the third cell (
Fig. 2, [0084] FIG. 2 is a diagram of an example coverage map 200 of a cell 202 (e.g., a gNB). In high frequencies (e.g., high new radio (NR) frequencies), UL coverage of the cell 202 may be significantly less than DL coverage of the cell 202. The cell 202 may include a Supplementary UL (SUL), which for example, may be a lower frequency than the regular UL (RUL) and the downlink (DL) of the cell 202. The RUL and SUL may be paired with each DL of a cell (e.g., an SCell). A WTRU 204 may camp on the SUL when RSRP<SUL_threshold (e.g., when RSRP of the RUL is <SUL_threshold (e.g., when RSRP of the RUL is <SUL_threshold)……. The examples provided herein may, for example, be used to ensure that a WTRU camps on a cell having the best combination of downlink and uplink coverage in an environment with mixed SUL/non-SUL support.).
[0156] WTRU behavior may adapt based on a triggering condition. For example, the WTRU may (e.g. in foregoing examples) inform lower layers of a need to switch to an SUL. A WTRU may (e.g. further) initiate a procedure in lower layers that may be associated with informing an NW of a UL switch. Upper layer(s) may initiate one or more lower-layer procedures such as, for example, one or more of the following: (i) initiation of a RACH procedure or RACH-like procedure in an SUL; (ii) transmission of an RRC message on a currently configured UL (e.g. RUL); (iii) transmission on a PUCCH (e.g. SR or other indication) on an SUL (e.g. when resources may be configured), and/or (iii) transmission of an RRC message on a master node (e.g. eNB/gNB), for example, when a WTRU may be configured with DC and/or when RUL/SUL configurations may be associated with transmission on a secondary node (SN) (e.g. gNB).
[0158] a WTRU may transmit a switch indication message as an RRC message on an RUL, or as an RRC message to an MN (e.g. when a switch to SUL may be associated with an SN).
(It is obvious that mobility for SUL for Cell switch is associated with SN independent of Master Cell or MN the first Cell)).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to take the technique of SUL mobility in DC of FREDA to the method of uplink resource grant for improved coverage and data rate of LIU in order to take the advantage of a method providing for improved quality to meet service (QoS) requirements, such as differing throughput requirements, latency requirements, error tolerance requirements, reliability requirements, data throughput requirements and mobility requirements (FREDA: [0028, 0158, 0223]).
Regarding claim 6, LIU and FREDA, teaches the method of claim 5.
LIU does not explicitly disclose where the mobility determinations correspond to at least one of:
a cell-change,
a cell-switch,
a beam-change, or
a beam-switch.
FREDA teaches where the mobility determinations correspond to at least one of:
a cell-change,
a cell-switch,
a beam-change, or
a beam-switch (
See FREDA [0156, 0158] cited above for Claim 5).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to take the technique of SUL mobility in DC of FREDA to the method of uplink resource grant for improved coverage and data rate of LIU in order to take the advantage of a method providing for improved quality to meet service (QoS) requirements, such as differing throughput requirements, latency requirements, error tolerance requirements, reliability requirements, data throughput requirements and mobility requirements (FREDA: [0028, 0158, 0223]).
Regarding claim 13, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the same reason as set forth for claim 5.
Regarding claim 14, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the same reason as set forth for claim 6.
Claims 7 and 15 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Liu et al. (US 20200120708 A1, of record, hereinafter ‘LIU’) in view of Cirik et al. (US 20220353940 A1, of record, hereinafter ‘CIRIK940’).
Regarding claim 7, LIU teaches the method of claim 1.
LIU does not explicitly disclose wherein the secondary uplink on the second cell, and
another uplink on at least one of: the first cell, or the third cell belong to a same timing advance group (TAG).
In an analogous art, CIRIK940 teaches wherein the secondary uplink on the second cell, and another uplink on at least one of: the first cell, or the third cell belong to a same timing advance group (TAG) (
[0336] An SCell may be for UL only. For the UL only SCell, the wireless device may transmit on the indicated UL BWP, for example, if a wireless device receives a grant.
[0344] A BWP on SCell may be activated by means of cross-cell scheduling DCI.
Fig. 8 pTAG with PCell and SCell1,
[0219] FIG. 8 shows example TAG configurations. …..In Example 2, a pTAG comprises a PCell and an SCell1…).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to take the technique of scheduling a UL only Scell for uplink transmission by another cell with DL of CIRIK940 to the method of uplink resource grant for improved coverage and data rate using SUL or cell with 1.8 GHz for UL only of LIU in order to take the advantage of a method providing improved wireless communications without adversely increasing signaling overhead and/or decreasing spectral efficiency while increasing uplink resources (CIRIK940: [0002, 0336]).
Regarding claim 15, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the same reason as set forth for claim 7.
Claims 8 and 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Liu et al. (US 20200120708 A1, of record, hereinafter ‘LIU’) in view of Sato et al. (US 20210068147 A1, of record, hereinafter ‘SATO’).
Regarding claim 8, LIU teaches the method of claim 1, deactivation of the at least one of:
the first cell, or
the third cell (
[0108] Therefore, the terminal deactivates the 3.5 GHz uplink resource and activates the 1.8 GHz uplink resource, to implement uplink resource switching.).
LIU do not explicitly disclose wherein upon deactivation of the at least one of:
the first cell, or
the third cell, respectively, the method further comprises at least one of:
deactivating the secondary uplink on the second cell,
disabling the scheduling of the secondary uplink on the second cell, or
switching a monitoring of the downlink reference signals from the second cell in association with the secondary uplink to at least one of:
a cell within a band, a band set, or a frequency range (FR) where the secondary uplink is configured,
a cell within a timing advance group (TAG) where the secondary uplink is configured,
a cell based on a cell index, or
a cell based on a rule established by an implementation of the apparatus.
In analogous art, SATO teaches wherein upon deactivation of the at least one of:
the first cell, or
the third cell (
Fig. 5 Message 505,
[0039] Subsequently, a SCell Activation/Deactivation MAC CE 505 indicating deactivation of the serving cell (SCell) is transmitted from the base station apparatus to the mobile station apparatus ….), respectively, the method further comprises at least one of:
deactivating the secondary uplink on the second cell,
disabling the scheduling of the secondary uplink on the second cell (
Fig. 5 State 555 Grant Free State of SUL Carrier Suspended,
[0039] Subsequently, a SCell Activation/Deactivation MAC CE 505 indicating deactivation of the serving cell (SCell) is transmitted from the base station apparatus to the mobile station apparatus. The mobile station apparatus that has received the SCell Activation/Deactivation MAC CE 505 suspends the configured uplink grant of GF for the SUL carrier (555)), or
switching a monitoring of the downlink reference signals from the second cell in association with the secondary uplink to at least one of:
a cell within a band, a band set, or a frequency range (FR) where the secondary uplink is configured,
a cell within a timing advance group (TAG) where the secondary uplink is configured,
a cell based on a cell index, or
a cell based on a rule established by an implementation of the apparatus.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to take the technique of Supplementary Uplink (SUL) operation of SATO to the method of uplink resource grant for improved coverage and data rate using SUL or cell with 1.8 GHz for UL only of LIU in order to take the advantage of a method providing for control of uplink transmission to prevent transmissions on normal uplink and a SUL in a radio resource (slot) at the same time enabling communication to be performed normally even in a case that multiple configured uplink grants are configured in a single serving cell while servicing larger coverage area with SUL when normal uplink carrier has narrower coverage area (SATO: [0004, 0007-0008]).
Regarding claim 16, the claim is interpreted and rejected for the same reason as set forth for claim 8.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
Jeon et al. (US 20220141869 A1), describing Random Access Response Reception
Hu et al. (US 20230164802 A1), describing INFORMATION SENDING METHOD AND APPARATUS, AND INFORMATION RECEIVING METHOD AND APPARATUS
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 SHAH M RAHMAN whose telephone number is (571)272-8951. The examiner can normally be reached 9:30AM-5:30PM PST.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, UN C CHO can be reached at 571-272-7919. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/SHAH M RAHMAN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2413
