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, see Remark, filed 01 December 2025, with respect to the rejection(s) of claim(s) 1, 3, 8-9, 18, 20 26, 35-35 and 39-42 as being anticipated by Kakishima (US 2019/0045377) under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of BAI et al. (US 2021/0185686 A1).
Claims 1-3, 5, 8-9, 18, 20, 22, 26, 35-36 and 39-42 are pending.
Figures 10 and 13 of the application illustrate the claimed invention.
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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.
Claim(s) 1, 3, 5, 9, 18, 20, 22, 26, 35-36 and 39-42are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over KAKISHIMA et al. (US 2019/0045377 A1) in view of BAI et al. (US 2021/0185686 A1).
Regarding claims 1, 18, 35-36, 39-42, KAKISHIMA et al. discloses a transmit-side electronic device in a wireless communication system, the electronic device including a processing circuit configured to:
determine a group common beam for communication with a group of terminal devices in the wireless communication system, the group of terminal devices comprising one or more terminal devices, see figure 3; and
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; a
transmit information about the group common beam to at least one of the terminal devices by using the determined group common beam.
([0030]: “As shown in FIG. 3, the BS 20 may transmit a plurality of BF cell-common signals such as the BF cell-common signals #1 to #5 on beam #1 t0 #5, respectively. Each of the beams used for beamforming may form a cell associated with a beam ID. For example, the beams #1 to #5 may form the cells associated with the beam IDs #1 to #5, respectively. Furthermore, in one or more embodiments of the present invention, the beam ID may be referred to as a radio resource ID RRID), a Beam Index (BI), or an Antenna Port (AP).”).
KAKISHIMA et al. fails to teach wherein the group common beam is determined by performing beam sweeping with respect to the key terminal device.
BAI et al. in the same field of invention, teach this feature. See figure 11.
BAI et al. method for indication of common beam for multiple user equiment. BAI et al. teaches ([0067]: “The SSBs may be organized into SS bursts to support beam sweeping. BAI et al. teaches a user equipment (UE) in step 1102 of figure 11 represent a key terminal device for communicating between the network entity and a group of UEs that include the UE. The key UE communicate with the network entity usign the common beam.
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Therefore, it would have been obvious to those having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine BAI et al. with KAKISHIMA et al. so to configured the UE as key terminal device in communication with the network entity.
Regarding claims 3 and 20, KAKISHIMA et al. teaches notify each terminal device in the wireless communication system of a group information of the terminal through radio resource control (RRC) or medium access control (MAC) signaling and
wherein the group information includes a wireless network temporary identification code of a device group to which the terminal device belongs.
([0038]: “the BS 20 may notify the UE of the beam ID corresponding to the beam for transmission to the UE 10 (step S105); (“wherein the notifying notifies the UE of the radio resource ID using a Radio Resource Control (RRC) signaling, a Measurement Reference Signal/Mobility Reference Signal (MRS), a Master information Block (MIB), or a System Information Block (SIB).” See KAKISHIMA et al. claim 6).
Regarding claims 5 and 22, although KAKISHIMA et al. in view of BAI et al. fail to teach wherein the key terminal device is selected based on communication capabilities of the terminal device, it would have been obvious to those having ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to select key terminal device based on the terminal device capability such as the key terminal device enable to function as a signal relay to other UE terminal devices.
Regarding claims 9 and 26, KAKISHIMA et al. teaches wherein the processing circuit utilizes the group common beam to transmit relevant information about the group common beam to a corresponding group of terminal devices via a group common physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) ([0025]: “The BS 20 may transmit at least a cell-common signal and channel that are beamformed toward different in the coverage of the BS 20. The cell-common signal and channel may be a Primary Synchronization Signal (PSS)/Secondary synchronization signal (SSS), a Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH)...”), and/or
.
Claim(s) 1, 5, 18 and 22, 35, 36, 39-42 7are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by CHEN et al. (US 2020/0367308 A1) in view of BAI et al. (US 2021/0185686 A1).
Regarding claims 1,18, 35-36, 39-42, CHEN et al. discloses a transmit-side electronic device in a wireless communication system, the electronic device including a processing circuit configured to:
determine a group common beam for communication with a group of terminal devices in the wireless communication system, the group of terminal devices comprising one or more terminal devices ([0098]: “For example, the beams in the candidate beam set may be grouped into M beam groups according to the predetermined rule, where M is an integer greater than or equal to 1.”; ([0094]: “In step 500, at least one of a control information transmission configuration or a data information transmission configuration corresponding to each of a plurality of beam groups into which a plurality of beams in a candidate beam set are groups is determined.”).
transmit information about the group common beam to at least one of the terminal devices by using the determined group common beam.
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CHEN et al. fails to teach wherein the group common beam is determined by performing beam sweeping with respect to the key terminal device.
BAI et al. in the same field of invention, teach this feature. See figure 11.
BAI et al. method for indication of common beam for multiple user equiment. BAI et al. teaches ([0067]: “The SSBs may be organized into SS bursts to support beam sweeping. BAI et al. teaches a user equipment (UE) in step 1102 of figure 11 represent a key terminal device for communicating between the network entity and a group of UEs that include the UE. The key UE communicate with the network entity usign the common beam.
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Therefore, it would have been obvious to those having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine BAI et al. with CHEN et al. so to configured the UE as key terminal device in communication with the network entity.
Claim 2 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over KAKISHIMA et al. (US 2019/0045377 A1) in view of BAI et al. (US 2021/0185686 A1) and further in view of NAKAYAMA (US 2019/0165983 A1).
Regarding claim 2, KAKISHIMA et al. fails to explicitly teach group terminal devices in the wireless communication system based on acquired information about positions of the terminal devices.
NAKAYAMA, in the same field of invention, teaches this feature.
NAKAYAMA teaches ([0122]: since the terminal apparatus 300 is positioned in a direction of a beam and a distance can also be estimated using a reception strength of a signal, the macro cell base station 200 can estimate position information of the terminal apparatus 300. Then, the macro cell base station 200 extracts a candidate for a small cell with which the terminal apparatus 300 will established the connection of a user plane based on the position information of the terminal apparatus 300 and position information of the small cell.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to those having ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine NAKAYAMA with KAKISHIMA et al. so to form a group common beam for communication with a group of terminal devices.
Claim 8 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over KAKISHIMA et al. (US 2019/0045377 A1) in view of BAI et al. (US 2021/0185686 A1) and in view of Stirling-Gallacher (US 2018/0132217 A1).
Regarding claim 8, KAKISHIMA et al. fails to teach perform beam sweeping with respect to each terminal device in the group of terminal devices by using the group common beam, so as to determine a beam for each terminal device communicating with the transmit-side electronic device.
Stirling-Gallacher in the same field of invention, teach perform beam sweeping with respect to each terminal device in the group of terminal devices by using the group common beam. See figure 4B, 5A and 5B.
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It would have been obvious to those having ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine perform beam sweeping with respect to each terminal device in the group of terminal devices by using the group common beam so to select transmission beam for the UE terminal.
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 BRENDA H PHAM whose telephone number is (571)272-3135. The examiner can normally be reached 571-272-3135.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Charles Jiang can be reached at 571-270-7191. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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BRENDA H. PHAM
Primary Examiner
Art Unit 2412
/BRENDA H PHAM/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2412