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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 05/08/2023, 08/13/2024, 12/17/2024, 11/10/2025, and 04/13/2026. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Response to Amendment
The Amendment filed 12/01/2025 has been entered. Claims 49, 51, 53, 54, 58, 59, and 63 have been amended. Claims 64-70 have been added. 56 and 61 have been cancelled
Response to Arguments
Applicant's argument(s) filed on 12/01/2025 with respect to the rejection of claims under rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 have been considered but are moot in view of the new ground rejection.
Priority
Acknowledgment is made of applicant’s claim for foreign priority under 35 U.S.C. 119 (a)-(d), based on an application no CN202010998233.0 filed in China on [09/21/2020]. It is noted that the applicant has filed a certified copy of the application as required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph:
The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the applicant regards as his invention.
Claims 49-55, 57-60, and 62-70 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) or 35 U.S.C. 112 (pre-AIA ), second paragraph, as failing to set forth the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor, or for applications subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 112, the applicant regards as the invention.
Claim(s) 49, 54 and 59 recite “the transmission quality factor comprises a distance and a transmission latency “. The claim recites "wherein the transmission quality factor comprises a distance and a transmission latency". It is unclear to the Examiner how "the obtained value of the transmission quality factor" which appears to comprise both the "a distance and a transmission latency" (e.g. time) can possibly be "higher than or equal to" a single threshold as the claim apparently implies.
Claims 50-53, 55, 57-58, 60, and 62-70 rejected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claims 49, 54 and 59.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
In the event the determination of the status of the application as subject to AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103 (or as subject to pre-AIA 35 U.S.C. 102 and 103) is incorrect, any correction of the statutory basis (i.e., changing from AIA to pre-AIA ) for the rejection will not be considered a new ground of rejection if the prior art relied upon, and the rationale supporting the rejection, would be the same under either status.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claim 49, 51, 54, and 59 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Murray (US 20220272760 A1) hereinafter Murray in view of Hoang (US 20250008572 A1) hereinafter Hoang.
Regarding claim 49 ,
Murray teaches A method comprising: ... obtaining a value of the transmission quality factor; and ([0254] The distance d may be calculated based on an estimate of the location of the UE 102 and an estimate the location of the network node ... [0255] location of the network node(s) may be broadcasted to the UE 102 or preconfigured. For NTNs, the location of the network nodes; e.g. satellites, may be based on satellite ephemeris.) selecting a 2-step random access procedure or a 4-step random access procedure based on the threshold and the obtained value of the transmission quality factor, ([0176] RACH Type Selection Based on UE Position ... [0177] UE 102 may select 2-step RACH if a time difference is above a configurable threshold and 4-step RACH if a time difference is below the threshold ... [0179] [0179] time difference ... correlated with the distance to the corresponding transmitting Transmission Receive Points ) wherein the transmission quality factor comprises a distance and a transmission latency, and the 2-step random access procedure is selected in a case where the obtained value of the transmission quality factor is higher than or equal to the threshold, ([0176] RACH Type Selection Based on UE Position ... [0177] UE 102 may select 2-step RACH if a time difference is above a configurable threshold and 4-step RACH if a time difference is below the threshold ... [0179] [0179] time difference ... correlated with the distance to the corresponding transmitting Transmission Receive Points ) wherein the method further comprises obtaining a value of the distance by calculating a distance between a satellite base station and a user equipment based on satellite ephemeris broadcast in the non-terrestrial network downlink and a location of the user equipment. ([0254] The distance d may be calculated based on an estimate of the location of the UE 102 and an estimate the location of the network node ... [0255] location of the network node(s) may be broadcasted to the UE 102 or preconfigured. For NTNs, the location of the network nodes; e.g. satellites, may be based on satellite ephemeris.)
Murray does not explicitly teach receiving configuration information including a threshold associated with a transmission quality factor via a non-terrestrial network downlink.
Hoang teaches receiving configuration information including a threshold associated with a transmission quality factor via a non-terrestrial network downlink ([0083] selecting one or more parameters for the RACH configuration ... methods may include receiving the one or more parameters from the NTN… [0194] the WTRU may determine whether to perform a 2-step RACH procedure or a 4-step RACH procedure based on any of whether the WTRU is a GNSS-based WTRU, the satellite type that may be targeted and/or accessed, a minimum delay of the transmission, a maximum delay of the transmission, a QoS of data).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to add the teaching of Hoang to the teaching of Murray. The motivation for such an addition would be to support a wide range of use cases with varying service requirements ([0072] Hoang).
Regarding to claim 51,
Murray and Hoang teaches the method of claim 49,
Murray does not explicitly teaches wherein the configuration information is provided in system information, and the system information comprises a master information block and at least one system information block.
Hoang teaches wherein the configuration information is provided in system information, and the system information comprises a master information block and at least one system information block. ([0219] the satellite information may be sent by the network, and received by the WTRU, in system information in a dedicated SIB (or other IE) or in any of the MIB and/or one or more SIBs.)
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to add the teaching of Hoang to the teaching of Murray. The motivation for such an addition would be to support a wide range of use cases with varying service requirements ([0072] Hoang).
Claims [54] (apparatus) and [59] (computer readable medium) are rejected under the same reasoning as claims [49] (method). Where Hoang teaches “methods described herein may be implemented in a computer program, software, or firmware incorporated in a computer readable medium for execution by a computer or processor [0236]”.
Claims 50, 55 and 60 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Murray in view of Hoang in view of Yue (CN110913499A) hereinafter Yue.
Regarding claim 50,
Murray in view of Hoang teaches the method of claim 49,
Murray in view of Hoang does not explicitly teach the threshold is further associated with a service, and the 2-step random access procedure or the 4-step random access procedure is selected based on the service.
Yue teaches the threshold is further associated with a service, and the 2-step random access procedure or the 4-step random access procedure is selected based on the service (page 5, if the service quality requirement is higher than the preset threshold, it shows that the reliability of service requirement is high, then it can select four- step random access executing random access procedure, so as to improve the reliability of the business service, the first parameter comprising data to be transmitted, the number to be transmitted if smaller, then can use the two-step random access executing random process, so as to improve the speed of access).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to add the teaching of Yue to the teaching of Murray and Hoang. The motivation for such an addition would be to improve the flexibility of random access (page 5, Yue).
Claims 55 (apparatus) and 60 (computer readable medium) are rejected under the same reasoning as claim 50 (method), Where Hoang teaches “methods described herein may be implemented in a computer program, software, or firmware incorporated in a computer readable medium for execution by a computer or processor [0236]”.
Claims 52-53, 57-58 and 62-63 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Murray in view of Hoang and further in view of Tsai (US12309730B2) hereinafter Tsai
Regarding claim 52,
Murray in view of Hoang teaches the method of claim 49,
Murray in view of Hoang does not explicitly teach transmitting a message for initiating the selected random-access procedure.
Tsai teaches further transmitting a message for initiating the selected random-access procedure (column 18; row 20-25; Fig. 10 After receiving the indication, in action 1004, process 1000 may initiate a random access (RA) procedure).
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to add the teaching of Tsai to the teaching of Murray and Hoang. The motivation for such an addition would be to compensate for the propagation delays in the NTN ((column 2; row 12-14) Tsai).
Regarding claim 53,
Jung in view of Hoang and Tsai teaches the method of claim 52,
Murray further teach the configuration information further comprises at least one of an uplink power parameters and a retransmission parameter for transmitting the message. (([0155] a UE 102 may be configured to perform a prioritized random access procedure for specific triggers; e.g. handover and BFR. When performing a prioritized random access procedure, different values are used for some of the RACH parameters as configured by the network; e.g. powerRampingStepHighPriority, scalingFactorBI. The parameter powerRampingStepHighPriority corresponds to the power-ramping factor used in the case of prioritized Random Access procedure, which controls by how much the power is “stepped” up for a retransmission following an unsuccessful RACH attempt. The parameter scalingFactorBI corresponds to a scaling factor used in the case of prioritized Random Access procedure, that is used to scale the value of the Backoff Indicator signaled via a Random Access Response... [0197] MsgASizeGroup1, and the number of Random Access Preambles in Random Access Preamble group 1 for each SSB; e.g. numberOfRA-PreamblesMsgAGroup1.))
Claims [57-58] (apparatus) and [62-63] (computer readable medium) are rejected under the same reasoning as claims [52-53] (method), Where Hoang teaches “methods described herein may be implemented in a computer program, software, or firmware incorporated in a computer readable medium for execution by a computer or processor [0236]”.
Claims 64 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Murray in view of Hoang and further in view of Cheng (US 20210105761 A1), hereinafter Cheng .
Regarding to claim 64,
Murray and Hoang teaches the apparatus of claim 54,
Murray and Hoang does not explicitly teaches wherein the location of the user equipment is calculated through a global navigation satellite system (GNSS).
Cheng teaches wherein the location of the user equipment is calculated through a global navigation satellite system (GNSS). ([0124] In this case, K.sub.offset can be derived by UE (calculated based on UE location, e.g., GNSS, and satellite ephemeris), or indicated by NW by UE-specific signaling (for a UE) or group-UE signaling (for a group of UEs) or cell broadcasting (for all UE in the same serving cell))
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to add the teaching of Cheng to the teaching of Murray and Hoang. The motivation for such an addition would be to enhance for different numerologies in Non-Terrestrial Network ([0002] Cheng)
Claims 65-70 are ejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Murray in view of Hoang and Cheng and further in view of Ko (US20220338264A1), hereinafter Ko .
Regarding to claim 65,
Murray and Hoang and Cheng teaches the apparatus of claim 64,
Murray and Hoang and Cheng does not explicitly teaches wherein the configuration information is transmitted via a broadcast downlink channel comprising system information and/or via a dedicated downlink channel, the downlink signaling including at least one of RACH-ConfigCommon and RACH-ConfigCommonTwoStepRA.
Ko teaches wherein the configuration information is transmitted via a broadcast downlink channel comprising system information and/or via a dedicated downlink channel, the downlink signaling including at least one of RACH-ConfigCommon and RACH-ConfigCommonTwoStepRA. ([0351] For example, RACH-ConfigGeneric may be a parameter defined in ServingCellConfigCommon or ServingCellConfigCommonSIB ...ServingCellConfigCommon may refer to Table 24 .... [0353] RACH-ConfigCommon ....[0355] ServingCellConfigCommonSIB may be used to configure a cell-specific parameter of a serving cell of a UE in SIB1.... [0357] RACH-ConfigGenericTwoStepRA may be a parameter defined in RACH-ConfigCommonTwoStepRA or the like. For example, RACH-ConfigGenericTwoStepRA may be transmitted and received in RACH-ConfigCommonTwoStepRA or the like. For example, IE RACH-ConfigCommonTwoStepRA may be used to specify a cell-step 2-step random-access type parameter.)
It would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date to add the teaching of Ko to the teaching of Murray and Hoang and Cheng. The motivation for such an addition would be to configure a cell-specific parameter of a serving cell of a UE ([0355] Ko).
Regarding to claim 66,
Murray and Hoang and Cheng and Ko teaches the apparatus of claim 65,
Murray further teaches wherein the threshold is further associated with a service, and the threshold is set to a larger value for a service with larger delay requirement and to a smaller value for a service with smaller delay requirement. ([0158] The DL radio quality is compared with a threshold to determine the RACH type, where the threshold may be predefined or provided by the network via broadcast or dedicated signaling. The threshold may be defined as an absolute value; e.g. 2-step-rsrp-ThresholdSSB, 2-step-rsrp-ThresholdCSI-RS. Alternatively, the threshold may be defined as a relative value, where the threshold value is relative to a threshold used for Random Access Resource selection; e.g. rsrp-ThresholdSSB, rsrp-ThresholdCSI-RS. .... [0177] UE 102 may select 2-step RACH if a time difference is above a configurable threshold ... [0185] ...selection .... between 2-step or 4-step RACH procedure, may be based on a... configurable threshold, e.g. rsrp-ThresholdSSB-SUL. )
Regarding to claim 67,
Murray and Hoang and Cheng and Ko teaches the apparatus of claim 66,
Murray further teaches wherein the threshold is configured depending on a load condition of a cell and based on availability of PUSCH resources for the 2-step random access procedure. ([0326] perform RACH type selection based on at least one of a network configuration, a DL radio quality, a MsgA payload size, a logical channel and a status of a timeAlignmentTimer.)
Regarding to claim 68,
Murray and Hoang and Cheng and Ko teaches the apparatus of claim 67,
Murray further teaches wherein a message for initiating the selected random access procedure comprises a preamble on PRACH and a payload on PUSCH (MsgA). ([0118] ...The requirements on the MsgA payload (e.g. size, latency, reliability) will depend on the triggering event ... [0326] perform RACH type selection based on at least one of a network configuration, a DL radio quality, a MsgA payload size, a logical channel and a status of a timeAlignmentTimer... [0327] MsgA resource selection for .... mappings between preambles and PUSCH Resource Units.)
Regarding to claim 69,
Murray and Hoang and Cheng and Ko teaches the apparatus of claim 68,
Murray further teaches wherein the configuration information further comprises an uplink power parameter and a retransmission parameter, wherein the uplink power parameter comprises at least one of a delta power offset for MsgA PUSCH and an alpha value, and wherein the retransmission parameter comprises a number of retransmissions. ([0155] a UE 102 may be configured to perform a prioritized random access procedure for specific triggers; e.g. handover and BFR. When performing a prioritized random access procedure, different values are used for some of the RACH parameters as configured by the network; e.g. powerRampingStepHighPriority, scalingFactorBI. The parameter powerRampingStepHighPriority corresponds to the power-ramping factor used in the case of prioritized Random Access procedure, which controls by how much the power is “stepped” up for a retransmission following an unsuccessful RACH attempt. The parameter scalingFactorBI corresponds to a scaling factor used in the case of prioritized Random Access procedure, that is used to scale the value of the Backoff Indicator signaled via a Random Access Response... [0197] MsgASizeGroup1, and the number of Random Access Preambles in Random Access Preamble group 1 for each SSB; e.g. numberOfRA-PreamblesMsgAGroup1.)
Regarding to claim 70,
Murray and Hoang and Cheng and Ko teaches the apparatus of claim 69,
Murray further teaches wherein in the 2-step random access procedure the preamble and PUSCH are transmitted in time division multiplexing fashion and PUSCH resources are reserved for the PUSCH part of MsgA. ([0128] when the MsgA preamble and PUSCH are TDM-ed or the MsgA preamble and PUSCH are FDM-ed in different sub-bands)
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 VAN T NGUYEN whose telephone number is (571)272-6178. The examiner can normally be reached 8:00 AM - 5:00 PM (EST). 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, Ayman A Abaza can be reached at (571) 270-0422. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/VAN TA NGUYEN/Examiner, Art Unit 2465
/YEE F LAM/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2465
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