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 .
Election/Restrictions
Applicant’s election without traverse of invention-I (claims 1-8 and 17-23) in the reply filed on 10/28/2025 is acknowledged and Applicant has amended the invention I to be similar to invention II. The amended claims and the original claims are addressed in the instant office action.
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 and 17 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Pan et al. (US 2024/0057149, “Pan”) in view of Baligh et al. (US 2023/0308139, “Baligh”).
Examiner’s note: in what follows, references are drawn to Pan unless otherwise mentioned.
Pan comprises the following features:
With respect to independent claims:
Regarding claim 1, a method of wireless communication performed by a user equipment (UE), comprising:
receiving, from a base station and via a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) (See below in view of Baligh.), a synchronization signal block (SSB) that is transmitted via a first transmit beam of the base station ([0123, Fig. 2B and Fig. 3] “At a gNB, the 305 Tx beam 1 may be associated with 304 SS block 1”. See Fig. 2B for Step 264 “Receive DL Indication of Actual TXed SSBs”) and that corresponds to a first SSB type configured for RIS-assisted procedures (This will be discussed in view of Baligh.);
selecting a random access channel (RACH) occasion including multiple physical random access channel (PRACH) transmission slots based at least in part on receiving the SSB ([0097] “A gNB and a WTRU may derive valid RACH occasion(s) (VRO) based on at least one of the following: a RACH occasion mapping to slots with SS blocks”, and [0148] “At 712, a number of slots for RACH may be indicated to a WTRU.”) corresponding to the first SSB type (See below in view of Baligh.); and
transmitting, to the base station, a PRACH communication in the multiple PRACH transmission slots of the RACH occasion ([0110] “At 270, the WTRU may transmit the RACH in the valid RO as determined in the previously.”),
wherein the PRACH communication is configured to be received based at least in part on beam sweeping using multiple receive beams ([0149] “A gNB may sweep Rx beams for PRACH using multiple RACH occasions.”).
It is noted that while disclosing SSBs and PRACH resources, Pan does not specifically teach about a RIS and SSBs. It, however, had been known in the art before the effective date of the instant application as shown by Baligh as follows;
receiving, from a base station and via a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS), and that corresponds to a first SSB type configured for RIS-assisted procedures ([Baligh, 0189] “the UE may receive information about the RIS from the BS. For example, the UE may receive information including … and an identification of a type of signal that the UE should expect to receive redirected from the RIS to properly identify the receive signal as being reflect by the RIS…, the RIS may use at least one of RIS specific SSB”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of instant application to modify Pan by using the features of Baligh in order to provide flexibility in delivering wireless signals between two entities such that “controllable metasurface devices capable of redirecting a wavefront transmitted by a transmitter to a receiver in the wireless network to take advantage of the controllable metasurface device capabilities, intelligence, coordination and reconfiguration speed” [Baligh, 0008].
Regarding claim 17, it is a user equipment claim corresponding to the method claim 1, except the limitations, “a memory; and one or more processors operatively coupled to the memory” (See Fig. 1B.), and is therefore rejected for the similar reasons set forth in the rejection of claim 1.
Claim(s) 2 and 18 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Pan et al. (US 2024/0057149, “Pan”) in view of Baligh et al. (US 2023/0308139, “Baligh”) and further in view of Gao et al. (US 2025/0212248, “Gao”).
Examiner’s note: in what follows, references are drawn to Pan unless otherwise mentioned.
Regarding claims 2 and 18, it is noted that while disclosing SSBs and PRACH resources, Pan does not specifically teach about same beam for SSB and PRACH transmission. It, however, had been known in the art before the effective date of the instant application as shown by Gao as follows;
the method of claim1 and the UE of claim 17, respectively,
wherein receiving the SSB corresponding to the first SSB type comprises
receiving the SSB reflected by the RIS on a receive beam of the UE, and
wherein transmitting the PRACH communication comprises:
transmitting the PRACH communication in the multiple PRACH transmission slots of the RACH occasion on a transmit beam of the UE that corresponds to the receive beam of the UE that received the SSB ([Gao, 0134] “A transmit beam for sending the random access preamble is the same as a receive beam for receiving the SSB.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of instant application to modify Pan by using the features of Gao in order to efficiently transmit a random access preamble such as eMBB, URLLC and mMTC such that “the first path loss is a path loss for transmitting a random access preamble, and the second path loss is a path loss for transmitting a synchronization signal block (SSB)” [Gao, 0007].
Claim(s) 3 and 19 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Pan et al. (US 2024/0057149, “Pan”) in view of Baligh et al. (US 2023/0308139, “Baligh”) and further in view of Jeon et al. (US 2024/0107477, “Jeon”).
Examiner’s note: in what follows, references are drawn to Pan unless otherwise mentioned.
Regarding claims 3 and 19, it is noted that while disclosing SSBs and PRACH resources, Pan does not specifically teach about multiple PRACH transmissions. It, however, had been known in the art before the effective date of the instant application as shown by Jeon as follows;
the method of claim 1 and the UE of claim 17, respectively, wherein transmitting the PRACH communication comprises:
transmitting, in the multiple PRACH transmission slots of the RACH occasion, the PRACH communication multiple times on each transmit beam of a plurality of transmit beams of the UE ([Jeon, 0180] “At 3020, the wireless device may transmit to the second base station via the one or more random access channel occasions of the cell, one or more random access preambles of the plurality of random access preambles using a plurality of transmit beams.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of instant application to modify Pan by using the features of Jeon in order to efficiently transmit a random access preamble such that “The wireless device starts the RAR window from a starting time based on the preamble transmission occasion” [Jeon, Abstract].
Claim(s) 4 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Pan et al. (US 2024/0057149, “Pan”) in view of Baligh et al. (US 2023/0308139, “Baligh”) and Jeon et al. (US 2024/0107477, “Jeon”), and further in view of Hakola et al. (US 2023/0309150, “Hakola”).
Examiner’s note: in what follows, references are drawn to Pan unless otherwise mentioned.
Regarding claims 4, it is noted that while disclosing SSBs and PRACH resources, Pan does not specifically teach about selecting a beam based on PRACH transmission. It, however, had been known in the art before the effective date of the instant application as shown by Hakola as follows;
the method of claim 3, further comprising:
selecting, from the plurality of transmit beams of the UE, a transmit beam for transmitting an uplink communication to the base station based at least in part on a determination of which transmit beam transmits the PRACH communication that is received by the base station ([Hakola, 0040 and Fig. 2] “in addition the UE indicates the preferred RAR to indicate the preferred downlink beam for MSG4. The gNB would then continue transmitting one MSG4 to UE from which it received multiple MSG3s using the indicated preferred downlink beam.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of instant application to modify Pan by using the features of Hakola in order to shorten latency in a random access procedure such that “The gNB uses the same Tx beam for each PRACH transmission during one full RACH sweep. The received RAR implicitly indicates the best Tx beam to use.” [Hakola, 0028].
Claim(s) 7 and 22 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Pan et al. (US 2024/0057149, “Pan”) in view of Baligh et al. (US 2023/0308139, “Baligh”) and further in view of Mu (US 2023/0292364).
Examiner’s note: in what follows, references are drawn to Pan unless otherwise mentioned.
Regarding claims 7 and 22, it is noted that while disclosing SSBs and PRACH resources, Pan does not specifically teach about selecting an RACH occasion. It, however, had been known in the art before the effective date of the instant application as shown by Mu as follows;
the method of claim 1 and the UE of claim 17, respectively, wherein selecting the RACH occasion comprises:
selecting the RACH occasion based at least in part on a mapping between RACH occasions and SSB types ([Mu, 0057] “a mapping relationship between synchronization signal blocks (SSBs) and PRACH resources, which enables the first type of UE and/or the second type of UE to determine a PRACH resource used according to an accessed SSB; or indication parameters for a mapping relationship between PRACH resources and initial UL BWPs, which enables the first type of UE and/or the second type of UE to determine an initial UL BWP used according to a PRACH resource used.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of instant application to modify Pan by using the features of Mu in order to support various applications and services of wireless communications such that “The method includes sending a resource configuration parameter, a resource indicated by the resource configuration parameter is configured for bandwidth resource multiplexing of a first type of UE and a second type of UE” [Mu, 0005].
Claim(s) 9, 10, 15, 24 and 25 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Pan et al. (US 2024/0057149, “Pan”) in view of Baligh et al. (US 2023/0308139, “Baligh”) and Park et al. (US 2023/0254908, “Park”).
Examiner’s note: in what follows, references are drawn to Pan unless otherwise mentioned.
Regarding claim 9, a method of wireless communication performed by a base station, comprising:
transmitting, on a first transmit beam of the base station, multiple transmissions ([0097 and Fig. 3] “A gNB and a WTRU may derive valid RACH occasion(s) (VRO) based on at least one of the following: a RACH occasion mapping to slots with SS blocks”, and [0110] “In 264 the WTRU may receive a DL indication of the actually transmitted (Txed) SS blocks.”) of a synchronization signal block (SSB) ([0123, Fig. 2B and Fig. 3] “At a gNB, the 305 Tx beam 1 may be associated with 304 SS block 1”. See Fig. 2B for Step 264 “Receive DL Indication of Actual TXed SSBs”) corresponding to a first SSB type configured for reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS)-assisted procedures (This will be discussed in view of Baligh.);
performing beam sweeping using multiple receive beams of the base station over multiple physical random access channel (PRACH) transmission slots of a random access channel (RACH) occasion associated with the SSB ([0149] “A gNB may sweep Rx beams for PRACH using multiple RACH occasions.”); and
selecting, from the multiple receive beams of the base station, a first receive beam for receiving uplink communications from a user equipment (UE) (This will be discussed in view of Park.) based on receiving, from the UE and via a RIS, a PRACH communication on the first receive beam during the beam sweeping (This will be discussed in view of Baligh.).
It is noted that while disclosing SSBs and PRACH resources, Pan does not specifically teach about a SSB type for RIS-assisted procedures and a PRACH communication via RIS during beam sweeping. It, however, had been known in the art before the effective date of the instant application as shown by Baligh as follows;
corresponding to a first SSB type configured for RIS-assisted procedures ([Baligh, 0189] “the UE may receive information about the RIS from the BS. For example, the UE may receive information including … and an identification of a type of signal that the UE should expect to receive redirected from the RIS to properly identify the receive signal as being reflect by the RIS…, the RIS may use at least one of RIS specific SSB”);
receiving, from the UE and via a RIS, a PRACH communication on the first receive beam during the beam sweeping ([Baligh, 0265] “The RIS-UE link discovery involves performing one or more of synchronization, using the random access channel (RACH) or channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) beam sweeping to discover a signal that is reflected by the RIS in the direction of the UE”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of instant application to modify Pan by using the features of Baligh in order to provide flexibility in delivering wireless signals between two entities such that “controllable metasurface devices capable of redirecting a wavefront transmitted by a transmitter to a receiver in the wireless network to take advantage of the controllable metasurface device capabilities, intelligence, coordination and reconfiguration speed” [Baligh, 0008].
It is noted that while disclosing SSBs and PRACH resources, Pan does not specifically teach about selecting a beam from PRACH communication during beam sweeping. It, however, had been known in the art before the effective date of the instant application as shown by Park as follows;
selecting, from the multiple receive beams of the base station, a first receive beam for receiving uplink communications from a user equipment (UE) ([Park, 0277] “After the UE 520 transmits a RAP signal (msg1) in the reception beam sweeping interval of the eNB 510, upon reception of the RAP signal, at operation 1840, the eNB 510 prepares a RAR signal (msg2). If the eNB 510 has scanned multiple beams containing RAP with preamble ID, the eNB 510 may select the best beam with highest reception performance as an eNB transmission beam”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of instant application to modify Pan by using the features of Park in order to be flexible for various types of services such as eMBB, URLLC and mMTC such that “to provide an uplink signal transmission method for random access, channel measurement, and terminal feedback in a cellular network using fifth generation (5G) frequency bands” [Park, 0011].
Regarding claim 24, it is a base station claim corresponding to the method claim 9, except the limitations, “a memory; and one or more processors operatively coupled to the memory” (See Fig. 1B and Fig. 1C.), and is therefore rejected for the similar reasons set forth in the rejection of claim 9.
With respect to dependent claims:
Regarding claims 10 and 25, the method of claim 9 and the base station of claim 24, respectively, wherein transmitting the multiple transmissions of the SSB corresponding to the first SSB type comprises: transmitting the multiple transmissions of the SSB on the first transmit beam toward the RIS, wherein each of the multiple transmissions of the SSB on the first transmit beam is to be reflected by the RIS using a different beam ([Baligh, 0156] “if a signal is coming directly from a BS in a different direction than the reflected signal from the RIS, and particular configurations allow for receiving signals from different directions, then one direction can be associated with a signal coming directly from a BS and another direction can be associated with a signal reflected signal from the RIS.”).
Regarding claim 15, the method of claim 9, wherein the multiple PRACH transmission slots of the RACH occasion are associated with multiple transmissions of the PRACH communication by the UE ([0097] “a RACH occasion mapping to slots with SS blocks”, and [0149] “To further support WTRU Tx beam sweeping in addition to gNB Rx beam sweeping, if the WTRU has M Tx beams, then multiple RACH occasions (as a package) with K times M OFDM symbols may be configured to the WTRU.”) and reflected using multiple beams from the RIS ([Baligh, 0263] “the RIS can detect the UE as a result of detecting other UE signals such as the physical random access channel (PRACH)”).
Claim(s) 11 and 26 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Pan et al. (US 2024/0057149, “Pan”) in view of Baligh et al. (US 2023/0308139, “Baligh”) and Park et al. (US 2023/0254908, “Park”), and further in view of Tang et al. (US 2020/0145080, “Tang”).
Examiner’s note: in what follows, references are drawn to Pan unless otherwise mentioned.
Regarding claims 11 and 26, it is noted that while disclosing SSBs and PRACH resources, Pan does not specifically teach about multiple transmissions of SSB at BS. It, however, had been known in the art before the effective date of the instant application as shown by Tang as follows;
the method of claim 9 and the base station of claim 24, respectively, wherein transmitting the multiple transmissions of the SSB corresponding to the first SSB type comprises:
transmitting, on each of the first transmit beam and one or more other transmit beams of the base station, multiple transmissions of the SSB corresponding to the first SSB type ([Tang, 0114] “synchronization signal blocks (SSB) transmitted by the BS using one or more Tx beams.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of instant application to modify Pan by using the features of Tang in order to efficiently manage TX/RX beams such that “The device may request and perform a beam management procedure with the gNB and may perform measurements as a part of the beam management procedure.” [Tang, 0004].
Claim(s) 14 and 29 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Pan et al. (US 2024/0057149, “Pan”) in view of Baligh et al. (US 2023/0308139, “Baligh”) and Park et al. (US 2023/0254908, “Park”), and further in view of Agiwal et al. (US 2024/0188082, “Agiwal”).
Examiner’s note: in what follows, references are drawn to Pan unless otherwise mentioned.
Regarding claims 14 and 29, it is noted that while disclosing SSBs and PRACH resources, Pan does not specifically teach about monitoring PRACH transmissions. It, however, had been known in the art before the effective date of the instant application as shown by Agiwal as follows;
the method of claim 9 and the base station of claim 24, respectively,
wherein the multiple PRACH transmission slots of the RACH occasion are associated with multiple transmissions of the PRACH communication by the UE (See aforesaid [0097], [0123] and [0149].), and
wherein performing beam sweeping using the multiple receive beams of the base station comprises: monitoring each of the multiple PRACH transmission slots using a respective receive beam of the multiple receive beams of the base station ([Agiwal, 0149] “the BS monitors the RACH slot X using multiple RX beams.”) to determine whether the PRACH communication is received on the respective receive beam ([Agiwal, 0150] “At operations 1213 and 1214, physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) and the RAR are transmitted by the BS 1202 using a TX beam 5 corresponding to (i.e., in same direction as) a RX beam 5 for example wherein BS 1202 has received the PRACH preamble using RX beam 5.”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of instant application to modify Pan by using the features of Agiwal in order to improve random access procedures for beam forming such that “The method includes identifying a first downlink (DL) reception (RX) beam based on a measurement on a beam measurement signal, identifying a first uplink (UL) transmission (TX) beam corresponding to the identified first DL RX beam” [Agiwal, 0018].
Claim(s) 16 and 30 rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Pan et al. (US 2024/0057149, “Pan”) in view of Baligh et al. (US 2023/0308139, “Baligh”) and Park et al. (US 2023/0254908, “Park”), and further in view of Cirik et al. (US 2025/0151033, “Cirik”).
Examiner’s note: in what follows, references are drawn to Pan unless otherwise mentioned.
Regarding claim 16 and 30, it is noted that while disclosing SSBs and PRACH resources, Pan does not specifically teach about first and second spatial filters. It, however, had been known in the art before the effective date of the instant application as shown by Cirik as follows;
the method of claim 9 and the base station of claim 24, respectively, wherein the first transmit beam corresponds to a first spatial filter of the base station and the first receive beam corresponds to a second spatial filter of the base station ([Cirik, 0217] “A wireless device may send an uplink transmission using a transmission beam based on the first spatial relation and the base station may receive the uplink transmission using a transmission beam based on the second spatial relation”).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time of instant application to modify Pan by using the features of Cirik in order to efficiently establish communications such that “the transmission parameters (e.g., transmission beam, transmission power, etc.) may be determined based on a selected spatial relation” [Cirik, Abstract].
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim(s) 5-6, 8, 12-13, 20-21, 23 and 27-28 objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
The claims contain the following underlined features which, when combined with other features of the claim, prior art of record failed to anticipate or render obvious before the effective filing date of the instant application was filed:
Regarding claims 5 and 20, the method of claim 1 and the UE of claim 17, respectively, further comprising:
selecting, based at least in part on receiving the SSB corresponding to the first SSB type, a PRACH preamble that indicates the first transmit beam of the base station used to transmit the SSB received by the UE and a beam from the RIS that reflected the SSB received by the UE, wherein the PRACH communication includes the PRACH preamble.
Regarding claims 6 and 21, the method of claim 1 and the UE of claim 17, respectively, wherein selecting the RACH occasion comprises:
selecting the RACH occasion to correspond to the first transmit beam of the base station used to transmit the SSB received by the UE and a beam from the RIS that reflected the SSB received by the UE.
Regarding claims 8 and 23, the method of claim 7 and the UE of claim 22, respectively,
wherein the mapping includes a first set of RACH occasions associated with the first SSB type and a second set of RACH occasions associated with a second SSB type configured for non-RIS assisted procedures, and wherein selecting the RACH occasion comprises:
selecting the RACH occasion from the first set of RACH occasions.
Regarding claims 12 and 27, the method of claim 9 and the base station of claim 24, respectively, wherein the PRACH communication includes a PRACH preamble that indicates the first transmit beam of the base station and a beam from the RIS associated with a transmission of the SSB, of the multiple transmissions of the SSB, that is received by the UE.
Regarding claims 13 and 28, the method of claim 9 and the base station of claim 24, respectively, wherein the RACH occasion during which the PRACH communication is received corresponds to the first transmit beam of the base station and a beam from the RIS associated with a transmission of the SSB, of the multiple transmissions of the SSB, that is received by the UE.
Conclusion
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/HARRY H KIM/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2411