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 Amendment
The Amendment to the claims filed on 12/16/2025 complies with the requirements of 37 CFR 1.121(c) and has been entered.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's Arguments/Remarks filed 12/16/2025 are moot in view of new grounds of rejection necessitated by the Amendment.
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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
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 1-7, 9, 11-20, as amended, are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Liberg et al., U.S. Patent Application No. 2025/0070853 (hereinafter Liberg) in view of Wang et al. U.S. Patent Application No. 2023/0216602 (hereinafter Wang).
Regarding Amended Claim 1, Liberg teaches a method performed by a user equipment (UE) (“methods (e.g., procedures) for operating a user equipment (UE) in a first nonterrestrial network (NTN) that utilizes one or more polarization modes for serving one or more cells. These exemplary methods can be performed by a UE (e.g., wireless device)” – See [¶0032]; whereby “a mismatch in polarization between UE transmitter and satellite receiver will degrade UL performance and cause unwanted interference to neighboring cells)” and “will also prevent the network from efficiently managing mobility in an NTN” – See [¶¶0085-86]), the method comprising:
receiving first configuration information for a serving cell, wherein the first configuration information indicates at least one polarization type for downlink reception, for uplink transmission, or a combination thereof (“the network node can provide the UE with an indication of one or more polarization modes used by its transmitter and/or receiver. The indicated polarization mode(s) can be associated with a cell, a beam, a frequency, etc” – See [¶0090], and “UE can receive an explicit network polarization mode indication and adapt its receive and transmit polarization modes accordingly when communicating with, and/or measuring signals transmitted by, a network node that utilizes the explicitly indicated polarization mode” – See [¶0100], i.e., the configuration sent to the UE is for downlink reception, for uplink transmission, or a combination thereof); and
receiving second configuration information for a handover procedure to a target cell, wherein the second configuration information indicates at least one polarization type for downlink reception, for uplink transmission, or a combination thereof (“a network node can facilitate UE mobility to a second cell by providing UEs with explicit information associating an identity of the second cell to a carrier frequency and a set of transmit and receive polarization modes used in the second cell” – See [¶0092], whereby the UE “can use a different second receive polarization mode . . . in a second cell. The second receive polarization mode can be indicated explicitly or implicitly by a network node serving the second cell. Alternately, the second receive polarization mode of the second cell (e.g., a neighbor cell to the first cell) can be indicated explicitly or implicitly by the network node serving the first cell” – See [¶0102]).
However, Liberg does not teach: (1) transmitting UE capability information explicitly in a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) message, the UE capability information comprising information indicating polarization capabilities of the UE; and (2) that both the first and the second information are based on the UE capability information
Wang, like Liberg, teaches “a polarization reconfiguration method, to appropriately schedule and adjust user polarization within a base station” – See [¶0006] wherein the UE receives “information about the second polarization . . . to indicate that the second polarization is a polarization mode of a type different from that of the first polarization” – See [¶0018] and “the first polarization is a polarization mode in which a terminal device currently operates” – See [¶0017].
Wang teaches transmitting UE capability information explicitly in a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) message, the UE capability information comprising information indicating polarization capabilities of the UE (“before the terminal device receives the first message sent by the network device . . . the method further includes: The terminal device sends a first capability message to the network device, where the first capability message includes a parameter of a polarization feature supported by the terminal device” – See [¶0081], e.g., “the parameter of the polarization feature supported by the terminal device may be added to an rf-parameters subset sequence table in a UE-NR-Capability set, and is used to describe a category of the polarization feature supported by the terminal device” – See [¶0082] and Table1; see also 3GPP TS 38.331, “3rd Generation Partnership Project; Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; NR; Radio Resource Control (RRC) protocol specification” (hereinafter 3GPP TS 38.331, e.g., (Release 16) V16.2.0 (2020-09) (hereinafter 3GPP TS 38.331), referenced by Liberg infra, describing in § 5.6.1, at page 167-68, the UE capability transfer whereby “[t]he network initiates the procedure to a UE in RRC_CONNECTED when it needs (additional) UE radio access capability information” and the “UE shall set the contents of UECapabilityInformation message . . . of the type UE-NR-Capability” and “submit the UECapabilityInformation message to lower layers for transmission,” i.e., send it to the base station in an UL message in the first polarization mode, e.g., on a PUSCH opportunity).
Wang further teaches the UE receiving configuration information for a serving cell based on UE capability information (“the network device may perform a corresponding polarization change indication to the terminal device based on the first capability message reported by the terminal device, to improve an inter-cell interference coordination capability more effectively” – See [¶0081]) and second configuration information for a handover procedure to a target cell based on UE capability information (“between satellite cells, polarization switching indication information may be transmitted from a local cell to a target cell by using an XnAP message, to improve an inter-cell interference coordination capability . . . based on the indication information” – See [¶0085] and the indication is based on “the first capability message reported by the terminal device” – See [¶0081]).
Thus, Liberg and Wang each teaches method and apparatus for configuring a UE and signaling transmit and receive polarization modes in satellite networks, including when the UE transitions from one satellite cell to another. A person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have understood that the step of requesting the terminal device to report its polarization capability message to the network device so that the network device may perform a corresponding polarization change indication to the terminal device based on the capability message reported by the terminal device using standard RRC communication procedure, as taught by Wang, could improve upon the method and apparatus taught by Liberg, because both references teach UE configuration for optimal polarization mode in satellite networks. Furthermore, a person of ordinary skill in the art would have been able to carry out the improvement through techniques known in the art. Finally, the improvement achieves the predictable result of correcting the mismatch in polarization between UE transmitter and satellite receiver will degrade UL performance and cause unwanted interference to neighboring cells, as taught by Liberg while improving inter-cell interference coordination capability more effectively, as taught by Wang.
Therefore, Amended Claim 1 is obvious over Liberg in view of Wang.
Regarding Claim 2, dependent from Amended Claim 1, Liberg further teaches the method of claim 1, wherein the at least one polarization type is indicated by at least one primary synchronization signal (“the network node can provide the indication of the polarization mode(s) explicitly or implicitly. As an example of the latter case, the network node can implicitly indicate a particular transmit polarization mode by configuring its transmitter to use the particular polarization mode” – See [¶0090], e.g., “For each DL reference signal (e.g., CSI-RS), each DL physical channel (e.g., PDCCH, PDSCH), or each synchronization signal block (SSB) (as signaled in ssb-PositionslnBurst information element (IE) defined in 3GPP TS 38.331 v15.0.0) configured in the cell, the network node can configure a UE with a transmit polarization mode (used by satellite transmitter) and/or a receive polarization mode (used by UE receiver)” – See [¶0095] wherein a SSB is a primary synchronization signal1).
Therefore, Claim 2 is obvious over Liberg in view of Wang.
Regarding Claim 3, dependent from Amended Claim 1, Liberg further teaches the method of claim 1, wherein the at least one polarization type is indicated by an initialization of a demodulation reference signal sequence in a physical broadcast channel (the network node can configure different polarization modes for “each UL reference signal (e.g., SRS), or each UL physical channel ( e.g., PRACH, PUCCH, PUSCH) configured in the cell” and “the network node may configure a UE with a transmit polarization mode (used by UE transmitter) and/or a receive polarization mode (used by satellite receiver)” – See [¶0096] whereby “a first polarization mode used in a first physical channel or reference signal can be indicated implicitly by a second polarization mode used in a second physical channel or reference signal, such that the UE can infer the first polarization mode from the second polarization mode”– See [¶0097], e.g., “the first polarization mode can be associated with a downlink (DL) physical channel or signal, and the second polarization mode is associated with a DL reference signal. The DL reference signal can be quasi-co-located (QCL) with the DL physical channel or signal, such that they have substantially identical transmission properties (including, e.g., polarization)” – See [¶0122] and the UE needs to start decoding the DMRS sequence received, e.g., by broadcast on a PBCH – See also [¶0018] defining network transmitted Reference Signals).
Therefore, Claim 3 is obvious over Liberg in view of Wang.
Regarding Claim 4, dependent from Amended Claim 1, Liberg further teaches the method of claim 1, wherein a single polarization or multiple polarization of the at least one polarization type is associated with a frequency in a frequency raster (“the first NTN can be configured with one or more default polarization modes used to transmit signals used for initial access by UEs in the plurality of cells” – See [¶0124], whereby “the indicated at least one polarization mode can include any of the following: linear, polarization, horizontal polarization, vertical polarization, circular polarization, right-hand circular polarization, and left-hand circular polarization” – See [¶0127]; furthermore, “the UE can retrieve locally stored information for the first NTN” and “the locally stored information can include one or more default polarization modes configured for use in the first NTN” – See [¶0129], including “one or more frequency ranges of NTN operation” – See [¶0134], and “the UE can, based on the UE's current location and one or more frequence ranges of the first NTN, determine a frequency band to search for signals transmitted by the first NTN” – See [¶0137], i.e., search for a carrier frequency and synchronization block that can be used by the UE for system acquisition, e.g., a (NR) Absolute Radio Frequency Channel Number (ARFCN2) in a NR global frequency raster and a global synchronization raster defined for those frequencies3; therefore the default polarization mode/type of the NTN is associated with a frequency in a frequency raster).
Therefore, Claim 4 is obvious over Liberg in view of Wang.
Regarding Claim 5, dependent from Amended Claim 1, Liberg further teaches the method of claim 1, further comprising autonomously transmitting a physical random access channel (PRACH) preamble using a same polarization as detected in a synchronization signal block (SSB) if no information for uplink polarization is indicated (“the network node can implicitly indicate a particular transmit polarization mode by configuring its transmitter to use the particular polarization mode” – See [¶0090], whereby “the network node can configure different polarization modes for different physical channels and signals,” e.g., “[f]or each DL reference signal (e.g., CSI-RS), each DL physical channel (e.g., PDCCH, PDSCH), or each synchronization signal block (SSB)” – See [¶0095] and “a UE can infer a polarization mode used by a network node ( e.g., for transmission and/or reception) based on transmissions by the network node,” i.e., “the network node indicates the polarization mode implicitly based on its transmissions. Based on the inference from this implicit indication, the UE can adapt its receive and transmit polarization modes accordingly when communicating with, and/or measuring signals transmitted by, a network node that utilizes the inferred polarization mode,” – See [¶0101], e.g., can autonomously a PRACH preamble in the UL using the inferred polarization see [¶0096]).
Therefore, Claim 5 is obvious over Liberg in view of Wang.
Regarding Claim 6, dependent from Amended Claim 1, Liberg further teaches the method of claim 1, further comprising detecting polarization information in a system information block (SIB) received (“the indication of the at least one polarization mode can be transmitted in one of the following: . . . a broadcast system information (SI, e.g., master information block, MIB, and/or system information block, SIB)” – See [¶0026]) and transmitting uplink data using the polarization type indicated in the SIB (“UE can receive an explicit network polarization mode indication and adapt its receive and transmit polarization modes accordingly when communicating with, and/or measuring signals transmitted by, a network node that utilizes the explicitly indicated polarization mode” – See [¶0100]; see also Wang:[¶0074] (“the first message may be any one of the following messages: a system information block (SIB) (including but not limited to a SIB 3 or a SIB 4), a radio resource control (RRC) message, downlink control information (DCI), and a medium access control control element (MAC CE) message”)).
Therefore, Claim 6 is obvious over Liberg in view of Wang.
Regarding Claim 7, dependent from Claim 6, Liberg further teaches the method of claim 6, further comprising detecting an indication of polarization association with at least one synchronization signal block (SSB) beam (“if two signals A and B are QCL, then signals A and B experience very similar channel conditions, including being transmitted from the same location and from the same antenna arrangement (e.g., port) using the same spatial filter. In such case, since signals A and B reach a receiver through very similar channels, if the receiver can detect and determine the channel properties signal A (or B), this information can be used to detect and/or receive signal B (or A)” – See [¶0098], e.g., “if both the first physical channel or reference signal and the second physical channel or reference signal are DL (or UL) transmissions, they can be considered quasi co-located (QCL)” and “the UE can infer the first polarization mode from the second polarization mode” – See [¶0097]; because both SIB, received on a physical channel, and SSB, a Reference Signal4 (RS), are DL signals, if the UE receives/detects the SIB polarization, the UE can infer/detect the SSB polarization),
Therefore, Claim 7 is obvious over Liberg in view of Wang.
Regarding Claim 9, dependent from Amended Claim 1, Liberg further teaches the method of claim 1, further comprising indicating a polarization capability using a demodulation reference signal DMRS sequence of a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) message for a two-step random access channel (RACH) procedure (because “a first polarization mode used in a first physical channel or reference signal can be indicated implicitly by a second polarization mode used in a second physical channel or reference signal” – See [¶0097], when “[f]or each UL reference signal ( e.g., SRS [or DMRS]) . . . configured in the cell, the network node may configure a UE with a transmit polarization mode (used by UE transmitter),” – See [¶0096] and [¶0018], “a first polarization mode used in a first physical channel . . . can be indicated implicitly by a second polarization mode used in a . . . reference signal” because “if both the first physical channel . . . and the . . . reference signal are DL (or UL) transmissions, they can be considered quasi co-located (QCL)” – See [¶0097].
Therefore, Claim 9 is obvious over Liberg in view of Wang.
Regarding Claim 11, depending from Amended Claim 1, Liberg further teaches the method of claim 1, further comprising receiving a single field in downlink control information (DCI) to facilitate low signaling overhead, wherein the single field indicates a polarization type, a bandwidth part, and a beam identifier (“the indication of the at least one polarization mode can be transmitted in . . . . physical layer (PHY) downlink control indication (DCI)” – See [¶0026] and “the UE can infer the first polarization mode based on the NR TCI (transmission configuration indication) framework. Each TCI state includes information about a source reference signal (e.g., CSI-RS or SSB) and a transmit polarization used to transmit the source reference signal. By indicating a TCI state for a DL transmission (e.g., PDCCH, PDSCH), the network informs a UE that the DL transmission uses the same polarization as the source reference signal associated with the TCI state” – See [¶0099-0100], and wherein a person of ordinary skills in the art would know that this information is comprised in a TCI-State Information Element identified by a TCI-StateId IE, as defined in 3GPP TS 38.331: 648-649 (indicating QCL-Type, BWP-Id, and cell id), and an activated TCI-StateId is mapped to a codepoint of the DCI Transmission Configuration Indication field; and wherein “although the term ‘cell’ is used herein, it should be understood that (particularly with respect to 5G NR) beams may be used instead of cells and, as such, concepts described herein apply equally to both cells and beams” – See [¶0072]; therefore receiving a single field in DCI indicates the polarization type using the TCI mapping; see also Figs. 4A and B showing a simplified view of a TCI wherein “cell identifiers (e.g., PCI, CGI), and frequency identifiers (e.g., bandwidth part (BWP) ID)” may be further used in a modulo 2 operation to “to distinguish between cells that use RHCP (e.g., result of 0) and cells that use LHCP (e.g., result of 1)”– See [¶0093]).
In addition, Wang teaches, in Fig. 6, just one bit for indicating the relative polarization change at the UE in a DCI message – See [¶¶0066-68]. Because both Liberg and Wang may use DCI to signal polarization change at the UE, the combination of Liber and Wang is obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art motivated by facilitating low signaling overhead over satellite networks.
Therefore, Claim 11 is obvious over Liberg in view Wang.
Regarding Amended Claim 12, dependent from Claim 11, Liberg further teaches the method of claim 11, wherein the single field comprises the beam identifier, and the polarization type and a bandwidth identifier are determined based on the beam identifier and a mapping table (as shown in Fig. 4B and explained, supra).
Therefore, Amended Claim 12 is obvious over Liberg in view of Wang.
Regarding Claim 13, dependent from Amended Claim 1, Liberg further teaches the method of claim 1, wherein odd beam identifiers correspond to a first polarization type and even beam identifiers correspond to a second polarization type different from the first polarization type (“the result of a modulo-2 operation on a cell ID (e.g., mod(PCI,2)) can be used to distinguish between cells that use RHCP (e.g., result of 0) and cells that use LHCP (e.g., result of 1)” – See [¶0093], wherein cell ID is synonym with beam ID as explained in [¶0072] and shown in Figs. 4A and 4B).
Therefore, Claim 13 is obvious over Liberg in view of Wang.
Regarding Amended Claim 14, Liberg teaches a user equipment (UE), comprising: at least a memory; and at least one processor coupled to the at least one memory (“In FIG. 9, UE 900 includes processing circuitry 901 that is operatively coupled to input/output interface 905, radio frequency (RF) interface 909, network connection interface 911, memory 915 including random access memory (RAM) 917, read-only memory (ROM) 919, and storage medium 921” – See [¶0180] wherein “storage medium 921 can be configured to include operating system 923; application program 925 such as a web browser application, a widget or gadget engine or another application; and data file 927” and “application program 925 can include executable program instructions (also referred to as a computer program product) that, when executed by processor 901, can configure UE 900 to perform operations corresponding to various exemplary methods (e.g., procedures) described” – See [¶0184] and Fig. 9) and configured to cause the UE to: perform each of the steps recited in Amended Claim 1 recited using the same language. Because Amended Claim 1 is obvious over Liberg in view of Wang, Amended Claim 14 is obvious over Liberg in view of Wang.
Regarding Amended Claim 15, Liberg also teaches a base station comprising:
at least one memory; and at least one processor coupled with the at least one memory (“In FIG. 8, network node 860 includes processing circuitry 870, device readable medium 880, interface 890, auxiliary equipment 884, power source 886, power circuitry 887, and antenna 862” whereby the “network node comprises any suitable combination of hardware and/or software needed to perform the tasks, features, functions and methods and/or procedures disclosed” – See [¶0151] and Fig. 8) and configured to cause the base station to:
receive user equipment (UE) capability information explicitly in a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) message, the UE capability information comprising information indicating polarization capabilities of the UE;
transmit first configuration information for a serving cell, wherein the first configuration information indicates at least one polarization type for downlink reception, for uplink transmission, or a combination thereof (“the network node can provide the UE with an indication of one or more polarization modes used by its transmitter and/or receiver. The indicated polarization mode(s) can be associated with a cell, a beam, a frequency, etc” – See [¶0090]); and
transmit second configuration information for a handover procedure to a target cell, wherein the second configuration information indicates at least one polarization type for downlink reception, for uplink transmission, or a combination thereof ((“a network node can facilitate UE mobility to a second cell by providing UEs with explicit information associating an identity of the second cell to a carrier frequency and a set of transmit and receive polarization modes used in the second cell” – See [¶0092]).
Although Liberg does not teach receive user equipment (UE) capability information explicitly in a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) message, the UE capability information comprising information indicating polarization capabilities of the UE, Wang teaches this feature of the base station (“the network device may alternatively send a capability negotiation message to the terminal device, to indicate the terminal device to report the first capability message or a polarization mode supported by the terminal device” – See [¶0084] and, in response, “[t]he terminal device sends a first capability message to the network device, where the first capability message includes a parameter of a polarization feature supported by the terminal device” – See [¶0081] and Table 1).
Because Liberg and Wang each teaches a base station transmitting to a terminal device information related to changing its polarization to improve an inter-cell interference coordination capability more effectively, the step of requesting and receiving from the terminal a first capability message to the network device, where the first capability message includes a parameter of a polarization feature supported by the terminal device as taught in Wang can be combined with the method at the base station executed in Liberg through methods known in the art. Therefore, Claim 15 is obvious over Liberg in view of Wang.
Regarding Claims 16-20, as amended, each dependent from Amended Claim 14, each of the claims recites the same limitations as recited in Claims 2-6, respectively, using the same language. Because each of Claims 2-6 are obvious over Liberg in view of Wang, Claims 16-20 as amended are also obvious over Liberg in view of Wang.
In sum, Claims 1-7, 9, 11-20, as amended, are rejected under 35 U.S.C. §103 as obvious over Liberg in view of Wang.
Claims 1, 14 and 15, as amended, are rejected in the alternative under 35 U.S.C. §103 as being unpatentable over Liberg et al., U.S. Patent Application No. 2025/0070853 (hereinafter Liberg1) in view of Liberg et al., U.S. Patent Application No. 2022/0337308 (hereinafter Liberg2).
Regarding independent Amended Claims 1, 14 and 15, although Liberg1 does not teach: (1) the user equipment (UE) capability information explicitly sent in a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) message, the UE capability information comprising information indicating polarization capabilities of the UE and (2) the network device sending to the UE configuration information based on the UE capability information, Liberg2 teaches these features.
Liberg2 teaches “a new UE capability can be introduced in the 3GPP specifications” that “indicates support for transmitter and receiver beams supporting one or more polarization
modes,” – See [¶0087] “indicates the number of antenna panels the UE can support and the corresponding polarization modes for those supported panels” – See [¶0088] and “supporting polarization correspondence,” i.e., “transmit a signal (e.g., in the uplink) using the same polarization mode as a received reference signal that was transmitted by the network (e.g., in the downlink)” – See [¶0089]. Furthermore, Liberg2 teaches that the “UE can indicate its polarization capabilities through the 3GPP UE capability reporting procedure,” i.e., UL message on PUSCH opportunity – See [¶0091] and “the network can control radio resources for the UE based on the UE's indicated polarization capabilities. In other words, the network can control radio resources differently for UEs that indicate different polarization capabilities, such as different types, different supported polarization modes, different supported polarization correspondence, and/or different numbers of antenna panels and associated polarization modes” – See [¶0094].
Thus, Liberg1 and Liberg2 each teaches a method performed between a UE and a network device for operating a user equipment (UE) in a non-terrestrial network (NTN) that utilizes one or more polarization modes for serving one or more cells. A person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have understood that the UE capability indicating polarization modes, number of panels and polarization coordination at the UE, as taught in Liberg1, could have been combined with the method and apparatus in Liberg1 because both references provide improvements to 3GPP NTN using LTE and/or NR radio access technologies. Furthermore, a person of ordinary skill in the art would have been able to carry out the combination through techniques known in the art. Finally, the combination achieves the predictable result of allowing equipment (UEs) to inform an NTN of their polarization capabilities, such as types or modes of polarization supported, as taught by Liberg2.
Therefore, Amended Claims 1, 14, 15 are rejected in the alternative as obvious over Liberg1 in view of Liberg2. Because the additional limitations recited in dependent claims 2-7, 9, 11-13, and 16-20, as amended , are taught by Liberg1, as explained supra, Claims 1-7, 9, 11-20, as amended, are rejected in the alternative under 35 U.S.C. §103 as obvious over Liberg1 in view of Liberg2.
Claims 8 and 10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. §103 as being unpatentable over Liberg in view of Wang (or in the alternative over Liberg1 in view of Liberg2), as applied to Amended Claim 1 and 14 above, and further in view of Luo et. al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 20230043937 (hereinafter Luo).
Regarding Claim 8, dependent from Amended Claim 1, while Liberg further teaches the method of claim 1, further comprising generating a physical random access channel (PRACH) preamble (“[f]or each UL reference signal (e.g., SRS), or each UL physical channel (e.g., PRACH, PUCCH, PUSCH) configured in the cell, the network node may configure a UE with a transmit polarization mode (used by UE transmitter) and/or a receive polarization mode (used by satellite receiver)” – See [¶0096]), Liberg in view of Wang does not teach using a plurality of root sequences, wherein at least one root sequence of the plurality of root sequences is used to indicate one type of polarization.
Luo teaches a random access method at a terminal using a plurality of root sequences (“The configuration information sent by the network device includes a combination rule and an available range of preambles transmitted by the terminal device on two polarization ports,” and “[a]fter the network device receives the different preamble combinations sent by the terminal device on the different polarizations based on the configuration information, the network device may obtain specific effect by using a specific algorithm” – See {¶0157]; and “the terminal device sends, to the network device on different polarization ports, preambles having different ZC root sequence indexes” – See [¶0158]).
Luo further teaches wherein at least one root sequence of the plurality of root sequences is used to indicate one type of polarization (“that the terminal device sends a preamble on a polarization channel may indicate that the terminal device supports transmission on the polarization channel, and implicitly notify the network device that the terminal device expects to obtain downlink information on the polarization channel” – See [¶0160], or “whether the terminal device supports a global navigation satellite system (GNSS)” or “whether the terminal device has a polarization capability of a multi-polarized transmit signal” – See [¶0166]).
Thus, Liberg in view of Wang and Luo each discloses methods to configure and indicate polarization mode/type either implicitly. A person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention would have understood that the method of indicating one type of polarization using at least one root sequence of a plurality of root sequences to transmit PRACH for different RACH opportunities, could have been added/combined with the method taught by Liberg in view of Wang because both provide for using PRACH as implicit indication of a polarization type. Furthermore, a person of ordinary skill in the art would have been able to carry out the combination through techniques known in the art. Finally, the combination achieves the predictable result of allowing the network device to obtain polarization mode information based on a PRACH preamble root sequence as well as additional implicit information, as taught by Luo.
Therefore, Claim 8 is obvious over Liberg in view of Wang and further in view of Luo.
Regarding Claim 10, dependent from Amended Claim 1, Liberg further teaches the method of claim 1, where “each UL physical channel (e.g., PRACH, PUCCH, PUSCH) configured in the cell” can be used to indicate implicitly another (collocated) physical channel polarization mode – See [¶¶0096-97] and the “at least one [indicated] polarization mode can include any of the following: linear polarization, horizontal polarization, vertical polarization, circular polarization, right-hand circular polarization, and left-hand circular polarization” – See, e.g., [¶0127]. Wang also teaches the UE reporting “capability support statuses for left hand circular polarization (LHCP), right hand circular polarization (RHCP), horizontal (horizontal) polarization, vertical (vertical) polarization, cross polarization, and the like” – See [¶0082] and Table 1.
However, Liberg in view of Wang does not teach transmitting multiple preambles in both of a left-hand circular prioritization and a right-hand circular prioritization to indicate polarization capabilities.
Luo further teaches transmitting multiple preambles in both of a left-hand circular prioritization and a right-hand circular prioritization to indicate polarization capabilities (“RACH occasions may be grouped based on polarization modes by using polarization configuration solutions of different granularities” – See [¶0136] and to avoid that “the network device performs blind detection on a plurality of polarizations on all ROs” – See [¶0138], “the network device may group ROs, allocate some ROs to UE in the linear polarization state . . . and allocate some ROs to the terminal device that supports circular polarization” where “the terminal device that supports circular polarization has both left-handed circular polarization and right-handed circular polarization, or a single terminal device can support flexible circular polarization sending” – See [¶0139]).
Therefore, Claim 10 is obvious over Liberg in view of Wang and further in view of Luo.
In sum, Claims 8 and 10 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103 as obvious over Liberg in view of Wang (or, in the alternative over Liberg1 in view of Liberg2) and further in view of Luo.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
Chakraborty et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2018/0063693 teaches the UE reports antenna capability information of the UE, the antenna capability information comprising identification information of each of one or more antenna subarrays and polarization information indicating at least one polarization supported by each of the one or more antenna subarrays;
Cheng et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2022/0239417 teaches downlink operations in NTN;
Bengtsson et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2022/0038170 discloses method and apparatus for determining at least one downlink polarization of at least one downlink communication between the wireless terminal and an access node of the wireless communication network based on first and second indication;
Wang et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2022/0217589 discloses method and apparatus for indicating information including a polarization method of a target cell;
Ma et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2022/0109491 discloses method and apparatus for determining a polarization of a bandwidth part;
Ma et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2022/0109543 discloses method and apparatus for determining a polarization associated with a channel state information reference signal (CSI-RS) resource set configuration;
3GPP TS 38.321 V16.2.1 (2020-09), “Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; NR; Medium Access Control (MAC) protocol specification (Release 16);”
3GPP TS 38.101-1 V16.5.0 (2020-09), “Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; NR; User Equipment (UE) radio transmission and reception; Part 1: Range 1 Standalone (Release 16);”
3GPP TS 38.331 V16.2.0 (2020-09), “Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; NR; Radio Resource Control (RRC) protocol specification (Release 16).”
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/L.G.G./ Examiner, Art Unit 2478
/JOSEPH E AVELLINO/ Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2478
1 With reference to 3GPP TS 38.331, describing “the number of actual transmitted SSBs determined according to ssb-PositionsInBurst in SIB1” – See 3GPPP TS 38.331:37, in reference also to the fact that “[t]he cell-defining SSB of the PCell is always on the sync raster. Frequencies are considered to be on the sync raster if they are also identifiable with a GSCN value (see TS 38.101-1 [15]). If the field is absent, the SSB related parameters should be absent, e.g. ssb-PositionsInBurst, ssb-periodicityServingCell and subcarrierSpacing in ServingCellConfigCommon IE. If the field [absoluteFrequencySSB] is absent, the UE obtains timing reference from the SpCell. This is only supported in case the SCell is in the same frequency band as the SpCell” – See id.:424; ssb-PositionslnBurst is a parameter in ServingCellConfigCommon IE and the ServingCellConfigCommonSIB used to configure cell specific parameters of a UE's serving cell in SIB1 – See id.:613-617.
2 ARFCN-ValueNR is the value type for parameters such carrier frequency and frequency of the SSB to be used for the serving cell as part of various RRC Information Elements (IEs) defined in 3GPP TS 38.331.
3 The channel raster and synchronization raster are defined in § 5.4 of 3GPP TS 38.101-1 V16.5.0 (2020-09), “Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; NR; User Equipment (UE) radio transmission and reception; Part 1: Range 1 Standalone (Release 16)” (hereinafter 3GPP TS 38.101-1) for NR User Equipment (UE) operating on frequency Range 1 (FR1) and § 5.4 of 3GPP TS 38.101-2 V16.5.0 (2020-09), “Technical Specification Group Radio Access Network; NR; User Equipment (UE) radio transmission and reception; Part 2: Range 2 Standalone (Release 16)” (hereinafter 3GPP TS 38.101-1) for NR User Equipment (UE) operating on frequency Range 2 (FR2).
4 “In NR, for example, such RS can include any of the following, alone or in combination: SS/PBCH block (SSB),
CSI-RS, tertiary reference signals (or any other sync signal), positioning RS (PRS), DMRS, phase-tracking reference signals (PTRS), etc. In general, SSB is available to all UEs regardless of RRC state, while other RS (e.g., CSI-RS, DM-RS, PTRS) are associated with specific UEs that have a network connection, i.e., in RRC_CONNECTED state” – See [¶0018].