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 07/12/23 has been considered by the examiner.
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(s) 20, 23-28 and 30-34 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over TSAI et al. (US Patent Publication 2022/0086780 herein after referenced as Tsai) in view of Bai et al. (US Patent Publication 2022/0217669 herein after referenced as Bai).
Regarding claim 20 and claim 33, Tsai discloses:
A method performed by a terminal in a wireless communication system, the method comprising: and A terminal in a wireless communication system, the terminal comprising: at least one transceiver; and at least one processor connected to the at least one transceiver, wherein the at least one processor is configured to: (Tsai, Fig. 1 & [0141] discloses FIG. 1 illustrates a non-terrestrial network NTN (i.e. reads on in a wireless communication system) providing access to a user equipment UE 104 e.g., a mobile device, a terminal device, etc. (i.e. reads on a terminal) and/or a base station BS 106; Tsai, [0002] discloses The present disclosure generally relates to wireless communications, and more particularly, to reporting a timing advance TA value derived by a user equipment UE in a Non-Terrestrial Network NTN to compensate for the propagation delays in such a network; Tsai, [0277] discloses The processor 1626 may process data 1630 and instructions 1632 received from the memory 1628, and information through the transceiver 1620).
transmitting, to a base station, information related to a timing advance, based on a timing advance report being triggered based on an offset between information related to a current timing advance of the terminal and information related to a previous timing advance being (Tsai, [0217] discloses when a difference (i.e. reads on based on an offset) between a newly calculated UE-specific TA (i.e. reads on between information related to a current timing advance of the terminal) and the original UE-specific TA (i.e. reads on and information related to a previous timing advance) is higher than a threshold (i.e. reads on being greater than a predetermined threshold for the timing advance), the UE may trigger the report of the UE-specific TA (i.e. reads on based on a timing advance report being triggered), generate the report of the UE-specific TA e.g., via a MAC CE, and/or transmit (i.e. reads on transmitting) the report of the UE-specific TA (i.e. reads on information related to a timing advance) to the NW (i.e. reads on to a base station); Tsai, Abstract discloses The method receives, from a base station BS, an indication associated with a UE-specific timing advance TA report. If the method determines that the value enables transmission of the UE-specific TA report, the method transmits, to the BS, the UE-specific TA report through the RA procedure; Tsai, [0150] discloses additional requirements for a network e.g., a base station within the network to manage the timing offset between the DL and UL frame timing may be considered if impacts introduced by a feeder link are not compensated by the UE. EXAMINER’S NOTE: The examiner notes that the claims are written in an alternative limitation format requiring and contingent on the selection of only one of various alternative options presented and as such the non-selected alternative options are crossed out (i.e. the limitations reciting “equal to or”) and are not given patentable weight as being directed towards limitations that are not required to be performed as is indicated in MPEP 2143.03 that recites “Language that suggests or makes a feature or step optional but does not require that feature or step does not limit the scope of a claim under the broadest reasonable claim interpretation. In addition, when a claim requires selection of an element from a list of alternatives, the prior art teaches the element if one of the alternatives is taught by the prior art” and in MPEP 2111.04, Section ll that recites “The broadest reasonable interpretation of a claim having contingent limitations requires only those steps that must be performed and does not include steps that are not required to be performed because the condition precedent are not met”).
and performing uplink transmission (Tsai, [0145] discloses To provide enhancements, one or more implementations of the present disclosure provide the following implementations to apply TA in the initial access and any subsequent TA maintenance. As described above, a BS may calculate and provide a TA value to a UE to enable the UE to align its uplink signal transmissions (i.e. reads on performing uplink transmission) with its downlink signal receptions).
Tsai discloses sending a report that includes a timing advance to a base station but fails to explicitly recite utilizing the same timing advance in the report to send an uplink transmission in an uplink frame and therefore fails to disclose “and performing uplink transmission in an uplink frame starting at a timing based on the information related to the timing advance.”
In a related field of endeavor, Bai discloses;
and performing uplink transmission in an uplink frame starting at a timing based on the information related to the timing advance (Bai, [0047] discloses The base station may then transmit an indication of the calculated timing correction e.g., the TA adjustment value to the UE. The UE may apply the TA adjustment for subsequent transmissions, where the UE may wait for an amount of time (i.e. reads on starting at a timing) indicated by the TA (i.e. reads on based on the information related to the timing advance) e.g., a round-trip time RTT before transmitting an uplink message (i.e. reads on performing uplink transmission in an uplink frame); Bai, [0101]-[0103] discloses UE 115-a may transmit an uplink message 230 to base station 105-a via uplink communication link 210, where the uplink message 230 may have the adjusted TA value applied when transmitted. Base station 105-a may receive the uplink message 230 within a similar frame (i.e. reads on in an uplink frame) or subframe as other uplink transmissions from other UEs 115 and discloses UE 115-a may transmit, to base station 105-a, the report indicating a TA adjustment value e.g., such as when UE 115-a autonomously adjusted its TA or indicating one or more preferred TA adjustment values, and UE 115-a may wait some amount of time for an acknowledgment e.g., an ACK or some feedback message of the report from base station 105-a and discloses In cases where UE 115-a indicates a requested TA adjustment value via the report, and UE 115-a subsequently receives a message approving or configuring the requested TA adjustment value, the TA adjustment may be applied some amount of time after receiving the ACK from base station 105-a. In some examples, if the ACK received from base station 105-a is an ACK for the uplink channel e.g., PUSCH, PUCCH over which the report was transmitted, UE 115-a may apply the requested TA value. That is, the ACK may serve as the approval of the requested TA adjustment value. In other cases, such as when the ACK is another TA command from base station 105-a, UE 115-a may apply the TA adjustment value indicated in the TA command).
Therefore, at the time before the effective filing date of the invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify the invention of Tsai to incorporate the teachings of Bai for the purpose of providing the system with a means to allow the mobile device to report or request a preferred timing advance value and receive acknowledgement from the network (Bai, [0102]-[0203]) in order to ensure that the correct timing advance is utilized (Bai, [0047]) to better align with the subframe timing at the network (Tsai, [0005]) and for the purpose of making the system more dynamic and adaptable by providing the system with added functionalities and various different alternatives in design, thereby allowing the system to handle a number of various different combination of specific design structure and scenarios and (i.e. Tsai, [0279]) and thereby, preventing the system from being limited to a single specific design structure and scenario and furthermore, one of ordinary skill in the art would recognize based on the guidelines to rationales supporting a conclusion of obviousness seen on MPEP 2143, that the modification would involve use of a simple substitution of one known element and base device (i.e. performing a process of reporting a timing advance to the network as taught by Tsai) with another known element and comparable device utilizing a known technique (i.e. performing a process of reporting a timing advance to the network, wherein the reported timing advance is also utilized in performing uplink transmissions of an uplink frame as taught by Bai) to improve the similar devices in the same way and to obtain the predictable result of the system performing a process of reporting a timing advance to the network (i.e. as taught by both Tsai & Bai) and is dependent upon the specific intended use, design incentives, needs and requirements (i.e. such as due to teachings of a known standard, current technology, conservation of resources, personal preferences, economic considerations, etc.) of the user and the system as has been established in MPEP 2144.04.
Regarding claim 23, Tsai in view of Bai discloses:
The method according to claim 20, wherein: (see claim 20).
the timing advance report is transmitted to the base station in a random access process (Tsai, [0236] discloses The report of the UE-specific TA/UE information may be transmitted via a PRACH, PUCCH, and/or PUSCH; Tsai, [0149] discloses the required TA value for UL transmission including a physical random access channel PRACH may be calculated by the UE without any network indication).
Regarding claim 24, Tsai in view of Bai discloses:
The method according to claim 20, wherein: (see claim 20).
the timing advance report is transmitted to the base station in a radio resource control (RRC) connection mode (Tsai, [0236] discloses the UE-specific TA/UE information may be reported via RRC signaling e.g., an RRC message, MAC signaling e.g., a MAC CE, and/or physical PHY layer signaling e.g., via a UCI; Tsai, [0254] discloses The UE may compute the timing and frequency and apply a TA/frequency adjustment for the UE that is in an RRC Idle state, RRC Inactive state, and/or RRC connected state).
Regarding claim 25, Tsai in view of Bai discloses:
The method according to claim 20, wherein: (see claim 20).
whether reporting of information related to the timing advance is allowed is configured by the base station to the terminal (Tsai, [0189] discloses process 1000 may start by receiving, in action 1002, from a base station BS, an indication associated with a UE-specific timing advance TA report. The indication may include a value. After receiving the indication, in action 1004, process 1000 may initiate a random access RA procedure. Action 1006 may include determining whether to transmit the UE-specific TA report based on the value of the indication. Action 1008 may include transmitting, to the BS, the UE-specific TA report through the RA procedure after determining that the value enables a transmission of the UE-specific TA report).
Regarding claim 26, Tsai in view of Bai discloses:
The method according to claim 20, wherein: (see claim 20).
the predetermined threshold is the threshold for the offset of information related to the timing advance (Tsai, [0217] discloses when a difference between a newly calculated UE-specific TA and the original UE-specific TA is higher than a threshold, the UE may trigger the report of the UE-specific TA, generate the report of the UE-specific TA e.g., via a MAC CE, and/or transmit the report of the UE-specific TA to the NW).
Regarding claim 27, Tsai in view of Bai discloses:
The method according to claim 20, wherein: (see claim 20).
the timing advance (TA) includes at least one of a user equipment (UE)-specific TA (Tsai, [0217] discloses when a difference between a newly calculated UE-specific TA and the original UE-specific TA is higher than a threshold, the UE may trigger the report of the UE-specific TA, generate the report of the UE-specific TA e.g., via a MAC CE, and/or transmit the report of the UE-specific TA to the NW. EXAMINER’S NOTE: The examiner notes that the claims are written in an alternative limitation format requiring and contingent on the selection of only one of various alternative options presented and as such the non-selected alternative options are crossed out (i.e. the limitations reciting “a common TA or”) and are not given patentable weight as being directed towards limitations that are not required to be performed as is indicated in MPEP 2143.03 that recites “Language that suggests or makes a feature or step optional but does not require that feature or step does not limit the scope of a claim under the broadest reasonable claim interpretation. In addition, when a claim requires selection of an element from a list of alternatives, the prior art teaches the element if one of the alternatives is taught by the prior art” and in MPEP 2111.04, Section ll that recites “The broadest reasonable interpretation of a claim having contingent limitations requires only those steps that must be performed and does not include steps that are not required to be performed because the condition precedent are not met”).
Regarding claim 28, Tsai in view of Bai discloses:
The method according to claim 20, wherein: (see claim 20).
the predetermined threshold is configured for a UE-specific TA (Tsai, [0217] discloses when a difference between a newly calculated UE-specific TA and the original UE-specific TA is higher than a threshold, the UE may trigger the report of the UE-specific TA, generate the report of the UE-specific TA e.g., via a MAC CE, and/or transmit the report of the UE-specific TA to the NW).
Regarding claim 30, Tsai in view of Bai discloses:
The method according to claim 20, wherein: (see claim 20).
information related to the timing advance includes at least one of a difference value between information related to the previous timing advance and information for the current timing advance (Tsai, [0217] discloses when a difference between a newly calculated UE-specific TA and the original UE-specific TA is higher than a threshold, the UE may trigger the report of the UE-specific TA, generate the report of the UE-specific TA e.g., via a MAC CE, and/or transmit the report of the UE-specific TA to the NW. EXAMINER’S NOTE: The examiner notes that the claims are written in an alternative limitation format requiring and contingent on the selection of only one of various alternative options presented and as such the non-selected alternative options are crossed out (i.e. the limitations reciting “an absolute value of information related to the timing advance or” ) and are not given patentable weight as being directed towards limitations that are not required to be performed as is indicated in MPEP 2143.03 that recites “Language that suggests or makes a feature or step optional but does not require that feature or step does not limit the scope of a claim under the broadest reasonable claim interpretation. In addition, when a claim requires selection of an element from a list of alternatives, the prior art teaches the element if one of the alternatives is taught by the prior art” and in MPEP 2111.04, Section ll that recites “The broadest reasonable interpretation of a claim having contingent limitations requires only those steps that must be performed and does not include steps that are not required to be performed because the condition precedent are not met”).
Regarding claim 31, Tsai in view of Bai discloses:
The method according to claim 20, wherein: (see claim 20).
based on information related to the timing advance being updated, information related to the timing advance is reported to the base station (Tsai, [0217] discloses when a difference between a newly calculated UE-specific TA and the original UE-specific TA is higher than a threshold, the UE may trigger the report of the UE-specific TA, generate the report of the UE-specific TA e.g., via a MAC CE, and/or transmit the report of the UE-specific TA to the NW.
Regarding claim 32, Tsai in view of Bai discloses:
The method according to claim 20, wherein: (see claim 20).
the wireless communication system is a non-terrestrial network (NTN) system (Tsai, Fig. 1 & [0141] discloses FIG. 1 illustrates a non-terrestrial network NTN providing access to a user equipment UE 104 e.g., a mobile device, a terminal device, etc. and/or a base station BS 106; Tsai, [0189] discloses FIG. 10 is a flowchart illustrating a method/process 1000 for a UE to transmit a UE-specific TA report in an NTN, according to an example implementation of the present disclosure; Tsai, [0002] discloses The present disclosure generally relates to wireless communications, and more particularly, to reporting a timing advance TA value derived by a user equipment UE in a Non-Terrestrial Network NTN to compensate for the propagation delays in such a network).
Regarding claim 34, Tsai discloses:
A base station in a wireless communication system, the base station comprising: at least one transceiver; and at least one processor connected to the at least one transceiver, wherein the at least one processor is configured to: (Tsai, Fig. 1 & [0141] discloses FIG. 1 illustrates a non-terrestrial network NTN (i.e. reads on in a wireless communication system) providing access to a user equipment UE 104 e.g., a mobile device, a terminal device, etc. and/or a base station BS 106 (i.e. reads on a base station); Tsai, [0002] discloses The present disclosure generally relates to wireless communications, and more particularly, to reporting a timing advance TA value derived by a user equipment UE in a Non-Terrestrial Network NTN to compensate for the propagation delays in such a network; Tsai, [0277] discloses The processor 1626 may process data 1630 and instructions 1632 received from the memory 1628, and information through the transceiver 1620).
receive, from a terminal through the at least one transceiver, information related to a timing advance, based on a timing advance report being triggered at the terminal based on an offset between information related to a current timing advance of the terminal and information related to a previous timing advance being (Tsai, [0217] discloses when a difference (i.e. reads on based on an offset) between a newly calculated UE-specific TA (i.e. reads on between information related to a current timing advance of the terminal) and the original UE-specific TA (i.e. reads on and information related to a previous timing advance) is higher than a threshold (i.e. reads on being greater than a predetermined threshold for the timing advance), the UE (i.e. reads on the terminal) may trigger the report of the UE-specific TA (i.e. reads on based on a timing advance report being triggered), generate the report of the UE-specific TA e.g., via a MAC CE, and/or transmit (i.e. reads on receive) the report of the UE-specific TA (i.e. reads on information related to a timing advance) to the NW (i.e. reads on to a base station); Tsai, Abstract discloses The method receives, from a base station BS, an indication associated with a UE-specific timing advance TA report. If the method determines that the value enables transmission of the UE-specific TA report, the method transmits, to the BS, the UE-specific TA report through the RA procedure; Tsai, [0150] discloses additional requirements for a network e.g., a base station within the network to manage the timing offset between the DL and UL frame timing may be considered if impacts introduced by a feeder link are not compensated by the UE. EXAMINER’S NOTE: The examiner notes that the claims are written in an alternative limitation format requiring and contingent on the selection of only one of various alternative options presented and as such the non-selected alternative options are crossed out (i.e. the limitations reciting “equal to or”) and are not given patentable weight as being directed towards limitations that are not required to be performed as is indicated in MPEP 2143.03 that recites “Language that suggests or makes a feature or step optional but does not require that feature or step does not limit the scope of a claim under the broadest reasonable claim interpretation. In addition, when a claim requires selection of an element from a list of alternatives, the prior art teaches the element if one of the alternatives is taught by the prior art” and in MPEP 2111.04, Section ll that recites “The broadest reasonable interpretation of a claim having contingent limitations requires only those steps that must be performed and does not include steps that are not required to be performed because the condition precedent are not met”).
and receive through the at least one transceiver, uplink transmission from the terminal (Tsai, [0145] discloses To provide enhancements, one or more implementations of the present disclosure provide the following implementations to apply TA in the initial access and any subsequent TA maintenance. As described above, a BS may calculate and provide a TA value to a UE to enable the UE (i.e. reads on from the terminal) to align its uplink signal transmissions (i.e. reads on receive uplink transmission) with its downlink signal receptions).
Tsai discloses sending a report that includes a timing advance to a base station but fails to explicitly recite utilizing the same timing advance in the report to send an uplink transmission in an uplink frame and therefore fails to disclose “and receive uplink transmission from the terminal in an uplink frame starting at a timing based on the information related to the timing advance.”
In a related field of endeavor, Bai discloses;
and receive uplink transmission from the terminal in an uplink frame starting at a timing based on the information related to the timing advance (Bai, [0047] discloses The base station may then transmit an indication of the calculated timing correction e.g., the TA adjustment value to the UE. The UE may apply the TA adjustment for subsequent transmissions, where the UE may wait for an amount of time (i.e. reads on starting at a timing) indicated by the TA (i.e. reads on based on the information related to the timing advance) e.g., a round-trip time RTT before transmitting an uplink message (i.e. reads on receive uplink transmission in an uplink frame); Bai, [0101]-[0103] discloses UE 115-a may transmit an uplink message 230 to base station 105-a via uplink communication link 210, where the uplink message 230 may have the adjusted TA value applied when transmitted. Base station 105-a may receive the uplink message 230 within a similar frame (i.e. reads on in an uplink frame) or subframe as other uplink transmissions from other UEs 115 and discloses UE 115-a may transmit, to base station 105-a, the report indicating a TA adjustment value e.g., such as when UE 115-a autonomously adjusted its TA or indicating one or more preferred TA adjustment values, and UE 115-a may wait some amount of time for an acknowledgment e.g., an ACK or some feedback message of the report from base station 105-a and discloses In cases where UE 115-a indicates a requested TA adjustment value via the report, and UE 115-a subsequently receives a message approving or configuring the requested TA adjustment value, the TA adjustment may be applied some amount of time after receiving the ACK from base station 105-a. In some examples, if the ACK received from base station 105-a is an ACK for the uplink channel e.g., PUSCH, PUCCH over which the report was transmitted, UE 115-a may apply the requested TA value. That is, the ACK may serve as the approval of the requested TA adjustment value. In other cases, such as when the ACK is another TA command from base station 105-a, UE 115-a may apply the TA adjustment value indicated in the TA command).
Therefore, at the time before the effective filing date of the invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify the invention of Tsai to incorporate the teachings of Bai for the purpose of providing the system with a means to allow the mobile device to report or request a preferred timing advance value and receive acknowledgement from the network (Bai, [0102]-[0203]) in order to ensure that the correct timing advance is utilized (Bai, [0047]) to better align with the subframe timing at the network (Tsai, [0005]) and for the purpose of making the system more dynamic and adaptable by providing the system with added functionalities and various different alternatives in design, thereby allowing the system to handle a number of various different combination of specific design structure and scenarios and (i.e. Tsai, [0279]) and thereby, preventing the system from being limited to a single specific design structure and scenario and furthermore, one of ordinary skill in the art would recognize based on the guidelines to rationales supporting a conclusion of obviousness seen on MPEP 2143, that the modification would involve use of a simple substitution of one known element and base device (i.e. performing a process of reporting a timing advance to the network as taught by Tsai) with another known element and comparable device utilizing a known technique (i.e. performing a process of reporting a timing advance to the network, wherein the reported timing advance is also utilized in performing uplink transmissions of an uplink frame as taught by Bai) to improve the similar devices in the same way and to obtain the predictable result of the system performing a process of reporting a timing advance to the network (i.e. as taught by both Tsai & Bai) and is dependent upon the specific intended use, design incentives, needs and requirements (i.e. such as due to teachings of a known standard, current technology, conservation of resources, personal preferences, economic considerations, etc.) of the user and the system as has been established in MPEP 2144.04.
Claim(s) 21 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over TSAI et al. (US Patent Publication 2022/0086780 herein after referenced as Tsai) in view of Bai et al. (US Patent Publication 2022/0217669 herein after referenced as Bai) and further in view of BAE et al. (US Patent Publication 2019/0075605 herein after referenced as Bae).
Regarding claim 21, Tsai in view of Bai discloses:
The method according to claim 20, wherein: (see claim 20).
based on the offset between information related to the current timing advance of the terminal and information related to the previous timing advance being less than the predetermined threshold, the timing advance report is not triggered, (Tsai, [0217] discloses when a difference between a newly calculated UE-specific TA and the original UE-specific TA is higher than a threshold, the UE may trigger the report of the UE-specific TA, generate the report of the UE-specific TA e.g., via a MAC CE, and/or transmit the report of the UE-specific TA to the NW; Tsai, [0190] discloses forgoing transmitting, to the BS, the UE-specific TA report after determining that the value disables the transmission of the UE-specific TA report. Therefore, one of ordinary skill in the art would recognize based on the combination of the cited teachings together as a whole that the UE-specific TA report is not triggered and sent when the difference is below a threshold).
Tsai in view of Bai discloses utilizing a new timing advance but fails to explicitly recite that the old timing advance according to the difference and therefore fails to disclose “based on the offset between information related to the current timing advance of the terminal and information related to the previous timing advance being less than the predetermined threshold, the uplink transmission is performed based on information related to the previous timing advance.”
In a related field of endeavor, Bae discloses:
based on the offset between information related to the current timing advance of the terminal and information related to the previous timing advance being less than the predetermined threshold, the uplink transmission is performed based on information related to the previous timing advance (Bae, [0068] discloses If the difference between the first timing advance value and the second timing advance value is equal to or greater than the pre-determined threshold value, the uplink transmission timing may need to be corrected. Accordingly, the electronic device 100 may update its timing advance value to the second timing advance value in operation 615. If the difference between the first timing advance value and the second timing advance value is less than the pre-determined threshold value, the uplink transmission timing may need not to be corrected. Accordingly, the electronic device 100 may ignore the second timing advance value in operation 630; Bae, [0051] discloses the electronic device 100 may receive a timing advance value hereinafter, referred to as “first timing advance value” and a timer value from the base station 200 in operation 305. The electronic device 100 may apply the first timing advance value to uplink transmission timing. For example, the electronic device 100 may transmit uplink data earlier than or later than the original timing by applying the timing advance value; Bae, [0054] discloses the electronic device 100 may update its timing advance value applied to uplink transmission timing to the second timing advance value. In operation 325, the electronic device 100 may transmit uplink data to the base station 200 based on the second timing advance value. Therefore, one of ordinary skill in the art would recognize based on the combination of the cited teachings together as a whole that the electronic device would continue to utilize the first timing advance value when transmitting uplink transmissions when the difference between the first timing advance value and the second timing advance value is less than the pre-determined threshold value as the uplink transmission timing does not need to be corrected and the second timing advance value is ignored).
Therefore, at the time before the effective filing date of the invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify the invention of Tsai in view of Bai to incorporate the teachings of Bae for the purpose of providing the system with a means to allow the mobile device to determine whether to utilize or ignore the different timing advance values (Bae, [0068]) to better align with the subframe timing at the network (Tsai, [0005]) and for the purpose of making the system more dynamic and adaptable by providing the system with added functionalities and various different alternatives in design, thereby allowing the system to handle a number of various different combination of specific design structure and scenarios and (i.e. Tsai, [0279]) and thereby, preventing the system from being limited to a single specific design structure and scenario and furthermore, one of ordinary skill in the art would recognize based on the guidelines to rationales supporting a conclusion of obviousness seen on MPEP 2143, that the modification would involve use of a simple substitution of one known element and base device (i.e. performing a process of comparing a difference between a first timing advance value and a second timing advance value against a threshold as taught by Tsai) with another known element and comparable device utilizing a known technique (i.e. performing a process of comparing a difference between a first timing advance value and a second timing advance value against a threshold, wherein the first timing advance value is utilized and the second timing advance value is ignored when the difference is below a threshold as taught by Bae) to improve the similar devices in the same way and to obtain the predictable result of the system performing a process of comparing a difference between a first timing advance value and a second timing advance value against a threshold (i.e. as taught by both Tsai & Bae) and is dependent upon the specific intended use, design incentives, needs and requirements (i.e. such as due to teachings of a known standard, current technology, conservation of resources, personal preferences, economic considerations, etc.) of the user and the system as has been established in MPEP 2144.04.
Claim(s) 22 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over TSAI et al. (US Patent Publication 2022/0086780 herein after referenced as Tsai) in view of Bai et al. (US Patent Publication 2022/0217669 herein after referenced as Bai) and further in view of Tripathi et al. (US Patent Publication 2022/0070811 herein after referenced as Tripathi).
Regarding claim 22, Tsai in view of Bai discloses:
The method according to claim 20, wherein: (see claim 20).
Tsai in view of Bai discloses reporting a TA when a difference between a newly calculated TA and the original TA is higher than a threshold but fails to explicitly recite that said original TA is a previously reported TA and therefore fails to disclose “information related to the previous timing advance is information related to the timing advance which is last successfully reported from the terminal to the base station.”
In a related field of endeavor, Tripathi discloses:
information related to the previous timing advance is information related to the timing advance which is last successfully reported from the terminal to the base station (Tripathi, [0135] discloses the reporting of TA may be implicit or rule-based, where the UE sends a TA when the TA change i.e., the difference between the previously reported TA and the currently estimated TA exceeds a threshold. In such case, in an example approach, the gNB configures the UE with such threshold. In another example approach, the threshold is pre-defined in specifications).
Therefore, at the time before the effective filing date of the invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify the invention of Tsai in view of Bai to incorporate the teachings of Tripathi for the purpose of providing the system with a means to utilize different alternative timing advance values when determining when to report a timing advance value (Tripathi, [0135]) and for the purpose of making the system more dynamic and adaptable by providing the system with added functionalities and various different alternatives in design, thereby allowing the system to handle a number of various different combination of specific design structure and scenarios and (i.e. Tsai, [0279]) and thereby, preventing the system from being limited to a single specific design structure and scenario and furthermore, one of ordinary skill in the art would recognize based on the guidelines to rationales supporting a conclusion of obviousness seen on MPEP 2143, that the modification would involve use of a simple substitution of one known element and base device (i.e. performing a process of reporting a timing advance to the network based on a difference between a current timing advance and an original timing advance as taught by Tsai) with another known element and comparable device utilizing a known technique (i.e. performing a process of reporting a timing advance to the network based on a difference between a current timing advance and an original timing advance, wherein the original timing advance is a previously reported timing advance as taught by Tripathi) to improve the similar devices in the same way and to obtain the predictable result of the system performing a process of reporting a timing advance to the network based on a difference between a current timing advance and an original timing advance (i.e. as taught by both Tsai & Tripathi) and is dependent upon the specific intended use, design incentives, needs and requirements (i.e. such as due to teachings of a known standard, current technology, conservation of resources, personal preferences, economic considerations, etc.) of the user and the system as has been established in MPEP 2144.04.
Claim(s) 29 is/are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over TSAI et al. (US Patent Publication 2022/0086780 herein after referenced as Tsai) in view of Bai et al. (US Patent Publication 2022/0217669 herein after referenced as Bai) and further in view of LIU et al. (US Patent Publication 2016/0282469 herein after referenced as Liu).
Regarding claim 29, Tsai in view of Bai discloses:
The method according to claim 20, wherein: (see claim 20).
Tsai in view of Bai discloses the mobile device sending a report that includes a timing advance calculated based on satellite ephemeris data but fails to explicitly recite that the report is sent when the ephemeris data is valid and therefore fails to disclose “during a time duration that satellite orbit information is valid, information related to the timing advance is transmitted to the base station.”
In a related field of endeavor, Liu discloses:
during a time duration that satellite orbit information is valid, information related to the timing advance is transmitted to the base station (Liu, [0065] discloses the another download report can be scheduled based on the validity period of the ephemeris information or the almanac information currently stored in the satellite navigation message database 150. In some embodiments, the another download report can be scheduled for a time when the ephemeris information or the almanac information currently stored in the satellite navigation message database 150 will expire within a second predetermined period of time; Liu, [0048] discloses the ephemeris includes information corresponding to the satellite orbit and clock status of the broadcasting satellite. In some examples, the received ephemeris is valid up to four hours and is periodically updated by the broadcasting satellite).
Therefore, at the time before the effective filing date of the invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify the invention of Tsai in view of Bai to incorporate the teachings of Liu for the purpose of providing the system with a means to ensure that the transmitted report is accurate and still valid (Liu, [0065]) and for the purpose of making the system more dynamic and adaptable by providing the system with added functionalities and various different alternatives in design, thereby allowing the system to handle a number of various different combination of specific design structure and scenarios and (i.e. Tsai, [0279]) and thereby, preventing the system from being limited to a single specific design structure and scenario and furthermore, one of ordinary skill in the art would recognize based on the guidelines to rationales supporting a conclusion of obviousness seen on MPEP 2143, that the modification would involve use of a simple substitution of one known element and base device (i.e. performing a process of reporting to the network based on ephemeris data as taught by Tsai) with another known element and comparable device utilizing a known technique (i.e. performing a process of reporting to the network based on ephemeris data, wherein the report is transmitted during a period when the ephemeris data that include a satellite orbit is still valid as taught by Liu) to improve the similar devices in the same way and to obtain the predictable result of the system performing a process of reporting to the network based on ephemeris data (i.e. as taught by both Tsai & Liu) and is dependent upon the specific intended use, design incentives, needs and requirements (i.e. such as due to teachings of a known standard, current technology, conservation of resources, personal preferences, economic considerations, etc.) of the user and the system as has been established in MPEP 2144.04.
Conclusion
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/MICHAEL Y MAPA/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2645
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