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 .
DETAILED ACTION
a. Claims 1-23 in the present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA :
- claims 1-5, 8-9, 11-15, 18, 21, and 23 are amended
- claims 10, 19-20, and 22 are cancelled
b. This is a final action on the merits based on Applicant’s claims submitted on 12/22/2025.
Response to Arguments
Regarding claims 1, 11, and 21 previously objected for informalities, claims 1, 11, and 21 have been amended according to the examiner's recommendation and thus the previous objection has been withdrawn.
Regarding claim 23 previously rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 101, claim 23 has been amended according to the examiner's recommendation and thus the previous rejection has been withdrawn.
Regarding claims 1-9, 11-18, 21, and 23 previously rejected under 35 U.S.C. § 103, Applicant's arguments, see “Applicant submits that Hu also does not disclose system broadcast information indicating "a second downlink portion of the plurality of non-overlapping portions of the downlink initial bandwidth part containing the control resource set for a random access response and/or a contention resolution of the RACH procedure of the reduced capability user apparatus", as amended claim 1 requires. Qualcomm also does not disclose at least this feature of amended claim 1. Indeed, Qualcomm does not disclose a plurality of portions of the downlink initial bandwidth part at all, let alone the respective contents of first and second non-overlapping portions, as recited in amended claim 1.” on page , filed on 12/22/2025, with respect to Hu et al. US Pub 2021/0329718, claiming provisional application 63037531 priority 2020-06-10 and provisional application 63013391 priority 2020-04-21 (hereinafter “Hu”), and in view of Qualcomm NPL “Complexity Reduction for RedCap Devices” 3GPP R1-2101766, January 25th – February 5th, 2021 (hereinafter “Qualcomm”), have been fully considered and are not persuasive.
Qualcomm discloses system broadcast information (“Therefore, NR RedCap UE and non-RedCap UE can share the same SSB, CORESET0 and SIB1, as shown by Figure 1. The other SIBs of RedCap UE can either be scheduled by SIB1, or be transmitted on-demand within the initial DL BWP of RedCap UE.” On page 2, section 2.1) indicating a second downlink portion (i.e. “Initial DL BWP of RedCap UE” in Fig. 2) of the plurality of non-overlapping portions of the downlink initial bandwidth part (i.e. “Initial DL BWP of RedCap UE” and “Initial DL BWP of Non-RedCap UE” in Fig. 2) containing the control resource set (“CORESET0/SB1” in Fig. 2) for a random access response (i.e. RAR) and/or a contention resolution of the RACH procedure of the reduced capability user apparatus (“Figure 2 shows the impact on msg2 decoding during initial access of RedCap UE. Without early indication of RedCap by msg1, gNB does not know the presence of RedCap UE and may transmit msg2 beyond the initial DL BWP of RedCap UE. Since k0=0 in default SLIV Table A, there will not be a sufficient retuning gap for RedCap UE to switch the DL BWP. As a result, RedCap UE cannot decode RAR, and RedCap UE is unable to access the network. It is worth noting that such an issue also happens to msgB decoding of 2-step RACH, if early RedCap indication is not enabled for msgA PRACH. Early indication by msgA PUSCH does not solve the problem, since gNB will send FallbackRAR in msgB, even if msgA PUSCH decoding fails” on page 3, section 2.1; Fig. 2).
The Qualcomm’s reference, as combined with the Hu’s reference, discloses each and every limitation of the present claims 1-9, 11-18, 21, and 23, and therefore render the claims obvious. The Examiner respectfully disagrees with the applicant’s arguments that the Examiner fails to establish a prima facie case of obviousness MPEP § 2141. Claims 1-9, 11-18, 21, and 23 are still being rejected on the same grounds for rejection as before.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
Claim 2 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b), as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor, or for pre-AIA the applicant regards as the invention. Claim 2 recites the limitations “the one or more non-overlapping portions…” (underlined emphasis). There is insufficient antecedent basis for this limitation in the claim. The Examiner suggests that this sentence be modified as such to overcome this 112(b) rejection: “the [[one or more]] plurality of non-overlapping portions…”. Appropriate correction is required.
Claims 5, 8, 11, 12, 13, 15, 18 have similar issues and are also being rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b). Appropriate correction is required.
Claims 6-7 are also being rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) due to their dependency to parent claim 5.
Claims 14, 16, and 17 are also being rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) due to their dependency to parent claim 11.
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 of this title, 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.
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 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.
Claims 1-9, 11-18, 21, and 23 are ejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Hu et al. US Pub 2021/0329718, claiming provisional application 63037531 priority 2020-06-10 and provisional application 63013391 priority 2020-04-21 (hereinafter “Hu”), and in view of Qualcomm NPL “Complexity Reduction for RedCap Devices” 3GPP R1-2101766, January 25th – February 5th, 2021 (hereinafter “Qualcomm”).
Regarding claim 1 (Currently Amended)
Hu discloses an apparatus (i.e. “UE” in Fig. 1) for a cellular radio network (see Fig. 1) comprising one or more memories including computer program code (“configured to execute instructions stored in a non-transitory storage medium” [0069]), and one or more processors (“Processing circuit hardware may include, for example, application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), general purpose or special purpose central processing units (CPUs), digital signal processors (DSPs), graphics processing units (GPUs), and programmable logic devices such as field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs).” [0069]) configured to execute the computer program code to cause the apparatus to:
generate system broadcast information (“The network informs the reduced capability UEs of all of the above configurations in the SIB1 message.” [0066]) indicating random access channel (RACH) (“Each of the reduced capability UEs then autonomously selects one initial uplink and downlink initial BWP for PRACH to balance the load across different initial BWPs (instead of all of the reduced capability UEs sharing one initial BWP).” [0066]), occasions for a RACH procedure of a legacy user apparatus capable of employing a downlink and an uplink initial bandwidth part (“Each reduced capability UE may inform the network of its choice of downlink and uplink initial BWP in message 1, e.g., via a specific preamble or the combination of a specific preamble with new ROs. For example, if the new RO overlaps with the legacy RO, the selected uplink and downlink initial BWP is indicated by the specific preamble for a reduced capability UE or by the combination of specific preambles and the new RO.” [0066]) of a base station (i.e. “network” or “gNB” in Fig. 1) of the cellular radio network (see Fig. 1); and
Hu does not specifically teach cause a transmission of the system broadcast information in a first downlink portion of a plurality of non-overlapping portions of the downlink initial bandwidth part via the base station;
wherein the system broadcast information also indicates, for a RACH procedure of a reduced capability user apparatus capable of employing only a limited amount of each of the downlink and uplink initial bandwidth parts of the base station:
a set of the RACH occasions for the reduced capability user apparatus that are confined to one or more non-overlapping portions of the uplink initial bandwidth part;
at least one of the plurality of non-overlapping portions of the downlink initial bandwidth part containing a control resource set for a random access response and/or a contention resolution of the RACH procedure of the reduced capability user apparatus; and
a second downlink portion of the plurality of non-overlapping portions of the downlink initial bandwidth part containing the control resource set for a random access response and/or a contention resolution of the RACH procedure of the reduced capability user apparatus.
In an analogous art, Qualcomm discloses cause a transmission of the system broadcast information (“Therefore, NR RedCap UE and non-RedCap UE can share the same SSB, CORESET0 and SIB1, as shown by Figure 1. The other SIBs of RedCap UE can either be scheduled by SIB1, or be transmitted on-demand within the initial DL BWP of RedCap UE.” On page 2, section 2.1) in a first downlink portion (i.e. “Initial DL BWP of Non-RedCap UE” in Fig. 2) of a plurality of non-overlapping portions of the downlink initial bandwidth part (i.e. “Initial DL BWP of RedCap UE” and “Initial DL BWP of Non-RedCap UE” in Fig. 2) via the base station (see Fig. 3 below);
wherein the system broadcast information (i.e. “SIB1”) also indicates, for a RACH procedure of a reduced capability user apparatus (“Figure 2 shows the impact on msg2 decoding during initial access of RedCap UE. Without early indication of RedCap by msg1, gNB does not know the presence of RedCap UE and may transmit msg2 beyond the initial DL BWP of RedCap UE.” Section 2.1) capable of employing only a limited amount of each of the downlink and uplink initial bandwidth parts (“If the initial BWP of non-RedCap UE is less than or equal to 20 MHz, the initial BWP configurations of non-RedCap UE can be re-used by RedCap UE. If RedCap UE and non-RedCap UE are allowed to access a cell at the same time, it is necessary for the network to identify the RedCap UE during initial access before scheduling and multiplexing UEs with different capabilities.” Section 2.1) of the base station (i.e. “gNB” in section 2.1):
a set of the RACH occasions for the reduced capability user apparatus that are confined to one or more non-overlapping portions of the uplink initial bandwidth part (“The initial UL BWP of RedCap UE should include the PRACH occasions allocated for RedCap UE, which can be configured by another dedicated locationAndBandwidth IE, or by pre-defined rules specified in standards.” Section 2.1);
at least one of the plurality of non-overlapping portions of the downlink initial bandwidth part containing a control resource set (“CORESET0/SB1” in Fig. 2 and furthermore “20 MHz is the maximum BW supported by an FR1 RedCap UE for initial access. In FR1, the max SSB BW is 7.2 MHz and the max CORESET0 BW is 17.28 MHz. Similar to NR non-RedCap UE of R15/R16, a RedCap UE supporting 20 MHz BW and single carrier operation is able to receive beamformed SSB and SIB1 in FDD and TDD bands of FR1” section 2.1) for a random access response (i.e. “RAR”) and/or a contention resolution of the RACH procedure of the reduced capability user apparatus (“Figure 2 shows the impact on msg2 decoding during initial access of RedCap UE. Without early indication of RedCap by msg1, gNB does not know the presence of RedCap UE and may transmit msg2 beyond the initial DL BWP of RedCap UE. Since k0=0 in default SLIV Table A, there will not be a sufficient retuning gap for RedCap UE to switch the DL BWP. As a result, RedCap UE cannot decode RAR, and RedCap UE is unable to access the network. It is worth noting that such an issue also happens to msgB decoding of 2-step RACH, if early RedCap indication is not enabled for msgA PRACH. Early indication by msgA PUSCH does not solve the problem, since gNB will send FallbackRAR in msgB, even if msgA PUSCH decoding fails” on page 3, section 2.1; Fig. 2); and
a second downlink portion (i.e. “Initial DL BWP of RedCap UE” in Fig. 2) of the plurality of non-overlapping portions of the downlink initial bandwidth part containing the control resource set (“CORESET0/SB1” in Fig. 2 and furthermore “20 MHz is the maximum BW supported by an FR1 RedCap UE for initial access. In FR1, the max SSB BW is 7.2 MHz and the max CORESET0 BW is 17.28 MHz. Similar to NR non-RedCap UE of R15/R16, a RedCap UE supporting 20 MHz BW and single carrier operation is able to receive beamformed SSB and SIB1 in FDD and TDD bands of FR1” section 2.1) for a random access response (i.e. “RAR”) and/or a contention resolution of the RACH procedure of the reduced capability user apparatus (“Figure 2 shows the impact on msg2 decoding during initial access of RedCap UE. Without early indication of RedCap by msg1, gNB does not know the presence of RedCap UE and may transmit msg2 beyond the initial DL BWP of RedCap UE. Since k0=0 in default SLIV Table A, there will not be a sufficient retuning gap for RedCap UE to switch the DL BWP. As a result, RedCap UE cannot decode RAR, and RedCap UE is unable to access the network. It is worth noting that such an issue also happens to msgB decoding of 2-step RACH, if early RedCap indication is not enabled for msgA PRACH. Early indication by msgA PUSCH does not solve the problem, since gNB will send FallbackRAR in msgB, even if msgA PUSCH decoding fails” on page 3, section 2.1; Fig. 2).
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Before the effective filling date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify Hu’s method for accommodating reduced capability user equipment in a mobile communications network, to include Qualcomm’s method of supporting NR RedCap UEs, in order to successfully facilitate random access procedure (Qualcomm [Observation 1], section 2.1). Thus, a person of ordinary skill would have appreciated the ability to incorporate Qualcomm’s method of supporting NR RedCap UEs into Hu’s method for accommodating reduced capability user equipment in a mobile communications network since the claimed invention is merely a combination of old elements, and in the combination each element merely would have performed the same function as it did separately, and one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the results of the combination were predictable.
Regarding claim 2 (Currently Amended)
Hu, as modified by Qualcomm, previously discloses the apparatus of claim 1, wherein:
Hu further discloses the plurality of non-overlapping portions of the downlink initial bandwidth part each have a bandwidth that is less than or equal to the limited amount of the downlink initial bandwidth part of the base station that the reduced capability user apparatus is capable of employing (“the initial CORESET occupies a bandwidth greater than the bandwidth capability of the bandwidth-limited UE” [0007]).
Qualcomm further discloses the plurality of non-overlapping portions of the downlink initial bandwidth part each have a bandwidth that is less than or equal to the limited amount of the downlink initial bandwidth part of the base station that the reduced capability user apparatus is capable of employing (“If RedCap UE and non-RedCap UE co-exist in a NR serving cell in SA deployment, and the initial BWP of non-RedCap UE is wider than 20 MHz, the initial BWP configurations for RedCap UE can be indicated in SI, or by rules specified in standards. For example, the initial DL BWP of RedCap UE can be aligned with the CORESET0, or be configured by a dedicated locationAndBandwidth IE” Section 2.1); and/or
the one or more non-overlapping portions of the uplink initial bandwidth part each have a bandwidth that is less than or equal to the limited amount of the uplink initial bandwidth part of the base station that the reduced capability user apparatus is capable of employing (“The initial UL BWP of RedCap UE should include the PRACH occasions allocated for RedCap UE, which can be configured by another dedicated locationAndBandwidth IE, or by pre-defined rules specified in standards. If the initial BWP of non-RedCap UE is less than or equal to 20 MHz, the initial BWP configurations of non-RedCap UE can be re-used by RedCap UE.” Section 2.1).
Regarding claim 3 (Currently Amended)
Hu, as modified by Qualcomm, previously discloses the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the system broadcast information indicates:
Qualcomm further discloses a first uplink portion of the one or more non-overlapping portions of the uplink initial bandwidth part containing the set of the RACH occasions for a random access preamble of the RACH procedure of the reduced capability user apparatus (“The initial UL BWP of RedCap UE should include the PRACH occasions allocated for RedCap UE, which can be configured by another dedicated locationAndBandwidth IE, or by pre-defined rules specified in standards. If the initial BWP of non-RedCap UE is less than or equal to 20 MHz, the initial BWP configurations of non-RedCap UE can be re-used by RedCap UE.” Section 2.1).
Regarding claim 4 (Currently Amended)
Hu, as modified by Qualcomm, previously discloses the apparatus of claim 1,
Qualcomm further discloses wherein the first downlink portion (i.e. “Initial DL BWP of Non-RedCap UE” in Fig. 2) and the second downlink portion (i.e. “Initial DL BWP of RedCap UE” in Fig. 2) are different from each other (“Similar to R15/R16 non-RedCap UE, RedCap UE can switch to an active DL/UL BWP after initial access, and the BW of active BWP can be different from that of initial BWP.” Section 2.1).
Regarding claim 5 (Currently Amended)
Hu, as modified by Qualcomm, previously discloses the apparatus of claim 3, wherein the system broadcast information indicates:
Hu further discloses a third downlink portion of the plurality of non-overlapping portions of the downlink initial bandwidth part containing an additional control resource set (i.e. “CORESET”) for the random access response (see Fig. 3B below):
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a second uplink portion of the one or more non-overlapping portions of the uplink initial bandwidth part containing an additional set of the RACH occasions for the random access preamble of the RACH procedure of the reduced capability user apparatus (“A set of new ROs for bandwidth-limited reduced capability UEs may be defined, as well as a new mapping between SSB index and the new ROs for beam pairing. The new ROs can be nonoverlapping, partially overlapping, or fully overlapping with the legacy ROs.” [0062]).
Regarding claim 6
Hu, as modified by Qualcomm, previously discloses the apparatus of claim 5, wherein:
Hu further discloses the additional control resource set contained within the third downlink portion comprises a repetition of the control resource set contained within the second downlink portion (“the use of Embodiment 2 may have the advantage that it allows all CORESET#0 configurations, and that it allows full flexibility in configuring BL-CORESET#0. FIG. 5C is a flowchart of a portion of an initial access process, according to Embodiment 2.” [0059]); and/or
the additional set of the RACH occasions contained within the second uplink portion comprises a repetition of the set of the RACH occasions contained within the first uplink portion (“The frequency or time resources (or both) of the new ROs may be nonoverlapping, partially overlapping, or fully overlapping with the frequency or time resources (or both) of the legacy ROs, as shown, for one example, in FIG. 6C. If the new RO overlaps with a legacy RO, the network may determine whether to apply the legacy SSB index mapping rule or a new mapping rule based on the specific preamble used by the reduced capability UEs in message 1.” [0063]).
Regarding claim 7
Hu, as modified by Qualcomm, previously discloses the apparatus of claim 5, wherein:
Hu further discloses the second downlink portion and the third downlink portion are different from each other (“In Option 1, DCI-based initial BWP switching on message 2 of the initial access process is used to offload both downlink and uplink signaling load across a set of different downlink or uplink initial BWPs for reduced capability UEs, instead of using only one initial uplink or downlink initial BWP configured in SIB1. A specific new uplink and downlink initial BWP is configured by the gNB for each reduced capability UE using the same RO and Preamble.” [0062]); and/or
the first uplink portion and the second uplink portion are different from each other (“In some embodiments, the second initial BWP is different from the first initial BWP” [0019]).
Regarding claim 8 (Currently Amended)
Hu, as modified by Qualcomm, previously discloses the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the system broadcast information (i.e. “SIB1”) indicates:
Hu further discloses a mapping between the plurality non-overlapping portions of the downlink initial bandwidth part for the RACH procedure of the reduced capability user apparatus and the one or more non-overlapping portions of the uplink initial bandwidth part for the RACH procedure of the reduced capability user apparatus (“For uplink initial BWPs, the network supporting reduced capability may have an additional mapping between SSB index and new ROs for bandwidth-limited reduced capability UEs. Reduced capability UEs are informed (i) of this new mapping, and (ii) of the new ROs, in SIB1.” [0063]).
Regarding claim 9 (Currently Amended)
Hu, as modified by Qualcomm, previously discloses the apparatus of claim 1,
Hu further discloses wherein the non-overlapping portions of the downlink and uplink initial bandwidth parts are resource block sets (“FIG. 3B is a table of resource blocks and slot symbols, according to an embodiment of the present disclosure” [0029]), and a predetermined number of contiguous resource blocks forms each resource block set, and the plurality of non-overlapping portions of the downlink initial bandwidth part for the RACH procedure of the reduced capability user apparatus are confined within a plurality of resource block sets of the downlink initial bandwidth part, and the one or more non-overlapping portions of the uplink initial bandwidth part for the RACH procedure of the reduced capability user apparatus are confined within one or more resource block sets of the uplink initial bandwidth part (“As an example of such specification impact, in 3GPP Release 15 (Rel-15), the legacy initial control resource set (CORESET#0) may have a maximum bandwidth of 17 MHz (assuming a 15 kHz subcarrier spacing (SCS) and 96 Physical Resource Blocks (PRBs) (each including 12 subcarriers)), which may be larger than the maximum bandwidth (e.g., 5 MHz or 10 MHz) targeted for low tier bandwidth-limited UEs. In this case, the bandwidth-limited UEs may not be able to acquire the legacy System Information Block #1 (SIB1) information via the legacy CORESET#0, and may therefore be unable to perform the initial access procedure. Moreover, the uplink initial bandwidth part (BWP) for bandwidth-limited UEs may be different than the legacy uplink initial BWP, due to the lower bandwidth capability of bandwidth-limited UEs. It may therefore be advantageous to provide mechanisms in the network and in the bandwidth-limited UEs to enable the bandwidth-limited UEs to use the reduced uplink initial BWP for uplink transmission.” [0043]; [0048]).
Regarding claim 11 (Currently Amended)
Hu discloses an apparatus for a terminal (i.e. “UE” in Fig. 1) interoperable with a cellular radio network (see Fig. 1) comprising:
one or more memories including computer program code (“configured to execute instructions stored in a non-transitory storage medium” [0069]), and one or more processors (“Processing circuit hardware may include, for example, application specific integrated circuits (ASICs), general purpose or special purpose central processing units (CPUs), digital signal processors (DSPs), graphics processing units (GPUs), and programmable logic devices such as field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs).” [0069]) configured to execute the computer program code to cause a reception of system broadcast information in a first downlink portion (“The network informs the reduced capability UEs of all of the above configurations in the SIB1 message.” [0066]) of a plurality of non-overlapping portions of a downlink initial bandwidth part by a reduced capability user apparatus (“Each of the reduced capability UEs then autonomously selects one initial uplink and downlink initial BWP for PRACH to balance the load across different initial BWPs (instead of all of the reduced capability UEs sharing one initial BWP).” [0066]) from a base station (i.e. “network’) of the cellular radio network,
Hu does not specifically teach wherein the reduced capability user apparatus is capable of employing only a limited amount of each of a downlink and an uplink initial bandwidth part of the base station;
extract from the system broadcast information, information indicating, for a random access channel, RACH, procedure of the reduced capability user apparatus: a set of RACH occasions for the reduced capability user apparatus that are confined to one or more non-overlapping portions of the uplink initial bandwidth part, and at least one of the plurality of non-overlapping portions of the downlink initial bandwidth part containing a control resource set for a random access response and/or a contention resolution of the RACH procedure of the reduced capability user apparatus; and
cause a performance of the RACH procedure by the reduced capability user apparatus with the base station using the set of the RACH occasions confined to the one or more non-overlapping portions of the uplink initial bandwidth part, and the at least one of the plurality of non-overlapping portions of the downlink initial bandwidth part;
wherein the one or more memories including computer program code, and one or more processors configured to execute the computer code, are configured to cause the apparatus to also:
in the extracting:
obtain information relating to a second downlink portion of the plurality of non-overlapping portions of the downlink initial bandwidth part containing the control resource set for a random access response and/or a contention resolution of the RACH
procedure of the reduced capability user apparatus; and
in the causing the performance of the RACH procedure:
cause a reception of the random access response and/or contention resolution using the control resource set contained within the second downlink portion.
In an analogous art, Qualcomm discloses wherein the reduced capability user apparatus is capable of employing only a limited amount of each of a downlink and an uplink initial bandwidth part (“20 MHz is the maximum BW supported by an FR1 RedCap UE for initial access. In FR1, the max SSB BW is 7.2 MHz and the max CORESET0 BW is 17.28 MHz. Similar to NR non-RedCap UE of R15/R16, a RedCap UE supporting 20 MHz BW and single carrier operation is able to receive beamformed SSB and SIB1 in FDD and TDD bands of FR1” Section 2.1) of the base station (i.e. “gNB” in section 2.1);
extract from the system broadcast information (i.e. “SIB1”), information indicating, for a random access channel, RACH, procedure of the reduced capability user apparatus (“Figure 2 shows the impact on msg2 decoding during initial access of RedCap UE. Without early indication of RedCap by msg1, gNB does not know the presence of RedCap UE and may transmit msg2 beyond the initial DL BWP of RedCap UE.” Section 2.1), i) a set of RACH occasions for the reduced capability user apparatus that are confined to one or more non-overlapping portions of the uplink initial bandwidth part (“The initial UL BWP of RedCap UE should include the PRACH occasions allocated for RedCap UE, which can be configured by another dedicated locationAndBandwidth IE, or by pre-defined rules specified in standards.” Section 2.1), and ii) at least one of the one or more non-overlapping portions of the downlink initial bandwidth part containing a control resource set (“20 MHz is the maximum BW supported by an FR1 RedCap UE for initial access. In FR1, the max SSB BW is 7.2 MHz and the max CORESET0 BW is 17.28 MHz. Similar to NR non-RedCap UE of R15/R16, a RedCap UE supporting 20 MHz BW and single carrier operation is able to receive beamformed SSB and SIB1 in FDD and TDD bands of FR1” section 2.1) for a random access response (i.e. “RAR”) and/or a contention resolution of the RACH procedure of the reduced capability user apparatus (“In FR1, the initial UL BWP of non-RedCap UE can be wider than 20 MHz, which is beyond the BW capability of RedCap UE during initial access. Therefore, if the network allows RedCap UEs to access a NR serving cell, it is necessary for the network to identify the RedCap UE before sending the RAR grant so that the RedCap UE can be multiplexed appropriately with non-RedCap UEs.” Section 2.1); and
cause a performance of the RACH procedure by the reduced capability user apparatus with the base station using the set of the RACH occasions confined to the one or more non-overlapping portions of the uplink initial bandwidth part (“The initial UL BWP of RedCap UE should include the PRACH occasions allocated for RedCap UE, which can be configured by another dedicated locationAndBandwidth IE, or by pre-defined rules specified in standards.” Section 2.1), and the at least one of the one or more non-overlapping portions of the downlink initial bandwidth part (“Similar to R15/R16 non-RedCap UE, RedCap UE can switch to an active DL/UL BWP after initial access, and the BW of active BWP can be different from that of initial BWP.” Section 2.1).
wherein the one or more memories including computer program code, and one or more processors configured to execute the computer code, are configured to cause the apparatus to also:
in the extracting:
obtain information relating to a second downlink portion (i.e. “Initial DL BWP of RedCap UE” in Fig. 2) of the plurality of non-overlapping portions of the downlink initial bandwidth part (i.e. “Initial DL BWP of RedCap UE” and “Initial DL BWP of Non-RedCap UE” in Fig. 2) containing the control resource set (“CORESET0/SB1” in Fig. 2 and furthermore “20 MHz is the maximum BW supported by an FR1 RedCap UE for initial access. In FR1, the max SSB BW is 7.2 MHz and the max CORESET0 BW is 17.28 MHz. Similar to NR non-RedCap UE of R15/R16, a RedCap UE supporting 20 MHz BW and single carrier operation is able to receive beamformed SSB and SIB1 in FDD and TDD bands of FR1” section 2.1) for a random access response (i.e. “RAR”) and/or a contention resolution of the RACH procedure of the reduced capability user apparatus (“Figure 2 shows the impact on msg2 decoding during initial access of RedCap UE. Without early indication of RedCap by msg1, gNB does not know the presence of RedCap UE and may transmit msg2 beyond the initial DL BWP of RedCap UE. Since k0=0 in default SLIV Table A, there will not be a sufficient retuning gap for RedCap UE to switch the DL BWP. As a result, RedCap UE cannot decode RAR, and RedCap UE is unable to access the network. It is worth noting that such an issue also happens to msgB decoding of 2-step RACH, if early RedCap indication is not enabled for msgA PRACH. Early indication by msgA PUSCH does not solve the problem, since gNB will send FallbackRAR in msgB, even if msgA PUSCH decoding fails” on page 3, section 2.1; Fig. 2); and
in the causing the performance of the RACH procedure:
cause a reception of the random access response and/or contention resolution using the control resource set contained within the second downlink portion (“Figure 2 shows the impact on msg2 decoding during initial access of RedCap UE. Without early indication of RedCap by msg1, gNB does not know the presence of RedCap UE and may transmit msg2 beyond the initial DL BWP of RedCap UE. Since k0=0 in default SLIV Table A, there will not be a sufficient retuning gap for RedCap UE to switch the DL BWP. As a result, RedCap UE cannot decode RAR, and RedCap UE is unable to access the network. It is worth noting that such an issue also happens to msgB decoding of 2-step RACH, if early RedCap indication is not enabled for msgA PRACH. Early indication by msgA PUSCH does not solve the problem, since gNB will send FallbackRAR in msgB, even if msgA PUSCH decoding fails” on page 3, section 2.1; Fig. 2).
Before the effective filling date of the claimed invention, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art to modify Hu’s method for accommodating reduced capability user equipment in a mobile communications network, to include Qualcomm’s method of supporting NR RedCap UEs, in order to successfully facilitate random access procedure (Qualcomm [Observation 1], section 2.1). Thus, a person of ordinary skill would have appreciated the ability to incorporate Qualcomm’s method of supporting NR RedCap UEs into Hu’s method for accommodating reduced capability user equipment in a mobile communications network since the claimed invention is merely a combination of old elements, and in the combination each element merely would have performed the same function as it did separately, and one of ordinary skill in the art would have recognized that the results of the combination were predictable.
Regarding claim 12 (Currently Amended)
The apparatus of claim 11, wherein:
the plurality of non-overlapping portions of the downlink initial bandwidth part each have a bandwidth that is less than or equal to the limited amount of the downlink initial bandwidth part of the base station that the reduced capability user apparatus is capable of employing; and/or
the one or more non-overlapping portions of the uplink initial bandwidth part each have a bandwidth that is less than or equal to the limited amount of the uplink initial bandwidth part of the base station that the reduced capability user apparatus is capable of employing.
The scope and subject matter of apparatus claim 12 are similar to the scope and subject matter as claimed in apparatus claim 2. Therefore apparatus claim 12 corresponds to apparatus claim 2 and is rejected for the same reasons of obviousness as used in claim 2 rejection above.
Regarding claim 13 (Currently Amended)
Hu, as modified by Qualcomm, previously discloses the apparatus of claim 11, wherein the one or more memories including computer program code, and one or more processors configured to execute the computer program code are configured to cause the apparatus to also perform the following:
Hu further discloses in the extracting (“Referring to FIG. 4, both the legacy UE, or “full-bandwidth UE”, and the bandwidth-limited UE acquire the Signal Synchronization Block (SSB) at 405 and decode the MIB. From the MIB, both the legacy UE and the bandwidth-limited UE read the CORESET#0 configuration.” [0050]),
obtain information relating to a first uplink portion of the one or more non-overlapping portions of the uplink initial bandwidth part containing the set of the RACH occasions for a random access preamble of the RACH procedure of the reduced capability user apparatus (“In Option 1, DCI-based initial BWP switching on message 2 of the initial access process is used to offload both downlink and uplink signaling load across a set of different downlink or uplink initial BWPs for reduced capability UEs, instead of using only one initial uplink or downlink initial BWP configured in SIB1. A specific new uplink and downlink initial BWP is configured by the gNB for each reduced capability UE using the same RO and Preamble. A set of new ROs for bandwidth-limited reduced capability UEs may be defined, as well as a new mapping between SSB index and the new ROs for beam pairing. The new ROs can be nonoverlapping, partially overlapping, or fully overlapping with the legacy ROs.” [0062]), and
in the causing the performance of the RACH procedure,
cause a transmission of the random access preamble using one RACH occasion from the set of the RACH occasions contained within the first uplink portion (“Each reduced capability UE may inform the network of its choice of downlink and uplink initial BWP in message 1, e.g., via a specific preamble or the combination of a specific preamble with new ROs. For example, if the new RO overlaps with the legacy RO, the selected uplink and downlink initial BWP is indicated by the specific preamble for a reduced capability UE or by the combination of specific preambles and the new RO.” [0066]).
Regarding claim 14 (Currently Amended)
The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the first downlink portion and the second downlink portion are different from each other.
The scope and subject matter of apparatus claim 14 are similar to the scope and subject matter as claimed in apparatus claim 4. Therefore apparatus claim 14 corresponds to apparatus claim 4 and is rejected for the same reasons of obviousness as used in claim 4 rejection above.
Regarding claim 15 (Currently Amended)
Hu, as modified by Qualcomm, previously discloses the apparatus of claim 13, wherein the means one or more memories including computer program code are configured to cause the apparatus to also perform the following:
Hu further discloses in the extracting (“Referring to FIG. 4, both the legacy UE, or “full-bandwidth UE”, and the bandwidth-limited UE acquire the Signal Synchronization Block (SSB) at 405 and decode the MIB. From the MIB, both the legacy UE and the bandwidth-limited UE read the CORESET#0 configuration.” [0050]),
obtain information relating to a third downlink portion of the plurality of non-overlapping portions of the downlink initial bandwidth part containing an additional control resource set (i.e. “CORESET”) for the random access response and/or contention resolution of the RACH procedure of the reduced capability user apparatus (see Fig. 3B below), and/or
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obtain information relating to a second uplink portion of the one or more non-overlapping portions of the uplink initial bandwidth part containing an additional set of the RACH occasions for the random access preamble of the RACH procedure of the reduced capability user apparatus (“A set of new ROs for bandwidth-limited reduced capability UEs may be defined, as well as a new mapping between SSB index and the new ROs for beam pairing. The new ROs can be nonoverlapping, partially overlapping, or fully overlapping with the legacy ROs.” [0062]), and
in the causing the performance of the RACH procedure,
cause a transmission of the random access preamble using one RACH occasion from the additional set of the RACH occasions contained within the second uplink portion (“Each reduced capability UE may inform the network of its choice of downlink and uplink initial BWP in message 1, e.g., via a specific preamble or the combination of a specific preamble with new ROs. For example, if the new RO overlaps with the legacy RO, the selected uplink and downlink initial BWP is indicated by the specific preamble for a reduced capability UE or by the combination of specific preambles and the new RO.” [0066]), and/or
cause a reception of the random access response (“At 130, the UE uses the same beam and attempts random access by transmitting a Random Access Channel (RACH) preamble (i.e., message 1, or “Message#1”) on the configured RACH resource. The gNB responds with a Random Access Response RAR (“RA Response”) message, which is message 2, or “Message#2”.” [0045]) and/or contention resolution using the additional control resource set contained within the third downlink portion.
Regarding claim 16
The apparatus of claim 15, wherein:
the additional control resource set contained within the third downlink portion comprises a repetition of the control resource set contained within the second downlink portion; and/or
the additional set of the RACH occasions contained within the second uplink portion comprises a repetition of the set of the RACH occasions contained within the first uplink portion.
The scope and subject matter of apparatus claim 16 are similar to the scope and subject matter as claimed in apparatus claim 6. Therefore apparatus claim 16 corresponds to apparatus claim 6 and is rejected for the same reasons of obviousness as used in claim 6 rejection above.
Regarding claim 17
The apparatus of claim 15, wherein:
the second downlink portion and the third downlink portion are different from each other; and/or
the first uplink portion and the second uplink portion are different from each other.
The scope and subject matter of apparatus claim 17 are similar to the scope and subject matter as claimed in apparatus claim 7. Therefore apparatus claim 17 corresponds to apparatus claim 7 and is rejected for the same reasons of obviousness as used in claim 7 rejection above.
Regarding claim 18 (Currently Amended)
The apparatus of claim 11, wherein the one or more memories including computer program code, and one or more processors configured to execute the computer program code are configured to cause the apparatus to also perform the following:
in the extracting,
obtain information relating to a mapping between the plurality of non-overlapping portions of the downlink initial bandwidth part for the RACH procedure of the reduced capability user apparatus and the one or more non-overlapping portions of the uplink initial bandwidth part for the RACH procedure of the reduced capability user apparatus from the system broadcast information, or from a predetermined configuration data.
The scope and subject matter of apparatus claim 18 are similar to the scope and subject matter as claimed in apparatus claim 8. Therefore apparatus claim 18 corresponds to apparatus claim 8 and is rejected for the same reasons of obviousness as used in claim 8 rejection above.
Regarding claim 21 (Currently Amended)
A method in a terminal interoperable with a cellular radio network, comprising:
causing a reception of system broadcast information in a first downlink portion of plurality of non-overlapping portions of a downlink initial bandwidth part by a reduced capability user apparatus from a base station of the cellular radio network, wherein the reduced capability user apparatus is capable of employing only a limited amount of each of a downlink and an uplink initial bandwidth part of the base station;
extracting, from the system broadcast information, information indicating, for a random access channel, RACH, procedure of the reduced capability user apparatus:
a set of RACH occasions for the reduced capability user apparatus that are confined to one or more non-overlapping portions of the uplink initial bandwidth part; and
at least one of the plurality of non-overlapping portions of the downlink bandwidth initial part containing a control resource set for a random access response and/or a contention resolution of the RACH procedure of the reduced capability user apparatus; and
causing a performance of the RACH procedure by the reduced capability user apparatus with the base station using the set of the RACH occasions confined to the one or more non-overlapping portions of the uplink initial bandwidth part, and the at least one of the plurality of non-overlapping portions of the downlink initial bandwidth part;
wherein the method further comprises:
in the extracting:
obtaining information relating to a second downlink portion of the plurality of non-overlapping portions of the downlink initial bandwidth part containing the control resource set for a random access response and/or a contention resolution of the RACH procedure of the reduced capability user apparatus; and
in the causing the performance of the RACH procedure:
causing a reception of the random access response and/or contention resolution using the control resource set contained within the second downlink portion.
The scope and subject matter of method claim 21 is drawn to the method of using the corresponding apparatus claimed in claim 11. Therefore method claim 21 corresponds to apparatus claim 11 and is rejected for the same reasons of obviousness as used in claim 11 rejection above.
Regarding claim 23 (Currently Amended)
A non-transitory computer-readable medium comprising computer program code, which, when executed by one or more processors, causes performance of the method in a terminal interoperable with a cellular radio network of claim 21.
The scope and subject matter of non-transitory computer readable medium claim 23 is drawn to the computer program product of using the corresponding method claimed in claim 21. Therefore computer program product claim 23 corresponds to method claim 21 and is rejected for the same reasons of obviousness as used in claim 21 rejection above.
Conclusion
THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CHUONG M NGUYEN whose telephone number is (571)272-8184. The examiner can normally be reached M-F 10:00am - 6:30pm.
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/CHUONG M NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2411