DETAILED ACTION
This is in response to applicant's communication filed on 01/29/2024, wherein:
Claim 1-8, 10, and 12-22 are pending.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim 1-2, 10, 12, 13, and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Tseng et al. (US 20230108646 A1).
Regarding claim 1, Tseng discloses a method for detecting a signal or channel, performed by a terminal (Fig. 8 and ¶0043), comprising:
determining a detection parameter for a signal or a channel of the terminal based on a paging configuration parameter of the terminal (Fig. 8 step 802 and ¶0043 – “In step 802, the UE determines a Paging Early Indicator (PEI)-carrying radio frame based on the configuration. The configuration indicates a PEI offset value associated with a corresponding paging frame (PF)”), wherein the signal or first channel is configured to indicate whether the terminal detects a paging (Fig. 8 step 803-804 and ¶0043 – “In step 803, the UE monitors the PEI on the PEI-carrying radio frame. The PEI indicates whether there is a paging opportunity (PO) in the corresponding PF. In step 804, the UE monitors the PO in the corresponding PF when the PEI indicates positive paging, otherwise the UE goes to deep sleep from the reception of the PEI to the corresponding PF when the PEI indicates negative paging”).
Regarding claim 2, Tseng discloses the method of claim 1, wherein the detection parameter comprises at least one of: a bit position; a sequence cyclic shift; a sequence index (¶0038 – “There are two options for indexing PEIs. In Opt1, PEI is received in a Beam-first manner, where every Nbeam PEI locations correspond to Nbeam SSBs for a PO. For example, 4 PEIs for PO#1, then 4 PEIs for PO#2, where the 4 PEIs correspond to 4 beams. In a Opt2, the PEIs may be received in a PO-first manner, where every N.sub.PO PEI locations correspond to N.sub.PO POs for the same beam. For example, 2 PEIs for beam#1, then 2 PEIs for beam#2, and so on”); or a monitoring occasion (¶0034 – “For example, when SMTC period =40 ms, N=half of T, and K=2 (not 4). UE needs to derive the “index” of its PF in an SMTC period. The PEI of the kth PF is located in the frameOffset-PEI[k]-th frame before the PF. After applying the frame-level PEI offset, UE can find a SSB/PEI-carrying frame to monitor the PEI”).
Regarding claim 10, the scope and content of the claim recites a terminal for performing the method of claim 1, therefore, being addressed as in claim 1.
Regarding claim 12, the scope and content of the claim recites a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having a computer program for performing the method of claim 1, therefore, being addressed as in claim 1.
Regarding claim 13, the scope and content of the claim recites a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having a computer program for performing the method of claim 2, therefore, being addressed as in claim 2.
Regarding claim 20, the scope and content of the claim recites a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having a computer program for performing the method of claim 2, therefore, being addressed as in claim 2.
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.
Claim 3-6, 14-17, and 21-22 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Tseng et al. (US 20230108646 A1) in view of 3GPP (3GPP TSG RAN WG1 #104-e R1-2100394 e-Meeting, January 25th - February 5th, 2021; provided by Applicant on 01/29/2024).
Regarding claim 3, Tseng discloses the method of claim 1, however, silent on further details of claim 3.
3GPP discloses wherein the detection parameter represents a parameter determined at least based on a first index of the terminal; and the first index represents an index of a paging opportunity (PO) of the terminal (Section 2.2.1 – “Step2.2: calculate PEI subframe/slot time location PEI = floor(UE_ID/N) mod Ns Wherein, index of PEI S is the index of the PEI within PEI SFN; Ns is the number of PEI occasions for a PEI SFN. PEI subframe/slot time location PEI_slot is determined. Similar to step2.1., all parameters could be configured by SIB or higher layer signaling. They could also link to existing PO parameters, e.g., Ns is the number of PEI occasions for a PEI SFN and related to PO parameter Ns”, wherein “Index (i_s), indicating the index of the PO is determined by: = floor (UE_ID/N) mod Ns” in section 2.1).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one having ordinary skill in the art, before effective filing date of the claimed the invention, to modify the invention of Tseng to utilize index of terminal for determining paging occasion from 3GPP because doing so would make use of known technique to improve similar devices (methods, or products) in the same way (MPEP §2141 -III) to improve paging configuration.
Regarding claim 4, the combined teaching of Tseng and 3GPP discloses the method of claim 3, wherein the detection parameter of the terminal represents the first index (3GPP - Section 2.2.1 – “Step2.2: calculate PEI subframe/slot time location PEI = floor(UE_ID/N) mod Ns Wherein, index of PEI S is the index of the PEI within PEI SFN; Ns is the number of PEI occasions for a PEI SFN. PEI subframe/slot time location PEI_slot is determined. Similar to step2.1., all parameters could be configured by SIB or higher layer signaling. They could also link to existing PO parameters, e.g., Ns is the number of PEI occasions for a PEI SFN and related to PO parameter Ns”, wherein “Index (i_s), indicating the index of the PO is determined by: = floor (UE_ID/N) mod Ns” in section 2.1); or, the detection parameter of the terminal is determined based on the first index, a second index and a first number; wherein the second index represents an index of a terminal group to which the terminal belongs, and the first number represents a number of terminal groups. The combined teaching would be obvious for the same reason indicated in claim 3.
Regarding claim 5, the combined teaching of Tseng and 3GPP discloses the method of claim 4, wherein the detection parameter of the terminal is determined based on the first index, the second index and the first number by: calculating a sum of a first product and the second index as the detection parameter, wherein the first product is a product of the first index and the first number (3GPP – Section 2.2.1 in step 2.1 - “(PEI_SFN + PEI_offset) mod T = (T div N) * (UE_ID mode N) Wherein, PEI_SFN is the SFN number of the resource allocation of PEI in time domain; PEl_offset is the slot offset from the SFN boundary for PEI; T is PEI cycle of a given UE or UE group; N is the number of total PEI radio frames in T; UE_ID is the 5G-S-TMSI mode 1024”).
Regarding claim 6, the combined teaching of Tseng and 3GPP discloses the method of claim 3, wherein, the detection parameter of the terminal is determined based on the first index and a numerical value (3GPP - Section 2.2.1 – “Step 2.2: calculate PEI subframe/slot time location PEI = floor(UE_ID/N) mod Ns Wherein, index of PEI S is the index of the PEI within PEI SFN; Ns is the number of PEI occasions for a PEI SFN. PEI subframe/slot time location PEI_slot is determined. Similar to step2.1., all parameters could be configured by SIB or higher layer signaling. They could also link to existing PO parameters, e.g., Ns is the number of PEI occasions for a PEI SFN and related to PO parameter Ns”, wherein “Index (i_s), indicating the index of the PO is determined by: = floor (UE_ID/N) mod Ns” in section 2.1); or, the detection parameter of the terminal is determined based on the first index, a numerical value, the second index and a first number, wherein the numerical value represents a value determined by a system frame number of a paging frame (PF), a first time length and a second time length, the second index represents an index of a terminal group to which the terminal belongs, the first number represents a number of terminal groups, the first time length represents a time interval between adjacent signals or adjacent channels, and the second time length represents a time interval between adjacent PFs. The combined teaching would be obvious for the same reason indicated in claim 3.
Regarding claim 14, the scope and content of the claim recites a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having a computer program for performing the method of claim 3, therefore, being addressed as in claim 3.
Regarding claim 15, the scope and content of the claim recites a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having a computer program for performing the method of claim 4, therefore, being addressed as in claim 4.
Regarding claim 16, the scope and content of the claim recites a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having a computer program for performing the method of claim 5, therefore, being addressed as in claim 5.
Regarding claim 17, the scope and content of the claim recites a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having a computer program for performing the method of claim 6, therefore, being addressed as in claim 6.
Regarding claim 21, the scope and content of the claim recites a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having a computer program for performing the method of claim 3, therefore, being addressed as in claim 3.
Regarding claim 22, the scope and content of the claim recites a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having a computer program for performing the method of claim 4, therefore, being addressed as in claim 4.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claim 7-8 and 18-19 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
Contact Information
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to DUNG HONG whose telephone number is (571)270-7928. The examiner can normally be reached on Monday-Friday from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner's supervisor, JINSONG HU, can be reached on (571) 272-3965. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/DUNG HONG/
Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2643
Prosecution Insights