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 . This Action is in response to Applicant’s Response after Final Action, filed 03/05/2026. Claims 1-20 are pending.
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 03/02/2026 is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being 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.
The factual inquiries for establishing a background for determining obviousness under 35 U.S.C. 103 are summarized as follows:
1. Determining the scope and contents of the prior art.
2. Ascertaining the differences between the prior art and the claims at issue.
3. Resolving the level of ordinary skill in the pertinent art.
4. Considering objective evidence present in the application indicating obviousness or nonobviousness.
This application currently names joint inventors. In considering patentability of the claims the examiner presumes that the subject matter of the various claims was commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the claimed invention(s) absent any evidence to the contrary. Applicant is advised of the obligation under 37 CFR 1.56 to point out the inventor and effective filing dates of each claim that was not commonly owned as of the effective filing date of the later invention in order for the examiner to consider the applicability of 35 U.S.C. 102(b)(2)(C) for any potential 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) prior art against the later invention.
Claims 1, 7, and 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cirik et al. (US 2022/0159579), hereinafter "Cirik", in view of Kim et al. (US 2015/0382356), hereinafter "Kim".
Regarding claims 1, 18, Cirik teaches:
An apparatus or a computer-implemented method comprising:
at least one processor (see Cirik, Fig. 15, item 1518, par. [0206]: The data may be provided to the processing system 1508 by, for example, a core network. In the uplink, data to be sent to the base station 1504 from the wireless device 1502 may be provided to the processing system 1518 of the wireless device 1502); and
at least one memory including computer program code, the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus (see Cirik, Fig. 15, item 1524, par. [0210]: The processing system 1508 and the processing system 1518 may be associated with a memory 1514 and a memory 1524, respectively. Memory 1514 and memory 1524 (e.g., one or more non-transitory computer readable mediums) may store computer program instructions or code that may be executed by the processing system 1508 and/or the processing system 1518 to carry out one or more of the functionalities discussed in the present application) at least to:
receive, from a network element, a first physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) order to initiate a physical random access channel (PRACH) transmission to at least one cell (see Cirik, par. [0219]: a wireless device may receive, e.g., from a base station, a PDCCH order initiating a random-access procedure (e.g., contention-free random-access procedure) for a cell (e.g., PCell, SCell). The wireless device may receive the PDCCH order via a coreset of the cell, and see par. [0221]: based on the receiving the PDCCH order, the wireless device may transmit a random-access preamble for the random-access procedure);
decode a PRACH transmission index value associated with the first PDCCH order, and wherein the PRACH transmission index value is associated with a target downlink (DL) reference signal (RS) indicated by a DL RS index associated with the first PDCCH order (see Cirik, par. [0264]: based on the receiving the PDCCH order, the wireless device may transmit a random-access preamble (e.g., Preamble transmission in FIG. 18) for the random-access procedure. The wireless device may transmit the random-access preamble via at least one random-access resource (e.g., PRACH occasion) of the active uplink BWP of the first cell. The at least one random-access resource may comprise at least one time resource. The at least one random-access resource may comprise at least one frequency resource. A PRACH mask index field of the PDCCH order may indicate the at least one random-access resource (e.g., PRACH occasion). The at least one random-access resource may be associated with a reference signal index (e.g., SS/PBCH block index), of a reference signal, indicated by a reference signal index field in/of the PDCCH order. In an example, the wireless device may select, to transmit the random-access preamble, the at least one random-access resource indicated by the PRACH mask index field. In an example, a value of a random-access preamble index field in the PDCCH order may not be zero (e.g., non-zero). In an example, a value of a random-access preamble index field in the PDCCH order may be zero. The random-access preamble index may indicate/identify the random-access preamble. The wireless device may transmit the random-access preamble indicated by the random-access preamble index based on the reference signal identified by the reference signal index that is indicated by the reference signal index field in/of the PDCCH order; in this case, receiving a PDCCH order and determining indexes for random-access based on the PDCCH corresponds to decoding a PRACH transmission index value associated with the first PDCCH order);
determine, based in part on at least one of the PRACH transmission index value or the target DL RS, a random access (RA) preamble power ramping counter value (see Cirik, par. [0177]: The UE may perform a preamble retransmission if no response is received following a preamble transmission. The UE may increase an uplink transmit power for the preamble retransmission. The UE may select an initial preamble transmit power based on a pathloss measurement and/or a target received preamble power configured by the network. The UE may determine to retransmit a preamble and may ramp up the uplink transmit power. The UE may receive one or more RACH parameters (e.g., PREAMBLE_POWER_RAMPING_STEP) indicating a ramping step for the preamble retransmission. The ramping step may be an amount of incremental increase in uplink transmit power for a retransmission. The UE may ramp up the uplink transmit power if the UE determines a reference signal (e.g., SSB and/or CSI-RS) that is the same as a previous preamble transmission. The UE may count a number of preamble transmissions and/or retransmissions (e.g., PREAMBLE_TRANSMISSION_COUNTER), and see par. [0264]: The wireless device may transmit the random-access preamble indicated by the random-access preamble index based on the reference signal identified by the reference signal index that is indicated by the reference signal index field in/of the PDCCH order; in this case, a counter value associated with power ramping is determined based on the number of transmissions which is associated with the reference signal and preamble index); and
transmit, based in part on a PRACH transmission power level, the PRACH transmission to the at least one cell (see Cirik, par. [0264]: based on the receiving the PDCCH order, the wireless device may transmit a random-access preamble (e.g., Preamble transmission in FIG. 18) for the random-access procedure. The wireless device may transmit the random-access preamble via at least one random-access resource (e.g., PRACH occasion) of the active uplink BWP of the first cell, and see par. [0265]: the wireless device may transmit the random-access preamble with a transmission power. The wireless device may determine/calculate the transmission power for the random-access preamble based on the first reference signal indicated by (or in) the first antenna port quasi co-location property of the first coreset that the PDCCH order is received), wherein the PRACH transmission power level is determined based in part on the RA preamble power ramping counter value (see Cirik, par. [0174]: The one or more RACH parameters provided in the configuration message 1310 may be used to determine an uplink transmit power of Msg 1 1311 and/or Msg 3 1313. For example, the one or more RACH parameters may indicate a reference power for a preamble transmission (e.g., a received target power and/or an initial power of the preamble transmission). There may be one or more power offsets indicated by the one or more RACH parameters. For example, the one or more RACH parameters may indicate: a power ramping step, and see par. [0177]: The UE may perform a preamble retransmission if no response is received following a preamble transmission. The UE may increase an uplink transmit power for the preamble retransmission. The UE may select an initial preamble transmit power based on a pathloss measurement and/or a target received preamble power configured by the network. The UE may determine to retransmit a preamble and may ramp up the uplink transmit power. The UE may receive one or more RACH parameters (e.g., PREAMBLE_POWER_RAMPING_STEP) indicating a ramping step for the preamble retransmission. The ramping step may be an amount of incremental increase in uplink transmit power for a retransmission. The UE may ramp up the uplink transmit power if the UE determines a reference signal (e.g., SSB and/or CSI-RS) that is the same as a previous preamble transmission. The UE may count a number of preamble transmissions and/or retransmissions (e.g., PREAMBLE_TRANSMISSION_COUNTER)), and wherein the PRACH transmission comprises at least an RA preamble (see Cirik, par. [0264]: based on the receiving the PDCCH order, the wireless device may transmit a random-access preamble (e.g., Preamble transmission in FIG. 18) for the random-access procedure. The wireless device may transmit the random-access preamble via at least one random-access resource (e.g., PRACH occasion) of the active uplink BWP of the first cell).
However, Cirik does not teach:
wherein the PRACH transmission index value describes whether the PRACH transmission is an initial transmission or a retransmission,
Kim, in the same field of endeavor, teaches:
wherein the index value describes whether the transmission is an initial transmission or a retransmission (see Kim, Fig. 9, par. [0169]: When the current transmission is the initial transmission, the eNB selects an index from the index column of the first or second transmission modes except the indices 4, 5, 6, and 7 in step 940. However, when the current transmission is the retransmission, the eNB selects anyone from the index column of the first or second transmission modes in step 930, and see Fig. 13, par. [0211]: If the NDI for the transport block that is not transmitted is set to 0, the UE determines that the current transmission is retransmission in step 1330. Otherwise, if the NDI for the transport block that is not transmitted is set to 1, the UE determines that the current transmission is initial transmission in step 1340, and see par. [0200]: an NB to notifies a UE of information on whether a transmission is a retransmission and whether transmit diversity is applied and the DM-RS antenna port allocation with an NDI bit for a transport block which is not transmitted; in this case, index values are used to indicate and used to determine whether a transmission is an initial transmission or retransmission),
Kim further teaches the index values are communicated through DCI on the PDCCH and are associated with reference signals (see Kim, Fig. 13, par. [0210]: the UE checks the DCI carried on the PDCCH in step 1300. In step 1310, the UE determines whether the number of transport blocks transmitted is 1 or 2. When 2 transport blocks are transmitted, the UE determines the DM-RS antenna port allocated to the UE itself, based on the DM-RS antenna port indication information 1150 of the control information on the PDCCH (see FIG. 11) in step 1350).
Therefore, since Kim discloses indexes describing whether a transmission is an initial transmission or a retransmission, then it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the PRACH transmission index to describe whether the PRACH transmission is an initial transmission or a retransmission with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of efficiently notifying reference signal resource allocation information to improve system performance (see Kim, par. [0216]).
Regarding claim 7, the combination of Cirik in view of Kim teaches the apparatus. Cirik further teaches:
wherein the first PDCCH order is configured in a downlink control information (DCI) format associated with one or more DCI data fields (see Cirik, par. [0219]: a wireless device may receive, e.g., from a base station, a PDCCH order initiating a random-access procedure (e.g., contention-free random-access procedure) for a cell (e.g., PCell, SCell). The wireless device may receive the PDCCH order via a coreset of the cell, and see par. [0263]: the wireless device may receive/detect the first PDCCH comprising the first DCI, via the first coreset, based on the first antenna port quasi co-location property. In an example, the first DCI may indicate the PDCCH order initiating the random-access procedure), wherein the one or more DCI data fields comprise data related to at least one of an indication of a lower-layer triggered mobility (LTM) candidate cell identity, the DL RS index, a RACH occasion, an RA preamble index, a PRACH transmission index, or an RA response (RAR) configuration indication (see Cirik, par. [0263]: the wireless device may receive/detect the first PDCCH comprising the first DCI, via the first coreset, based on the first antenna port quasi co-location property. In an example, the first DCI may indicate the PDCCH order initiating the random-access procedure, and see par. [0264]: based on the receiving the PDCCH order, the wireless device may transmit a random-access preamble (e.g., Preamble transmission in FIG. 18) for the random-access procedure. The wireless device may transmit the random-access preamble via at least one random-access resource (e.g., PRACH occasion) of the active uplink BWP of the first cell. The at least one random-access resource may comprise at least one time resource. The at least one random-access resource may comprise at least one frequency resource. A PRACH mask index field of the PDCCH order may indicate the at least one random-access resource (e.g., PRACH occasion). The at least one random-access resource may be associated with a reference signal index (e.g., SS/PBCH block index), of a reference signal, indicated by a reference signal index field in/of the PDCCH order. In an example, the wireless device may select, to transmit the random-access preamble, the at least one random-access resource indicated by the PRACH mask index field. In an example, a value of a random-access preamble index field in the PDCCH order may not be zero (e.g., non-zero). In an example, a value of a random-access preamble index field in the PDCCH order may be zero. The random-access preamble index may indicate/identify the random-access preamble. The wireless device may transmit the random-access preamble indicated by the random-access preamble index based on the reference signal identified by the reference signal index that is indicated by the reference signal index field in/of the PDCCH order).
Claims 2-3, 12, and 19-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cirik in view of Kim, as applied to claims 1, 7, and 18 above, and further in view of Prasad et al. (WO 2024/163856), hereinafter "Prasad".
Regarding claims 2, 19, the combination of Cirik in view of Kim teaches the apparatus or method. Cirik further teaches:
wherein the computer program code is configured to further cause the apparatus (see Cirik, Fig. 15, item 1524, par. [0210]: The processing system 1508 and the processing system 1518 may be associated with a memory 1514 and a memory 1524, respectively. Memory 1514 and memory 1524 (e.g., one or more non-transitory computer readable mediums) may store computer program instructions or code that may be executed by the processing system 1508 and/or the processing system 1518 to carry out one or more of the functionalities discussed in the present application) at least to:
However, the combination of Cirik in view of Kim does not teach:
in response to determining that the PRACH transmission index value associated with the first PDCCH order indicates a retransmission associated with a first target DL RS, and
in response to determining that the apparatus has not performed an initial PRACH transmission associated with the first target DL RS:
set the RA preamble power ramping counter value to a predefined initial counter value.
Prasad, in the same field of endeavor, teaches:
in response to determining that the PRACH transmission index value associated with the first PDCCH order indicates a retransmission associated with a first target DL RS (see Prasad, par. [0340]: The wireless device may not suspend (e.g., not maintain, increment, increase, and the like) the second counter (e.g., the power ramping counter), for example, in response to the wireless device not changing any/either/both SDTFs of the first/second plurality of SDTFs (e.g., either the first SDTF or the second SDTF) prior/before the second PRACH (re)transmission (e.g., prior to transmitting the second number of repetitions of the second preamble), and see par. [0348]: The wireless device may not receive an RAR comprising RA Preamble identifiers associated with the first preamble (e.g., an index (PRAMBLE_INDEX] of the first preamble) or an RAR corresponding to the first preamble and/at/before expiry (e.g., stop, pause, not running, and the like) of the time window. The wireless device may increment a first counter (e.g., preamble transmission counter), for example, based on not receiving an RAR (e.g., RAR comprising RA Preamble identifiers associated with the first preamble (e.g., an index (PRAMBLE_INDEX) of the first preamble), an RAR corresponding to the first preamble, and the like) and/before/at/prior to the time window expiring. The wireless device may determine to (re)transmit a second preamble, for example, based on not receiving an RAR (e.g., RAR comprising RA Preamble identifiers associated with the first preamble (e.g., an index (PRAMBLE_INDEX} of the first preamble), an RAR corresponding to the first preamble, and the like) and/before/at/prior to the time window expiring, and see par. [0442]: the first plurality of SDTFs are associated with a first reference signal (RS)), and
in response to determining that the apparatus has not performed an initial PRACH transmission associated with the first target DL RS (see Prasad, par. [0340]: The wireless device may not suspend (e.g., not maintain, increment, increase, and the like) the second counter (e.g., the power ramping counter), for example, in response to the wireless device not changing any/either/both SDTFs of the first/second plurality of SDTFs (e.g., either the first SDTF or the second SDTF) prior/before the second PRACH (re)transmission (e.g., prior to transmitting the second number of repetitions of the second preamble), and see par. [0348]: The wireless device may not receive an RAR comprising RA Preamble identifiers associated with the first preamble (e.g., an index (PRAMBLE_INDEX] of the first preamble) or an RAR corresponding to the first preamble and/at/before expiry (e.g., stop, pause, not running, and the like) of the time window. The wireless device may increment a first counter (e.g., preamble transmission counter), for example, based on not receiving an RAR (e.g., RAR comprising RA Preamble identifiers associated with the first preamble (e.g., an index (PRAMBLE_INDEX) of the first preamble), an RAR corresponding to the first preamble, and the like) and/before/at/prior to the time window expiring. The wireless device may determine to (re)transmit a second preamble, for example, based on not receiving an RAR (e.g., RAR comprising RA Preamble identifiers associated with the first preamble (e.g., an index (PRAMBLE_INDEX} of the first preamble), an RAR corresponding to the first preamble, and the like) and/before/at/prior to the time window expiring, and see par. [0442]: the first plurality of SDTFs are associated with a first reference signal (RS)):
set the RA preamble power ramping counter value to a predefined initial counter value (see Prasad, Fig. 22, par. [0315]: The wireless device may, for example, set a second counter (e.g., power ramping counter, PREAMBLE_POWER_RAMPING_COUNTER, preamble power ramping counter, and the like) to a second value. The second counter may be used to determine a transmit/transmission power of an uplink signal (e.g., an (RA) preamble). The second value may be, for example, one. The second value may be, for example, zero).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified apparatus or method of the combination of Cirik in view of Kim with setting the counter value to an initial value of Prasad with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of reducing preamble transmissions and reducing power consumption (see Prasad, par. [0221]).
Regarding claims 3, 20, the combination of Cirik in view of Kim teaches the apparatus or method. Cirik further teaches:
wherein the computer program code is configured to further cause the apparatus (see Cirik, Fig. 15, item 1524, par. [0210]: The processing system 1508 and the processing system 1518 may be associated with a memory 1514 and a memory 1524, respectively. Memory 1514 and memory 1524 (e.g., one or more non-transitory computer readable mediums) may store computer program instructions or code that may be executed by the processing system 1508 and/or the processing system 1518 to carry out one or more of the functionalities discussed in the present application) at least to:
However, the combination of Cirik in view of Kim does not teach:
in response to determining that the PRACH transmission index value associated with the first PDCCH order indicates a retransmission associated with a first target DL RS, and
in response to determining that the apparatus has not performed an initial PRACH transmission associated with the first target DL RS:
increment the RA preamble power ramping counter value to a predefined value associated with a first retransmission.
Prasad, in the same field of endeavor, teaches:
in response to determining that the PRACH transmission index value associated with the first PDCCH order indicates a retransmission associated with a first target DL RS (see Prasad, par. [0340]: The wireless device may not suspend (e.g., not maintain, increment, increase, and the like) the second counter (e.g., the power ramping counter), for example, in response to the wireless device not changing any/either/both SDTFs of the first/second plurality of SDTFs (e.g., either the first SDTF or the second SDTF) prior/before the second PRACH (re)transmission (e.g., prior to transmitting the second number of repetitions of the second preamble), and see par. [0348]: The wireless device may not receive an RAR comprising RA Preamble identifiers associated with the first preamble (e.g., an index (PRAMBLE_INDEX] of the first preamble) or an RAR corresponding to the first preamble and/at/before expiry (e.g., stop, pause, not running, and the like) of the time window. The wireless device may increment a first counter (e.g., preamble transmission counter), for example, based on not receiving an RAR (e.g., RAR comprising RA Preamble identifiers associated with the first preamble (e.g., an index (PRAMBLE_INDEX) of the first preamble), an RAR corresponding to the first preamble, and the like) and/before/at/prior to the time window expiring. The wireless device may determine to (re)transmit a second preamble, for example, based on not receiving an RAR (e.g., RAR comprising RA Preamble identifiers associated with the first preamble (e.g., an index (PRAMBLE_INDEX} of the first preamble), an RAR corresponding to the first preamble, and the like) and/before/at/prior to the time window expiring, and see par. [0442]: the first plurality of SDTFs are associated with a first reference signal (RS)), and
in response to determining that the apparatus has not performed an initial PRACH transmission associated with the first target DL RS (see Prasad, par. [0340]: The wireless device may not suspend (e.g., not maintain, increment, increase, and the like) the second counter (e.g., the power ramping counter), for example, in response to the wireless device not changing any/either/both SDTFs of the first/second plurality of SDTFs (e.g., either the first SDTF or the second SDTF) prior/before the second PRACH (re)transmission (e.g., prior to transmitting the second number of repetitions of the second preamble), and see par. [0348]: The wireless device may not receive an RAR comprising RA Preamble identifiers associated with the first preamble (e.g., an index (PRAMBLE_INDEX] of the first preamble) or an RAR corresponding to the first preamble and/at/before expiry (e.g., stop, pause, not running, and the like) of the time window. The wireless device may increment a first counter (e.g., preamble transmission counter), for example, based on not receiving an RAR (e.g., RAR comprising RA Preamble identifiers associated with the first preamble (e.g., an index (PRAMBLE_INDEX) of the first preamble), an RAR corresponding to the first preamble, and the like) and/before/at/prior to the time window expiring. The wireless device may determine to (re)transmit a second preamble, for example, based on not receiving an RAR (e.g., RAR comprising RA Preamble identifiers associated with the first preamble (e.g., an index (PRAMBLE_INDEX} of the first preamble), an RAR corresponding to the first preamble, and the like) and/before/at/prior to the time window expiring, and see par. [0442]: the first plurality of SDTFs are associated with a first reference signal (RS)):
increment the RA preamble power ramping counter value to a predefined value associated with a first retransmission (see Prasad, par. [0345]: the wireless device may increment (e.g., not suspend) the second counter. Based on incrementing the counter for/before transmitting the second number of repetitions of the second preamble, the second transmit/transmission power maybe, for example, higher than the first transmit/transmission power. The second transmit/transmission power may be higher than the first transmit/transmission power, for example, by the step value. The second transmit/transmission power minus the first transmit power may be, for example, the step value).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified apparatus or method of the combination of Cirik in view of Kim with incrementing the counter value to an initial value of Prasad with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of reducing preamble transmissions and reducing power consumption (see Prasad, par. [0221]).
Regarding claim 12, the combination of Cirik in view of Kim teaches the apparatus.
However, the combination of Cirik in view of Kim does not teach:
wherein the PRACH transmission power level is determined based in part on inputting the RA preamble power ramping counter value into a power ramping model.
Prasad, in the same field of endeavor, teaches:
wherein the PRACH transmission power level is determined based in part on inputting the RA preamble power ramping counter value into a power ramping model (see Prasad, par. [0249]: incrementing the power ramping counter (e.g., PREAMBLE_POWER_RAMPING_COUNTER, power ramping counter, preamble power ramping counter, and the like) may be the same as (or may comprise) increasing a transmit/transmission power for transmitting a preamble (e.g., from/when compared to a previous transmission); in this case, the transmission power changing in relation to the counter changing corresponds to using a model).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the apparatus of the combination of Cirik in view of Kim with the determining transmission power from the counter of Prasad with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of reducing preamble transmissions and reducing power consumption (see Prasad, par. [0221]).
Claims 4-6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cirik in view of Kim, as applied to claims 1, 7, and 18 above, and further in view of Prasad, and further in view of Guo et al. (US 2025/0106787), hereinafter “Guo”.
Regarding claim 4, the combination of Cirik in view of Kim teaches the apparatus. Cirik further teaches:
wherein the computer program code is configured to further cause the apparatus (see Cirik, Fig. 15, item 1524, par. [0210]: The processing system 1508 and the processing system 1518 may be associated with a memory 1514 and a memory 1524, respectively. Memory 1514 and memory 1524 (e.g., one or more non-transitory computer readable mediums) may store computer program instructions or code that may be executed by the processing system 1508 and/or the processing system 1518 to carry out one or more of the functionalities discussed in the present application) at least to:
The combination of Cirik in view of Kim does not teach, but Prasad teaches:
in response to determining that the PRACH transmission index value associated with the first PDCCH order indicates a retransmission associated with a first target DL RS (see Prasad, par. [0340]: The wireless device may not suspend (e.g., not maintain, increment, increase, and the like) the second counter (e.g., the power ramping counter), for example, in response to the wireless device not changing any/either/both SDTFs of the first/second plurality of SDTFs (e.g., either the first SDTF or the second SDTF) prior/before the second PRACH (re)transmission (e.g., prior to transmitting the second number of repetitions of the second preamble), and see par. [0348]: The wireless device may not receive an RAR comprising RA Preamble identifiers associated with the first preamble (e.g., an index (PRAMBLE_INDEX] of the first preamble) or an RAR corresponding to the first preamble and/at/before expiry (e.g., stop, pause, not running, and the like) of the time window. The wireless device may increment a first counter (e.g., preamble transmission counter), for example, based on not receiving an RAR (e.g., RAR comprising RA Preamble identifiers associated with the first preamble (e.g., an index (PRAMBLE_INDEX) of the first preamble), an RAR corresponding to the first preamble, and the like) and/before/at/prior to the time window expiring. The wireless device may determine to (re)transmit a second preamble, for example, based on not receiving an RAR (e.g., RAR comprising RA Preamble identifiers associated with the first preamble (e.g., an index (PRAMBLE_INDEX} of the first preamble), an RAR corresponding to the first preamble, and the like) and/before/at/prior to the time window expiring, and see par. [0442]: the first plurality of SDTFs are associated with a first reference signal (RS), and see par. [0209]: A random-access procedure may be initiated by a PDCCH order),
in response to determining that the apparatus has performed at least one or more PRACH transmissions associated with the first target DL RS (see Prasad, par. [0340]: the wireless device may not suspend (e.g., not maintain, increment, increase, and the like) the second counter (e.g., power ramping counter), for example, in response to at least one SDTF of the first/second plurality of SDTFs being the same (e.g., not changing) prior to/before/at the second PRACH (re)transmission (e.g., transmitting the second number of repetitions of the second preamble), and see par. [0348]: The wireless device may not receive an RAR comprising RA Preamble identifiers associated with the first preamble (e.g., an index (PRAMBLE_INDEX] of the first preamble) or an RAR corresponding to the first preamble and/at/before expiry (e.g., stop, pause, not running, and the like) of the time window. The wireless device may increment a first counter (e.g., preamble transmission counter), for example, based on not receiving an RAR (e.g., RAR comprising RA Preamble identifiers associated with the first preamble (e.g., an index (PRAMBLE_INDEX) of the first preamble), an RAR corresponding to the first preamble, and the like) and/before/at/prior to the time window expiring. The wireless device may determine to (re)transmit a second preamble, for example, based on not receiving an RAR (e.g., RAR comprising RA Preamble identifiers associated with the first preamble (e.g., an index (PRAMBLE_INDEX} of the first preamble), an RAR corresponding to the first preamble, and the like) and/before/at/prior to the time window expiring, and see par. [0442]: the first plurality of SDTFs are associated with a first reference signal (RS)),
set the RA preamble power ramping counter value to a most recent value associated with the at least one or more PRACH transmissions associated with the first target DL RS (see Prasad, par. [0356]: The wireless device may not suspend (e.g., may increment) the second counter (e.g., power ramping counter), for example, based on the first SDTF being the same as the third SDTF. The wireless device may not suspend (e.g., may increment) the second counter (e.g., power ramping counter), for example, based on not changing (e.g., keeping the same, maintaining, and the like) at least one SDTG of the first plurality of SDTFs for the RA procedure (e.g., first/second PRACH transmission, transmitting the first/second number of repetitions of the first/second preamble), and see par. [0442]: the first plurality of SDTFs are associated with a first reference signal (RS)).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified apparatus or method of the combination of Cirik in view of Kim with setting the counter value of Prasad with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of reducing preamble transmissions and reducing power consumption (see Prasad, par. [0221]).
However, the combination of Cirik in view of Kim, and further in view of Prasad, does not teach:
in response to receiving a second PDCCH order indicating a retransmission associated with a second target DL RS, wherein the second PDCCH order is associated with a same lower-layer triggered mobility (LTM) candidate cell:
set the RA preamble power ramping counter value
Guo, in the same field of endeavor, teaches:
in response to receiving a second PDCCH order indicating a retransmission associated with a second target DL RS (see Guo, par. [0034]: the UE may simultaneously communicate with multiple TRPs within the same serving cell. For example, the UE may receive multiple physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) orders corresponding to multiple TRPs, and see par. [0095]: At 359, TRP 2 may initiate retransmission by transmitting a PDCCH order to the PHY layer 310, and see par. [0071]: a physical (PHY) layer at the UE may determine a transmission power for a physical random access channel (PRACH) on an active uplink bandwidth part f of a serving cell c based on a downlink reference signal for a serving cell c in a transmission occasion i), wherein the second PDCCH order is associated with a same LTM candidate cell (see Guo, par. [0034]: a UE may use multiple PRACH transmission powers for different RACH procedures. For example, a higher layer entity (e.g., MAC entity) at the UE may maintain multiple sets of counters. In particular, the UE may maintain separate counters and parameters (e.g., separate preamble transmission counters and power ramp counters) for multiple simultaneous RACH procedures. In some cases, the UE may simultaneously communicate with multiple TRPs within the same serving cell, and see par. [0070]: A TRP or a network entity may initiate a random access procedure by a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) order, or by an RRC message. When a RACH procedure is performed on a serving cell, a TRP may initiate the procedure by a PDCCH order):
set the RA preamble power ramping counter value (see Guo, par. [0070]: A TRP or a network entity may initiate a random access procedure by a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) order, or by an RRC message. When a RACH procedure is performed on a serving cell, a TRP may initiate the procedure by a PDCCH order. Upon initiation, a MAC entity of the UE 115 may perform one or more initialization functions (such as flushing the Msg3 and MsgA buffers, setting the preamble transmission counter and preamble power ramping count to 1)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the apparatus of the combination of Cirik in view of Kim, and further in view of Prasad, with the setting the counter based on a second PDCCH order of Guo with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of efficient uplink synchronization between devices (see Guo, par. [0035]).
Regarding claim 5, the combination of Cirik in view of Kim teaches the apparatus. Cirik further teaches:
wherein the computer program code is configured to further cause the apparatus (see Cirik, Fig. 15, item 1524, par. [0210]: The processing system 1508 and the processing system 1518 may be associated with a memory 1514 and a memory 1524, respectively. Memory 1514 and memory 1524 (e.g., one or more non-transitory computer readable mediums) may store computer program instructions or code that may be executed by the processing system 1508 and/or the processing system 1518 to carry out one or more of the functionalities discussed in the present application) at least to:
The combination of Cirik in view of Kim does not teach, but Prasad teaches:
in response to determining that the PRACH transmission index value associated with the first PDCCH order indicates a retransmission associated with a first target DL RS (see Prasad, par. [0340]: The wireless device may not suspend (e.g., not maintain, increment, increase, and the like) the second counter (e.g., the power ramping counter), for example, in response to the wireless device not changing any/either/both SDTFs of the first/second plurality of SDTFs (e.g., either the first SDTF or the second SDTF) prior/before the second PRACH (re)transmission (e.g., prior to transmitting the second number of repetitions of the second preamble), and see par. [0348]: The wireless device may not receive an RAR comprising RA Preamble identifiers associated with the first preamble (e.g., an index (PRAMBLE_INDEX] of the first preamble) or an RAR corresponding to the first preamble and/at/before expiry (e.g., stop, pause, not running, and the like) of the time window. The wireless device may increment a first counter (e.g., preamble transmission counter), for example, based on not receiving an RAR (e.g., RAR comprising RA Preamble identifiers associated with the first preamble (e.g., an index (PRAMBLE_INDEX) of the first preamble), an RAR corresponding to the first preamble, and the like) and/before/at/prior to the time window expiring. The wireless device may determine to (re)transmit a second preamble, for example, based on not receiving an RAR (e.g., RAR comprising RA Preamble identifiers associated with the first preamble (e.g., an index (PRAMBLE_INDEX} of the first preamble), an RAR corresponding to the first preamble, and the like) and/before/at/prior to the time window expiring, and see par. [0442]: the first plurality of SDTFs are associated with a first reference signal (RS), and see par. [0209]: A random-access procedure may be initiated by a PDCCH order),
in response to determining that the apparatus has performed at least one or more PRACH transmissions associated with the first target DL RS (see Prasad, par. [0340]: the wireless device may not suspend (e.g., not maintain, increment, increase, and the like) the second counter (e.g., power ramping counter), for example, in response to at least one SDTF of the first/second plurality of SDTFs being the same (e.g., not changing) prior to/before/at the second PRACH (re)transmission (e.g., transmitting the second number of repetitions of the second preamble), and see par. [0348]: The wireless device may not receive an RAR comprising RA Preamble identifiers associated with the first preamble (e.g., an index (PRAMBLE_INDEX] of the first preamble) or an RAR corresponding to the first preamble and/at/before expiry (e.g., stop, pause, not running, and the like) of the time window. The wireless device may increment a first counter (e.g., preamble transmission counter), for example, based on not receiving an RAR (e.g., RAR comprising RA Preamble identifiers associated with the first preamble (e.g., an index (PRAMBLE_INDEX) of the first preamble), an RAR corresponding to the first preamble, and the like) and/before/at/prior to the time window expiring. The wireless device may determine to (re)transmit a second preamble, for example, based on not receiving an RAR (e.g., RAR comprising RA Preamble identifiers associated with the first preamble (e.g., an index (PRAMBLE_INDEX} of the first preamble), an RAR corresponding to the first preamble, and the like) and/before/at/prior to the time window expiring, and see par. [0442]: the first plurality of SDTFs are associated with a first reference signal (RS)),
increment the RA preamble power ramping counter value from a most recent value associated with the at least one or more PRACH transmissions associated with the first target DL RS (see Prasad, par. [0345]: the wireless device may increment (e.g., not suspend) the second counter. Based on incrementing the counter for/before transmitting the second number of repetitions of the second preamble, the second transmit/transmission power maybe, for example, higher than the first transmit/transmission power. The second transmit/transmission power may be higher than the first transmit/transmission power, for example, by the step value. The second transmit/transmission power minus the first transmit power may be, for example, the step value, and see par. [0442]: the first plurality of SDTFs are associated with a first reference signal (RS)).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified apparatus or method of the combination of Cirik in view of Kim with incrementing the counter value to an initial value of Prasad with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of reducing preamble transmissions and reducing power consumption (see Prasad, par. [0221]).
However, the combination of Cirik in view of Kim, and further in view of Prasad, does not teach:
in response to receiving a second PDCCH order indicating a retransmission associated with a second target DL RS, wherein the second PDCCH order is associated with a same cell:
increment the RA preamble power ramping counter value
Guo, in the same field of endeavor, teaches:
in response to receiving a second PDCCH order indicating a retransmission associated with a second target DL RS (see Guo, par. [0034]: the UE may simultaneously communicate with multiple TRPs within the same serving cell. For example, the UE may receive multiple physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) orders corresponding to multiple TRPs, and see par. [0095]: At 359, TRP 2 may initiate retransmission by transmitting a PDCCH order to the PHY layer 310, and see par. [0071]: a physical (PHY) layer at the UE may determine a transmission power for a physical random access channel (PRACH) on an active uplink bandwidth part f of a serving cell c based on a downlink reference signal for a serving cell c in a transmission occasion i), wherein the second PDCCH order is associated with a same cell (see Guo, par. [0034]: a UE may use multiple PRACH transmission powers for different RACH procedures. For example, a higher layer entity (e.g., MAC entity) at the UE may maintain multiple sets of counters. In particular, the UE may maintain separate counters and parameters (e.g., separate preamble transmission counters and power ramp counters) for multiple simultaneous RACH procedures. In some cases, the UE may simultaneously communicate with multiple TRPs within the same serving cell, and see par. [0070]: A TRP or a network entity may initiate a random access procedure by a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) order, or by an RRC message. When a RACH procedure is performed on a serving cell, a TRP may initiate the procedure by a PDCCH order):
increment the RA preamble power ramping counter value (see Guo, par. [0077]: When a RACH procedure is initiated by a network entity, the UE 115 may initiate a set of counters for the RACH procedure. In particular, the MAC entity at the UE 115 may initiate and subsequently update the counters (e.g., incrementing, resetting, or suspending the counters) for each RACH occasion based on a status of the RACH procedure).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the apparatus of the combination of Cirik in view of Kim, and further in view of Prasad, with the incrementing the counter based on a second PDCCH order of Guo with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of efficient uplink synchronization between devices (see Guo, par. [0035]).
Regarding claim 6, the combination of Cirik in view of Kim teaches the apparatus. Cirik further teaches:
wherein the computer program code is configured to further cause the apparatus (see Cirik, Fig. 15, item 1524, par. [0210]: The processing system 1508 and the processing system 1518 may be associated with a memory 1514 and a memory 1524, respectively. Memory 1514 and memory 1524 (e.g., one or more non-transitory computer readable mediums) may store computer program instructions or code that may be executed by the processing system 1508 and/or the processing system 1518 to carry out one or more of the functionalities discussed in the present application) at least to:
The combination of Cirik in view of Kim does not teach, but Prasad teaches:
in response to determining that the PRACH transmission index value associated with the first PDCCH order indicates a retransmission associated with a first target DL RS (see Prasad, par. [0340]: the wireless device may not suspend (e.g., not maintain, increment, increase, and the like) the second counter (e.g., power ramping counter), for example, in response to at least one SDTF of the first/second plurality of SDTFs being the same (e.g., not changing) prior to/before/at the second PRACH (re)transmission (e.g., transmitting the second number of repetitions of the second preamble), and see par. [0348]: The wireless device may not receive an RAR comprising RA Preamble identifiers associated with the first preamble (e.g., an index (PRAMBLE_INDEX] of the first preamble) or an RAR corresponding to the first preamble and/at/before expiry (e.g., stop, pause, not running, and the like) of the time window. The wireless device may increment a first counter (e.g., preamble transmission counter), for example, based on not receiving an RAR (e.g., RAR comprising RA Preamble identifiers associated with the first preamble (e.g., an index (PRAMBLE_INDEX) of the first preamble), an RAR corresponding to the first preamble, and the like) and/before/at/prior to the time window expiring. The wireless device may determine to (re)transmit a second preamble, for example, based on not receiving an RAR (e.g., RAR comprising RA Preamble identifiers associated with the first preamble (e.g., an index (PRAMBLE_INDEX} of the first preamble), an RAR corresponding to the first preamble, and the like) and/before/at/prior to the time window expiring, and see par. [0442]: the first plurality of SDTFs are associated with a first reference signal (RS), and see par. [0209]: A random-access procedure may be initiated by a PDCCH order),
in response to determining that the apparatus has performed at least one or more PRACH transmissions associated with the first target DL RS (see Prasad, par. [0340]: the wireless device may not suspend (e.g., not maintain, increment, increase, and the like) the second counter (e.g., power ramping counter), for example, in response to at least one SDTF of the first/second plurality of SDTFs being the same (e.g., not changing) prior to/before/at the second PRACH (re)transmission (e.g., transmitting the second number of repetitions of the second preamble), and see par. [0348]: The wireless device may not receive an RAR comprising RA Preamble identifiers associated with the first preamble (e.g., an index (PRAMBLE_INDEX] of the first preamble) or an RAR corresponding to the first preamble and/at/before expiry (e.g., stop, pause, not running, and the like) of the time window. The wireless device may increment a first counter (e.g., preamble transmission counter), for example, based on not receiving an RAR (e.g., RAR comprising RA Preamble identifiers associated with the first preamble (e.g., an index (PRAMBLE_INDEX) of the first preamble), an RAR corresponding to the first preamble, and the like) and/before/at/prior to the time window expiring. The wireless device may determine to (re)transmit a second preamble, for example, based on not receiving an RAR (e.g., RAR comprising RA Preamble identifiers associated with the first preamble (e.g., an index (PRAMBLE_INDEX} of the first preamble), an RAR corresponding to the first preamble, and the like) and/before/at/prior to the time window expiring, and see par. [0442]: the first plurality of SDTFs are associated with a first reference signal (RS)),
reset the RA preamble power ramping counter value (see Prasad, par. [0345]: the wireless device may increment (e.g., not suspend) the second counter. Based on incrementing the counter for/before transmitting the second number of repetitions of the second preamble, the second transmit/transmission power maybe, for example, higher than the first transmit/transmission power. The second transmit/transmission power may be higher than the first transmit/transmission power, for example, by the step value. The second transmit/transmission power minus the first transmit power may be, for example, the step value, and see par. [0442]: the first plurality of SDTFs are associated with a first reference signal (RS)).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified apparatus or method of the combination of Cirik in view of Kim with resetting the counter of Prasad with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of reducing preamble transmissions and reducing power consumption (see Prasad, par. [0221]).
However, the combination of Cirik in view of Kim, and further in view of Prasad, does not teach:
in response to receiving a second PDCCH order indicating a retransmission associated with a second target DL RS, wherein the second PDCCH order is associated with a same cell:
reset the RA preamble power ramping counter value
Guo, in the same field of endeavor, teaches:
in response to receiving a second PDCCH order indicating a retransmission associated with a second target DL RS (see Guo, par. [0034]: the UE may simultaneously communicate with multiple TRPs within the same serving cell. For example, the UE may receive multiple physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) orders corresponding to multiple TRPs, and see par. [0095]: At 359, TRP 2 may initiate retransmission by transmitting a PDCCH order to the PHY layer 310, and see par. [0071]: a physical (PHY) layer at the UE may determine a transmission power for a physical random access channel (PRACH) on an active uplink bandwidth part f of a serving cell c based on a downlink reference signal for a serving cell c in a transmission occasion i), wherein the second PDCCH order is associated with a same cell (see Guo, par. [0034]: a UE may use multiple PRACH transmission powers for different RACH procedures. For example, a higher layer entity (e.g., MAC entity) at the UE may maintain multiple sets of counters. In particular, the UE may maintain separate counters and parameters (e.g., separate preamble transmission counters and power ramp counters) for multiple simultaneous RACH procedures. In some cases, the UE may simultaneously communicate with multiple TRPs within the same serving cell, and see par. [0070]: A TRP or a network entity may initiate a random access procedure by a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) order, or by an RRC message. When a RACH procedure is performed on a serving cell, a TRP may initiate the procedure by a PDCCH order):
reset the RA preamble power ramping counter value (see Guo, par. [0077]: When a RACH procedure is initiated by a network entity, the UE 115 may initiate a set of counters for the RACH procedure. In particular, the MAC entity at the UE 115 may initiate and subsequently update the counters (e.g., incrementing, resetting, or suspending the counters) for each RACH occasion based on a status of the RACH procedure)
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the apparatus of the combination of Cirik in view of Kim, and further in view of Prasad, with the resetting the counter based on a second PDCCH order of Guo with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of efficient uplink synchronization between devices (see Guo, par. [0035]).
Claims 11, 13-15, and 17 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cirik in view of Kim, as applied to claims 1, 7, and 18 above, and further in view of Guo.
Regarding claim 11, the combination of Cirik in view of Kim teaches the apparatus.
However, the combination of Cirik in view of Kim does not teach:
wherein the first PDCCH order is configured to direct the apparatus to acquire a timing advance value associated with the at least one cell, wherein the timing advance value is used for a cell switch procedure configured to switch the apparatus to the at least one cell.
Guo, in the same field of endeavor, teaches:
wherein the first PDCCH order is configured to direct the apparatus to acquire a timing advance value associated with the at least one cell, wherein the timing advance value is used for a cell switch procedure configured to switch the apparatus to the at least one cell (see Guo, par. [0034]: the UE may receive multiple physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) orders corresponding to multiple TRPs, each associated with a different control resource set pool index. In other cases, the UE may perform simultaneous RACH procedures with network entities associated with different timing advance groups. The UE may maintain separate counters associated with multiple control resource set pool indexes which may correspond to multiple TRPs. In some examples, the UE may associate a preamble transmission counter and a power ramping counter with each control resource set pool index. Additionally or alternatively, the MAC entity at the UE may determine multiple sets of counters associated with multiple timing advance groups, and see Guo, pars. [0101-0102]: multiple parallel PRACH procedures may be triggered by multiple PDCCH orders for one or more serving cells belonging to different timing advance groups. For example, a MAC entity 405 at UE 115-c and a physical (PHY) layer 410 at UE 115-c may communicate with a first TRP having associated with a first CC (CC1) and a second TRP associated with a second CC (CC2). Each TRP may belong to a different timing advance group. Additionally or alternatively, multiple TRPs may exist within a timing advance group. At 427, a TRP associated with CC1 may transmit a PDCCH order to the PHY layer 410. The PDCCH order may include an indication of a timing advance group associated with CC1 and may indicate a start of a RACH procedure. At 429, the PHY layer 410 may notify the MAC entity 405 of the start of the RACH procedure by sending a layer 1 message which includes an indication of the timing advance group associated with CC1. Accordingly, the MAC entity 405 may initialize a preamble transmission counter and a preamble power ramping counter associated with the timing advance group of CC1. Each counter may be initialized to 1).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the apparatus of the combination of Cirik in view of Kim with the timing advance value of Guo with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of efficient uplink synchronization between devices (see Guo, par. [0035]).
Regarding claim 13, Cirik teaches:
An apparatus comprising:
at least one processor (see Cirik, Fig. 15, item 1508, par. [0206]: In the downlink, data to be sent to the wireless device 1502 from the base station 1504 may be provided to the processing system 1508 of the base station 1504); and
at least one memory including computer program code, the at least one memory and the computer program code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus (see Cirik, Fig. 15, item 1514, par. [0210]: The processing system 1508 and the processing system 1518 may be associated with a memory 1514 and a memory 1524, respectively. Memory 1514 and memory 1524 (e.g., one or more non-transitory computer readable mediums) may store computer program instructions or code that may be executed by the processing system 1508 and/or the processing system 1518 to carry out one or more of the functionalities discussed in the present application) at least to:
generate a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) order configured to cause a user equipment (UE) to initiate a physical random access channel (PRACH) transmission to at least one cell (see Cirik, par. [0219]: a wireless device may receive, e.g., from a base station, a PDCCH order initiating a random-access procedure (e.g., contention-free random-access procedure) for a cell (e.g., PCell, SCell). The wireless device may receive the PDCCH order via a coreset of the cell, and see par. [0221]: based on the receiving the PDCCH order, the wireless device may transmit a random-access preamble for the random-access procedure),
wherein the computer program code configured to generate the PDCCH order comprises instructions (see Cirik, par. [0219]: a wireless device may receive, e.g., from a base station, a PDCCH order initiating a random-access procedure (e.g., contention-free random-access procedure) for a cell (e.g., PCell, SCell). The wireless device may receive the PDCCH order via a coreset of the cell, and see par. [0221]: based on the receiving the PDCCH order, the wireless device may transmit a random-access preamble for the random-access procedure) configured to:
determine a target downlink (DL) reference signal (RS) (see Cirik, par. [0220]: the base station may configure, by RRC, the coreset with a TCI state indicating a reference signal (e.g., CSI-RS, SSB). In an example, the base station may activate, by MAC CE, the coreset with a TCI state indicating a reference signal (e.g., CSI-RS, SSB). The reference signal may be a downlink reference signal);
encode, based in part on the DL RS, a DL RS index associated with the PDCCH order (see Cirik, par. [0264]: based on the receiving the PDCCH order, the wireless device may transmit a random-access preamble (e.g., Preamble transmission in FIG. 18) for the random-access procedure. The wireless device may transmit the random-access preamble via at least one random-access resource (e.g., PRACH occasion) of the active uplink BWP of the first cell. The at least one random-access resource may comprise at least one time resource. The at least one random-access resource may comprise at least one frequency resource. A PRACH mask index field of the PDCCH order may indicate the at least one random-access resource (e.g., PRACH occasion). The at least one random-access resource may be associated with a reference signal index (e.g., SS/PBCH block index), of a reference signal, indicated by a reference signal index field in/of the PDCCH order. In an example, the wireless device may select, to transmit the random-access preamble, the at least one random-access resource indicated by the PRACH mask index field. In an example, a value of a random-access preamble index field in the PDCCH order may not be zero (e.g., non-zero). In an example, a value of a random-access preamble index field in the PDCCH order may be zero. The random-access preamble index may indicate/identify the random-access preamble. The wireless device may transmit the random-access preamble indicated by the random-access preamble index based on the reference signal identified by the reference signal index that is indicated by the reference signal index field in/of the PDCCH order);
wherein the PRACH transmission index value is associated with the DL RS (see Cirik, par. [0174]: The one or more RACH parameters provided in the configuration message 1310 may be used to determine an uplink transmit power of Msg 1 1311 and/or Msg 3 1313. For example, the one or more RACH parameters may indicate a reference power for a preamble transmission (e.g., a received target power and/or an initial power of the preamble transmission). There may be one or more power offsets indicated by the one or more RACH parameters. For example, the one or more RACH parameters may indicate: a power ramping step, and see par. [0177]: The UE may perform a preamble retransmission if no response is received following a preamble transmission. The UE may increase an uplink transmit power for the preamble retransmission. The UE may select an initial preamble transmit power based on a pathloss measurement and/or a target received preamble power configured by the network. The UE may determine to retransmit a preamble and may ramp up the uplink transmit power. The UE may receive one or more RACH parameters (e.g., PREAMBLE_POWER_RAMPING_STEP) indicating a ramping step for the preamble retransmission. The ramping step may be an amount of incremental increase in uplink transmit power for a retransmission. The UE may ramp up the uplink transmit power if the UE determines a reference signal (e.g., SSB and/or CSI-RS) that is the same as a previous preamble transmission. The UE may count a number of preamble transmissions and/or retransmissions (e.g., PREAMBLE_TRANSMISSION_COUNTER), and see par. [0264]: based on the receiving the PDCCH order, the wireless device may transmit a random-access preamble (e.g., Preamble transmission in FIG. 18) for the random-access procedure. The wireless device may transmit the random-access preamble via at least one random-access resource (e.g., PRACH occasion) of the active uplink BWP of the first cell. The at least one random-access resource may comprise at least one time resource. The at least one random-access resource may comprise at least one frequency resource. A PRACH mask index field of the PDCCH order may indicate the at least one random-access resource (e.g., PRACH occasion). The at least one random-access resource may be associated with a reference signal index (e.g., SS/PBCH block index), of a reference signal, indicated by a reference signal index field in/of the PDCCH order. In an example, the wireless device may select, to transmit the random-access preamble, the at least one random-access resource indicated by the PRACH mask index field. In an example, a value of a random-access preamble index field in the PDCCH order may not be zero (e.g., non-zero). In an example, a value of a random-access preamble index field in the PDCCH order may be zero. The random-access preamble index may indicate/identify the random-access preamble. The wireless device may transmit the random-access preamble indicated by the random-access preamble index based on the reference signal identified by the reference signal index that is indicated by the reference signal index field in/of the PDCCH order; in this case, preamble indexes (corresponding to PRACH transmission index value) are associated with a reference signal index of a reference signal (corresponding to a DL reference signal) indicated in a reference signal index field in a PDCCH order (corresponding to indicated by a DL RS index associated with the first PDCCH order)); and
cause transmission of the PDCCH order to the UE (see Cirik, Fig. 18, par. [0261]: the wireless device may receive a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) order (e.g., PDCCH order in FIG. 18) initiating a random-access procedure. The wireless device may receive the PDCCH order via a first coreset (e.g., Coreset 1 in FIG. 18) of the one or more coresets).
However, Cirik does not teach:
wherein the PDCCH order is configured to direct the UE to acquire a timing advance value associated with the at least one cell,
encode a PRACH transmission index with a PRACH transmission index value describing whether the PRACH transmission is an initial transmission or a retransmission,
Kim, in the same field of endeavor, teaches:
encode a PRACH transmission index with a PRACH transmission index value describing whether the PRACH transmission is an initial transmission or a retransmission (see Kim, Fig. 9, par. [0169]: When the current transmission is the initial transmission, the eNB selects an index from the index column of the first or second transmission modes except the indices 4, 5, 6, and 7 in step 940. However, when the current transmission is the retransmission, the eNB selects anyone from the index column of the first or second transmission modes in step 930, and see Fig. 13, par. [0211]: If the NDI for the transport block that is not transmitted is set to 0, the UE determines that the current transmission is retransmission in step 1330. Otherwise, if the NDI for the transport block that is not transmitted is set to 1, the UE determines that the current transmission is initial transmission in step 1340, and see par. [0200]: an NB to notifies a UE of information on whether a transmission is a retransmission and whether transmit diversity is applied and the DM-RS antenna port allocation with an NDI bit for a transport block which is not transmitted; in this case, index values are used to indicate and used to determine whether a transmission is an initial transmission or retransmission),
Kim further teaches the index values are communicated through DCI on the PDCCH and are associated with reference signals (see Kim, Fig. 13, par. [0210]: the UE checks the DCI carried on the PDCCH in step 1300. In step 1310, the UE determines whether the number of transport blocks transmitted is 1 or 2. When 2 transport blocks are transmitted, the UE determines the DM-RS antenna port allocated to the UE itself, based on the DM-RS antenna port indication information 1150 of the control information on the PDCCH (see FIG. 11) in step 1350).
Therefore, since Kim discloses indexes describing whether a transmission is an initial transmission or a retransmission, then it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the PRACH transmission index to describe whether the PRACH transmission is an initial transmission or a retransmission with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of efficiently notifying reference signal resource allocation information to improve system performance (see Kim, par. [0216]).
However, the combination of Cirik in view of Kim does not teach:
wherein the PDCCH order is configured to direct the UE to acquire a timing advance value associated with the at least one cell,
Guo, in the same field of endeavor, teaches:
wherein the PDCCH order is configured to direct the UE to acquire a timing advance value associated with the at least one cell (see Guo, par. [0034]: the UE may receive multiple physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) orders corresponding to multiple TRPs, each associated with a different control resource set pool index. In other cases, the UE may perform simultaneous RACH procedures with network entities associated with different timing advance groups. The UE may maintain separate counters associated with multiple control resource set pool indexes which may correspond to multiple TRPs. In some examples, the UE may associate a preamble transmission counter and a power ramping counter with each control resource set pool index. Additionally or alternatively, the MAC entity at the UE may determine multiple sets of counters associated with multiple timing advance groups, and see Guo, pars. [0101-0102]: multiple parallel PRACH procedures may be triggered by multiple PDCCH orders for one or more serving cells belonging to different timing advance groups. For example, a MAC entity 405 at UE 115-c and a physical (PHY) layer 410 at UE 115-c may communicate with a first TRP having associated with a first CC (CC1) and a second TRP associated with a second CC (CC2). Each TRP may belong to a different timing advance group. Additionally or alternatively, multiple TRPs may exist within a timing advance group. At 427, a TRP associated with CC1 may transmit a PDCCH order to the PHY layer 410. The PDCCH order may include an indication of a timing advance group associated with CC1 and may indicate a start of a RACH procedure. At 429, the PHY layer 410 may notify the MAC entity 405 of the start of the RACH procedure by sending a layer 1 message which includes an indication of the timing advance group associated with CC1. Accordingly, the MAC entity 405 may initialize a preamble transmission counter and a preamble power ramping counter associated with the timing advance group of CC1. Each counter may be initialized to 1),
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the apparatus of the combination of Cirik in view of Kim with the timing advance value of Guo with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of efficient uplink synchronization between devices (see Guo, par. [0035]).
Regarding claim 14, the combination of Cirik in view of Kim, and further in view of Guo, teaches the apparatus. Cirik further teaches:
wherein the computer program code is configured to further cause the apparatus (see Cirik, Fig. 15, item 1514, par. [0210]: The processing system 1508 and the processing system 1518 may be associated with a memory 1514 and a memory 1524, respectively. Memory 1514 and memory 1524 (e.g., one or more non-transitory computer readable mediums) may store computer program instructions or code that may be executed by the processing system 1508 and/or the processing system 1518 to carry out one or more of the functionalities discussed in the present application) at least to:
in response to causing the transmission of the PDCCH order to the UE (see Cirik, Fig. 18, par. [0261]: the wireless device may receive a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) order (e.g., PDCCH order in FIG. 18) initiating a random-access procedure. The wireless device may receive the PDCCH order via a first coreset (e.g., Coreset 1 in FIG. 18) of the one or more coresets):
receive, from the UE, one or more PRACH transmissions, wherein each of the one or more PRACH transmissions comprises at least a respective random access (RA) preamble (see Cirik, Fig. 13A, par. [0171]: FIG. 13A illustrates a four-step contention-based random access procedure. Prior to initiation of the procedure, a base station may transmit a configuration message 1310 to the UE. The procedure illustrated in FIG. 13A comprises transmission of four messages: a Msg 1 1311, a Msg 2 1312, a Msg 3 1313, and a Msg 4 1314. The Msg 1 1311 may include and/or be referred to as a preamble (or a random access preamble)).
Regarding claim 15, the combination of Cirik in view of Kim, and further in view of Guo, teaches the apparatus. Cirik further teaches:
wherein the PDCCH order is configured in a downlink control information (DCI) format associated with one or more DCI data fields (see Cirik, par. [0219]: a wireless device may receive, e.g., from a base station, a PDCCH order initiating a random-access procedure (e.g., contention-free random-access procedure) for a cell (e.g., PCell, SCell). The wireless device may receive the PDCCH order via a coreset of the cell, and see par. [0263]: the wireless device may receive/detect the first PDCCH comprising the first DCI, via the first coreset, based on the first antenna port quasi co-location property. In an example, the first DCI may indicate the PDCCH order initiating the random-access procedure), wherein the one or more DCI data fields comprise data related to at least one of an indication of a lower-layer triggered mobility (LTM) candidate cell identity, the DL RS index, a RACH occasion, an RA preamble index, the PRACH transmission index, or an RA response (RAR) configuration indication (see Cirik, par. [0263]: the wireless device may receive/detect the first PDCCH comprising the first DCI, via the first coreset, based on the first antenna port quasi co-location property. In an example, the first DCI may indicate the PDCCH order initiating the random-access procedure, and see par. [0264]: based on the receiving the PDCCH order, the wireless device may transmit a random-access preamble (e.g., Preamble transmission in FIG. 18) for the random-access procedure. The wireless device may transmit the random-access preamble via at least one random-access resource (e.g., PRACH occasion) of the active uplink BWP of the first cell. The at least one random-access resource may comprise at least one time resource. The at least one random-access resource may comprise at least one frequency resource. A PRACH mask index field of the PDCCH order may indicate the at least one random-access resource (e.g., PRACH occasion). The at least one random-access resource may be associated with a reference signal index (e.g., SS/PBCH block index), of a reference signal, indicated by a reference signal index field in/of the PDCCH order. In an example, the wireless device may select, to transmit the random-access preamble, the at least one random-access resource indicated by the PRACH mask index field. In an example, a value of a random-access preamble index field in the PDCCH order may not be zero (e.g., non-zero). In an example, a value of a random-access preamble index field in the PDCCH order may be zero. The random-access preamble index may indicate/identify the random-access preamble. The wireless device may transmit the random-access preamble indicated by the random-access preamble index based on the reference signal identified by the reference signal index that is indicated by the reference signal index field in/of the PDCCH order).
Regarding claim 17, the combination of Cirik in view of Kim, and further in view of Guo, teaches the apparatus.
The combination of Cirik in view of Kim does not teach, but Guo teaches:
wherein the timing advance value acquired as a result of at least the first PDCCH order is used for a cell switch procedure configured to switch the apparatus to the at least one cell (see Guo, par. [0034]: the UE may receive multiple physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) orders corresponding to multiple TRPs, each associated with a different control resource set pool index. In other cases, the UE may perform simultaneous RACH procedures with network entities associated with different timing advance groups. The UE may maintain separate counters associated with multiple control resource set pool indexes which may correspond to multiple TRPs. In some examples, the UE may associate a preamble transmission counter and a power ramping counter with each control resource set pool index. Additionally or alternatively, the MAC entity at the UE may determine multiple sets of counters associated with multiple timing advance groups, and see Guo, pars. [0101-0102]: multiple parallel PRACH procedures may be triggered by multiple PDCCH orders for one or more serving cells belonging to different timing advance groups. For example, a MAC entity 405 at UE 115-c and a physical (PHY) layer 410 at UE 115-c may communicate with a first TRP having associated with a first CC (CC1) and a second TRP associated with a second CC (CC2). Each TRP may belong to a different timing advance group. Additionally or alternatively, multiple TRPs may exist within a timing advance group. At 427, a TRP associated with CC1 may transmit a PDCCH order to the PHY layer 410. The PDCCH order may include an indication of a timing advance group associated with CC1 and may indicate a start of a RACH procedure. At 429, the PHY layer 410 may notify the MAC entity 405 of the start of the RACH procedure by sending a layer 1 message which includes an indication of the timing advance group associated with CC1. Accordingly, the MAC entity 405 may initialize a preamble transmission counter and a preamble power ramping counter associated with the timing advance group of CC1. Each counter may be initialized to 1).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the apparatus of the combination of Cirik in view of Kim with the timing advance value of Guo with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of efficient uplink synchronization between devices (see Guo, par. [0035]).
Claim 8 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cirik in view of Kim, as applied to claims 1-3, 7,12, and 18-20 above, and further in view of Jeon et al. (US 2020/0351801), hereinafter “Jeon”.
Regarding claim 8, the combination of Cirik in view of Kim teaches the apparatus.
However, the combination of Cirik in view of Kim does not teach:
wherein the first PDCCH order indicates that RAR is not configured.
Jeon, in the same field of endeavor, teaches:
wherein the first PDCCH order indicates that RAR is not configured (see Jeon, par. [0435]: A wireless device may transmit one or more preambles. For example, the one or more preambles may be limited before reception of a random access response (e.g., Msg2) in RAR window. For example, the one or more preambles may be allowed before starting an RAR window. For example, the number of allowed preamble transmissions may be predefined or indicated by a message e.g., RMSI in an RRC message and/or PDCCH order in a DL control signal; in this case, performing transmission before starting an RAR window corresponds to the RAR not being configured).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the apparatus of the combination of Cirik in view of Kim with the PDCCH order indicating RAR is not configured of Jeon with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of reducing the number of retransmissions to improve efficiency (see Jeon, par. [0496]).
Claim 9 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cirik in view of Kim, as applied to claims 1-3, 7,12, and 18-20 above, and further in view of Jia et al. (US 2021/0083822), hereinafter “Jia”, and further in view of Guo.
Regarding claim 9, the combination of Cirik in view of Kim teaches the apparatus.
However, the combination of Cirik in view of Kim does not teach:
wherein an amount of active RA preamble power ramping counters that the apparatus can maintain is determined by one or more computational capabilities associated with the apparatus, wherein the active RA preamble power ramping counters are associated with one or more respective PDCCH orders received by the apparatus.
Jia, in the same field of endeavor, teaches:
wherein an amount of active RA preamble power ramping counters that the apparatus can maintain is determined by one or more computational capabilities associated with the apparatus (see Jia, pars. [0130-0131]: when an SSB-specific counter related to power ramping and a CSI-RS-specific counter related to power ramping are configured by the network device, the user equipment may use both or one of the two counters. In this embodiment, when the SSB-specific counter related to power ramping and the CSI-RS-specific counter related to power ramping are used, the preset value may be determined according to the number of used resource-specific counters related to power ramping, the initial value of the SSB-specific counter related to power ramping and/or the initial value of the CSI-RS-specific counter related to power ramping),
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the apparatus of the combination of Cirik in view of Kim with the determining the amount of counters of Jia with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of increasing successful reception likelihood and reducing interference (see Jia, par. [0008]).
However, the combination of Cirik in view of Kim, and further in view of Jia, does not teach:
wherein the active RA preamble power ramping counters are associated with one or more respective PDCCH orders received by the apparatus.
Guo, in the same field of endeavor, teaches:
wherein the active RA preamble power ramping counters are associated with one or more respective PDCCH orders received by the apparatus (see Guo, par. [0034]: the UE may receive multiple physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) orders corresponding to multiple TRPs, each associated with a different control resource set pool index. In other cases, the UE may perform simultaneous RACH procedures with network entities associated with different timing advance groups. The UE may maintain separate counters associated with multiple control resource set pool indexes which may correspond to multiple TRPs. In some examples, the UE may associate a preamble transmission counter and a power ramping counter with each control resource set pool index).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the apparatus of the combination of Cirik in view of Kim, and further in view of Jia, with the association of counters with orders of Guo with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of efficient uplink synchronization between devices (see Guo, par. [0035]).
Claim 10 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cirik in view of Kim, and further in view of Jia, and further in view of Guo, as applied to claim 9 above, and further in view of Xiong et al. (US 2023/0413335), hereinafter “Xiong”.
Regarding claim 10, the combination of Cirik in view of Kim, and further in view of Jia, and further in view of Guo, teaches the apparatus. Cirik further teaches:
wherein the computer program code is configured to further cause the apparatus (see Cirik, Fig. 15, item 1524, par. [0210]: The processing system 1508 and the processing system 1518 may be associated with a memory 1514 and a memory 1524, respectively. Memory 1514 and memory 1524 (e.g., one or more non-transitory computer readable mediums) may store computer program instructions or code that may be executed by the processing system 1508 and/or the processing system 1518 to carry out one or more of the functionalities discussed in the present application) at least to:
However, the combination of Cirik in view of Kim, and further in view of Jia, and further in view of Guo, does not teach:
determine if the amount of active RA preamble power ramping counters associated with the apparatus exceeds the one or more computational capabilities associated with the apparatus;
in response to determining the amount of active RA preamble power ramping counters associated with the apparatus exceeds the one or more computational capabilities of the apparatus:
terminate an oldest active RA preamble power ramping counter associated with the active RA preamble power ramping counters.
Xiong, in the same field of endeavor, teaches:
determine if the amount of active RA preamble power ramping counters associated with the apparatus exceeds the one or more computational capabilities associated with the apparatus (see Xiong, par. [0073]: for multiple PRACH transmissions that use the same Tx beam, if due to power allocation to PUSCH/PUCCH/PRACH/SRS transmissions as described in clause 7.5 in TS 38.213, power allocation in EN-DC, NE-DC, or NR-DC operation, slot format determination as described in clause 11.1 in TS 38.213, or the PUSCH/PUCCH/PRACH/SRS transmission occasions are in the same slot or the gap between a PRACH transmission and PUSCH/PUCCH/SRS transmission is small as described in clause 8.1 in TS 38.213, the UE does not transmit a particular PRACH in a transmission occasion within the multiple PRACH transmission occasions, UE Layer 1 notifies the higher layers to suspend the corresponding power ramping counter. Note that power ramping step size may be different across the repetition levels; the power ramping of the different repetition level is independent (and thus different power ramping counters may be used for each repetition level), and see par. [0109]: determine whether a power allocation condition has been met; in this case, power limit conditions are applied);
in response to determining the amount of active RA preamble power ramping counters associated with the apparatus exceeds the one or more computational capabilities of the apparatus:
terminate an oldest active RA preamble power ramping counter associated with the active RA preamble power ramping counters (see Xiong, par. [0073]: for multiple PRACH transmissions that use the same Tx beam, if due to power allocation to PUSCH/PUCCH/PRACH/SRS transmissions as described in clause 7.5 in TS 38.213, power allocation in EN-DC, NE-DC, or NR-DC operation, slot format determination as described in clause 11.1 in TS 38.213, or the PUSCH/PUCCH/PRACH/SRS transmission occasions are in the same slot or the gap between a PRACH transmission and PUSCH/PUCCH/SRS transmission is small as described in clause 8.1 in TS 38.213, the UE does not transmit a particular PRACH in a transmission occasion within the multiple PRACH transmission occasions, UE Layer 1 notifies the higher layers to suspend the corresponding power ramping counter. Note that power ramping step size may be different across the repetition levels; the power ramping of the different repetition level is independent (and thus different power ramping counters may be used for each repetition level), and see par. [0109]: in response to a determination that the power allocation condition has been met, cancel a single PRACH transmission in a transmission occasion within a plurality of PRACH transmission occasions and provide notification from UE Layer 1 to higher layers to suspend a corresponding power ramping counter; if power limits for the system are exceeded, a power counter is cancelled (i.e. terminated)).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the apparatus of the combination of Cirik in view of Kim, and further in view of Jia, and further in view of Guo, with the termination of a counter of Xiong with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of improving coverage for PRACH (see Xiong, par. [0055]).
Claim 16 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Cirik in view of Kim, and further in view of Guo, as applied to claims 4-6, 11, 13-15, and 17 above, and further in view of Jeon.
Regarding claim 16, the combination of Cirik in view of Kim, and further in view of Guo, teaches the apparatus.
However, the combination of Cirik in view of Kim, and further in view of Guo, does not teach:
wherein the PDCCH order indicates that RAR is not configured.
Jeon, in the same field of endeavor, teaches:
wherein the first PDCCH order indicates that RAR is not configured (see Jeon, par. [0435]: A wireless device may transmit one or more preambles. For example, the one or more preambles may be limited before reception of a random access response (e.g., Msg2) in RAR window. For example, the one or more preambles may be allowed before starting an RAR window. For example, the number of allowed preamble transmissions may be predefined or indicated by a message e.g., RMSI in an RRC message and/or PDCCH order in a DL control signal; in this case, performing transmission before starting an RAR window corresponds to the RAR not being configured).
Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art, before the effective filing date of the claimed invention, to have modified the apparatus of the combination of Cirik in view of Kim, and further in view of Guo, with the PDCCH order indicating RAR is not configured of Jeon with a reasonable expectation of success. One of ordinary skill in the art would have been motivated to make this modification for the benefit of reducing the number of retransmissions to improve efficiency (see Jeon, par. [0496]).
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments, see Applicant's Remarks, pages 8-9, filed 03/05/2026, with respect to the rejection(s) of claim(s) 1 and 18 under 35 U.S.C. 103 have been fully considered and are persuasive. Therefore, the rejection has been withdrawn. However, upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection is made in view of Cirik in view of Kim.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure:
Ayaz et al. (US 2020/0137814) teaches a network entity network entity, in particular a cloud server, comprising a processor being configured to control radio resources, in particular sidelink radio resources, on behalf of one or more, in particular two, mobile networks (PLMNs).
Takahashi et al. (US 2024/0251444) teaches a UE for determining whether to change a number of transmissions of PRACH transmissions and optionally suspending or incrementing a power ramping counter.
J. Misic and V. B. Misic ("To Shout or Not to Shout: Performance of Power Ramping during Random Access in LTE/LTE-A") teaches performance evaluation of power ramping taking into account preamble SINR considerations as well as Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) deficiency.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to CALEB J BALLOWE whose telephone number is (571)270-0410. The examiner can normally be reached MON-FRI 7:30-5.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Nishant B. Divecha can be reached at (571) 270-3125. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/C.J.B./Examiner, Art Unit 2419
/Nishant Divecha/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2419