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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 103 which forms the basis for all obviousness rejections set forth in this Office action:
A patent for a claimed invention may not be obtained, notwithstanding that the claimed invention is not identically disclosed as set forth in section 102, if the differences between the claimed invention and the prior art are such that the claimed invention as a whole would have been obvious before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to a person having ordinary skill in the art to which the claimed invention pertains. Patentability shall not be negated by the manner in which the invention was made.
Claims 1-14 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Sun (US 20220116876 A1) in view of D1 (R1-2105781, NPL cited in IDS dated 12/26/23, 12 pages).
For claim 1, Sun discloses a communication apparatus ([0003], UE) that communicates with a base station that manages a cell including N (N≥2) transmission/reception points (FIGs. 4-6 shows that a base station with N>2 TRPs/beams), the communication apparatus comprising:
a communicator configured to receive, from the base station, a radio resource control (RRC) message including a radio link monitoring configuration for configuring radio link monitoring and a beam failure detection configuration for configuring N beam failure detection resource sets (FIGs. 1-8 and the associated text, such as FIG, 7, Step 201 “Monitor signal quality corresponding to a physical layer or a radio resource control RRC layer of the terminal device” and “[0024] a monitoring module, configured to monitor signal quality corresponding to a physical layer or a radio resource control RRC layer of the terminal device”); and
a controller configured to ([0369] “It may be understood that the embodiments described in the embodiments of this application may be implemented by hardware, software, firmware, middleware, microcode, or a combination thereof. For implementation with hardware, the processing unit may be implemented in ... a controller, a microcontroller, …”):
perform radio link monitoring based on the radio link monitoring configuration (FIGs. 1-8 and the associated text, such as FIG. 7, S201-S203, and “[0024] a monitoring module, configured to monitor signal quality corresponding to a physical layer or a radio resource control RRC layer of the terminal device” and “[0006] receiving transmission configuration indicator (TCI) information”); and
detect beam failure for the N beam failure detection resource sets based on the beam failure detection configuration (FIGs. 1-8 and the associated text, such as “[0064 … the beam failure and/or the radio link failure can be monitored in a timely and accurate manner, this helps the terminal device make related preparations for beam recovery or radio link re-establishment in advance, …” and [0161] “… The target TCI state is a TCI state, corresponding to the BFR-RS, of the M TCI states. For each TCI state with a same CORESET configuration, the CORESET is consistent with a CORESET in a recovery SS configured in a BFR configuration. …”), wherein
the radio link monitoring configuration includes information indicating a reference signal resource for radio link monitoring and information indicating purpose of the reference signal resource, beam failure, radio link failure (RLF), and both of these are defined for the purpose (FIGs. 1-8 and the associated text, such FIG. 4, S402-S408, and “[0064] … a beam failure and/or a radio link failure can be monitored in a timely and accurate manner, and power consumption of the terminal device can be reduced. Further, because the beam failure and/or the radio link failure can be monitored in a timely and accurate manner, this helps the terminal device make related preparations for beam recovery or radio link re-establishment in advance …” and “[0047] FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of a first configuration of M target reference signals according to an embodiment of this application”; note that the purpose is interpreted according to the specification, such as [0049]), and
only the RLF is set as the purpose in a case where the beam failure detection configuration is configured (“[0064] … a beam failure and/or a radio link failure can be monitored in a timely and accurate manner, and power consumption of the terminal device can be reduced. Further, because the beam failure and/or the radio link failure can be monitored in a timely and accurate manner, this helps the terminal device make related preparations for beam recovery or radio link re-establishment in advance …” and “[0047] FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of a first configuration of M target reference signals according to an embodiment of this application”; note that only the RLF is set as the purpose is one of options disclosed).
Sun does not explicitly state but D1, in the same field of endeavor of wireless communication specified by 3GPP, discloses individually detect beam failure for each of the N beam failure detection resource sets based on the beam failure detection configuration (p6, 2nd Agreement, 1st para “for a UE configured … when beam failure is detected in a one or more CCs in one or more of BFD-RS sets configured in one or more of CCs”). OOSA would have been motivated to apply the teaching of D1 above to each of the N beams by Sun to yield a predictable result of reusing a beam.
Therefore, it would have been obvious to OOSA to combine Sun with D1 for the benefit of reusing communication resources such as a beam ([0161] of D1).
For claim 6 is rejected because it is a claim of the corresponding base station communicating with the communication apparatus of claim 1 and has the same subject matter.
For claim 10 is rejected because it is a claim of a method that is performed by the communication apparatus of claim 1 and has the same subject matter.
As to claims 2, 7 and 11, Sun in view of D1 discloses claims 1, 6 and 10, Sun further discloses: where the controller is configured to detect the RLF based on the radio link monitoring configuration in the case where the beam failure detection configuration is configured (FIGs. 1-8 and the associated text, such as FIG, 7, Step 201 “Monitor signal quality corresponding to a physical layer or a radio resource control RRC layer of the terminal device” and “[0024] a monitoring module, configured to monitor signal quality corresponding to a physical layer or a radio resource control RRC layer of the terminal device” in view of the parent claims).
As to claims 3 and 12, Sun in view of D1 discloses claims 1 and 10, Sun further discloses: wherein
the beam failure is not set and the RLF is set as the purpose in the case where the beam failure detection configuration is configured (FIGs. 1-8 and the associated text, such as “[0064] … a beam failure and/or a radio link failure can be monitored in a timely and accurate manner, and power consumption of the terminal device can be reduced. Further, because the beam failure and/or the radio link failure can be monitored in a timely and accurate manner, this helps the terminal device make related preparations for beam recovery or radio link re-establishment in advance …” and “[0047] FIG. 4 is a schematic diagram of a first configuration of M target reference signals according to an embodiment of this application”; note that beam failure is not set and the RLF is set as the purpose is one of options disclosed, as pointed out by the parent claims).
As to claims 4, 8 and 13, Sun in view of D1 discloses claims 1, 6 and 10, Sun further discloses: wherein the RRC message includes BWP-DownlinkDedicated which is an information element used for configuring communication apparatus specific parameters of a downlink bandwidth part (FIGs. 1-8 and the associated text, such as “[0024] a monitoring module, configured to monitor signal quality corresponding to a physical layer or a radio resource control RRC layer of the terminal device” and “[0099] The signal quality result monitored on the BWP can be converted into a BLER for physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) receiving on a full bandwidth …” in view of the parent claims), and
the BWP-DownlinkDedicated includes the radio link monitoring configuration and the beam failure detection configuration (FIGs. 1-8 and the associated text, such as “[0099] The signal quality result monitored on the BWP can be converted into a BLER for physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) receiving on a full bandwidth …” in view of the parent claims).
As to claims 5, 9 and 14, Sun in view of D1 discloses claims 1, 6 and 10, Sun further discloses: wherein each of the N beam failure detection resource sets includes a list for adding and/or modifying one or more reference signal resources (FIGs. 1-8 and the associated text, such as “[0161] … If the BFR-RS exists, a beam meeting the beam recovery condition may be determined based on the BFR-RS, a reference signal that is quasi co-located with the BFR-RS, or a DMRS in a CORESET corresponding to a target TCI state. The target TCI state is a TCI state, corresponding to the BFR-RS, of the M TCI states. For each TCI state with a same CORESET configuration, the CORESET is consistent with a CORESET in a recovery SS configured in a BFR configuration. An SS configuration of each TCI state other than a TCI state consistent with a PDCCH in the On duration reuses a beam recovery SS configured in the BFR configuration.”in view of the parent claims).
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to JIANYE WU whose telephone number is (571)270-1665. The examiner can normally be reached M-TH 8am-6pm.
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/JIANYE WU/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2462