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
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.
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.
Claim(s) 1-6, 10-16, and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Fu et al (US 20220124625) in view of Wang et al (US 20230397109).
As to claim 1 Fu discloses a method for determining a monitoring occasion of an energy-saving signal, comprising: determining, by a terminal device, a radio frame corresponding to the terminal device (Fu ¶0176) ; and determining, by the terminal device, a monitoring occasion of a first energy-saving signal based on the radio frame (Fu ¶0176- Steps 201 to 203, the UE obtains the radio frame corresponding to the power-saving signal, then obtains the index number corresponding to the power-saving signal monitoring occasion), wherein the first energy-saving signal is an energy-
saving signal associated with the radio frame (Fu, Fig.5, ¶0239- 3rd sentence- FIG. 5, a start time point of the power-saving signal monitoring occasion of the UE is a first power-saving signal occasion with SFN=20+32*l)
Fu however is silent where the radio frame is a target paging unit (i.e. a paging occasion (PO) or Paging frame (PF)) and the target paging unit belongs to a target paging unit group. However, in an analogous art Wang remedies this deficiency: Wang ¶0168-1st sentence- The base station transmits a power-saving signal for the PEI before a PO or a PO group to the terminal in an RRC idle mode or an inactive mode, and the PEI corresponds to one PO or one PO group.). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the teachings of Fu with that of Wang for the purpose of detecting paging information on Paging Occasion (PO) or PO groups- Wang- Abstract
As to claim 10 Fu discloses a terminal device (Fu, Fig.9 ¶0164), comprising: a memory, configured to store a computer program; and a processor, configured to execute the computer program to (Fu 930 of Fig.9, ¶0261) : determine a radio frame corresponding to the terminal device (Fu ¶0176); and determine a monitoring occasion of a first energy-saving signal based on the target paging unit(Fu ¶0176- Steps 201 to 203, the UE obtains the radio frame corresponding to the power-saving signal, then obtains the index number corresponding to the power-saving signal monitoring occasion),, wherein the first energy-saving signal is an energy-saving signal associated with the radio frame (Fu, Fig.5, ¶0239- 3rd sentence- FIG. 5, a start time point of the power-saving signal monitoring occasion of the UE is a first power-saving signal occasion with SFN=20+32*l).
Fu however is silent where the radio frame is a target paging unit (i.e. a paging occasion (PO) or Paging frame (PF)) and the target paging unit belongs to a target paging unit group. However, in an analogous art Wang remedies this deficiency: Wang ¶0168-1st sentence- The base station transmits a power-saving signal for the PEI before a PO or a PO group to the terminal in an RRC idle mode or an inactive mode, and the PEI corresponds to one PO or one PO group.). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the teachings of Fu with that of Wang for the purpose of detecting paging information on Paging Occasion (PO) or PO groups- Wang- Abstract.
As to claim 2 and 11 the combined teachings of Fu and Wang disclose the method and apparatus of claims 1 and 10 respectively, wherein in a case that the first energy-saving signal is the energy- saving signal associated with the target paging unit, determining, by the terminal device, the monitoring occasion of the first energy-saving signal based on the target paging unit comprises: determining, by the terminal device, a time window where the monitoring occasion of the first energy-saving signal is located, based on a time domain position of the target paging unit, wherein one or more monitoring occasions of the first energy-saving signal are comprised in the time window (Fu ¶0243-last sentence- UE determines the index number i_s corresponding to the power-saving signal monitoring occasion and the time-domain position occupied by the (i_s+1).sup.th power-saving signal occasion ¶0244- the time-domain position for monitoring the power-saving signal is determined at first, so it is able to effectively monitor the power-saving signal at the time-domain position, thereby to achieve a power-saving effect).
As to claim 3 and 12 the combined teachings of Fu and Wang disclose the method and apparatus of claims 2 and 11 respectively, wherein determining, by the terminal device, the time window where the monitoring occasion of the first energy-saving signal is located, based on the time domain position of the target paging unit comprises: determining, by the terminal device, the time window where the monitoring occasion of the first energy-saving signal is located, based on the time domain position of the target paging unit and a first configuration parameter (Fu ¶0239- 3rd sentence- Fig. 5, a start time point of the power-saving signal monitoring occasion of the UE is a first power-saving signal occasion with SFN=20+32*l (l is a positive integer greater than or equal to 0). The first power-saving signal occasion is symbol positions of the power-saving signals within slot=1 and slot=3,).
As to claims 4 and 13 the combined teachings of Fu and Wang discloses the method and apparatus of claims 3 and 12 respectively, wherein the first configuration parameter comprises: a first parameter, configured to indicate an offset of a start time of the time window relative to a start time or end time of the target paging unit (Fu ¶0109- ¶0111- the time-domain configuration information includes at least one of:…. a frame offset for determining a frame position where the power-saving signal occurs; an occurring occasion for determining a start position of each power-saving signal occasion Fu ¶0115- a symbol position for indicating a symbol corresponding to the power-saving signal occurring within one slot or indicating that a start position of the power-saving signal corresponds to a symbol within one slot;).
As to claims 5 and 14 the combined teachings of Fu and Wang discloses the method and apparatus of claims 1 and 10 respectively, wherein the first energy-saving signal is configured to indicate energy-saving information corresponding to a paging unit, and the paging unit is the target paging unit (Wang ¶0075- The PEI includes at least one of a first power-saving signal or a second power-saving signal, the PEI is used to indicate whether the terminal is to detect paging information on PO, the PEI is transmitted before the PO, and the PO includes at least one PO or at least one PO group). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to combine the teachings of Fu and Wang for the purpose of detecting paging information on a paging occasion (PO).
As to claims 6 and 15 the combined teachings of Fu and Wang discloses the method and apparatus of claims 5 and 14 respectively, wherein the first energy-saving signal is configured to indicate energy-saving information corresponding to a PO, and the PO corresponds to a terminal group (Wang ¶0045- or the first power-saving signal is used for paging indication and the first power-saving signal is a terminal group-specific power-saving signal,) the first energy-saving signal comprises a piece of energy-saving information, and the piece of energy-saving information is configured to indicate whether the terminal group monitors a paging Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) (Wang, Fig.2, 2nd sentence- . The PEI includes at least one of a first power-saving signal or a second power-saving signal, the PEI is used to indicate whether the terminal is to detect paging information on PO, the PEI is transmitted before the PO, and the PO includes at least one PO or at least one PO group.); Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to combine the teachings of Fu and Wang for the purpose of detecting paging information on PO.
As to claim 20 Fu discloses a chip (Fu ¶0401-2nd sentence- The hardware circuit includes .., a semiconductor such as a logic chip and a transistor), comprising: a processor, configured to call and run a computer program from a memory(Fu 930 of Fig.9, ¶0261), so that a device on which the chip is installed executes a method for determining a monitoring occasion of an energy-saving signal(Fu ¶0176- Steps 201 to 203, the UE obtains the radio frame corresponding to the power-saving signal, then obtains the index number corresponding to the power-saving signal monitoring occasion), the method comprising: determining, by a terminal device, a radio frame corresponding to the terminal device (Fu ¶0176); and determining, by the terminal device, a monitoring occasion of a first energy-saving signal based on the radio frame , wherein the first energy-saving signal is an energy- saving signal associated with the radio frame (Fu, Fig.5, ¶0239- 3rd sentence- FIG. 5, a start time point of the power-saving signal monitoring occasion of the UE is a first power-saving signal occasion with SFN=20+32*l).
Fu however is silent where the radio frame is a target paging unit (i.e. a paging occasion (PO) or Paging frame (PF)) and the target paging unit belongs to a target paging unit group. However, in an analogous art Wang remedies this deficiency: Wang ¶0168-1st sentence- The base station transmits a power-saving signal for the PEI before a PO or a PO group to the terminal in an RRC idle mode or an inactive mode, and the PEI corresponds to one PO or one PO group.). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to modify the teachings of Fu with that of Wang for the purpose of detecting paging information on Paging Occasion (PO) or PO groups- Wang- Abstract
Claim(s) 7-9, and 16-19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Fu in view of Wang and further in view of Yang et al (US 20230388927).
As to claims 7 and 16 the combined teachings of Fu and Wang discloses the method and apparatus of claims 1 and 10 respectively, wherein in a case that the first energy-saving signal is the energy- saving signal associated with the target paging unit group, determining, by the terminal device, the monitoring occasion of the first energy-saving signal based on the target paging unit comprises: determining, by the terminal device, the target paging unit group to which the target paging unit belongs, based on the target paging unit; and determining, by the terminal device, a time window where the monitoring occasion of the first energy-saving signal is located (Wang, Fig.2, 2nd sentence).
Fu and Wang combined however are silent where the time window is locate based on a time domain position of the target paging unit group, wherein one or more monitoring occasions of the first energy-saving signal are comprised in the time window. However, in an analogous art Yang remedies this deficiency: Yang ¶0092- the identifier of the paging occasion group includes at least one of the following: a unique serial number of the paging occasion group in the paging frame, an identifier of a time-domain position of the paging occasion group Yang ¶0119- the identifier of the paging occasion group in the paging frame includes at least one of the following: a unique serial number of the paging occasion group in the paging frame, an identifier of a time-domain position of the paging occasion group, a unique serial number of a monitoring occasion (MO) of a first paging PDCCH in each paging group of the paging occasion group, or an identifier of a time-domain position of a first paging occasion of the paging occasion group ). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to combine the teachings of Fu and Wang with that of Yang for the purpose of providing indication information about a time-domain position where the monitoring occasion (MO) is located (Yang ¶0092).
As to claim 8 the combined teachings of Fu Wang and Yang discloses the method of claim 7, wherein determining, by the terminal device, the target paging unit group to which the target paging unit belongs, based on the target paging unit comprises: determining, by the terminal device, the target paging unit group to which the target paging unit belongs, based on a time domain position of the target paging unit and configuration information of a paging unit group (Yang ¶0093- indication information about a time-domain position where the monitoring occasion (MO) is located; and/or, [0094] the identifier of the paging occasion group includes at least one of the following: a unique serial number of the paging occasion group in the paging frame, an identifier of a time-domain position of the paging occasion group, ), wherein the configuration information of the paging unit group is configured to determine time domain positions of a plurality of paging units (Yang ¶0093), wherein determining, by the terminal device, the time window where the monitoring occasion of the first energy-saving signal is located, based on the time domain position of the target paging unit group comprises: determining, by the terminal device, the time window where the monitoring occasion of the first energy-saving signal is located (Fu ¶0239- 3rd sentence- FIG. 5), based on the time domain position of the target paging unit group and a second configuration parameter- second configuration parameter indicating an offset of a start time of the time window (Yang ¶0194- network device configures MOs of different POs as continuous counting; or the network device may separately configure starting positions for MOs of different POs, where an offset value of a starting position is configurable). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to combine the teachings of Fu, Wang and Yang for the purpose of configuration for positions of different POs (Yang ¶0193).
As to claim 9 and 19 the combined teachings of Fu and Wang disclose the method and apparatus of claims 1 and 10 respectively, however silent wherein the first energy-saving signal is configured to indicate energy-saving information corresponding to a paging unit group, and the paging unit group comprises a plurality of paging units that comprise the target paging unit, wherein the first energy-saving signal is configured to indicate energy-saving information corresponding to a PO group, each PO in the PO group corresponds to a terminal group, and the PO group corresponds to a plurality of terminal groups, the first energy-saving signal comprises a piece of energy-saving information, and the piece of energy-saving information is configured to indicate whether the plurality of terminal groups monitor a paging Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH); or the first energy-saving signal comprises a plurality of pieces of energy-saving information, and each of the plurality of pieces of energy-saving information is configured to indicate whether one terminal group of the plurality of terminal groups monitors the paging PDCCH; or the first energy-saving signal comprises a plurality of pieces of energy-saving information, and each of the plurality of pieces of energy-saving information is configured to indicate whether a subgroup in one terminal group of the plurality of terminal groups monitors the paging PDCCH. However in an analogous art Yang remedies this deficiency: (Yang ¶0098- In one embodiment, the paging early indication is downlink control information (DCI), and a bit field of the DCI at least identifies one of the following: indication information about whether to monitor a paging PDCCH of a terminal or a terminal group under different paging occasions (POs) corresponding to at least one PF identifier, indication information about whether to monitor paging PDCCHs corresponding to M terminals or M terminal groups, indication information about whether to monitor paging PDCCHs corresponding to N terminals or N terminal groups; where M and N are natural numbers greater than or equal to 1. .Yang, Fig. 9 ¶0238- since the quantities of UE subgroups corresponding to the POs are different, the quantities of bits used for representing the UE subgroups are also different, where the quantity of bits corresponding to a PO may be the same as the quantity of the UE subgroups corresponding to the PO. …. PO1 may correspond to M UE subgroups, and adaptively, may correspond to M bits.). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to combine the teachings of Fu and Wang with that of Yang for the purpose of identifying information of one or more POs. of a PO group (Yang ¶0236).
As to claim 17 the combined teachings of Fu Wang and Yang disclose the apparatus of claim 16, wherein the processor is further configured to execute the program to determine the target paging unit group to which the target paging unit belongs, based on a time domain position of the target paging unit and configuration information of a paging unit group, wherein the configuration information of the paging unit group is configured to determine time domain positions of a plurality of paging unit(Yang ¶0093- indication information about a time-domain position where the monitoring occasion (MO) is located; and/or, [0094] the identifier of the paging occasion group includes at least one of the following: a unique serial number of the paging occasion group in the paging frame, an identifier of a time-domain position of the paging occasion group).. Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to combine the teachings of Fu, Wang and Yang for the purpose of configuration for positions of different POs (Yang ¶0193).
As to claim 18 the combined teachings of Fu Wang and Yang disclose apparatus of claim 16, wherein the processor is further configured to execute the program to determine the time window where the monitoring occasion of the first energy- saving signal is located, based on the time domain position of the target paging unit group and a second configuration parameter-- second configuration parameter indicating an offset of a start time of the time window (Yang ¶0194- network device configures MOs of different POs as continuous counting; or the network device may separately configure starting positions for MOs of different POs, where an offset value of a starting position is configurable). Therefore, it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skills in the art before the effective filing date of the invention to combine the teachings of Fu, Wang and Yang for the purpose of configuration for positions of different POs (Yang ¶0193).
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Li et al – Power- Saving Signal Monitoring Method and Terminal- US 20220272636, ¶0011, ¶0029.
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/DERRICK V ROSE/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2462