DETAILED ACTION
This Office Action is in response to the Applicants' communication filed on April 13, 2026. Claims 1-14, 18 and 20 are amended. Claims 1-20 are currently pending and have been examined.
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 .
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments/remarks made in an amendment filed April 13, 2026 have been fully considered. In view of the amended claims 1-14, 18 and 20 and upon further consideration, a new ground(s) of rejection, necessitated by the amendments is made in view of different interpretation of the previously applied references as presented in this Office action. Applicant’s arguments with respect to claim(s) 1-20 are therefore moot.
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 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.
Claims 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Radisys et al., Redcap UE support over F1, R3-215916, 3GPP TSG RAN WG3 #114-e, Nov 1-11, 2021 (hereinafter Radisys) in view of US 20240373499 A1 (AGIWAL et al.)(hereinafter AGIWAL) in view of Ericsson, Running CR for the RedCap WI, R2-2111095, 3GPP TSG RAN2 Meeting #116-e, Nov 1-12, 2021 (hereinafter Ericsson 1) in view of Ericsson, Running CR for the RedCap WI, R2-2111097, 3GPP TSG RAN2 Meeting #116-e, Nov 1-12, 2021 (hereinafter Ericsson 2) and in further view of Apple Inc., "Summary of [AT116-e][105] [RedCap] eDRX cycles aspects," 3GPP TSG-RAN2 WG2#116-e, Electronic meeting, R2-2111335, November 1st - 12th, 2021 (hereinafter Apple).
In re claims 1 and 20, Radisys discloses a method performed by a distributed unit (DU) (Section 8.7.1.1, line 1, “The purpose of the Paging procedure is used to provide the paging information to enable the gNB-DU to page a UE”) and a distributed unit (DU) in a wireless communication system (Fig. 8.7.1.2-1, “gNB-DU”), the DU comprising: a transceiver configured to transmit and receive a signal; and a controller configured to control the transceiver to:
receive, from a central unit (CU), a first paging message for a terminal (Fig. 8.7.1.2-1, section 8.7.1.1, page 5, line 1, “The gNB-CU initiates the procedure by sending a PAGING message”), wherein the first paging message comprises:
first information comprising a first identifier of the terminal (page 6, section 9.2.6.1, lines 1-2, “This message is sent by the gNB-CU and is used to request the gNB-DU to page UEs. Direction: gNB-CU ➔ gNB-DU”. Page 7, table, row 5, “RAN UE Paging identity”);
second information derived from a second identifier of the terminal (Page 7, Table, row 3, “UE identity Index value”);
third information related to a first discontinuous reception (DRX) cycle (Page 7, Table, row 7, “Paging DRX”); and
fourth information related to a second DRX cycle (Page 7, Table, row 13, “Paging eDRX” (the paging message includes a RAN UE paging identity, a UE identity index value, paging DRX, and paging eDRX));
determining, based on the first paging message, a paging frame and a paging occasion; and
transmitting, via a paging channel, a second paging message based on the paging occasion of the paging frame, wherein in case that fifth information is included in the first paging message:
the paging frame is determined based on the second information and the third information; and
the paging occasion is determined based on the second information and the fourth information, and wherein the fifth information is related to a capability of the terminal for determining a paging occasion in an inactive state.
Radisys does not explicitly disclose DU comprising: a transceiver configured to transmit and receive a signal; and a controller configured to control the transceiver.
AGIWAL discloses DU comprising: a transceiver (Fig. 20:2010) configured to transmit and receive a signal ([0015], “The base station includes: a transceiver configured to transmit and receive a signal”); and a controller configured to control the transceiver (Fig. 20:2020, [0015], “a controller coupled with the transceiver”).
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Radisys with AGIWAL to provide a system and method for paging monitoring and acquiring dedicated system information in a wireless communication system. The advantage of doing so is converging a fifth generation (5G) communication system for supporting higher data rates beyond a fourth generation (4G) to support in a variety of fields including smart home, smart building, smart city, smart car or connected cars, smart grid, health care, smart appliances and advanced medical services.
Radisys and AGIWAL do not explicitly disclose determining, based on the first paging message, a paging frame and a paging occasion.
Ericsson 1 discloses determine, based on the first paging message, a paging frame and a paging occasion (Page 39, section 7, lines 3-7, “The paging frame (PF) and paging occasion (PO) for paging are determined by the following formulae: System frame number (SFN) for the PF is determined by: (SFN + PF offset) mod T = (T div N)*(UE_ID mod N), Index (i_s), indicating the index of the PO is determined by: i_s = floor (UE_ID/N) mod Ns”. Page 39, lines 15-25, “A PO is a set of 'S*X' consecutive PDCCH monitoring occasions where 'S' is the number of actual transmitted SSBs determined according to ssb-PositionslnBurst in SIB1 and X is the nrofPDCCH-MonitoringOccasionPerSSB-InPO if configured or is equal to 1 otherwise. WhenfirstPDCCH-MonitoringOccasionOfPO is present, the starting PDCCH monitoring occasion number of (i_s + 1)th PO is the (i_s + 1)th value of the firstPDCCHMonitoringOccasionOfPO parameter; otherwise, it is equal to i_s * S*X...”. Page 39, lines 30-31, “The following parameters are used for the calculation of PF and i_s above: T: DRX cycle of the UE” (paging frame and paging occasion is determined based on UE identifiers, DRX cycles and their derivations)).
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Radisys and AGIWAL with Ericsson 1 to provide a system and method for paging monitoring and acquiring dedicated system information in a wireless communication system. The advantage of doing so is converging a fifth generation (5G) communication system for supporting higher data rates and low latency and address issues with high frequency band utilization in 5G to support in a variety of fields including smart home, smart building, smart city, smart car or connected cars, smart grid, health care, smart appliances and advanced medical services.
Radisys, AGIWAL and Ericsson 1 do not explicitly disclose transmitting, via a paging channel, a second paging message based on the paging occasion of the paging frame, wherein in case that fifth information is included in the first paging message: the paging frame is determined based on the second information and the third information; and the paging occasion is determined based on the second information and the fourth information, and wherein the fifth information is related to a capability of the terminal for determining a paging occasion in an inactive state.
Ericsson 2 discloses transmitting, via a paging channel, a second paging message based on the paging occasion of the paging frame (Figure 5.3.2.1-1, section 5.3.2.1: Paging, lines 1-2, “The purpose of this procedure is: to transmit paging information to a UE in RRC_IDLE or RRC_INACTIVE”. Section 5.3.2.3: Reception of the paging message by the UE, page 42, lines 1-5, “if the ue-Identity included in the PagingRecord matches the UE's stored fullI-RNTI: 3> if the UE is configured by upper layers ,with Access Identity 1: 4> initiate the RRC connection resumption procedure according to 5.3.13 with resumeCause set to mpsPriorityAccess” (a paging message including a full-RNTI is transmitted)).
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Radisys and AGIWAL with Ericsson 1 and Ericsson 2 to provide a system and method for paging monitoring and acquiring dedicated system information in a wireless communication system. The advantage of doing so is converging a fifth generation (5G) communication system for supporting higher data rates and low latency and address issues with high frequency band utilization in 5G to support in a variety of fields including smart home, smart building, smart city, smart car or connected cars, smart grid, health care, smart appliances and advanced medical services.
Radisys, AGIWAL, Ericsson 1 and Ericsson 2 do not explicitly disclose wherein in case that fifth information is included in the first paging message: the paging frame is determined based on the second information and the third information; and the paging occasion is determined based on the second information and the fourth information, and wherein the fifth information is related to a capability of the terminal for determining a paging occasion in an inactive state.
Apple discloses wherein in case that fifth information is included in the first paging message: the paging frame is determined based on the second information and the third information; and the paging occasion is determined based on the second information and the fourth information, and wherein the fifth information is related to a capability of the terminal for determining a paging occasion in an inactive state (section 3.1.3, page 6, lines 14-15, “UE capability should be introduced to indicate support for using the same i_s in PO determination in RRC _INACTIVE state as in RRC _IDLE state”. Page 6, lines 26-28, “During CN PTW when IDLE eDRX is configured and longer than 10.24s, and INACTIVE eDRX is configured, PO is determined by the shortest value of default paging cycle and UE specific paging cycle if configured by upper layer” (Paging occasion is determined by the shortest value of default or UE specific paging cycle if UE capability is included in the paging message). Page 7, discussion point 4, lines 20-22, “Since a new UE capability is already agreed to be supported for non-eDRX UEs, the UE capability on PO determination for non-overlapping CN/RN case for eDRX supporting UEs, is needed” (discloses PO determination dependent on whether UE capability information as may be sent in the paging message). Page 8, row 6 for Huawei, “that the new PO determination is a fundamental part of eDRX supporting UEs” (clearly discloses PO determination as fundamental for eDRX supporting UE, here it shows UE capability that it supports eDRX, eDRX is the second DRX cycle). Page 8, row 9, vivo, “When UE and the CN negotiate the DRX cycle with NAS signaling, the UE includes an extended idle mode DRX parameters information element in the Registration Request message to implicitly inform CN it supports eDRX’ (here the interpretation is that UE signals its capability to the core network, and along with the second identifier of the UE by the core network and UE capability, this is signaled in the paging message based on which PO determination is made). Page 8, row 13, Intel, “Our understanding is that UE would require signaling its capability support for eDRX in RRC_IDLE and/or RRC_ INACTIVE” (For UE in Inactive state, PO determination is based on whether UE capability is signaled).
It would have been obvious for one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to combine the teachings of Radisys, AGIWAL, Ericsson 1, Ericsson 2 and Apple to provide a system and method for paging monitoring and acquiring dedicated system information in a wireless communication system. The advantage of doing so is converging a fifth generation (5G) communication system for supporting higher data rates and low latency and address issues with high frequency band utilization in 5G to support in a variety of fields including smart home, smart building, smart city, smart car or connected cars, smart grid, health care, smart appliances and advanced medical services.
In re claim 2, the combination discloses the method of claim 1, wherein Ericsson 1 discloses wherein, in case that the fifth information is not included in the first paging message, the paging frame and the paging occasion are determined based on the second information and the third information in case that the fifth information is not comprised in the first paging message (Section 7, Page 39, lines 3-7; lines 30-31, “The PF and PO for paging are determined by the following formulae: system frame number (SFN) for the PF is determined by: (SFN + PF offset) mod T = (T div N)*(UE_ID mod N). The following parameters are used for the calculation of PF and i_s above: T: DRX cycle of the UE”).
In re claim 3, the combination discloses the method of claim 1, wherein Ericsson 1 discloses wherein the third information comprises a terminal-specific value of the first DRX cycle configured by radio resource control (RRC) (Section 7, Page 39, lines 30-35, “The following parameters are used for the calculation of PF and i_s above: T: DRX cycle of the UE, T is determined by the shortest of the UE specific DRX value(s), if configured by RRC and/or upper layers”).
In re claim 4, the combination discloses the method of claim 1, wherein Ericsson 1 discloses wherein the fourth information comprises a terminal-specific value of the second DRX cycle configured by upper layers (Section 7, page 39, lines 33-35, “T is determined by the shortest of the UE specific DRX value(s), if configured by RRC and/or upper layers”. Table on Page 3, row 2, “For RRC_IDLE UE, when eDRX is no longer than 10.24s, T is determined by IDLE eDRX cycle. When eDRX cycle is longer than 10.24s, during the CN PTW, T is determined by the shortest of UE specific DRX cycle, if configured by upper layer, and default paging cycle” (terminal specific DRX value configured by upper layers)).
In re claim 5, the combination discloses the method of claim 1, wherein Ericsson 1 discloses wherein the fifth information is included in the first paging message for the terminal in case that the terminal supports the same paging occasion determination in RRC_IDLE and RRC_INACTIVE states (Section 7, Page 38, lines 31-38; page 39, lines 1-7, “The UE may use Discontinuous Reception (DRX) in RRC IDLE and RRC INACTIVE state in order to reduce power consumption. The UE monitors one paging occasion (PO) per DRX cycle. A PO is a set of PDCCH monitoring occasions and can consist of multiple time slots ( e.g. subframe or OFDM symbol) where paging DCI can be sent (TS 38.213). One Paging Frame (PF) is one Radio Frame and may contain one or multiple PO(s) or starting point of a PO. In multi-beam operations, the UE assumes that the same paging message and the same Short Message are repeated in all transmitted beams and thus the selection of the beam( s) for the reception of the paging message and Short Message is up to UE implementation. The paging message is same for both RAN initiated paging and CN initiated paging. The UE initiates RRC Connection Resume procedure upon receiving RAN initiated paging. If the UE receives a CN initiated paging in RRC_INACTIVE state, the UE moves to RRC_IDLE and informs NAS”). Radisys also discloses page 1: reason for change, “SA2 has confirmed in LSin R3-214712 that eDRX cycles> 10.24s for RRC Idle and eDRX upto 10.24s for RRC Inactive can be supported for Redcap UEs. Hence Paging eDRX IE for Redcap UEs needs to be supported over F1 paging”).
In re claim 6, the combination discloses the method of claim 1, wherein Radisys discloses wherein the first identifier is a temporary identifier determined by the CU (page 6, section 9.2.6.1, lines 1-2, “This message is sent by the gNB-CU and is used to request the gNB-DU to page UEs. Direction: gNB-CU ➔ gNB-DU”. Page 7, table, row 5, “RAN UE Paging identity” (first temporal identifier of UE)).
In re claim 7, the combination discloses the method of claim 1, wherein Radisys discloses wherein the second identifier is a temporary identifier determined by a core network entity (Page 7, Table, row 6, “CN UE paging identity”).
In re claim 8, the combination discloses the method of claim 1, wherein Ericsson 1 discloses wherein the second information is the last n bits of the second identifier (Page 1: Summary of change, Table RAN2#115, Row 3, “PDCP/RLC AM 12 bits SN is mandatory for Redcap UE, and PDCP/RLC AM 18bits SN is optional supported by Redcap UE”).
In re claim 9, the combination discloses the method of claim 1, wherein Ericsson 2 discloses wherein the first identifier is indicated to the terminal in an RRC message that causes a state transition from RRC_CONNECTED to RRC_INACTIVE (section 5.3.2.1, lines 1-2, “The purpose of this procedure is: to transmit paging information to a UE in RRC_IDLE or RRC_INACTIVE”. Section 5.3.2.3, “2> if the ue-Identity included in the PagingRecord matches the UE's stored fullI-RNTI: 3> if the UE is configured by upper layers With Access Identity 1: 4> initiate the RRC connection resumption procedure according to 5 .3 .13 with resumeCause set to mpsPriorityAccess”).
In re claim 10, the combination discloses the method of claim 1, wherein Radisys discloses wherein the second paging message comprises the first identifier (section 9.2.6.1, “This message is sent by the gNB-CU and is used to request the gNB-DU to page UEs” (a gNB-DU receives a paging message from a gNB-CU and the paging message includes a RAN UE paging identity)).
In re claim 11, the combination discloses the method of claim 1, wherein Ericsson 2 discloses the method further comprising: receiving, by the DU from the terminal in response to the second paging message, an uplink message comprising a third identifier (page 42, section 5.3.2.3, lines 15-17, “else if the ue-Identity included in the PagingRecord matches the UE identity allocated by upper layers: 3> forward the ue-Identity to upper layers and accessType (if present) to the upper layers; perform the actions upon going to RRC_IDLE as specified in 5.3.11 with release cause 'other' (forwarding a third identifier)).
In re claim 12, the combination discloses the method of claim 1, wherein Ericsson 1 discloses wherein, in case that a DRX value configured by radio resource control RRC is smaller than a specific value, the paging frame is determined based on a minimum value between a default DRX value and a DRX value indicated by a ran-paging-cycle field (Page 39, lines 33-34, “T is determined by the shortest of the UE specific DRX value(s), if configured by RRC and/or upper layers (NAS), and a default DRX value broadcast in system information”. Page 39, lines 37-38, “If a UE specific extended DRX value is no longer than 1024 radio frames is configured ...T=UE specific extended DRX value”).
In re claim 13, the combination discloses the method of claim 12, wherein Ericsson 1 discloses wherein, in case that the DRX value configured by radio resource control RRC is greater than the specific value, the paging frame is determined based on a DRX value indicated by an extended-ran-paging-cycle field (Page 3, Table, row 2, “For RRC_IDLE UE, when eDRX cycle is no longer than 10.24s, T is determined by IDLE eDRX cycle. When eDRX cycle is longer than 10.24s, during the CN PTW, T is determined by the shortest of UE specific DRX cycle, if configured by upper layer, and default paging cycle”. Also see section 7, pages 39-40).
In re claim 14, the combination discloses the method of claim 13, wherein Ericsson 1 discloses wherein the ran-paging-cycle field and the extended-ran-paging-cycle field are included in an RRC message that causes a state transition from RRC_CONNECTED to RRC_INACTIVE (Page 38, section 7.1, “The UE may use Discontinuous reception (DRX) in RRC_IDLE and RRC_INACTTVE slate in order to reduce power consumption”. Page 39, line 1, “The UE initiates RRC Connection Resume procedure upon receiving RAN initiated paging” (discloses that DRX cycle is used by UE to go in Idle state for power consumption or vice versa). Radisys also discloses on Page 5, section 8.7.1.2, “The Paging DRX IE may be included in the PAGING message, and if present the gNB-DU may use it to determine the final paging cycle for the UE” (paging cycle is used by UE to transition from RRC_Connected to RRC_Inactive state for power consumption)).
In re claim 15, the combination discloses the method of claim 12, wherein Ericsson 1 discloses wherein the default DRX value is indicated by system information (Page 40, lines 11-12, “Parameters Ns, nAndPagingFrameOffset, nrofPDCCH-1MonitoringOccasionPerSSB-InPO, and the length of default DRX Cycle are signaled in SIB1”).
In re claim 16, the combination discloses the method of claim 1, wherein Ericsson 1 discloses wherein the paging frame contains starting points of one or more paging occasions (Page 38, section 7, lines 34-35, “One Paging Frame (PF) is one Radio Frame and may contain one or multiple PO(s) or starting point of a PO”).
In re claim 17, the combination discloses the method of claim 1, wherein Ericsson 1 discloses wherein the paging occasion is a set of one or more Physical Downlink Control Channel (PDCCH) monitoring occasions (Page 38, section 7, lines 32-34, “A PO is a set of PDCCH monitoring occasions and can consist of multiple time slots (e.g. subframe or OFDM symbol) where paging DCI can be sent (TS 38.213 [4])”).
In re claim 18, the combination discloses the method of claim 1, wherein Ericsson 1 discloses wherein the paging frame is determined further based on a joint parameter indicating an offset and a number of paging frames (Section 7, page 39, lines 1-7, “The UE initiates RRC Connection Resume procedure upon receiving RAN initiated paging. If the UE receives a CN initiated paging in RRC_INACTIVE state, the UE moves to RRC_IDLE and informs NAS. The PF and PO for paging are determined by the following formulae: SFN for the PF is determined by: (SFN + PF offset) mod T = (T div N)*(UE_ID mod N), Index (i_s), indicating the index of the PO is determined by: i_s = floor (UE_ID/N) mod Ns”. Page 40, lines 7-10, “N: number of total paging frames in T, Ns: number of paging occasions for a PF, PF offset: offset used for PF determination, UE ID: 5G-S-TMSI mod 1024” (Paging frame calculation includes offset and number of paging frames)).
In re claim 19, the combination discloses the method of claim 18, wherein Ericsson 1 discloses wherein the joint parameter is indicated by system information (Page 40, lines 11-12, “Parameters Ns, nAndPagingFrameOffset, nrofPDCCH-1MonitoringOccasionPerSSB-InPO, and the length of default DRX Cycle are signaled in SIB1”).
Conclusion
Applicant's amendment necessitated the new ground(s) of rejection presented in this Office action. Accordingly, THIS ACTION IS MADE FINAL. See MPEP § 706.07(a). Applicant is reminded of the extension of time policy as set forth in 37 CFR 1.136(a).
A shortened statutory period for reply to this final action is set to expire THREE MONTHS from the mailing date of this action. In the event a first reply is filed within TWO MONTHS of the mailing date of this final action and the advisory action is not mailed until after the end of the THREE-MONTH shortened statutory period, then the shortened statutory period will expire on the date the advisory action is mailed, and any extension fee pursuant to 37 CFR 1.136(a) will be calculated from the mailing date of the advisory action. In no event, however, will the statutory period for reply expire later than SIX MONTHS from the date of this final action.
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/SWATI JAIN/Examiner, Art Unit 2649
/YUWEN PAN/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2649
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