DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
The present application is being examined under the pre-AIA (or AIA ) first to invent provisions.
Continued Examination Under 37 CFR 1.114
A request for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, including the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e), was filed in this application after final rejection. Since this application is eligible for continued examination under 37 CFR 1.114, and the fee set forth in 37 CFR 1.17(e) has been timely paid, the finality of the previous Office action has been withdrawn pursuant to 37 CFR 1.114. Applicant's submission filed on August 26, 2026, has been entered.
Response to Amendment
- Claims 1-20 are pending.
- Claims 1, 6, 11 and 16 have been amended.
- Claims 1-20 are rejected.
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.
Claim(s) 1, 6, 11 and 16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Babaei (Pub. No. US 2023/0389120 A1) in view of Zhou et al. (Pub. No. US 20210243763 A1; hereinafter Zhou).
Regarding claim 1, Babaei discloses the method comprising: receiving, from a base station, configuration information for a cell discontinuous reception (DRX) for a network energy saving, wherein the configuration information includes duration information and cycle information for a pattern associated with the cell DRX; (See 0290, the broadcast message may be received via a cell and the one or more parameters may be for the cell that the broadcast message is received by the wireless device. The one or more parameters for a cell (e.g., the cell that the broadcast message is received) may include one or more of: whether the cell is a network energy saving cell (e.g., configured/enabled with network energy saving), whether the cell is in a network energy saving state (e.g., based on a network side DRX/DTX for the cell), timings/schedule/window(s)/duration(s) that the cell is in the network energy saving state; See 0413, the one or more network energy saving parameters, indicated by the broadcast message received at 3910, may indicate whether the cell is in a network energy saving state based on cell a discontinuous transmission (DTX) pattern and/or a cell discontinuous reception (DRX) pattern of the cell.)
However, Babaei fails to disclose receiving, from the base station, a physical downlink shared channel; identifying a hybrid automatic repeat request feedback occasion for transmitting HARQ information for the PDSCH, wherein the HARQ feedback occasion overlaps with a duration for which a cell is not in an active period of the cell based on configuration; and transmitting, to the base station, the HARQ information for the PDSCH in the HARQ feedback occasion which overlaps with the duration
Zhou discloses receiving, from the base station, a physical downlink shared channel; (See 0485, At 3660, the wireless device transmits a positive acknowledgement for a reception of the DCI at a time (a symbol and/or a slot) determined based on a PDSCH-to-HARQ feedback timing field of the DCI.) identifying a hybrid automatic repeat request feedback occasion for transmitting HARQ information for the PDSCH, wherein the HARQ feedback occasion overlaps with a duration for which a cell is not in an active period of the cell; (See 0485, The downlink control channel is of the SCell, or another cell (e.g., PCell, or another SCell). At 3640, the wireless device determine the DCI indicates a dormancy state transition of the SCell based on one or more DCI fields of the DCI being set to predefined value. At 3650, the wireless device transitions the SCell to a dormant state. The wireless device switches the active BWP of the SCell to another BWP of the SCell, based on receiving the DCI. At 3660, the wireless device transmits a positive acknowledgement for a reception of the DCI at a time (a symbol and/or a slot) determined based on a PDSCH-to-HARQ feedback timing field of the DCI. The wireless device transmits the positive acknowledgement in one or more UCI bits) and transmitting, to the base station, the HARQ information for the PDSCH in the HARQ feedback occasion which overlaps with the duration (20210243763-See 0485, The downlink control channel is of the SCell, or another cell (e.g., PCell, or another SCell). At 3640, the wireless device determine the DCI indicates a dormancy state transition of the SCell based on one or more DCI fields of the DCI being set to predefined value. At 3650, the wireless device transitions the SCell to a dormant state. The wireless device switches the active BWP of the SCell to another BWP of the SCell, based on receiving the DCI. At 3660, the wireless device transmits a positive acknowledgement for a reception of the DCI at a time (a symbol and/or a slot) determined based on a PDSCH-to-HARQ feedback timing field of the DCI. The wireless device transmits the positive acknowledgement in one or more UCI bits. The wireless device may transmit the positive acknowledgement via a PUCCH resource; interpreted that harq feedback is still occurring when the scell is in dormant state)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the DRX durations are synchronized by the base station configuration to include the HARQ feedback are overlapping in the dormant scell duration. The motivation to combine is the base station may improve communication link robustness between the base station and the wireless device, increase system spectrum efficiency, and/or reduce power consumption of the base station (See 460).
Regarding claims 6 and 16, Babaei disclose a base station comprising: at least one transceiver;(inherent the base station has a transceiver to receive and transmit data) at least one processor communicatively coupled to the at least one transceiver; (inherent the base station has a transceiver to receive and transmit data and processor) and at least one memory, communicatively coupled to the at least one processor, storing instructions executable by the at least one processor individually or in any combination to cause (See 0383, one or more processors and may include memory that may store instructions. The instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the device) the base station to transmit to a user equipment (UE), configuration information for cell discontinuous reception (DRX) for a network energy saving, wherein the configuration information includes duration information and cycle information for a pattern associated with the cell DRX; (See 0290, the broadcast message may be received via a cell and the one or more parameters may be for the cell that the broadcast message is received by the wireless device. The one or more parameters for a cell (e.g., the cell that the broadcast message is received) may include one or more of: whether the cell is a network energy saving cell (e.g., configured/enabled with network energy saving), whether the cell is in a network energy saving state (e.g., based on a network side DRX/DTX for the cell), timings/schedule/window(s)/duration(s) that the cell is in the network energy saving state; See 0413, the one or more network energy saving parameters, indicated by the broadcast message received at 3910, may indicate whether the cell is in a network energy saving state based on cell a discontinuous transmission (DTX) pattern and/or a cell discontinuous reception (DRX) pattern of the cell.)
However, Babaei fails to disclose transmit, to the UE, a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH), and receive, from the UE, hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) information for the PDSCH in a HARQ feedback occasion for the HARQ information, wherein the HARQ feedback occasion overlaps with a duration for which a cell is not in an active period of the cell DRX.
Zhou disclose transmit, to the UE, a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH), (See 0485, At 3660, the wireless device transmits a positive acknowledgement for a reception of the DCI at a time (a symbol and/or a slot) determined based on a PDSCH-to-HARQ feedback timing field of the DCI.)
and receive, from the UE, hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) information for the PDSCH in a HARQ feedback occasion for the HARQ information, (20210243763-See 0485, The downlink control channel is of the SCell, or another cell (e.g., PCell, or another SCell). At 3640, the wireless device determine the DCI indicates a dormancy state transition of the SCell based on one or more DCI fields of the DCI being set to predefined value. At 3650, the wireless device transitions the SCell to a dormant state. The wireless device switches the active BWP of the SCell to another BWP of the SCell, based on receiving the DCI. At 3660, the wireless device transmits a positive acknowledgement for a reception of the DCI at a time (a symbol and/or a slot) determined based on a PDSCH-to-HARQ feedback timing field of the DCI. The wireless device transmits the positive acknowledgement in one or more UCI bits. The wireless device may transmit the positive acknowledgement via a PUCCH resource; interpreted that harq feedback is still occurring when the scell is in dormant state) wherein the HARQ feedback occasion overlaps with a duration for which a cell is not in an active period of the cell DRX based on configuration. (20210243763-See 0485, The downlink control channel is of the SCell, or another cell (e.g., PCell, or another SCell). At 3640, the wireless device determine the DCI indicates a dormancy state transition of the SCell based on one or more DCI fields of the DCI being set to predefined value. At 3650, the wireless device transitions the SCell to a dormant state. The wireless device switches the active BWP of the SCell to another BWP of the SCell, based on receiving the DCI. At 3660, the wireless device transmits a positive acknowledgement for a reception of the DCI at a time (a symbol and/or a slot) determined based on a PDSCH-to-HARQ feedback timing field of the DCI. The wireless device transmits the positive acknowledgement in one or more UCI bits. The wireless device may transmit the positive acknowledgement via a PUCCH resource; interpreted that harq feedback is still occurring when the scell is in dormant state)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the DRX durations are synchronized by the base station configuration to include the HARQ feedback are overlapping in the dormant scell duration. The motivation to combine is the base station may improve communication link robustness between the base station and the wireless device, increase system spectrum efficiency, and/or reduce power consumption of the base station (See 460).
Regarding claim 11, Babaei disclose A user equipment (UE) comprising: at least one transceiver; (inherent the UE has transceiver to transmit and receive data) at least one processor communicatively coupled to the at least one transceiver; (inherent the UE has a processor that receives or transmits data from transceiver) and at least one memory, communicatively coupled to the at least one processor, storing instructions executable by the at least one processor individually or in any combination to cause the UE(See 0383, one or more processors and may include memory that may store instructions. The instructions, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the device) receiving, from a base station, configuration information for a cell discontinuous reception (DRX) for a network energy saving, wherein the configuration information includes duration information and cycle information for a pattern associated with the cell DRX; (See 0290, the broadcast message may be received via a cell and the one or more parameters may be for the cell that the broadcast message is received by the wireless device. The one or more parameters for a cell (e.g., the cell that the broadcast message is received) may include one or more of: whether the cell is a network energy saving cell (e.g., configured/enabled with network energy saving), whether the cell is in a network energy saving state (e.g., based on a network side DRX/DTX for the cell), timings/schedule/window(s)/duration(s) that the cell is in the network energy saving state; See 0413, the one or more network energy saving parameters, indicated by the broadcast message received at 3910, may indicate whether the cell is in a network energy saving state based on cell a discontinuous transmission (DTX) pattern and/or a cell discontinuous reception (DRX) pattern of the cell.)
However, Babaei fails to disclose receiving, from the base station, a physical downlink shared channel; identifying a hybrid automatic repeat request feedback occasion for transmitting HARQ information for the PDSCH, wherein the HARQ feedback occasion overlaps with a duration for which a cell is not in an active period of the cell DRX; and transmitting, to the base station, the HARQ information for the PDSCH in the HARQ feedback occasion which overlaps with the duration
Zhou discloses receiving, from the base station, a physical downlink shared channel; (See 0485, At 3660, the wireless device transmits a positive acknowledgement for a reception of the DCI at a time (a symbol and/or a slot) determined based on a PDSCH-to-HARQ feedback timing field of the DCI.) identifying a hybrid automatic repeat request feedback occasion for transmitting HARQ information for the PDSCH, wherein the HARQ feedback occasion overlaps with a duration for which a cell is not in an active period of the cell DRX; (See 0485, The downlink control channel is of the SCell, or another cell (e.g., PCell, or another SCell). At 3640, the wireless device determine the DCI indicates a dormancy state transition of the SCell based on one or more DCI fields of the DCI being set to predefined value. At 3650, the wireless device transitions the SCell to a dormant state. The wireless device switches the active BWP of the SCell to another BWP of the SCell, based on receiving the DCI. At 3660, the wireless device transmits a positive acknowledgement for a reception of the DCI at a time (a symbol and/or a slot) determined based on a PDSCH-to-HARQ feedback timing field of the DCI. The wireless device transmits the positive acknowledgement in one or more UCI bits) and transmitting, to the base station, the HARQ information for the PDSCH in the HARQ feedback occasion which overlaps with the duration (20210243763-See 0485, The downlink control channel is of the SCell, or another cell (e.g., PCell, or another SCell). At 3640, the wireless device determine the DCI indicates a dormancy state transition of the SCell based on one or more DCI fields of the DCI being set to predefined value. At 3650, the wireless device transitions the SCell to a dormant state. The wireless device switches the active BWP of the SCell to another BWP of the SCell, based on receiving the DCI. At 3660, the wireless device transmits a positive acknowledgement for a reception of the DCI at a time (a symbol and/or a slot) determined based on a PDSCH-to-HARQ feedback timing field of the DCI. The wireless device transmits the positive acknowledgement in one or more UCI bits. The wireless device may transmit the positive acknowledgement via a PUCCH resource; interpreted that harq feedback is still occurring when the scell is in dormant state)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the DRX durations are synchronized by the base station configuration to include the HARQ feedback are overlapping in the dormant scell duration. The motivation to combine is the base station may improve communication link robustness between the base station and the wireless device, increase system spectrum efficiency, and/or reduce power consumption of the base station (See 460).
Claim(s) 2-5, 7-10, 12-15 and 17-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Babaei in view of Zhou and further in view of Babaei et al. (Pub. No. US 2019/0215897 A1; hereinafter Babaei2).
Regarding Claims 2, 7, 12 and 17, Babaei in view of Zhou fails to disclose starting a DRX HARQ round trip time timer for downlink for a corresponding HARQ process in a first symbol after an end of a transmission of the HARQ information.
Babaei2 discloses starting a DRX HARQ round trip time timer for downlink (drx-HARQ-RTT-TimerDL) for a corresponding HARQ process in a first symbol after an end of a transmission of the HARQ information. (2019/0215897-Figure 31, shows after the new transmission the first symbol goes to the DL HARQ RTT)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify discloses both the UE and base station has synchronized drx duration to include the rtt timer to receive a packet. The motivation to combine is to efficiently specify a minimum duration from the time new transmission is received and before the UE may expect a retransmission of a same packet (See ¶0439).
Regarding Claim 3, 8, 13 and 18, Babaei in view of Zhou fails to disclose upon an expiry of the drx-HARQ-RTT-TimerDL, starting a DRX retransmission timer for downlink for the corresponding HARQ process in a first symbol after the expiry of the drx-HARQ-RTT-TimerDL.
Babaei2 discloses upon an expiry of the drx-HARQ-RTT-TimerDL, starting a DRX retransmission timer for downlink (drx-RetransmissionTimerDL) for the corresponding HARQ process in a first symbol after the expiry of the drx-HARQ-RTT-TimerDL. (Figure 31, shows after DL HARQ RTT expires the first symbol goes to drx-DLRetransmissiontimer)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify discloses both the UE and base station has synchronized drx duration to include the timer to receive a retransmitted packet. The motivation to combine is efficiently determine the maximum duration for which UE may be monitoring PDCCH when a retransmission from the eNodeB is expected by the UE (See ¶0440).
Regarding claims 4, 9, 14 and 19, Babaei in view of Zhou fails to disclose receiving, from the base station, a physical downlink control channel for retransmission while the drx-RetransmissionTimerDL is running.
Babaei2 discloses receiving, from the base station, a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) for retransmission while the drx-RetransmissionTimerDL is running. (See ¶0040, drx-RetransmissionTimer may indicate a maximum duration for which UE may be monitoring PDCCH when a retransmission from the eNodeB is expected by the UE; See ¶0453, When the drx-RetransmissionTimer is running, the UE may receive a second DCI indicating a DL grant for the retransmission of the TB.)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify discloses both the UE and base station has synchronized drx duration to include the timer to receive a retransmitted packet. The motivation to combine is efficiently determine the maximum duration for which UE may be monitoring PDCCH when a retransmission from the eNodeB is expected by the UE (See ¶0440).
Regarding Claim 5, 10, 15 and 20, Babaei in view of Zhou fails to disclose the PDSCH is received based on a PDCCH received from the base station.
Babaei2 discloses the PDSCH is received based on a PDCCH received from the base station. (See 340, a gNB may transmit a DCI via a PDCCH for scheduling decision and power-control commends; See 352, When a UE receives a DCI indicating DL BWP switching from an active BWP to a new BWP, the UE may monitor PDCCH and/or receive PDSCH on the new BWP)
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify discloses both the UE and base station has synchronized drx duration to include the rtt timer to receive a packet. The motivation to combine is efficiently specify a minimum duration from the time new transmission is received and before the UE may expect a retransmission of a same packet (See ¶0439).
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect toward claim(s) 1, 6, 11 and 16 limitation “receiving, from a base station, configuration information for a cell discontinuous reception (DRX) for a network energy saving, wherein the configuration information includes duration information and cycle information for a pattern associated with the cell DRX” have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
MA et al. (Pub. No. US 2023/0261717 A1)-See 0039, e control message including an indication of a pattern of DRX cycles for a first beam for communicating with the network entity, each DRX cycle including an active reception duration and an inactive reception duration, moving an antenna of the UE from a first direction corresponding to the first beam to a second direction corresponding to a second beam for communicating, where the first beam is associated with a first cell and the second beam is associated with a second cell, and communicating with the network entity during an active reception duration of at least one DRX cycle based on moving the antenna from the first direction to the second direction.
Myung et al. (Pub. No. US 2026/0040395 A1)-See 0266, the DRX configuration for the NES purpose or the specific DRX configuration for the NES purpose (or cell-specific DRX configuration) may mean a cell-specific DTX/DRX pattern or active/inactive pattern in which a duration in which the BS transmits/receives minimally or does not (OFF) during a time duration agreed upon and/or pre-configured (e.g., defined in a standard document) for the purpose of saving energy of the BS and a time duration in which the BS operates normally are periodically repeated.
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/Tejis Daya/ Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2472
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