DETAILED ACTION
This action is in response to applicant’s amendment filed on 26 January 2024. Claims 21-40 are now pending in the present application and claims 1-20 are canceled. This office action is made Non-Final.
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 .
Priority
Receipt is acknowledged of certified copies of papers required by 37 CFR 1.55.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
The following is a quotation of the appropriate paragraphs of 35 U.S.C. 102 that form the basis for the rejections under this section made in this Office action:
A person shall be entitled to a patent unless –
(a)(2) the claimed invention was described in a patent issued under section 151, or in an application for patent published or deemed published under section 122(b), in which the patent or application, as the case may be, names another inventor and was effectively filed before the effective filing date of the claimed invention.
Claim(s) 1-20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being by Alfarhan et al. (hereinafter Alfarhan) (US 2022/0400396 A1).
Regarding claims 21, 39, and 40, Alfarhan discloses a user equipment (UE) (e.g., 102) { (see Fig. 1A) }, comprising:
a receiver (e.g., 120) configured to { (see Fig. 1B) }:
receive a Radio Resource Control (RRC) message configuring a plurality of first Reference Signal (RS) resources, wherein the plurality of first RS resources are associated with a first Physical Cell Identity (PCI) { (see pg. 13, [0176]; Figs. 1-3), where the system provides resources that are associated with a PCI (see pg. 12, [0164]) }, and
receive a Medium Access Control (MAC) Control Element (CE) that indicates a set of first RS resources of the plurality of first RS resources { (see pg. 12, [0149-0150]; Figs. 1A-6), where the system provides resource and MAC-CE (see pg. 10, [0126]; pp. 12-13, [0170]; Figs. 1A-6) },
wherein the UE (e.g., 102) is configured to, on a condition that the MAC CE is received { (see pg. 12, [0149-0150]; Figs. 1A-6), where the system provides resource and MAC-CE (see pg. 10, [0126]; pp. 12-13, [0170]; Figs. 1A-6) }:
set a beam failure instance indication counter to zero { (see pg. 2, [0014]; Figs. 1A-6), where the system provides a counter for beam failure that has a maximum number for exceeding in which a start from zero must be an initial number value of the counting }, and
evaluate a radio link quality of the set of first RS resources { (see pp. 3-4, [0037]; pp. 12-13, [0170]; Figs. 1A-6), where the system provides quality (QoS) }.
Regarding claim 22, Alfarhan discloses the UE according to claim 21, wherein: the RRC message configures a plurality of second RS resources that are associated with a second PCI that is different than the first PCI, wherein the UE is configured to evaluate a radio link quality of a set of second RS resources of the plurality of second RS resources { (see pg. 13, [0176]; Figs. 1-3), where the system provides resources that are associated with a PCI (see pg. 12, [0164]) }.
Regarding claim 23, Alfarhan discloses the UE according to claim 22, wherein the RRC message indicates an index and a type of each second RS resource of the plurality of second RS resources { (see pg. 13, [0176]; Figs. 1-3), where the system provides resources that are associated with a PCI (see pg. 12, [0164]) }.
Regarding claim 24, Alfarhan discloses the UE according to claim 22, wherein the RRC message include a RadioLinkMonitoringConfig information element (IE), and the RadioLinkMonitoringConfig IE indicates the plurality of first RS resources, and wherein the RadioLinkMonitoringConfig IE includes a detectionResource field that indicates a type and an index of a second RS resource of the plurality of second RS resources { (see pg. 8, [0092]; pg. 13, [0176]; pg. 12, [0164]; Figs. 1A-6) }.
Regarding claim 25, Alfarhan discloses the UE according to claim 22, wherein all second RS resources of the plurality of second RS resources belong to a cell identified by the second PCI { (see pg. 8, [0092]; pg. 13, [0176]; pg. 12, [0164]; Figs. 1A-6) }.
Regarding claim 26, Alfarhan discloses the UE according to claim 22, wherein the plurality of first RS resources belong to a first cell identified by the first PCI, and the plurality of second RS resources belong to a second cell identified by the second PCI, the first cell is a serving cell of the UE that is a Primary Cell (PCell), a Primary Secondary Cell (PSCell) or a Secondary Cell (SCell) { (see pg. 8, [0081, 0083, 0092]; pg. 13, [0176]; pg. 12, [0164]; Figs. 1A-6) }.
Regarding claim 27, Alfarhan discloses the UE according to claim 22, wherein any first RS resource of the plurality of first RS resources is different from any second RS resource of the plurality of second RS resources { (see pg. 8, [0081, 0083, 0092]; pg. 13, [0176]; pg. 12, [0164]; Figs. 1A-6) }.
Regarding claim 28, Alfarhan discloses the UE according to claim 21, wherein: on a condition that the radio link quality is worse than a first threshold, a physical layer of the UE is configured to report a beam failure instance indication to a higher layer of the UE { (see pg. 13, [0176]; pg. 12, [0164]; pg. 8, [0092]; Figs. 1A-6) }.
Regarding claim 29, Alfarhan discloses the UE according to claim 21, wherein: a higher layer of the UE is configured to receive a beam failure instance indication from a physical layer of the UE, and the UE is configured to increment the beam failure instance indication counter by in response to the beam failure instance indication { (see pg. 2, [0014]; Figs. 1A-6) }.
Regarding claim 30, Alfarhan discloses the UE according to claim 21, wherein an RS resource for radio link monitoring is related to all RS resources in a target observation set, and the RS resource for the radio link monitoring is unrelated to any RS resource other than the target observation set, and the target observation set includes at least one of the set of first RS resources or the set of second RS resources { (see pg. 2, [0014]; Figs. 1A-6) }.
Regarding claim 31, Alfarhan discloses the UE according to claim 21, wherein the MAC CE indicates an activation of the set of first RS resources { (see pg. 12, [0149-0150]; Figs. 1A-6), where the system provides resource and MAC-CE (see pg. 10, [0126]; pp. 12-13, [0170]; Figs. 1A-6) }.
Regarding claim 32, Alfarhan discloses the UE according to claim 21, wherein the MAC CE explicitly indicates an RS resource identifier of the set of first RS resources { (see pg. 12, [0149-0150]; Figs. 1A-6), where the system provides resource and MAC-CE (see pg. 10, [0126]; pp. 12-13, [0170]; Figs. 1A-6) }.
Regarding claim 33, Alfarhan discloses the UE according to claim 21, wherein the RRC message is an RRCReconfiguration message that includes a RadioLinkMonitoringConfig information element (IE) that indicates the plurality of first RS resources { (see pg. 8, [0092]; pg. 13, [0176]; pg. 12, [0164]; Figs. 1A-6) }.
Regarding claim 34, Alfarhan discloses the UE according to claim 21, wherein the beam failure instance indication counter is a BFI_COUNTER that counts beam failure instance indications { (see pg. 2, [0014]; Figs. 1A-6) }.
Regarding claim 35, Alfarhan discloses the UE according to claim 21, wherein the radio link quality is evaluated for all RS resources of the set of first RS resources, and the radio link quality is not evaluated for remaining RS resources of the plurality of first RS resources { (see pg. 8, [0092]; pg. 13, [0176]; pg. 12, [0164]; Figs. 1A-6) }.
Regarding claim 36, Alfarhan discloses the UE according to claim 21, wherein an RS resource of the set of first RS resources is an SSB resource or a CSI-RS resource { (see pg. 8, [0081, 0083, 0092]; pg. 13, [0176]; pg. 12, [0164]; Figs. 1A-6) }.
Regarding claim 37, Alfarhan discloses the UE according to claim 21, wherein the set of first RS resources includes one or more RS resources { (see pg. 8, [0081, 0083, 0092]; pg. 13, [0176]; pg. 12, [0164]; Figs. 1A-6) }.
Regarding claim 38, Alfarhan discloses the UE according to claim 21, wherein link failure includes beam link failure, and radio link monitoring includes a link recovery procedure { (see pg. 2, [0014]; Figs. 1A-6) }.
Conclusion
The prior art made of record and not relied upon is considered pertinent to applicant's disclosure.
Zhou et al. (US 2019/0373450 A1) discloses capability-bssed determination of a shared data channel TCI state.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to WILLIE J DANIEL JR whose telephone number is (571)272-7907. The examiner can normally be reached on 9 - 6.
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/WILLIE J DANIEL JR/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2465
WJD,Jr
03 April 2026
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