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 .
Information Disclosure Statement
The information disclosure statement (IDS) submitted on 4/14/2026 was filed after the mailing date of the non-final office action on 04/14/2026. The submission is in compliance with the provisions of 37 CFR 1.97. Accordingly, the information disclosure statement is being considered by the examiner.
Response to Amendment
The amendment filed on 05/14/2026 has been entered. Claims 50-69 remain pending in the application.
Response to Arguments
Applicant's arguments filed 05/14/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive.
Regarding independent claim 50, applicant argues the combination of references cited on the non-final office action dated 02/19/2026, fails to teach an indication of CSI-RS resource availability. Examiner respectfully disagrees, Lin et al. discloses a system for CSI-RS in RRC_idle/inactive state which indicates resource availability (Lin et al. par. 5-6; The PO includes a number of PDCCH transmission occasions. The transceiver is configured to transmit an availability indication for one or more periodic CSI-RS/TRS transmission occasions from the periodic CSI-RS transmission occasions and the one or more periodic CSI-RS/TRS transmission occasions in time before the PO) see also pars.66-67, 135,136 and fig.9 par. 139.
Applicant further argus the combination of references fail to teach the CSI-RS resource availability indication includes a paging configuration comprising Q bits and N*M bits. Examiner respectfully disagrees, Lin discloses that an indication for the CSI-RS/TRS resource set can be a binary bit (i.e. Q bits) (Lin et al. par. 135; the indication can be a list of activated idle CSI-RS/TRS resources set or CSI-RS/TRS resources. A UE does not expect to receive CSI-RS/TRS that is not included in the list. In another instance, the indication can be a binary bit to indicate whether or not all the idle mode CSI-RS/TRS resources are activated) and further mentions the use of a bitmap to indicate OFDM symbols for CSI-RS resource reception (Lin, et al. par 117; A bitmap can be provided to the UE to indicate more than one first OFDM symbols for CSI-RS resources reception within the CSI-RS/TRS reception occasion or within a slot) see also Babaei, 132.Examiner further notes, the presence or usage of a bitmap inherently discloses bit fields which may include Q and N*M bits.
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.
Claims 50-51, 53-56, 59-61, 63-66 and 68-69 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Lin et al. (US-11637670-B2, EFD: 2020-03-10) hereinafter Lin in view of Cirik et al. (US-20200267712-A1, EFD: 2019-02-14) hereinafter Cirik.
For examination purposes, claims 50-59 referring to a method and claims 60-69 referring to an apparatus are henceforth grouped together for claims mirroring the same limitations or which disclose analogous art to the invention as claimed.
Regarding Claims 50 and 60, Lin discloses a method and apparatus of wireless communication comprising: prior to receiving a paging message, receiving, at a wireless device, paging configuration information (Lin, par. 4; The transceiver is configured to receive a second configuration for a paging occasion (PO)),wherein the paging configuration information includes a paging indication comprising N*M bits followed immediately by a Channel State Information Reference Signal (CSI-RS) resource availability indication comprising Q bits, wherein N, M, and Q are integers (Lin, par. 135; the indication can be a list of activated idle CSI-RS/TRS resources set or CSI-RS/TRS resources. A UE does not expect to receive CSI-RS/TRS that is not included in the list. In another instance, the indication can be a binary bit to indicate whether or not all the idle mode CSI-RS/TRS resources are activated), and wherein the CSI-RS resource availability is indicated by a codepoint comprising the Q bits (Lin, par. 117; A bitmap can be provided to the UE to indicate more than one first OFDM symbols for CSI-RS resources reception within the CSI-RS/TRS reception occasion or within a slot); monitoring for the paging message based on the paging indication (Lin, par. 78; the UE can be configured to monitoring Type2-PDCCH for paging message per discontinuous reception (DRX) cycle); and receiving a CSI-RS according to the CSI-RS resource availability indication (Lin, par. 4; A periodic CSI-RS/TRS reception occasion includes one or more CSI-RS resources … The transceiver is configured to receive an availability indication for one or more periodic CSI-RS/TRS reception occasions from the periodic CSI-RS reception occasions and the one or more periodic CSI-RS/TRS reception occasions in time before the PO).
Lin does not explicitly mention the adoption of a codepoint to indicate CIS-RS resource indication. However, Cirik discloses a system for transmission and reception management in wireless communications in which a codepoint for CSI request is implemented (Cirik, par. 373; A codepoint of a CSI request field in a DCI may indicate/be associated with an aperiodic trigger state of the one or more aperiodic trigger states) and further explicitly implements bit fields including M*N bits (Cirik, fig. 24, par. 500; A first length of the first field may comprise a first value (e.g., M*N bits)).
Therefore, a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date would have been motivated to combine Lin’s paging methods for CSI-RS in an idle state with Cirik’s methods for transmission and reception management to enhance UE power consumption when the device is in adle mode.
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Regarding Claims 55 and 65, Lin discloses a method and apparatus of wireless communication comprising: prior to transmitting a paging message, transmitting, by a network device, paging configuration information (Lin, par. 4; The transceiver is configured to receive a second configuration for a paging occasion (PO)), wherein the paging configuration information includes a paging indication (Lin, par. 78; the UE can be configured to monitoring Type2-PDCCH for paging message per discontinuous reception (DRX) cycle) comprising N*M bits followed immediately by a Channel State Information Reference Signal (CSI-RS) resource availability indication comprising Q bits, wherein N, M, and Q are integers (Lin, par. 135; the indication can be a list of activated idle CSI-RS/TRS resources set or CSI-RS/TRS resources. A UE does not expect to receive CSI-RS/TRS that is not included in the list. In another instance, the indication can be a binary bit to indicate whether or not all the idle mode CSI-RS/TRS resources are activated) see also par. 76, wherein the CSI-RS resource availability is indicated by a codepoint comprising the Q bits, and wherein the paging indication is configured for use by the wireless device to monitor for the paging message (Lin, par. 117; A bitmap can be provided to the UE to indicate more than one first OFDM symbols for CSI-RS resources reception within the CSI-RS/TRS reception occasion or within a slot); transmitting the CSI-RS resource according to the CSI-RS resource availability indication; and transmitting the paging message according to the paging indication (Lin, par. 4; A periodic CSI-RS/TRS reception occasion includes one or more CSI-RS resources … The transceiver is configured to receive an availability indication for one or more periodic CSI-RS/TRS reception occasions from the periodic CSI-RS reception occasions and the one or more periodic CSI-RS/TRS reception occasions in time before the PO).
Lin does not explicitly mention the adoption of a codepoint to indicate CIS-RS resource indication. However, Cirik discloses a system for transmission and reception management in wireless communications in which a codepoint for CSI request is implemented (Cirik, par. 373; A codepoint of a CSI request field in a DCI may indicate/be associated with an aperiodic trigger state of the one or more aperiodic trigger states) and further explicitly implements bit fields including M*N bits (Cirik, fig. 24, par. 500; A first length of the first field may comprise a first value (e.g., M*N bits)).
Therefore, a person of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filling date would have been motivated to combine Lin’s paging methods for CSI-RS in an idle state with Cirik’s methods for transmission and reception management to enhance UE power consumption when the device is in adle mode.
Regarding Claims 51, 56, 61 and 66, the combination of Lin and Cirik teaches the methods and apparatuses according to claims 50, 55, 60 and 65, wherein N is a number of paging occasions (POs) associated with the paging indication; wherein M is a number of PO groups within each of the Pos (Lin, par. 173; the MTC can be provided per UE group, where a UE group ID, n.sub.UE_group, is associated with a UE ID, I.sup.UE, which is used for determining paging occasion, such that I.sup.UE=5G-S-TMSI mod 1024. For example
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); wherein each of the N*M bits is associated with a respective PO group of the PG groups (Cirik, fig. 24, par. 500; A first length of the first field may comprise a first value (e.g., M*N bits)); and wherein for each of the N*M bits, a value of 1 indicates the associated PG group is paged, and a value of 0 indicates the associated PG group is not paged (Cirik, fig. 24, par. 500; The deactivated at least one antenna panel may comprise the second panel (e.g., Panel-2 2404) and the fourth panel (e.g., Panel-4 2408). M may be two (e.g., two panels set to a deactivated state), for example, based on the deactivated second panel and fourth panel. A first panel identifier (e.g., Panel ID_0) may be equal to the second panel-specific index of the second antenna panel … M may be a first number of the deactivated at least one antenna panel. N may be computed based on a second number of the one or more antenna panels, for example, N=log 2(the second number). The first field length may be 8 bits, for example, based on N=2 bits and the second number being the inverse log of 2).
Regarding Claims 53, 58, 63 and 68, the combination of Lin and Cirik teaches the methods and apparatuses according to claims 50, 55, 60 and 65, wherein each of the Q bits indicates whether a corresponding CSI-RS resource set is available, and wherein a bit of the Q bits having a value of 1 indicates that a CSI-RS resource set corresponding to the bit having the value of 1 is available (Cirik, fig. 24, par. 501; The activated at least one antenna panel may comprise the first panel (e.g., Panel-1 2402) and the third panel (e.g., Panel-3 2406). M may be two (e.g., two panels set to an activated state), for example, based on the activated first panel and third panel … A first length of the first field may comprise a first value (e.g., M*N bits). M may be a first number of the activated at least one antenna panel. N may be computed based on a second number of the one or more antenna panels (for example, N=log 2(the second number)). The first field length may be 8 bits, for example, based on N=2 bits and the second number being the inverse log of 2).
Regarding Claims 54, 59, 64 and 69, the combination of Lin and Cirik teaches the methods and apparatuses according to claims 50, 55, 60 and 65, wherein the CSI-RS is a tracking reference signal (TRS) (Lin, par. 4; The UE includes a transceiver configured to receive a first configuration for periodic CSI-RS/tracking reference signal (TRS) reception occasions for idle/inactive UEs) see also fig. 6 step 702.
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Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 52, 57, 62 and 67 are objected to as being dependent upon a rejected base claim, but would be allowable if rewritten in independent form including all of the limitations of the base claim and any intervening claims.
The following is a statement of reasons for the indication of allowable subject matter:
In combination, the prior art of record discloses the wireless paging methods of independent claims 50, 55, 60 and 65 referring to a method for transmitting a paging message comprising a CSI/RS resource indication, wherein the indication comprises a bit indication. However, the prior art of record failed to teach the specific arrangement where the predefined operation to the Q bits, wherein the predefined operation is a modulo operation and a kth set of the CSI resources is indicated by a qth bit of the Q bits, wherein q=1 + mod(k-1, Q) which differs from Lin’s
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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 nonprovisional extension fee (37 CFR 1.17(a)) 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 mailing date of this final action.
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to MARIO R CAMPERO MIRAMONTES whose telephone number is (571)272-5792. The examiner can normally be reached Monday -Thursday 0600 - 1600.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Yuwen (Kevin) Pan can be reached at (571) 272-7855. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/MARIO R CAMPERO MIRAMONTES/Examiner, Art Unit 2649 /YUWEN PAN/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2649
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