DETAILED ACTION
Notice of Pre-AIA or AIA Status
1. The present application, filed on or after March 16, 2013, is being examined under the first inventor to file provisions of the AIA .
Status of Claims
2. Claims 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11 are pending wherein claims 1, 5, and 9 are in independent form.
3. Claims 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11 have been amended.
4. Claims 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12 have been cancelled.
Response to Arguments
5. Applicant's arguments filed on 04/16/2026 have been fully considered but they are not persuasive. The reasons set forth below.
6. On page 11 of the remarks, applicant argues, “Tsuboi, paras. [0186] and [0195], elements (D-1-5) and (D-2-5). Tsuboi only describes indiscriminately clearing all PUSCH resources and completely fails to teach or suggest selectively clearing the physical uplink shared channel resource "corresponding to the activated TCI state," as recited by claim 1.”
In response, examiner respectfully disagrees because:
Claim recites to clear PUSCH resource for reporting semi-persistent CSI, claim does not recite to clear PUSCH resource for one occasion of semi-persistent CSI reporting (applicant’s argument of selective clearing) and maintaining PUSCH resource for other occasions of semi-persistent CSI reporting. Tsuboi teaches to clear PUSCH resource for semi-persistent CSI reporting corresponding an activated TCI/sTAG when the second time alignment timer is expired.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
7. 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.
8. Claims 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Dinan (US 20220279453, hereinafter referred to as Dinan) in view of Park et al (US 20200351730, hereinafter referred to as Park) and further in view of Tsuboi et al (US 20230413333, hereinafter referred to as Tsuboi) and Awoniyi-Oteri et al (US 20230224129, hereinafter referred to as Awoniyi-Oteri).
Re claim 1, Dinan teaches a communication apparatus (Wireless device, 406, Fig. 4) comprising:
(i) a receiver (Transceiver, communication interface 407, Fig. 4, Par 0034) configured to receive, using a radio resource control (RRC) signaling (RRC message configuring timing advance group, TAG, Par 0050-0051, Par 0057), from a base station (eNB), configuration information including information for configuring each of an identifier of a first timing advance group (Primary TAG, PTAG configuration, Fig. 7, Par 0041, Par 0043, Par 0050-0051, Par 0057) and an identifier of a second timing advance group as a configuration (Secondary TAG, STAG configuration , Fig. 7, Par 0041, Par 0043, Par 0050-0051, Par 0057), the configuration information being used for configuring the communication apparatus with a serving cell (primary cell corresponding to PTAG) having a physical cell identifier (each cell is associated with a cell ID, Par 0038, Par 0051), and
(ii) receive, from the base station, a random access response in random access procedure (random access response including timing advance command, Par 0047-0048, Par 0063, Par 0080, Par 0085, Par 0208); and
(iii) a controller (Processor, 408, Fig. 4, Par 0034) configured to control a first time alignment timer corresponding to the first timing advance group (time alignment timer for the pTAG, TAG0) based on a timing advance command corresponding to the first timing advance group (controlling/starting/restarting time alignment timer corresponding to the pTAG based on the reception of timing advance command for the pTAG, Par 0059-0061, Par 0089, Par 0206-0207), the timing advance command corresponding to the first timing advance group being included in the random access response (random access response including timing advance command for the timing advance group (TAG)/cell group index such as pTAG, Par 0059 , Par 0063, Par 0080, Par 0206- 0208),
(iv) control a second time alignment timer corresponding to the second timing advance group (time alignment timer for the secondary cell group, sTAG) based on a timing advance command corresponding to the second timing advance group (controlling/starting/restarting time alignment timer corresponding to the sTAG based on the reception of timing advance command for the sTAG, Par 0059-0061, Par 0085, Par 0089, Par 0206-0207), the timing advance command corresponding to the second timing advance group being included in the random access response (random access response including timing advance command for the timing advance group (TAG)/cell group index such as sTAG, Par 0059 , Par 0063, Par 0080, Par 0085, Par 0206- 0208),
(v) control a timing of a first uplink transmission based on the timing advance command corresponding to the first timing advance group (adjusting uplink transmission timing for a timing advance group such as pTAG based on the time adjustment value, NTA included in the timing advance command, Par 0059, Par 0062-0063, Par 0065, Par 0080, Par 0206-0208, Par 0222-0223) and a first offset (NTA offset, Par 0065 Par 0206, Par 0208, Par 0210) for adjusting the timing of the first uplink transmission corresponding to the serving cell (adjusting uplink transmission timing of the cell/primary cell corresponding to the pTAG, Par 0059, Par 0062-0063, Par 0065, Par 0080, Par 0206-0208, Par 0222-0223), and
(vi) control a timing of a second uplink transmission based on the timing advance command corresponding to the second timing advance group (adjusting uplink transmission timing for a timing advance group such as sTAG based on the time adjustment value, NTA included in the timing advance command, Par 0059, Par 0062-0063, Par 0065, Par 0071, Par 0080, Par 0206-0208, Par 0222-0223) and a second offset (NTA offset, Par 0065 Par 0206, Par 0208, Par 0210) for adjusting the timing of the second uplink transmission corresponding to a cell having a physical cell identifier (secondary cell corresponding to sTAG) different from the physical cell identifier of the serving cell (pcell/primary cell of the pTAG) (adjusting uplink transmission timing of the secondary cell corresponding to the sTAG, Fig. 7, Par 0038, Par 0059, Par 0062-0063, Par 0065, Par 0071, Par 0080, Par 0085, Par 0206-0208, Par 0222);
(vii) maintain an alignment value of the timing of the second uplink transmission on the second timing advance group (storing timing advance value (NTA) of the secondary cell group (sTAG) when the time alignment timer of the secondary cell group (sTAG) is expired, Par 0085, Par 0089, Par 0206).
Dinan does not explicitly disclose to
(viii) receive, using a medium access control (MAC) signaling, from the base station, information for activating a transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state corresponding to the identifier of the second timing advance group, and
(ix) clear a physical uplink shared channel resource for reporting semi-persistent channel state information corresponding to the activated TCI state in a case where the second time alignment timer expires.
Re component (viii), Park teaches to
(viii) receive,
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Dinan by including the feature to (viii) receive, from the base station, information for activating a transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state corresponding to the identifier of the second timing advance group, as taught by Park for the purpose of improving cell access to enhance communication reliability and decrease service latency, as taught by Park (Par 0304).
Dinan in view of Park discloses to receive information for activating a TCI state, but does not disclose to receive the information for activating a TCI state using a medium access control (MAC) signaling.
Awoniyi-Oteri teaches to receive the information for activating a TCI state using a medium access control (MAC) signaling (Fig. 10, Par 0103).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Dinan by including the feature to receive the information for activating a TCI state using a medium access control (MAC) signaling, as taught by Awoniyi-Oteri for the purpose of optimizing measurement reporting by reducing reporting latency, as taught by Awoniyi-Oteri (Par 0038).
Re component (ix), Tsuboi teaches to
(ix) clear a physical uplink shared channel resource for reporting semi-persistent channel state information (clear PUSCH resources for semi persistent CSI report, Par 0195) corresponding to the activated TCI state (corresponding to sTAG) in a case where the second time alignment timer expires (time alignment timer with the sTAG is expired) (Par 0190-0196).
Park discloses to map sTAG with a corresponding TCI state. Therefore, Dinan in view of Park discloses to associate sTAG with a corresponding TCI state. When PUSCH resources for semi persistent CSI report is associated with sTAG (cleared for the cells belonging to sTAG, reference, Tsuboi, Par 0195), then the PUSCH resources for semi persistent CSI report are also associated with the TCI state specified for the sTAG. Therefore, Dinan in view of Park and Tsuboi discloses to clear a physical uplink shared channel resource for reporting semi-persistent channel state information corresponding to the activated TCI state (TCI state corresponding to sTAG) in a case where the second time alignment timer expires (time alignment timer with the sTAG is expired).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Dinan by including the feature to (ix) clear a physical uplink shared channel resource for reporting semi-persistent channel state information corresponding to the activated TCI state (corresponding to sTAG) in a case where the second time alignment timer expires, as taught by Tsuboi for the purpose of implementing “efficient communication control processing”, as taught by Tsuboi (Par 0022).
Claim 9 recites a method performing the functions recited in claim 1 and thereby, is rejected for the reasons discussed above with respect to claim 1.
Re claims 3, 7, 11, Dinan teaches to maintain the alignment value of the timing of the second uplink transmission on the second timing advance group in a case where the second time alignment timer corresponding to the second timing advance group expires (storing timing advance value (NTA) of the secondary cell group (sTAG) when the time alignment timer of the secondary cell group (sTAG) is expired, Par 0085, Par 0089, Par 0206).
Re claim 5, Dinan teaches a base station (eNB/base station, 401, Fig. 4) comprising:
(i) a transmitter (Transceiver, communication interface 402, Fig. 4, Par 0034) is configured to transmit, using a radio resource control (RRC) signaling (RRC message configuring timing advance group, TAG, Par 0050-0051, Par 0057), to a communication apparatus (Wireless device, 406, Fig. 4), configuration information including information for configuring each of an identifier of a first timing advance group (Primary TAG, PTAG configuration, Fig. 7, Par 0041, Par 0043, Par 0050-0051, Par 0057) and an identifier of a second timing advance group (Secondary TAG, STAG configuration , Fig. 7, Par 0041, Par 0043, Par 0050-0051, Par 0057), the configuration information being used for configuring the communication apparatus with a serving cell (primary cell corresponding to PTAG) having a physical cell identifier (each cell is associated with a cell ID, Par 0038, Par 0051), and
(ii) transmit, to the communication apparatus, a random access response in a random access procedure (random access response including timing advance command, Par 0047-0048, Par 0063, Par 0080, Par 0085, Par 0208); and
(iii) a controller (Processor, 403, Fig. 4, Par 0034) configured to control a first time alignment timer corresponding to the first timing advance group (time alignment timer for the pTAG, TAG0) based on a timing advance command corresponding to the first timing advance group (controlling/starting/restarting time alignment timer corresponding to the pTAG based on the reception of timing advance command for the pTAG, Par 0059-0061, Par 0089, Par 0206-0207), the timing advance command corresponding to the first timing advance group being included in the random access response (random access response including timing advance command for the timing advance group (TAG)/cell group index such as pTAG, Par 0059 , Par 0063, Par 0080, Par 0206- 0208), and
(iv) control a second time alignment timer corresponding to the second timing advance group (time alignment timer for the secondary cell group, sTAG) based on a timing advance command corresponding to the second timing advance group (controlling/starting/restarting time alignment timer corresponding to the sTAG based on the reception of timing advance command for the sTAG, Par 0059-0061, Par 0085, Par 0089, Par 0206-0207), the timing advance command corresponding to the second timing advance group being included in the random access response (random access response including timing advance command for the timing advance group (TAG)/cell group index such as sTAG, Par 0059 , Par 0063, Par 0080, Par 0085, Par 0206- 0208),
(v) wherein a timing of a first uplink transmission is controlled based on the timing advance command corresponding to the first timing advance group (adjusting uplink transmission timing for a timing advance group such as pTAG based on the time adjustment value, NTA included in the timing advance command, Par 0059, Par 0062-0063, Par 0065, Par 0080, Par 0206-0208, Par 0222-0223) and a first offset (NTA offset, Par 0065 Par 0206, Par 0208, Par 0210) for adjusting the timing of the first uplink transmission corresponding to the serving cell (adjusting uplink transmission timing of the cell/primary cell corresponding to the pTAG, Par 0059, Par 0062-0063, Par 0065, Par 0080, Par 0206-0208, Par 0222-0223), and
(vi) a timing of a second uplink transmission is controlled based on the timing advance command corresponding to the second timing advance group (adjusting uplink transmission timing for a timing advance group such as sTAG based on the time adjustment value, NTA included in the timing advance command, Par 0059, Par 0062-0063, Par 0065, Par 0071, Par 0080, Par 0206-0208, Par 0222-0223) and a second offset (NTA offset, Par 0065 Par 0206, Par 0208, Par 0210) for adjusting the timing of the second uplink transmission corresponding to a cell having a physical cell identifier (secondary cell corresponding to sTAG) different from the physical cell identifier of the serving cell (pcell/primary cell of the pTAG) (adjusting uplink transmission timing of the secondary cell corresponding to the sTAG, Fig. 7, Par 0038, Par 0059, Par 0062-0063, Par 0065, Par 0071, Par 0080, Par 0085, Par 0206-0208, Par 0222),
(vii) the alignment value of the timing of the second uplink transmission on the second timing advance group is maintained (storing timing advance value (NTA) of the secondary cell group (sTAG) when the time alignment timer of the secondary cell group (sTAG) is expired, Par 0085, Par 0089, Par 0206).
Dinan does not explicitly disclose to
(viii) transmit, using a medium access control (MAC) signaling, to the communication apparatus, information for activating a transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state corresponding to the identifier of the second timing advance group,, and
(ix) in the communication apparatus, a physical uplink shared channel resource is cleared for reporting semi-persistent channel state information corresponding to the activated TCI state in a case where the second time alignment timer expires.
Re component (viii), Park teaches to
(viii) transmit,
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Dinan by including the feature to (viii) transmit, to the communication apparatus, information for activating a transmission configuration indicator (TCI) state corresponding to the identifier of the second timing advance group, as taught by Park for the purpose of improving cell access to enhance communication reliability and decrease service latency, as taught by Park (Par 0304).
Dinan in view of Park discloses to receive information for activating a TCI state, but does not disclose to receive the information for activating a TCI state using a medium access control (MAC) signaling.
Awoniyi-Oteri teaches to receive the information for activating a TCI state using a medium access control (MAC) signaling (Fig. 10, Par 0103).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Dinan by including the feature to receive the information for activating a TCI state using a medium access control (MAC) signaling, as taught by Awoniyi-Oteri for the purpose of optimizing measurement reporting by reducing reporting latency, as taught by Awoniyi-Oteri (Par 0038).
Re component (ix), Tsuboi teaches to
(ix) in the communication apparatus, a physical uplink shared channel resource is cleared for reporting semi-persistent channel state information (clear PUSCH resources for semi persistent CSI report, Par 0195) corresponding to the activated TCI state (corresponding to sTAG) in a case where the second time alignment timer expires (time alignment timer with the sTAG is expired) (Par 0190-0196).
Park discloses to map sTAG with a corresponding TCI state. Therefore, Dinan in view of Park discloses to associate sTAG with a corresponding TCI state. When PUSCH resources for semi persistent CSI report is associated with sTAG (cleared for the cells belonging to sTAG, reference, Tsuboi, Par 0195), then the PUSCH resources for semi persistent CSI report are also associated with the TCI state specified for the sTAG. Therefore, Dinan in view of Park and Tsuboi discloses to clear a physical uplink shared channel resource for reporting semi-persistent channel state information corresponding to the activated TCI state (TCI state corresponding to sTAG) in a case where the second time alignment timer expires (time alignment timer with the sTAG is expired).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify Dinan by including the feature that (ix) in the communication apparatus, a physical uplink shared channel resource is cleared for reporting semi-persistent channel state information corresponding to the activated TCI state in a case where the second time alignment timer expires, as taught by Tsuboi for the purpose of implementing “efficient communication control processing”, as taught by Tsuboi (Par 0022).
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 HARUN UR R CHOWDHURY whose telephone number is (571)270-3895. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 9AM-5PM.
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If attempts to reach the examiner by telephone are unsuccessful, the examiner’s supervisor, Kwang B Yao can be reached at 5712723182. The fax phone number for the organization where this application or proceeding is assigned is 571-273-8300.
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/HARUN CHOWDHURY/ Examiner, Art Unit 2473
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