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 .
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 102
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 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.
Claims 1, 12 and 20 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Seok et al. (U.S. PGPub 2025/0294538), hereinafter referred to as Seok
Regarding claim 1, Seok discloses an apparatus for wireless communication at a user equipment (UE) (See Fig. 11, #100), comprising:
one or more memories (memory; See Fig. 11, #130); and
one or more processors (processor; See Fig. 11, #110), coupled to the one or more memories, configured to cause the UE to:
receive a physical random access channel (PRACH) configuration for a random access procedure in subband full duplex (SBFD) symbols (When the UE receives a DCI format, RAR UL grant, fallbackRAR UL grant, or successRAR, which indicates transmission of PUSCH, PUCCH, PRACH, or SRS, in a symbol set of a slot that is configured as semi-statically configured SBFD downlink symbols or SBFD flexible symbols, the UE may transmit the PUSCH, the PUCCH, the PRACH, or the SRS in the symbol set of the slot; See[0346]); and
transmit signaling in accordance with the random access procedure based at least in part on the PRACH configuration (the UE may transmit the PUSCH, the PUCCH, the PRACH, or the SRS in the symbol set of the slot. When the UE is configured by a higher layer to transmit SRS, PUCCH, PUSCH, or PRACH in some symbols within a downlink subband of a slot, among a symbol set in the slot including semi-statically configured SBFD downlink symbols or SBFD flexible symbols, the UE may not transmit the SRS, the PUCCH, PUSCH, or the PRACH on some symbols within the downlink subband of the slot; See[0346] and [0349]).
Regarding claim 12, Seok discloses an apparatus for wireless communication at a network node (See Fig. 11, #200), comprising:
one or more memories (See Fig. 11, #230); and
one or more processors (See Fig. 11, #210), coupled to the one or more memories, configured to cause the network node to:
transmit a physical random access channel (PRACH) configuration for a random access procedure in subband full duplex (SBFD) symbols (When the UE receives a DCI format, RAR UL grant, fallbackRAR UL grant, or successRAR, which indicates transmission of PUSCH, PUCCH, PRACH, or SRS, in a symbol set of a slot that is configured as semi-statically configured SBFD downlink symbols or SBFD flexible symbols, the UE may transmit the PUSCH, the PUCCH, the PRACH, or the SRS in the symbol set of the slot; See[0346]); and
receive signaling in accordance with the random access procedure based at least in part on the PRACH configuration (the UE may transmit the PUSCH, the PUCCH, the PRACH, or the SRS in the symbol set of the slot. When the UE is configured by a higher layer to transmit SRS, PUCCH, PUSCH, or PRACH in some symbols within a downlink subband of a slot, among a symbol set in the slot including semi-statically configured SBFD downlink symbols or SBFD flexible symbols, the UE may not transmit the SRS, the PUCCH, PUSCH, or the PRACH on some symbols within the downlink subband of the slot; See[0346] and [0349]).
Regarding claim 20, Seok discloses a method of wireless communication performed by a user equipment (UE) (See Fig. 11, #100), comprising:
receiving a physical random access channel (PRACH) configuration for a random access procedure in subband full duplex (SBFD) symbols (When the UE receives a DCI format, RAR UL grant, fallbackRAR UL grant, or successRAR, which indicates transmission of PUSCH, PUCCH, PRACH, or SRS, in a symbol set of a slot that is configured as semi-statically configured SBFD downlink symbols or SBFD flexible symbols, the UE may transmit the PUSCH, the PUCCH, the PRACH, or the SRS in the symbol set of the slot; See[0346]); and
transmitting signaling in accordance with the random access procedure based at least in part on the PRACH configuration (the UE may transmit the PUSCH, the PUCCH, the PRACH, or the SRS in the symbol set of the slot. When the UE is configured by a higher layer to transmit SRS, PUCCH, PUSCH, or PRACH in some symbols within a downlink subband of a slot, among a symbol set in the slot including semi-statically configured SBFD downlink symbols or SBFD flexible symbols, the UE may not transmit the SRS, the PUCCH, PUSCH, or the PRACH on some symbols within the downlink subband of the slot; See[0346] and [0349]3uk34).
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.
Claims 2 and 13 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Seok as applied to claims 1 and 12 above, and further in view of Sui et al. (U.S. PGPub 2023/0072551), hereinafter referred to as Sui.
Regarding claim 2, Seok fails to teach the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to cause the UE to: transmit capability signaling indicating that the UE is an SBFD-aware UE, wherein the PRACH configuration is received based at least in part on the capability signaling.
Sui teaches the concept of transmitting capability information and receiving a configuration based on the capability signaling (receiving at least one capability from the wireless device and selecting the configuration from the one or more configurations; See Fig. 10, #1020-#1030 and [0241]-[0262]).
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time before the effective filing date of the invention, to modify the apparatus of Seok to include wherein the one or more processors are further configured to cause the UE to: transmit capability signaling indicating that the UE is an SBFD-aware UE, wherein the PRACH configuration is received based at least in part on the capability signaling taught by Sui in order to optimize communication.
Regarding claim 13, Seok fails to teach the apparatus of claim 12, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to cause the network node to: receive capability signaling indicating that a user equipment (UE) is an SBFD-aware UE, wherein the PRACH configuration is transmitted based at least in part on the capability signaling.
Sui teaches the concept of transmitting capability information and receiving a configuration based on the capability signaling (receiving at least one capability from the wireless device and selecting the configuration from the one or more configurations; See Fig. 10, #1020-#1030 and [0241]-[0262]).
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time before the effective filing date of the invention, to modify the apparatus of Seok to include wherein the one or more processors are further configured to cause the UE to: transmit capability signaling indicating that the UE is an SBFD-aware UE, wherein the PRACH configuration is received based at least in part on the capability signaling taught by Sui in order to optimize communication.
Claims 4-5 and 15-16 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Seok as applied to claims 1 and 12 above, and further in view of Xiong et al. (U.S. PGPub 2023/0254829), hereinafter referred to as Xiong.
Regarding claim 4, Seok fails to teach the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the PRACH configuration is a separate cell-specific PRACH configuration that is dedicated for SBFD-aware UEs and separate from a legacy cell-specific PRACH configuration, and the separate PRACH configuration is based at least in part on: a separate cell-common PRACH configuration as compared to a legacy cell-common PRACH configuration, a single cell-common PRACH configuration having a modified structure to support more than one value for one or more parameters, and the single cell-common PRACH configuration includes more than one generic PRACH configuration parameter, or a single cell-common PRACH configuration with an independent synchronization signal block (SSB)-to-PRACH-occasion (RO) mapping for ROs that fall within SBFD slots, wherein power control parameters for a PRACH in SBFD symbols override power control parameters in the legacy PRACH configuration.
Xiong teaches wherein the PRACH configuration is a separate cell-specific PRACH configuration that is dedicated for SBFD-aware UEs and separate from a legacy cell-specific PRACH configuration (separate PRACH parameters including power control parameters, association between SSB and PRACH occasions, number of FDM-ed RACH occasions, etc., may be configured for the PRACH occasions overlapping with one or more SBFD symbols, which can be different from that for the configuration for PRACH occasions within non-SBFD symbols. In case when the PRACH parameters are not configured for the PRACH occasions overlapping with one or more SBFD symbols, the default parameters can be determined based on the configuration for PRACH occasions within non-SBFD symbols; See [0114]), and a single cell-common PRACH configuration with an independent synchronization signal block (SSB)-to-PRACH-occasion (RO) mapping for ROs that fall within SBFD slots (separate PRACH parameters including power control parameters, association between SSB and PRACH occasions, number of FDM-ed RACH occasions, etc., may be configured for the PRACH occasions overlapping with one or more SBFD symbols, which can be different from that for the configuration for PRACH occasions within non-SBFD symbols. In case when the PRACH parameters are not configured for the PRACH occasions overlapping with one or more SBFD symbols, the default parameters can be determined based on the configuration for PRACH occasions within non-SBFD symbols; See [0114]), wherein power control parameters for a PRACH in SBFD symbols override power control parameters in the legacy PRACH configuration (separate PRACH parameters including power control parameters may be configured for the PRACH occasions overlapping with one or more SBFD symbols, which can be different from that for the configuration for PRACH occasions within non-SBFD symbols; See [0114]).
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time before the effective filing date of the invention, to modify the apparatus of Seok to include wherein the PRACH configuration is a separate cell-specific PRACH configuration that is dedicated for SBFD-aware UEs and separate from a legacy cell-specific PRACH configuration, and a single cell-common PRACH configuration with an independent synchronization signal block (SSB)-to-PRACH-occasion (RO) mapping for ROs that fall within SBFD slots taught by Xiong in order to accurately determine resource allocation.
Regarding claim 5, Seok fails to teach the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to cause the UE to: receive the PRACH configuration via radio resource control (RRC) signaling or via a system information block (SIB).
Xiong teaches wherein the one or more processors are further configured to cause the UE to: receive the PRACH configuration via radio resource control (RRC) signaling or via a system information block (SIB) (both PRACH occasions which overlap with one or more SBFD symbols and do not overlap with SBFD symbols may be configured via RMSI or SIB1 or via dedicated RRC signaling for a UE that supports SBFD operations; See [0113]).
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time before the effective filing date of the invention, to modify the apparatus of Seok to include wherein the one or more processors are further configured to cause the UE to: receive the PRACH configuration via radio resource control (RRC) signaling or via a system information block (SIB) taught by Xiong in order to accurately determine resource allocation.
Regarding claim 15, Seok fails to teach the apparatus of claim 12, wherein the PRACH configuration is a separate cell-specific PRACH configuration that is dedicated for SBFD-aware user equipments (UEs) and separate from a legacy cell-specific PRACH configuration, and the separate PRACH configuration is based at least in part on: a separate cell-common PRACH configuration as compared to a legacy cell-common PRACH configuration, a single cell-common PRACH configuration having a modified structure to support more than one value for one or more parameters, and the single cell-common PRACH configuration includes more than one generic PRACH configuration parameter, or a single cell-common PRACH configuration with an independent synchronization signal block (SSB)-to-PRACH-occasion (RO) mapping for ROs that fall within SBFD slots, wherein power control parameters for a PRACH in SBFD symbols override power control parameters in the legacy PRACH configuration.
Xiong teaches wherein the PRACH configuration is a separate cell-specific PRACH configuration that is dedicated for SBFD-aware UEs and separate from a legacy cell-specific PRACH configuration (separate PRACH parameters including power control parameters, association between SSB and PRACH occasions, number of FDM-ed RACH occasions, etc., may be configured for the PRACH occasions overlapping with one or more SBFD symbols, which can be different from that for the configuration for PRACH occasions within non-SBFD symbols. In case when the PRACH parameters are not configured for the PRACH occasions overlapping with one or more SBFD symbols, the default parameters can be determined based on the configuration for PRACH occasions within non-SBFD symbols; See [0114]), and a single cell-common PRACH configuration with an independent synchronization signal block (SSB)-to-PRACH-occasion (RO) mapping for ROs that fall within SBFD slots (separate PRACH parameters including power control parameters, association between SSB and PRACH occasions, number of FDM-ed RACH occasions, etc., may be configured for the PRACH occasions overlapping with one or more SBFD symbols, which can be different from that for the configuration for PRACH occasions within non-SBFD symbols. In case when the PRACH parameters are not configured for the PRACH occasions overlapping with one or more SBFD symbols, the default parameters can be determined based on the configuration for PRACH occasions within non-SBFD symbols; See [0114]), wherein power control parameters for a PRACH in SBFD symbols override power control parameters in the legacy PRACH configuration (separate PRACH parameters including power control parameters may be configured for the PRACH occasions overlapping with one or more SBFD symbols, which can be different from that for the configuration for PRACH occasions within non-SBFD symbols; See [0114]).
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time before the effective filing date of the invention, to modify the apparatus of Seok to include wherein the PRACH configuration is a separate cell-specific PRACH configuration that is dedicated for SBFD-aware UEs and separate from a legacy cell-specific PRACH configuration, and a single cell-common PRACH configuration with an independent synchronization signal block (SSB)-to-PRACH-occasion (RO) mapping for ROs that fall within SBFD slots taught by Xiong in order to accurately determine resource allocation.
Regarding claim 16, Seok fails to teach the apparatus of claim 12, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to cause the network node to: transmit the PRACH configuration via radio resource control (RRC) signaling or via a system information block (SIB).
Xiong teaches wherein the one or more processors are further configured to cause the UE to: receive the PRACH configuration via radio resource control (RRC) signaling or via a system information block (SIB) (both PRACH occasions which overlap with one or more SBFD symbols and do not overlap with SBFD symbols may be configured via RMSI or SIB1 or via dedicated RRC signaling for a UE that supports SBFD operations; See [0113]).
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time before the effective filing date of the invention, to modify the apparatus of Seok to include wherein the one or more processors are further configured to cause the network node to: transmit the PRACH configuration via radio resource control (RRC) signaling or via a system information block (SIB) taught by Xiong in order to accurately determine resource allocation.
Claim 8 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Seok as applied to claims 1 and 12 above, and further in view of Choi et al. (U.S. PGPub 2025/0301505), hereinafter referred to as Choi.
Regarding claim 8, Seok fails to teach the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to cause the UE to: identify legacy random access channel (RACH) occasions (ROs) that overlap in time with SBFD ROs, wherein the legacy ROs are associated with a time domain pattern of a legacy UE and the SBFD ROs are associated with a time domain pattern of an SBFD-aware UE, and the legacy ROs or the SBFD ROs are considered valid occasion based at least in part on the overlap.
Choi teaches wherein the one or more processors are further configured to cause the UE to: identify legacy random access channel (RACH) occasions (ROs) that overlap in time with SBFD ROs, wherein the legacy ROs are associated with a time domain pattern of a legacy UE and the SBFD ROs are associated with a time domain pattern of an SBFD-aware UE, and the legacy ROs or the SBFD ROs are considered valid occasion based at least in part on the overlap (the UE may be configured with the time-frequency domain of the SBFD uplink resources, and according to the first and second methods (there is no difference between the first and second methods since SS/PBCH is not shown in FIG. 13), the UE may determine that RACH occasions overlapping with the SBFD uplink resources are valid. That is, because RACH occasions 1331 of the first and second slots in the TDD period may be valid because they are included in the SBFD uplink resources. However, RACH occasions 1332 of the third and fourth slots may not be valid because they are not included in the SBFD uplink resources; See [0297]).
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time before the effective filing date of the invention, to modify the apparatus of Seok to include wherein the one or more processors are further configured to cause the UE to: identify legacy random access channel (RACH) occasions (ROs) that overlap in time with SBFD ROs, wherein the legacy ROs are associated with a time domain pattern of a legacy UE and the SBFD ROs are associated with a time domain pattern of an SBFD-aware UE, and the legacy ROs or the SBFD ROs are considered valid occasion based at least in part on the overlap taught by Choi in order to minimize interference.
Claim 10 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Seok as applied to claims 1 above, and further in view of Kurita et al. (Int. Pub. No. WO 2024/038607 A1).
Regarding claim 10, Seok fails to teach the apparatus of claim 1, wherein SBFD random access channel (RACH) occasions (ROs) or SBFD slots converted from flexible slots are invalid.
Kurita teaches wherein SBFD random access channel (RACH) occasions (ROs) or SBFD slots converted from flexible slots are invalid (SBFD semi-static (and/or dynamic) UL and/or flexible slots／ The RO overlapping the symbol is regarded as the invalid RO; See [0079]).
Therefore it would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art at the time before the effective filing date of the invention, to modify the apparatus of Seok to include wherein SBFD random access channel (RACH) occasions (ROs) or SBFD slots converted from flexible slots are invalid taught by Kurita in order to optimize resource utilization.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 3, 6-7, 9, 11, 14, 17-18 and 19 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:
Claim 3 appears to be novel and inventive because prior art fails to show or teach the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the PRACH configuration is an SBFD-specific PRACH configuration, and the SBFD-specific PRACH configuration is based at least in part on: a time division duplexing (TDD) frequency range ½ (FR1/2) random access table that includes one or more PRACH configurations to allow one or more subframe configurations specific in SBFD symbols, a random access table for SBFD that is separate from the TDD FR1/2 random access table and a frequency division duplexing (FDD) FR1/2 random access table, or the FDD FR1/2 random access table.
Claims 6-7 appear to be novel and inventive because prior art fails to show or teach the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the PRACH configuration is an SBFD-dedicated PRACH configuration for SBFD operation in a time division duplexing (TDD) band, random access channel (RACH) occasions (ROs) within SBFD downlink symbols or SBFD flexible symbols are valid, and ROs within uplink slots are not valid.
Claim 9 appears to be novel and inventive because prior art fails to show or teach the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to cause the UE to: identify legacy random access channel (RACH) occasions (ROs) that overlap in time and not frequency with SBFD ROs, wherein the legacy ROs are associated with a time domain pattern of a legacy UE and the SBFD ROs are associated with a time domain pattern of an SBFD-aware UE, and both legacy ROs and SBFD ROs are considered valid RACH occasions; and refrain from dropping the legacy ROs and the SBFD ROs based at least in part on the overlap, drop the legacy ROs or the SBFD ROs based at least in part on the overlap, or apply a frequency offset to the SBFD ROs.
Claim 11 appears to be novel and inventive because prior art fails to show or teach the apparatus of claim 1, wherein the one or more processors are further configured to cause the UE to: receive a single PRACH configuration compromising a set of random access channel (RACH) occasions (ROs) in both SBFD and non-SBFD symbols, wherein the single PRACH configuration indicates one or more of: a beam failure recovery (BFR) RACH configuration, a system information request RACH configuration, or a UE dedicated PRACH configuration; or receive a first PRACH configuration comprising a set of RACH occasions in TDD symbols for the legacy random-access operation and a second PRACH configuration comprising a set of ROs in SBFD symbols for the SBFD random access operation, wherein each of the first PRACH configuration and the second PRACH configuration indicate one or more of: a common RACH configuration, a BFR RACH configuration, a system information RACH configuration, or a dedicated RACH configuration.
Claim 14 appears to be novel and inventive for reasons similar to claim 3 above.
Claims 17-18 appear to be novel and inventive for reasons similar to claim 6 above.
Claim 19 appears to be novel and inventive for reasons similar to claim 11 above.
Conclusion
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/ASHLEY SHIVERS/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2477 2/7/2026