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 .
Priority
Acknowledgment is made of applicant's claim for foreign priority based on an application filed in China on 03/19/2021. It is noted, however, that applicant has not filed a certified copy of the CN202110296987.6 application as 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.
Claims 1-3, 11-12 and 21 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 102(a)(2) as being anticipated by Zhang et al (2023/0164715).
Regarding claim 1, Zhang discloses a device (see UE 103b (the NR-Light UE) in figures 1 and 7), comprising: a processor; and a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a program to be executed by the processor, which when executed causes the device the program including instructions to: receive first indication information from a network device (base station 101 in figure 1), wherein the first indication information indicates a relative location between a first resource and a second resource (see configuration information for a control resource set (CORESET), e.g., CORESET #0 and a search space (e.g., searchspace0) for initial accesses of UEs 103. CORESET #0 may indicate frequency resource(s) on which system information block1 (SIB1) information is transmitted in paragraph 0030; After determining the SS block frequency position, the UE may locate the SSB in the frequency domain based on the frequency position and a mapping rule between the SS block frequency position (e.g., SS.sub.REF) and a resource element (RE) of the SSB in paragraph 0033), the first resource is a resource carrying a synchronization signal block (see synchronization signal block in step 402 of figure 4), the synchronization signal block (SSB) comprises a first system message (see the MIB (master information block/essential system information) of the first SSB in paragraph 0054), the second resource is a resource carrying a second system message (see CORESET #0 may indicate frequency resource(s) on which system information block1 (SIB1) information is transmitted in paragraph 0030), and a bandwidth of the second resource is less than a bandwidth of the first resource (see Compared with a legacy UE, the NR-Light UE may have a smaller bandwidth to enable several Mbps to tens of Mbps downlink (DL) throughput in paragraph 0025); and receive the second system message (see SIB1 in paragraph 0030) from the network device on the second resource (see CORESET #0 in paragraph 0030), wherein a location of the second resource is determined based on the first indication information (see configuration information for a control resource set (CORESET), e.g., CORESET #0 and a search space (e.g., searchspace0) for initial accesses of UEs 103. CORESET #0 may indicate frequency resource(s) on which system information block1 (SIB1) information is transmitted in paragraph 0030).
Regarding claim 2, Zhang discloses receive a first part of the synchronization signal block (see master system information (MIB) of the first SSB in paragraph 0006); and determine based on the first part of the synchronization signal block, a time domain location for carrying the first indication information (see there may be a mapping relationship of position of a SSB for legacy UEs and a SSB for NR-light UEs in time domain in paragraph 0062; CORESET #0 may indicate frequency resource(s) on which system information block1 (SIB1) information is transmitted in paragraph 0030).
Regarding claim 3, Zhang discloses wherein the first indication information indicates a relative frequency domain location between the first resource and the second resource (see configuration information for a control resource set (CORESET), e.g., CORESET #0 and a search space (e.g., searchspace0) for initial accesses of UEs 103. CORESET #0 may indicate frequency resource(s) on which system information block1 (SIB1) information is transmitted in paragraph 0030; After determining the SS block frequency position, the UE may locate the SSB in the frequency domain based on the frequency position and a mapping rule between the SS block frequency position (e.g., SS.sub.REF) and a resource element (RE) of the SSB in paragraph 0033).
Regarding claims 11-12 and 21, claims 11-12 and 21 claimed a device and a method that is in communication with the device claimed in claims 1 and 3. Claims 11-12 and 21 are, therefore, subject to the same rejection.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 103
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 5-10, 14-17 and 19 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang in view of Shin et al (2023/0155799).
Regarding claim 5, Zhang doesn't specifically disclose in time domain, the second resource is a subset of the first resource. However, it is well known that the location of the second resource (resource for CORESET #0) is flexible and configurable within a bandwidth part and can be anywhere lasting 1, 2, or 3 OFDM symbols. Shin discloses this feature (see The CORESET #0s may be located in a slot including an earliest SSB in the time domain among the SSBs, and the CORESET #0s may be continuously located from symbol #0 in the slot in paragraph 0006). The claim would have been obvious because a person of ordinary skill has good reason to pursue the known options within his or her technical grasp. If this leads to the anticipated success, it is likely the product not of innovation but of ordinary skill and common sense.
Regarding claim 6, Shin discloses wherein the first indication information indicates a relative time domain location between the first resource (resource for SSB) and the second resource (resource for CORESET) (see The CORESET #0s may be located in a slot including an earliest SSB in the time domain among the SSBs in paragraph 0006).
Regarding claim 7, Shin discloses wherein in frequency domain, the second resource is a subset of the first resource (see The locations of time-domain resources of CORESET #0 in Proposed Method 5-2-1 may be equally applied not only when TDM is performed between the SSB and CORESET #0 as in pattern 1 but also when FDM is performed between the SSB and CORESET #0 in paragraph 0435. Note that an SSB covers a bandwidth of 20 physical resource blocks (PRBs) while an CORESET #0 can be 6 PRB long).
Regarding claim 8, Zhang discloses wherein in frequency domain, the bandwidth of the second resource (a CORESET frequency length is configured in multiple of 6 PRBs, ranging from a minimum of 6 to a maximum defined by the bandwidth part, for example BW2 of figure 2) is greater than or equal to a bandwidth of a third resource, wherein the third resource carries a primary synchronization signal or a secondary synchronization signal in the synchronization signal block (see figure 2 where PSS 21 and SSS 22 is shorter than BW2).
Regarding claim 9, Shin discloses wherein the time domain location for carrying the first indication information is located after a time domain location of the first resource (see The CORESET #0s may be located in a slot including an earliest SSB in the time domain among the SSBs in paragraph 0006. Note that by this teaching, the CORESET #0 can be located after the earliest SSB and before the other SSBs).
Regarding claim 10, Zhang discloses wherein the first indication information and the synchronization signal block are located in a same slot (see The CORESET #0s may be located in a slot including an earliest SSB in the time domain in paragraph 0006).
Regarding claims 14-17 and 19, claims 14-17 and 19 claimed a device that is in communication with the device claimed in claims 5-8 and 10. Claims 14-17 and 19 are, therefore, subject to the same rejection.
Claim 20 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Zhang in view of Shibaike et al (2024/0049195).
Regarding claim 20, Zhang doesn't specifically disclose a transmit beam of the first indication information is the same as a transmit beam of the synchronization signal block. However, Shibaike discloses this feature (See the same beam as a beam applied to SSB may be applied to CORESET #0 that is arranged from symbol #0 to symbol #2 in paragraph 0071). The claim would have been obvious because a person of ordinary skill has good reason to pursue the known options within his or her technical grasp. If this leads to the anticipated success, it is likely the product not of innovation but of ordinary skill and common sense.
Allowable Subject Matter
Claims 4 and 13 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.
Conclusion
Any inquiry concerning this communication or earlier communications from the examiner should be directed to BRIAN D NGUYEN whose telephone number is (571)272-3084. The examiner can normally be reached Monday-Friday 8:00 - 4:30.
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/BRIAN D NGUYEN/Primary Examiner, Art Unit 2475