DETAILED ACTION
This communication is in response to applicant’s response filed under 37 C.F.R. §1.111 in response to a non-final office action. Claims 1-8 and 18 have been amended; Claims 9-17 and 19-20 have been cancelled. Claims 1-8 and 18 are subject to examination.
Acknowledgement is made to the Applicant’s amendment to claims 1 and 18 to obviate the previous 101 rejection to claims 1 and 18. The previous 101 rejection to claims 1 and 18 is hereby withdrawn.
The Examiner does note, however, that the limitation “determining whether” is still present in claim 18, despite the removal of the “whether” limitation from claim 1. For the sake of consistency, it is recommended that the word “whether” be removed from claim 18 as well.
Response to Arguments
Applicant’s arguments with respect to claims 1 and 18 have been considered but are moot because the new ground of rejection does not rely on any reference applied in the prior rejection of record for any teaching or matter specifically challenged in the argument.
Specification
The disclosure is objected to because of the following informalities: in paragraphs [0084]-[0086], the specification refers to “a channel bandwidth (CBW) 410 and a bandwidth part (BWP) 420.” However, Fig. 4 shows a “BWP 410” and a “CBW 420”, seemingly indicating that the reference numbers in the specification have been reversed. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Objections
Claim 18 is objected to because of the following informalities: in the second to last paragraph, claim 18 recites “receiving ... a synchronization signal and perform time and frequency synchronization ...”. It is recommended that this be amended to read “receiving ... a synchronization signal and performing time and frequency synchronization ...”. Appropriate correction is required.
Claim Rejections - 35 USC § 112
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(b):
(b) CONCLUSION.—The specification shall conclude with one or more claims particularly pointing out and distinctly claiming the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
Claim 8 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(b) as being indefinite for failing to particularly point out and distinctly claim the subject matter which the inventor or a joint inventor regards as the invention.
Regarding Claim 8, claim 8 recites the limitation “the reference CBW associated with the target BWP configuration applies to only one of uplink or downlink operation”. This limitation renders the claim indefinite because it is unclear how the “reference CBW associated with the target BWP configuration” could “apply to only one of uplink or downlink operation” when the target BWP configuration is used “for subsequent uplink and downlink communication” per claim 1.
The following is a quotation of 35 U.S.C. 112(d):
(d) REFERENCE IN DEPENDENT FORMS.—Subject to subsection (e), a claim in dependent form shall contain a reference to a claim previously set forth and then specify a further limitation of the subject matter claimed. A claim in dependent form shall be construed to incorporate by reference all the limitations of the claim to which it refers.
Claim 3 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 112(d) as being of improper dependent form for failing to further limit the subject matter of the claim upon which it depends, or for failing to include all the limitations of the claim upon which it depends.
Regarding Claim 3, claim 3 states “the user equipment capability is a capability for adjusting a channel bandwidth that is used as a reference for the radio frequency transmission and reception requirements.” However, claim 1, upon which claim 3 depends, already states “a user equipment capability indicating a capability for adjusting a channel bandwidth used as a reference for a radio frequency transmission and reception requirements”. Thus, claim 3 is effectively repeating a limitation of claim 1.
Applicant may cancel the claim(s), amend the claim(s) to place the claim(s) in proper dependent form, rewrite the claim(s) in independent form, or present a sufficient showing that the dependent claim(s) complies with the statutory requirements.
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 1-3, 8, and 18 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Li et al. (US 2020/0280962 A1, hereinafter “Li”) in view of Lei et al. (US 2024/0406896 A1, hereinafter “Lei”) and Wang et al. (EP 3,522,631 A1, hereinafter “Wang”).
Regarding Claim 1, Li teaches a user equipment (UE), comprising: a memory (Li: The terminal may further include a memory, see paragraph [0056]); and
processing circuitry configured to cause the UE to: receive, from the network node, a bandwidth configuration that defines a plurality of bandwidth part (BWP) configurations, wherein each of the plurality of BWP configurations includes at least one parameter defining an associated reference channel bandwidth (CBW) (Li: The terminal includes a processor, see paragraph [0056]; When the network device configures a plurality of BWPs for the terminal, if different BWPs are corresponding to different channel bandwidths of the terminal ... the network device uses two pieces of first information (for example, information 1 and information 2) to indicate locations of the channel bandwidths of the terminal, see paragraph [0187]);
wherein each of a current active BWP configuration and a target BWP configuration comprises a reference CBW that defines radio frequency transmission and reception requirements of the UE, and wherein the radio frequency transmission and reception requirements are implemented by a physical radio frequency front-end of the UE (Li: As shown in FIG. 12, that two BWPs: a BWP 0 and a BWP 1, are configured for the terminal is used as an example. Because a bandwidth value of the BWP 1 is greater than a bandwidth value of the BWP 0, a channel bandwidth 1 of the terminal is used as a channel bandwidth, of the terminal, corresponding to the BWP 1, and a channel bandwidth 0 of the terminal is used as a channel bandwidth, of the terminal, corresponding to the BWP 0 ... When there is data to be scheduled, the terminal switches to the BWP 1, and a radio frequency of the terminal also switches to the channel bandwidth 1 of the terminal, see paragraph [0168]);
determine a reference CBW associated with the target BWP configuration is different from the reference CBW associated with the current active BWP configuration (Li: a value of the channel bandwidth 1 of the terminal is greater than a value of the channel bandwidth 0 of the terminal, see paragraph [0277]);
in response to determining that the reference CBW associated with the target BWP configuration is different from the reference CBW associated with the current active BWP configuration, configure the physical radio frequency front-end during a switching gap, wherein the switching gap provides a temporary interruption of communication between the UE and the network node for a predefined duration (Li: When there is data to be scheduled, the terminal switches to the BWP 1, and a radio frequency of the terminal also switches to the channel bandwidth 1 of the terminal in a radio frequency switchover guard time, see paragraph [0277]), and wherein configuring the physical radio frequency front-end comprises:
selecting, from a preconfigured set of valid channel bandwidth options, a new reference CBW that is a next highest standard channel bandwidth value greater than a bandwidth of the target BWP configuration, wherein the new reference CBW supports a number of resource blocks (RBs) required by the target BWP configuration (Li: After receiving the configuration information, the terminal determines ... a value of a channel bandwidth, of the terminal, corresponding to the BWP ... if a value of a bandwidth of a BWP configured by the network device for the terminal is 51 RBs, values of terminal-side transmission configuration bandwidths greater than 51 RBs are 75 RBs and 100 RBs. Therefore, a channel bandwidth corresponding to a minimum value 75 RBs is 15 MHz, and the value of the channel bandwidth corresponding to the BWP is 15 MHz, see paragraphs [0273]-[0276]); and
adjusting a radio frequency location based on the new selected reference CBW by including a guard band at both frequency edges of a BWP defined by the target BWP configuration, wherein the radio frequency location comprises a starting frequency of a frequency range used in radio frequency transmission, and wherein a size of the guard band is defined based on the new selected reference CBW (Li: Each channel bandwidth of the terminal may further include corresponding guard bandwidths. The guard bandwidths of the channel bandwidth of the terminal may be located in edge areas on two sides of the channel bandwidth of the terminal, see paragraph [0138]; the reference frequency in the channel bandwidth of the terminal may be a minimum frequency in the channel bandwidth of the terminal, see paragraph [0180]); and
activate the target BWP configuration as a new active BWP configuration for subsequent uplink and downlink communication (Li: When there is data to be scheduled, the terminal switches to the BWP 1, and a radio frequency of the terminal also switches to the channel bandwidth 1 of the terminal in a radio frequency switchover guard time, see paragraph [0277]).
Li does not explicitly teach to transmit, to a network node, a user equipment capability indicating a capability for adjusting a channel bandwidth used as a reference for a radio frequency transmission and reception requirements of the UE;
receive, from the network node, a trigger in one of a Downlink Control Information (DCI) message or a Radio Resource Configuration (RRC) message, the trigger instructing a change of a current active BWP configuration to a target BWP configuration; and
receive, from the network node after the switching gap, a synchronization signal and perform time and frequency synchronization based on the received synchronization signal to re-establish communication.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Lei teaches to receive, from the network node, a trigger in one of a Downlink Control Information (DCI) message or a Radio Resource Configuration (RRC) message, the trigger instructing a change of a current active BWP configuration to a target BWP configuration (Lei: switching from the first DL BWP or the first UL BWP to the second DL BWP is performed ... based on a BWP retuning schedule received from the serving cell in ... a dedicated RRC message, see paragraph [0118]); and
receive, from the network node after the switching gap, a synchronization signal and perform time and frequency synchronization based on the received synchronization signal to re-establish communication (Lei: The UE may also switch or retune between BWPs to measure SSB or other DL RS, e.g., for time and/or frequency synchronization, see paragraph [0102]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Li to include the features as taught by Lei above in order to perform synchronization for communication management (Lei: see paragraph [0102]).
Li-Lei does not explicitly teach to transmit, to a network node, a user equipment capability indicating a capability for adjusting a channel bandwidth used as a reference for a radio frequency transmission and reception requirements of the UE.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Wang teaches to transmit, to a network node, a user equipment capability indicating a capability for adjusting a channel bandwidth used as a reference for a radio frequency transmission and reception requirements of the UE (Wang: the network node further receives second capability indication information sent by the UE, where the second capability indication information is used to indicate that the UE has a variable bandwidth-based communication capability, see paragraph [0008]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Li-Lei to include the features as taught by Wang above in order to reduce device power consumption (Wang: see paragraph [0034]).
Regarding Claim 2, Li-Lei-Wang teaches the UE of claim 1, wherein the size of the guard band included at both frequency edges of the BWP is determined based on a guard band size associated with the new reference CBW as defined in 3GPP TS 38.101-1 orTS 38.101-2 (Li: The guard bandwidths of the channel bandwidth of the terminal may be located in edge areas on two sides of the channel bandwidth of the terminal ... For descriptions of the maximum transmission bandwidth configuration, refer to the 3GPP protocol specification TS 38.101, see paragraphs [0138]-[0139]).
Regarding Claim 3, Li-Lei-Wang teaches the UE of claim 2.
Wang further teaches the user equipment capability is a capability for adjusting a channel bandwidth that is used as a reference for the radio frequency transmission and reception requirements (Wang: the network node further receives second capability indication information sent by the UE, where the second capability indication information is used to indicate that the UE has a variable bandwidth-based communication capability, see paragraph [0008]).
The rationale and motivation for adding the teaching of Wang is the same as the rationale and motivation for Claim 1.
Regarding Claim 8, Li-Lei-Wang teaches the UE of claim 1, wherein the reference CBW associated with the target BWP configuration applies to only one of uplink or downlink operation (Li: a channel bandwidth of the terminal ... is a radio frequency bandwidth, and the radio frequency bandwidth includes an uplink transmission resource or a downlink transmission resource, see paragraph [0057]).
Regarding Claim 18, the limitations of the claim are substantially the same as the limitations of claim 1, and therefore claim 18 is rejected for the same reasons.
Claim 4 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Li-Lei-Wang in view of Sienkiewicz et al. (US 2024/0098719 A1, hereinafter “Sienkiewicz”).
Regarding Claim 4, Li-Lei-Wang teaches the UE of claim 1, wherein adjusting the radio frequency location comprises positioning the BWP such that unused spectrum exists at both edges of the new reference CBW, thereby locating the BWP substantially within a middle portion of the reference CBW (Li: referring to FIG. 11, the first information indicates that a center PRB in the channel bandwidth of the terminal is aligned with a center PRB in the BWP for the terminal, see paragraph [0225] and Fig. 11).
Li-Lei-Wang does not explicitly teach configuring the physical radio frequency front-end further comprises determining a maximum power reduction (MPR) value for uplink transmission based on a maximum number of resource blocks permitted by the new reference CBW rather than by a carrier bandwidth.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Sienkiewicz teaches configuring the physical radio frequency front-end further comprises determining a maximum power reduction (MPR) value for uplink transmission based on a maximum number of resource blocks permitted by the new reference CBW rather than by a carrier bandwidth (Sienkiewicz: The MPR depends on the PRB (frequency) allocation within the channel bandwidth, see paragraph [0050]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Li-Lei-Wang to include the features as taught by Sienkiewicz above in order to comply with unwanted emissions requirements (Sienkiewicz: see paragraph [0050]).
Claims 5 and 6 are rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Li-Lei-Wang in view of Zhou et al. (US 2022/0174766 A1, hereinafter “Zhou”).
Regarding Claim 5, Li-Lei-Wang teaches the UE of claim 1, but does not explicitly teach, wherein the predefined duration of the switching gap is increased relative to a bandwidth part switching duration that does not involve a reference CBW change, and wherein the increased predefined duration corresponds to a radio frequency retuning delay.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Zhou teaches the predefined duration of the switching gap is increased relative to a bandwidth part switching duration that does not involve a reference CBW change, and wherein the increased predefined duration corresponds to a radio frequency retuning delay (Zhou: The degree of overlap can include no overlap or partial overlap between the channel bandwidth of the first BWP and the channel bandwidth of the second BWP, and the BWP switch delay can compensate for an automatic gain control (AGC) settling time of the UE. In such a case, the BWP switch delay can be equal to a SSB-based measurement timing configuration (SMTC) periodicity times a multiplier plus a constant ... The degree of overlap can include full overlap between the channel bandwidth of the first BWP and the channel bandwidth of the second BWP, or the channel bandwidth of the first BWP fully containing the channel bandwidth of the second BWP, and the BWP switch delay may not compensate for an AGC settling time of the UE. In such a case, the BWP switch delay can be equal to a constant, see paragraph [0012]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Li-Lei-Wang to include the features as taught by Zhou above in order to ensure reliable transmission (Zhou: see paragraph [0219]).
Regarding Claim 6, Li-Lei-Wang-Zhou teaches the UE of claim 5.
Lei further teaches the synchronization signal received after the switching gap comprises a tracking reference signal (TRS), and wherein the UE performs time and frequency re-synchronization using the TRS after reconfiguration of the physical radio frequency front-end (Lei: In some aspects, if the initial/non-initial DL BWP of UE does not contain SSB or other DL RS (such as TRS) for time/frequency tracking ... the UE may retune and measure SSB or other DL RS outside the SSB-less initial/non-initial DL BWP, see paragraph [0099]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Li to include the features as taught by Lei above in order to perform synchronization for communication management (Lei: see paragraph [0102]).
Claim 7 is rejected under 35 U.S.C. 103 as being unpatentable over Li-Lei-Wang-Zhou in view of Jo et al. (US 2020/0260417 A1, hereinafter “Jo”).
Regarding Claim 7, Li-Lei-Wang-Zhou teaches the UE of claim 6.
Lei further teaches, wherein the trigger instructing the change of the active BWP configuration is transmitted according to a semi-static adaptation corresponding to predefined slot formats (Lei: UEs are configured with the slot format (... semi-statically/statically through radio resource control (RRC) signaling) through a received slot format indicator (SFI), see paragraph [0061]; switching from the first DL BWP or the first UL BWP to the second DL BWP is performed ... based on a BWP retuning schedule received from the serving cell in ... a dedicated RRC message, see paragraph [0118]).
Li-Lei-Wang-Zhou does not explicitly teach predefined slot formats associated with flexible duplex operation.
However, in the same field of endeavor, Jo teaches predefined slot formats associated with flexible duplex operation (Jo: when flexible duplex is used in DL/UL frequency bands, transmission and reception directions in the time domain need to be indicated. Thus, the network may provide the SFI to the UE, see paragraph [0047]).
It would have been obvious to one of ordinary skill in the art before the effective filing date of the claimed invention to modify the invention of Li-Lei-Wang-Zhou to include the features as taught by Jo above in order to indicate transmission and reception directions in the time domain (Jo: see paragraph [0047]).
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 PHILLIP J EGAN KEARNS whose telephone number is 571-272-4869. The examiner can normally be reached M-Th 10-6 EST.
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/P.K./Examiner, Art Unit 2416
/NOEL R BEHARRY/Supervisory Patent Examiner, Art Unit 2416